Tom Brady Loses Game For Bucs With Pick-Six To Saints' P.J. Williams
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- In his brief Buccaneers career, Tom Brady has been a menace to most opponents he's faced. The Saints remain the exception -- in the regular season, at least.
Brady lost both of his regular-season matchups with the Saints last year, with the second loss being one of the worst games of Brady's entire career.
Brady did get plenty of revenge by beating the Saints in the playoffs in last year's divisional round, but he and his teammates were looking to pick up a big win on Sunday in the Superdome.
And when Sean Payton made the questionable decision to throw passes in the red zone inside the two-minute warning, thus giving Brady plenty of time (and a timeout) to mount the game-winning drive, it appeared as though that victory was coming.
But instead of doing what he seemingly always does, Brady blew it.
On the first play of the would-be game-winning drive, Brady threw a dangerous pass to Mike Evans. He was lucky that his pass didn't get intercepted. One snap later, he wasn't so lucky.
On a second-and-10 from the Tampa Bay 25-yard line, trailing 29-27, Brady delivered a pass in the direction of Chris Godwin. But Saints safety P.J. Williams had it read all the way, and he stepped in front of the pass to make what proved to be the game-sealing interception.
Williams made it sting a bit extra by returning it 40 yards for the touchdown.
Brady tried to lead another scoring drive after that, but he ended up getting sacked by Tanoh Kpassagnon, adding some insult to injury.
Brady had a bit of an up-and-down day for Tampa Bay, completing 27 of his 38 passes for 364 yards with four touchdowns but two interceptions. His first pick came just inside the two-minute warning before halftime, and it allowed the Saints to stretch a 10-7 lead into a 17-7 lead. Brady also lost a fumble on a sack prior to that, which allowed the Saints to take a 10-7 lead with a field goal.
The Saints lost their starting quarterback to injury, as Jameis Winston suffered a knee injury late in the second quarter and did not return. Trevor Siemian stepped in and completed 16 of his 29 passes for 159 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions.
Brady's regular-season performances by the Saints are fascinating, in that they stand out quite a bit from his performances vs. the rest of the league.
Since joining the Bucs, Brady is now 0-3 vs. the Saints (in the regular season), with a 64.3 percent completion rate, six touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Against everyone else, he's thrown 59 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
The Bucs are 0-3 vs. the Saints since the start of last year and 17-4 against everyone else.
That is to say, in just three games, the Saints account for more than 41 percent of Brady's interceptions and almost 43 percent of the Buccaneers' losses over the past season and a half.
Brady did get the win in the most important of his four meetings with the Saints as a Buccaneer, completing 18 of his 33 passes for 199 yards with two touchdowns and no picks in the playoffs last year, but that likely isn't making him feel much better after the ending on Sunday in New Orleans.
