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Brady And The Buccaneers May Finally Be Hitting Their Stride

by Frank Quartarone  October 6th 2020 

With the win on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have now reeled off three straight wins after a Week 1 loss to the New Orleans Saints. Now these three wins haven’t exactly come against the iron of the NFL, but three straight wins in a league with arguably the most parity is still something. 

The Bucs opponents thus far, the Saints, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Chargers are a combined 6-16 through the first quarter of the season. Not exactly the iron of the NFL indeed. This, however, underscores the point that some teams have reacted better than others with no pre-season games and abbreviated training camps. The Bucs starting the season at 3-1, despite the obstacles, should give the Tampa faithful at least some measure of optimism. 

For the first three games, Tom Brady’s leadership skills looked like they made it to Tampa on time, but the clutch quarterback play was taking its time getting there. In Week 4, however, Brady was able to put it all together. The famed QB finally started to resemble his New England Patriots form.

While playing in New England, Brady was given about a million nicknames from fans and media alike. First you have probably the best nickname one could have as a player in any sport, the “G.O.A.T” for greatest of all-time. Then there’s “Tom Terrific”, yes it was stolen from the late Tom Seaver, but that’s neither here nor there. Brady has also been known for his fourth quarter rescues earning him the “Captain Comeback” moniker. Brady was able to add to his reputation for late game heroics on Sunday against the Chargers with yet another comeback. 

Brady had his first “Brady moment” against LA, erasing a 24-7 deficit to come back and finish off the Chargers 38-31. This latest display of greatness from Brady was the 34th time in his career he’s engineered a comeback down double-digits, an NFL record. 

Snatching victory after being buried in such a hole is something the Buccaneers as a franchise haven’t experienced too often. Before this, the last 27 times the Bucs were down more than 10 points at any point in the game, they were 1-26. 

The Bucs comeback last year in Week 14 against the Indianapolis Colts was great and all, but certainly not the norm for the embattled franchise. For Brady though, this is old hat. If you include playoff games, Brady has averaged almost two comebacks like this every season he’s played. That’s 19 years of this sort of thing. This includes the 2008 season where he only played part of the first quarter in the first game before leaving with a season ending knee injury. 

The victory also placed Brady in even more rarified air, if that’s even possible. Brady has now been involved in more wins than any other NFL player during the 101 years the league has been in existence. Former teammate Adam Vinatieri shared the lofty perch with Brady, but now it’s Tom’s alone with 222 wins and counting.

A Bucs franchise milestone was also reached when Brady threw his fifth touchdown pass of the day. He became only the fifth Buccaneer to ever accomplish the feat and the first since Jameis Winston did it five seasons ago. He also did it in typical “Brady” fashion, throwing td’s to five different receivers. Reading defensive coverage and finding the open man has long been one of his greatest strengths and proved it still is on Sunday. Another point to make is while Brady and the Bucs offense hadn’t looked quite this good in previous weeks, the trend was already pointing upward. 

Truth is, after Week 1 against New Orleans, the Bucs offense was steadily getting better each week. With this latest performance, Tampa moved up to 10th in the league in points scored, averaging exactly 30 points per game. Brady seems to be getting noticeably more comfortable with the receiving core and the Bruce Arians offense, which is another great sign. With just four games together as an offense, the numbers from the passing game are actually quite impressive. The Bucs rank sixth in total passing yards with 1,095 and ninth in yards per game with just a shade under 274. 

The rushing attack hasn’t been as effective. Tampa ranks near the bottom in both total yards and yards per game. The Bucs are currently 25th in the league for total yards from scrimmage with just 391, and 27th in yards per game averaging less than 98 a game. This will obviously have to improve if the Bucs want to make a deep playoff run.

The fact that Tampa has been so reliant on the 43 year old QB is a testament to how good he still is, but won’t win too many playoff games. Most coaches, except maybe Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs, would agree that the way to win consistently in the playoffs is with a balanced offensive attack and a stout defense. 

Speaking of defense, the strength of last year’s team was kept largely intact for the current campaign and has remained solid so far. The Bucs defense is fourth in the league giving up only 312 yards per game and just 1,248 all season. 

Tampa has been especially stingy against the run, allowing less than 65 yards a game for second place in the league. Tampa’s pass defense has been more forgiving, however, ranking 19th giving up almost 250 yards per contest. 

Points allowed is the true test of any defense and even with the semi-poor passing numbers, the Bucs are still a top 10 defense giving up exactly 23 a game. 

This brings to mind a couple of questions that can be asked, even at this early stage of the season. Given the state of the NFC, could the Bucs make a real run all the way to the Super Bowl? The Green Bay Packers and SeattleSeahawks are both 4-0, but are either of them head and shoulders above the rest of the teams in the NFC?. 

The fact is that the NFC just doesn’t have a clear favorite like the AFC does with the Chiefs. The NFC doesn’t even have a team as good as the Baltimore Ravens who got railroaded by Kansas City last week. And no team in the NFC has a player with the playoff intangibles or the experience that Brady has. 

When Brady signed with the Buccaneers this offseason, big improvement was expected from Tampa almost right away. Some pundits even had Tampa included in the Super Bowl discussion for being the NFC representative in his very first season with the club. 

That is a bit much to ask, especially for such a young team, but if this kind of improvement on both sides of the ball continues all season, expect the Bucs to be at least a tough out in the playoffs. If the improvement takes place and they get a ton of breaks along the way, this team could actually do the unthinkable. Yes it’s early but if everything goes just right, the Bucs could really be the first team in NFL history to play in their home stadium for the Vince Lombardi Trophy. 

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