the Bulldogs elimination final win over West Coast, goi

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Tom Brady chatted up one of his old 49ers favorites in Tom Rathman, then pushed aside all that nostalgia for a few hours to earn his 199th career victory.Brady threw for 280 yards and four touchdowns, and the New England Patriots beat San Francisco 30-17 on Sunday. Brady tied Hall of Famer Brett Favre for the second-most wins by a quarterback in NFL history. With his next win, Brady will match Peyton Manning for the top spot.Back home in the Bay Area playing on San Franciscos home field for the first time, facing the team he cheered as a boy, Brady handled the game and took care of the ball on a day it was difficult to do so.When the game ended, a rainbow had emerged over the entire stadium -- a fitting cap to Bradys fine afternoon. No. 12 then threw a football into the stands behind one end zone and hustled off to see all of his supporters.It was very cool. It doesnt get any better than that. To have the first chance to ever do that was very special, Brady said . I felt it in pregame warmup and it carried right to the last play of the game. It was pretty great.They have a great organization, they always have. They inspired a lot of kids here in the Bay Area in my time growing up, and I was one of them.Under pressure on the slick grass, Brady found Danny Amendola for a 5-yard touchdown to start the fourth quarter, then later hit Malcolm Mitchell on a 56-yard score for his fourth TD pass.Brady also threw short touchdown passes to Julian Edelman and James White on his first two possessions and completed 24 of 40 passes. The AFC East-leading Patriots (8-2) bounced back from last weeks loss to the Seahawks on a rainy day at Levis Stadium.Edelman caught a 4-yard TD pass for the first score of the game , breaking away from Keith Reaser to the corner and barely keeping two feet inbounds. Edelman finished with eight receptions for 77 yards, and Mitchell had four catches for 98 yards.Brady hit White for a 9-yard touchdown , then Amendola reached a career high with his fourth TD catch of 2016 on the first play of the fourth quarter. Mitchells athletic, reaching grab between two defenders and straightaway speed after the catch resulted in his first career touchdown to seal it.Brady completed eight of his first nine passes and nine of 11, while New Englands defense flew through a leaky offensive line at Colin Kaepernick for four first-half sacks and five in all.Brady had never played a road game against the 49ers. He injured his knee before the Patriots 2008 visit to Candlestick Park -- the very place the young Brady used to cheer Joe Montana and witnessed The Catch by Dwight Clark.It only took until his 17th NFL season for Brady to finally get this chance. Of course, he shined in the big moment.Hes Tom Brady. Hes going to make the plays hes going to make, and thats what he did today, 49ers linebacker Ahmad Brooks said.LeGarrette Blount had a season-long 44-yard run and finished with 124 yards rushing.Kaepernick threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to Vance McDonald late in the first half to get the 49ers (1-9) within 13-10, but they didnt do enough right after intermission until Shaun Draughns late 13-yard TD catch.Levis Stadium was so packed with Patriots fans it almost sounded like Foxborough.Kaepernick has looked improved each week since regaining the starting job last month, completing 16 of 30 passes for 206 yards. But the 1-and-Niners -- as their nickname quickly became Sunday -- lost a ninth straight game under first-year coach Chip Kelly since opening the season with a shutout of the Rams.SO MANY TARGETS: During the regular season, Brady has thrown touchdown passes to 63 players -- second-most behind Vinny Testaverdes 70.Brady also had four TD passes with no interceptions for the 21st time in his career.PATS PASS RUSH: Five Patriots had sacks on Kaepernick: Patrick Chung, Malcolm Butler, Kyle Van Noy, Donta Hightower and Rob Ninkovich.Hes a tough guy to tackle, coach Bill Belichick said. Our players stayed after him.LEWIS DEBUT: Pats running back Dion Lewis made his season debut after recovering from reconstructive surgery on his left knee. He had a 9-yard reception for a first down during New Englands opening drive.DAWSONS MARK: With a 33-yard field goal in the first quarter, San Franciscos 41-year-old kicker, Phil Dawson, became the 10th kicker in NFL history to reach 400 field goals.SMITHS FIRST MISS: San Francisco wideout Torrey Smith missed his first career game and had his streak of consecutive games snapped at 89 because of a shoulder injury sustained last week at Arizona. This is his sixth NFL season.UP NEXTPatriots: at Jets on Sunday.49ers: at Dolphins on Sunday.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Frans Nielsen Jersey . Louis Blues teammates who would also be participating in the Olympics, Alex Pietrangelo felt right at home, no different in some ways to the travel experience of any old road trip – save for the length of the journey, that is. Curtis Joseph Jersey . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. http://www.redwingshockeyauthentic.com/terry-sawchuk-jersey/ . Ibaka equaled a career high with 20 rebounds, adding four blocked shots and 15 points as the Thunder smothered the Milwaukee Bucks offence in a 92-79 victory Saturday night. Bob Probert Jersey . -- Gus Malzahn finally had his day in Fayetteville. Brendan Shanahan Jersey . Thats not a comment on the suspension that banished the Portland Winterhawks general manager and coach from his Western Hockey League teams bench for most of the 2012-13 season. Barely a month ago, Western Bulldogs star Jake Stringer was plying his trade in front of a few hundred VFL supporters in suburban Werribee.Now the 22-year-old is preparing to line up in front of 100,000 fans at the MCG in Saturdays AFL grand final.The powerfully-built forward was dropped to the seconds after a series of lacklustre performances which belied his undeniable talent and prompted criticism from some of the games greats.Hes a powerful beast but to me, hes looking for maximum reward from minimum effort and minimum contact to him, Hawthorn legend Dermott Brereton told SEN radio at the time.Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge was, realistically, never going to exile a player of Stringers talent for too long, especially leading into the AFL finals.But Stringer took his medicine, put in the hard yards and earned a call-up for the Bulldogs elimination final win over West Coast, going on to boot three goals the following week against Hawthorn.Just workrate. That was literally the only thing, Stringer said of Beveridgess feedback.ddddddddddddGet back and work hard, and Ill get my spot back. That was pretty much what I did.I went back, worked hard, got a couple of kicks in the VFL, which was nice, and had a run on-ball. And I was lucky enough to get back in.An All-Australian in 2015 after booting 56 goals, Stringer has had less impact this year but still looms as one of the most important players in the Bulldogs 22 with his ability to impose himself on games.With former Hawthorn premiership defender Matthew Suckling the only player on the Bulldogs list to have played a grand final, Stringer reckons the magnitude of the week hasnt quite sunk in yet.But come Saturday, hes confident of making his mark on the games biggest stage.You hope so, he said.Theres a lot of water to go under the bridge (before) then.Well just go about this week normally, train hard on Tuesday and Thursday and get ready for Saturday. ' ' '