Brady booms again:
In divisional matchup with Drew Brees, the Buccaneers’ quarterback helps finish off a rival for his team and perhaps a career of one of his peers.
NEW ORLEANS – The NFC divisional round playoff game between the victorious Buccaneers and the defeated Saints had concluded about an hour earlier.
The players had showered, changed and fulfilled their media obligations. The Buccaneers had mostly headed for the buses in the bowels of the Superdome. Many of their Saints counterparts headed home.
But Drew Brees and Tom Brady lingered.
Meeting at the far end zone, the 40plus-year-old future Hall of Famers hugged. They talked. Talked some more while Brees’ daughter did cartwheels around her dad and while his three sons waited for him to resume throwing them the football.
For 10 minutes, the longtime rivals conversed and reflected, hugged again, talked for another five minutes or so, then finally said their goodbyes.
After 20 years of sharing the league, battling each other for passing titles and MVP honors, their roads soon will fork drastically.
Brady’s Bucs are moving on to the NFC championship game after denying Brees’ Saints 30-20. And the 43-year-old, sixtime Super Bowl champ intends to continue his career beyond this season. Brees, meanwhile, is expected to move on to retirement.
New Orleans’ starter for the last 15 years, Brees declined to make his official announcement after this loss. The disappointment of the defeat and how it played out hung too heavy.
Brady versus Brees was billed as a showdown for the ages literally and figuratively. It marked the first postseason game in NFL history that featured two opposing starting quarterbacks 40 or older, and the faceoff represented a meeting between the NFL’s top two alltime leaders in both passing yards (Brady first with 90,973, Brees second with 85,590) and TD passes (Brady first with 656, Brees second with 607).
Could they provide vintage performances once more? Not exactly. The game that ensued didn’t resemble a hotly contested shootout. Brees passed for just 134 yards, a TD, three picks – two in the second half – and posted a 38.1 passer rating.
Brady wasn’t amazing. He had three near-picks but finished the game with no turnovers. He recorded 199 passing yards, two TD passes and a 92.9 passer rating. But above all, Brady did what Brady does: punched his ticket to a conference championship game for the 14th time in 21 seasons.
But this isn’t how Brees wanted to go out. Not with more interceptions than TD passes. Not in front of a paltry crowd of 3,750 in the 73,000-seat Superdome after 15 seasons of serving as the heart and soul of the Saints and their adoring fans.
And so, after sweeping the Buccaneers in the regular season, Brees and the Saints had the tables turned in the divisional round.
Things started slowly for both. Brady’s Bucs went three-and-out on their first two possessions and didn’t find a rhythm until the second quarter. Brees had to settle for field goals early. Then he threw the first of three interceptions. The Saints’ first touchdown pass didn’t even come from Brees but Jameis Winston, who entered the game lining up at wide receiver before taking a lateral, drifting to his left and hitting Tre’Quan Smith in stride for a 56-yard score.
Brees certainly had some of his signature moments – displays of pinpoint accuracy and touch. But at times his arm
looked every bit of 42 years old, lacking the zip or consistency of years past. And he forced throws late, which is how the last two picks happened. He also missed injured running back Latavius Murray and backup/utility player Taysom Hill, whose plays spark the Saints’ offense.
Meanwhile, Brady did it again. Fending off the effects of age once more, he helped carry the Buccaneers deeper into unfamiliar territory. “Helped” is the key word because without Tampa Bay’s defense setting the offense up with short fields after each of those four takeaways (three interceptions and a fumble), Tampa may not have won.
“The defense was incredible all game,” Brady gushed afterward. “The turnovers were huge. The last two times, we were minus-three in turnovers. This game, we were plus-four. You’re not going to lose many games when you’re plus-four.”
Next weekend, the Bucs travel to Green Bay, where they’ll play in the NFC championship game for the first time since the 2002 season, and there Brady will find himself one game away from delivering on the promise he offered when he signed with Tampa Bay last spring. There, Brady will find himself one game from advancing to his 10th Super Bowl.
“There are only four teams left, and it’s tough to get to this point,” Brady said. “They’re a great team in Green Bay, and Aaron (Rodgers) is playing incredible.”
But Brady and his teammates are up for the challenge. As Brady always likes to say, “We’re not done yet.”
Brees can’t say the same. He pondered retirement last season after the Saints came up short in the playoffs but decided to give it one more shot. He’s had a storied career, leading the Saints to their first Lombardi Trophy, 13 Pro Bowl appearances, leading the NFL in passing yards seven times (a record) and touchdowns four times.
Even though he fell short, Brees said he would have made the same decision.
“I would never regret it. Never,” he said. “No complaints, no regrets. Man, I’ve always tried to play this game with a great respect and great reverence for it, and I appreciate all that this game has given to me.
“There are obviously so many incredible memories, so many incredible relationships from playing this game. You find so much about yourself in what you have to fight through. I probably had to fight through more than any other season in my career: from injury to all the COVID stuff, to crazy circumstances. It was worth every moment of it. Absolutely.”