Having arrived in Arizona with his legacy being debated and facing the most implausible of accusations – “He’d be nothing if he had to throw a fully inflated football!” – Tom Brady responded to the lampoons as only first-ballot Hall of Famers do. He let the air out of critics and the opponent.

With New England trailing Seattle 24-14 and seemingly headed for its third straight Super Bowl defeat, Brady threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes and then watched as the cardiac Seahawks nearly pulled off another miracle comeback … only to bungle it this time.

“It’s been a long journey,” Brady said after the Patriots held on for the 28-24 win and he could have been talking about the past decade, not Sunday’s game.

New England, led by Brady and coach Bill Belichick, established its dynasty with three titles in four seasons in the early 2000s, but had not won a Super Bowl since 2004. With Brady, the centerpiece of the team, now 37 years old, some have believed this would be the Patriots’ last best chance for another championship.

The fact that this week played out with “Deflategate” as the backdrop adding an unexpected storyline, even created tension between NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Pats owner Robert Kraft. Shortly after his team arrived in Arizona, Kraft stormed into a news conference and made an unexpected delivery to the assembled media vultures in the room and Patriots-haters world-wide.

Kraft said he was “bothered greatly that the reputations and integrity” of the two pillars of his franchise had been called into question, then turned a flamethrower in Goodell’s direction, saying: “I would expect and hope that the league would apologize to our entire team and in particular, Coach Belichick and Tom Brady,” if cleared.”

So it must have been comforting that when Goodell congratulated Kraft after the game during the trophy presentation, Kraft didn’t punch him. It was the most awkward podium meeting since Pete Rozelle and Al Davis.

It almost didn’t happen. Brady led consecutive touchdown drives of 68- and 64 yards against Seattle’s vaunted but beat up defense. When he threw a four-yard score to Danny Amendola to give New England a 28-24 lead, there was only 2:02 left.

But Seattle has come back before (ask Green Bay) and nearly replicated that miracle. Wide receiver Jermaine Kearse’s crazy, deflected 33-yard catch — made against rookie defender Malcolm Butler while flat on his back after the ball bounced off his hands, then his knee, then his hands again — put Seattle at the Pats’ 5-yard line with only 1:06 left.

Marshawn Lynch’s four-yard run moved the ball to the 1. The Patriots inexplicably didn’t call time out, which would’ve reserved more time for their ensuing possession, and the clock ticked down to 26 seconds.

But that gaffe didn’t matter because the Seahawks made a dumber decision. Rather than give the ball to Lynch again, the Seahawks, suffering a Mike Bobo-didn’t-give-the-ball-to-Todd Gurley brain freeze, called for a pass play from Russell Wilson to Ricardo Lockette and it was intercepted by Butler. Ball game.

“I don’t question the call,” said Seattle coach Pete Carroll, who claimed he made the play call, not offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell. “I thought it was a good call. They sent in goal-line (defense) and it’s not the right matchup for us to run the football. So on second down, we throw to really kind of waste that play.”

Kind of a weak explanation. Even cornerback Richard Sherman seemed to second-guess the call.

“I’m a little bit surprised,” he said. “It was an unfortunate play.”

Brady, of course, was just fine with the ending.

“We didn’t call a timeout and the clock was winding down and we realized, you know, this is basically it if we stop them,” he said. “I saw the interception and couldn’t believe it.”

Brady misfired early, throwing an interception in the end zone in an attempt to hit Julian Edelman under pressure. The pass floated and was picked off by Jeremy Lane. He was intercepted again in the third quarter by Bobby Wagner, leading to a Doug Baldwin touchdown catch and jump-starting Seattle’s comeback.

Seattle’s went scoreless with one first down on its first three possessions, but scored 24 points on the next four to take a 24-14 lead. The Seahawks’ unlikely success story was rookie wide receiver Chris Matthews, who had not even been targeted for a pass this season after signing following two years in CFL with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Matthews had a 45-yard catch to set up one touchdown and an 11-yard score.

But this turned out to Brady’s night, after an other miserable week of attacks leading up to the game.

Said Brady, summing up the past week: “Well, it’s just a lot of mental toughness. I think the whole team had it. Coach always says, ‘Ignore the noise and control what you can control.’ We had a great two weeks of practice. That’s what it took and every situation that came up was important — every third down that we made, every short yardage, every red-zone possession. That’s who we were focused on. That’s who we needed to focus on and that’s how we got the victory.”