Entering Week 2 of his age 45 campaign, Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will seek their first victory in five regular-season tries dating back to 2020, against one division rival.
The New Orleans Saints, who Brady and the Buccaneers defeated in their 2020 Super Bowl-winning run, have gotten the best of Tampa Bay in the regular season — 4-0.
In all four games combined, the Saints have dominated on the offensive end, outscoring the Buccaneers 117-53 — holding them scoreless in their last contest.
Brady, who has had plenty of off-field distractions to navigate through this week, is fully aware of the recent struggles against the Saints and didn’t shy away from addressing the subject when speaking with members of the media Thursday.
“That’s probably the thing that jumps out the most, turnovers,” Brady told reporters, according to ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio. “They’re a physical team. I think they beat us up, physically. It’s just a tough, hard-nosed team. They’re well-coached, they’ve got a lot of good players. They’ve kind of had a winning organization for a long time. They know how to get the job done.”
Before joining the Buccaneers in 2020, Brady had New Orleans’ number with a 4-1 career record in his first five contests against the organization as quarterback of the New England Patriots.
“I think it’s just understanding why we’re losing those games,” Brady said. “There are reasons why in each game. You can look at them and look at why we won and why we lost, the one time we beat them. It’s got to be good football — offense, defense, and special teams.”
In nine career meetings against the Saints, Brady is 4-5 — tossing an average of 1.9 touchdowns for 274.4 yards with a 62.4 completion percentage and 1.2 interceptions per game.
