NEW ORLEANS -- Call it The Drive That Nearly Wasn't.

The Super Bowl champion New England Patriots pulled off the Buster Douglas of upset knockouts Sunday, stunning the sports world with a last -second  victory over the big bad St. Louis Rams.

MVP Tom Brady joins the elite group of Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, a group that includes Terry Bradshaw (left).(AP)

They pulled off the victory in stunning fashion after MVP Tom Brady marched his offense 53 yards on nine plays in 90 seconds and capped it off with Adam Vinatieri's game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired.

The final chapter of the Cinderella story was authored perfectly. But Vinatieri nearly wasn't given the chance to play hero in this one. If not for heads-up plays by Brady and running back J.R. Redmond, the Pats would have shut it down halfway into the drive.

Five plays before the shocking field-goal boot, Redmond took a short pass from Brady and tried to barrel forward for the first down. Eleven yards later, they had their first down but even more important, the youngster Redmond made a decision that had every much to do with the Patriots' victory as the kick itself. He managed to get out of bounds and stop the clock with 33 seconds remaining.

Had the clock kept running, Vinatieri's kick never would have come to fruition.

"To be honest with you, if he had gotten tackled inbounds we would have kneeled on it and gone into overtime," offensive coordinator Charlie Weis admitted. "He could have been tackled in bounds, but he made the play."

It was a typical play by this year's version of Team Destiny. While Redmond was lauded by Weis for the heads-up call, it was Brady who showed all the signs of the great ones. When the Patriots needed it most, Brady was perfect.

"He made very right decisions on that drive," Weis said. "He was so happy when we said we were going for the win. He was waiting for me to say, 'OK, sit tight and kill the clock.'"

But Weis had Brady go for the kill as long as he played it smart. Considering all he had gone through this year, Brady had nothing to lose.

The MVP needed this one final drive to end the quarterback controversy once and for all.

He needed this drive to handwrite his John Hancock in the history books for all to see.

After getting a little word of encouragement from an unlikely source, he did not disappoint.

"(Drew Bledsoe) said drop back and sling it, he said go win the game," Brady said of a talk he had with his veteran predecessor moments before taking the field for the final drive. "That was nice coming from him. Just drop back and sling it."

Armed with words of wisdom from the man whose job he has taken, Brady went to work.

"He's unbelievable how much he loves to play this game," wide receiver David Patten said. "When he got into the huddle to start the drive, he said, 'OK, we need to go down the field now, so Adam can win it for us.' He said it like he knew it was going to happen and when he did that, you could actually see the offensive linemen perk up. That's how he's been all year."

POLL

Brady's magical drive started from the Patriots' 17-yard line with a 5-yard pass to Redmond. The young quarterback started off with an extremely mature decision. The call was to "go for the jugular" and throw a deep pass to Patten if the Rams showed the defense they were expecting. The Patriots thought they were getting one defense but were shown another and Brady resisted the temptation to go for broke.

"I told him we're going to run '51 go opec,'" Weis said of the first play of that drive. "If it was Cover One we'll throw the bomb to Patten. If not let's just dump the ball off and get the drive going. It was Cover Two, so he got it right and dumped the ball and got the drive started right."

Three plays and 11 yards later, the Patriots needed something big to keep their drive alive with 41 seconds remaining. That's when Redmond stepped up with his heads-up play.

But that catch-and-run paled in comparison to the most important play on the game-winning drive. In a game with so many big-time plays, none was bigger than what was about to come.

With 29 seconds remaining and the Patriots stuck on their own 41, Brady went for his most faithful target. Brady hit wideout Troy Brown on a crossing route. The route was routine, the result was not. The gutsy receiver made the catch and eluded Ram after Ram, crossing the field for a 23-yard gain. But again, more important, Brown was determined to race out of bounds.

"It's called 64-Max All End," Brady said of the call on the play. "Max tells the offensive linemen that we need more time. I dropped back, the offensive line did a heck of a job protecting me and all three receivers ran routes at different depths. Troy's always the first guy I'm looking at. He made the grab, made the run after the catch and set up the game-winning field goal by Adam."

Said Weis: "Hitting Troy on that crosser and him running down to the 37-yard line, we knew all we needed was another 5 yards because Adam is money in the bank inside of 50 yards."

Vinatieri was money in the bank. Brady completed his masterpiece by getting his kicker six yards closer with a quick pass to tight end Jermaine Wiggins. He stopped the clock by spiking the ball with seven ticks left on the clock.

"Before the last pass to Wiggins, I thought we had a shot at it," head coach Bill Belichick said. "I think it would have been a 58-yarder, which is pushing it. We were trying to get one more completion and a few more yards, and Tom hit Wiggins.

"Once again it was a pretty well-executed two-minute drive. Tom has done it several times for us this year under pressure. And Brady, that was a huge one today."

After Brady was done being huge, it was money time for Mr. Vinatieri.

"If he can kick it through snow, I know that he can kick it through confetti," responded running back Antowain Smith when asked what he was thinking on the field goal. "To be honest, I was kind of nervous, but Adam has been coming through for us all year long."

Weis was in the Giants coaching booth in 1991 when Scott Norwood missed the game-winning field goal for the Bills. Once again, he was on the winning end of a Super Bowl's dramatic final play.

"Let's face it, this isn't Joe Montana with Jerry Rice and John Taylor out there," Weis said. "It's just a tough bunch of guys who step up and make plays."

None stepped up more than Brady, who wrote himself into the same history books that boast Montana, Rice and Taylor.

And it all was a foot or two away from being The Drive That Nearly Wasn't.