Are the New England Patriots going to face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers again this season? Well, not unless both teams make it to the Super Bowl in mid-February at SoFi Stadium.
Still that hasn’t kept some, including ESPN analyst Ryan Clark and many other New England fans, from revisiting the score between Bill Belichick’s red-hot Patriots and Tom Brady’s perhaps fading Bucs.
And Clark explained why he believes the Patriots could advance deeper in the playoffs than the defending Super Bowl champions. That may help Belichick in the mind of those keeping score of the post-Brady era at home.
“The Patriots will go further than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There you go, I said it,” Clark said on ESPN’s “First Take” after New England’s Week 10 win.
Clark noted how, for the greatness that is the 44-year-old Brady, there is an equal greatness of Belichick.
“When you watch this team play, there is no team that you look at in the AFC and you say, right now, I’m always going to take them over the Patriots, right? You look at the Buffalo Bills. I think the Buffalo Bills from a roster standpoint are probably the best team in the AFC. The Tennessee Titans, as what we’ve seen on the grass, they are the best team right now. In a one game, winner take all with Bill Belichick on the sideline, I don’t know if I can pick those teams over the New England Patriots. I feel like there are teams in the NFC right now you pick over Tampa Bay.”
Clark has been among those expressing his optimism in the Patriots prior to New England’s Week 10 rout of the Cleveland Browns. Clark believes the Patriots are an emerging Super Bowl contender, and following the team’s fourth-straight victory, now Clark is far from alone.
