There is still one regular-season code Tom Brady has yet to crack as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady’s Bucs reached the NFL’s summit in his first season in Florida, winning Super Bowl LV over his youngest rival, Patrick Mahomes. But the one success that Brady has not enjoyed is the taste of a division victory over the New Orleans Saints.
Since Brady arrived before last season, in three regular-season games against their division rivals, the Bucs have gone 0-3 against Sean Payton and the Saints. New Orleans welcomed Brady to Tampa Bay with a 34-23 defeat at the Superdome in Week 1 of the 2020 season. In Week 9 of the same season, N.O. blasted T.B. and T.B. 38-3 at Raymond James Stadium.
Then, in Week 8 of the 2021 season, the Bucs once again fell on the road to the Saints, losing 36-27.
What gives?
Of course, it’s worth noting that the Bucs did defeat New Orleans in the divisional round of last season’s playoffs, en route to that Super Bowl victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. But still, the Saints returned to their winning ways when it comes to Tampa Bay already this season, and all signs point to Brady struggling against the Saints’ defense as the reason why.
In those three losses, Brady is completing 64% of his passes for 274.3 pass yards per game, six touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 76.9 passer rating. He has seven multi-interception games with the Bucs in the regular season and three have come against the Saints, including his only game with three or more INTs (Week 8 of this season).
Remarkably, Brady has thrown seven INTs against the Saints in three regular-season games, but just 15 INTs against the rest of the league in 26 games with the Bucs. He also has thrown four pick-sixes as a member of the Bucs and two have come against the Saints.
And the hits keep going.
Brady has two of his four lowest passer ratings in games against New Orleans, including the lowest with Tampa Bay at 40.4, his only passer rating below 60 in the regular season with the Bucs.
“The Goat” has also been sacked three times in each of the regular season games against New Orleans, tied for the most he has been sacked in a game with the Bucs. He was pressured 14 times in Tampa’s Week 9 loss to N.O. last season, the most pressures he’s faced with the Bucs.
Lastly, Brady has been pressured an average of nine times per game against the Saints in the regular season, including two of the five most single-game pressures.
In other words, that N.O. defense has done a number on TB12.
In two of those losses, the Saints had now-retired franchise legend Drew Brees at the helm, taking a little of the edge off those defeats. And when the Bucs defeated New Orleans in the playoffs, Brees was still under center.
But in the most recent defeat suffered by T.B. at the hands of N.O., the Saints rolled out Jameis Winston (who Brady replaced in Tampa Bay) who was replaced by Trevor Siemian after Winston went down with an injury.
On Sunday at Raymond James, the Saints will insert Taysom Hill as their starter, looking for their second win in their last seven games.
Conversely, Brady and the Bucs will look for their fifth straight win and first regular-season win over New Orleans in the past two seasons.
In other words, something’s gotta give.
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