NEW ORLEANS – Next week, Tom Brady and Drew Brees will actually do something they have never achieved in their NFL career: face each other in a playoff game.
The second-seeded New Orleans Saints host the fifth-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday afternoon in the final game of next weekend’s division round.
“I think it was inevitable,” said Brees, who said he knew the Buccaneers would be a key competitor once Brady decided to migrate to the NFC South last season. ‘Listen, the moment he signed with the Bucs and came into the division, you felt it would be a team to contend with. It would be a team that had play-off aspirations and beyond, just like us. ‘
Brees, who turns 42 on Friday and is expected to retire after this season, said: “I do not take it for granted. I am very much appreciated the opportunity.”
The Saints, who in the regular season became the first team ever to sweep the NFC South Division, defeated Brady and the Bucs in their first two games – a 34-23 victory in New Orleans in Week 1 and a beautiful 38-3 at Tampa in week 9.
Brees and the 43-year-old Brady started the first pair of quarterbacks ever in a NFL game against each other at those first two events. Now they will be the first in a playoff game.
Their rivalry actually spans four decades and dates back to the time when Brady’s Michigan Wolverines were crowned by Brees’ Purdue Boilermakers in 1999.
Brees has actually won five of their seven games in the NFL Series – and Brees ranks No. 1 in league history in passing. However, Brady is in first place in his career and has the best microphone when it comes to Super Bowl rings (six to one).
Brady and the Buccaneers recently had a hot series and won five times in a row, including the 31-23 victory with a game card at the Washington Football Team of 31-23.
But Brees and the Saints’ offense is hoping to reach their peak in the playoffs, after returning wide receivers Michael Thomas and Deonte Harris from the injured reserve and Alvin Kamara from the reserve / COVID-19- list in time for Sunday’s 21-9 game card win over the visiting Chicago Bears.
Thomas caught five passes for 73 yards and his first power play of the season after being limited to just seven games in the regular season with a persistent ankle injury. Brees and Thomas played just ten quarters in total in the regular season, thanks to Brees missing four own games in weeks 11 to 14 with a punctured lung and 11 broken ribs.
“It was great [to get Thomas back]. It was great to get him in the end zone too. “Hopefully we’ve broken the seal and there’s a lot more where it’s coming from, ‘said Brees, who threw for 265 yards and two TDs on Sunday but acknowledged the offense had room to improve after hitting just seven points in the first 40 minutes.
“Listen, we still have to work,” Brees said. “I think it’s still just the first time everyone’s getting together again. Hopefully we get it. [wideout] Tre’Quan Smith also returned this week. There is just so much timing and rhythm that goes into the passing game, and so many little nuances of such things. ‘
Kamara ran for 99 yards and a TD, though she could not practice with the team all week. But he said he felt he was “not really missing a beat” after barely experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms and following up on the Saint’s practices via live-stream video with coaches.
Kamara said he and Brees texted throughout the week and talked about the nuances of the game plan.
“I got a bee first bee. I got a bee week,” joked Kamara, who could not play in week 17 after testing positive for the coronavirus late last week. ‘So it naturally helps to just have the absent time. You have no choice but to sit down and recover, and to get your body right again. I felt good out there today.
“With me it did not really affect too much. Just taste and smell thrown away. No real side effects, no real symptoms. I felt good out there today. My wind did not really affect. Thanks to the “Lord for health. It was just something I had to deal with.”