Superstar fought his way through: Now the season is finally beginning for Tom Brady

Superstar fought his way through
Now the season has finally begun for Tom Brady

By Marcel Schmidt

Tom Brady is experiencing one of his toughest NFL seasons, and the superstar has to tremble forever to make the playoffs. But his Tampa Bay Buccaneers are fighting through with a very weak record. Now things are changing.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have eight wins versus nine losses at the end of the regular season, and the Bucs have the worst record of any playoff participant in the NFL. Do you still have to have the Super Bowl winner of 2021 on your screen? There are enough reasons for this!

First and foremost, of course, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers don’t have just any quarterback, they have the quintessential quarterback when it comes to the playoffs. If anyone can lead a team through the postseason, it’s seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady.

However, the now 45-year-old had his problems during the season and, at the end of the season, can look back on a negative record for the first time in his career as a starter. Brady’s own performances were not particularly constant either, but he had received a lot of distraction from the private hustle and bustle, including the resignation from the resignation and the divorce from ex-wife Gisele Bundchen, especially at the beginning of the NFL season.

Brady’s insane playoff stats

But the regular season is now over. As is well known, the cards are reshuffled in the playoffs. In the end of the postseason, it depends on other factors and above all on how you are on the day. And Tom Brady and his teams often found form in the most important games of the season, which is certainly no coincidence. Brady won 35 of 47 playoff games during his career. A crazy statistic that should give any Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan heart.

Rob Gronkowski also benefited from this statistic for a long time. The former tight end played alongside Brady for ten years and shared the pitch with the veteran in four Super Bowl victories. Most recently in 2021 when winning the title with the Bucs. “Gronk” knows better than anyone that Brady’s teams can often up the ante at the crucial moments of the season. “He’s super dangerous and the Buccaneers can turn it up at any time,” he said in a “Reuters” interview. “It clicks and they’re here!” he warned opponents.

Brady seemed to have reestablished an improved connection with his receivers in the past few weeks. In week 16, for example, Chris Godwin had 120 yards in nine catches, just a week later Mike Evans had caught an absolute standout game with 207 yards and three touchdowns. So the form on the offensive was right towards the end of the season.

The two wins gave the NFC South an early win, allowing the Bucs to rest a few players in the final game against the Atlanta Falcons, leaving them rested and well-prepared for the NFL playoffs. “The playoffs are a fresh start for everyone,” said a relieved Bucs coach Todd Bowles. “You have a three-game elimination tournament. It doesn’t matter where you are. … At least we know we’re going to be in the games. We just have to reduce the mistakes to win them.”

The Dallas Cowboys are waiting in the first round. The two teams last met in week one of this season. At that time the Buccaneers had the upper hand with 19:3. The Bucs’ defense held “America’s Team” at just 244 total yards.

“We always find a way”

Defense will have to play a key role against the Cowboys and a possible trip through the NFL playoffs, as will the Tom Brady offense already mentioned. The difference here is that the Bucs’ defense made a much more stable impression over the course of the season. In some stats, Tampa is among the top ten defenses. For example, in allowed yards per game (324.3/ninth place) or sacks (45/ninth place). However, the defense still has to increase, especially through the air. The Bucs allowed 29 touchdowns after passes, the fifth-worst number in the league. In contrast, there are only ten interceptions.

In the end, as is well known, the most important thing is how many points you have to concede to your opponent. That’s an average of 21.2 for the Bucs this NFL season. However, eight times the opponent was kept at 16 points or less. If you can get such values ​​in the playoffs, Brady and his offense must be able to win.

“We fought our way through a lot of difficult things this year,” Brady, who brought one of the hardest regular seasons of his long career to a good end, recently said. “I’m happy to win the division. It’s always hard to get there. NFL games are hard to win and we always find a way to keep them kind of exciting. I wish they weren’t as exciting as we made them.” With three more wins, Tom Brady would still be back in the Super Bowl on February 13th!

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