Buccaneers: Can anyone beat Tom Brady three times in a season?
By Rob Leeds
Tampa Bay finally putting it together
The Buccaneers are a very different team than the one that started the season. The offense was far from the unit that took the field last season, the play-calling was below average, and Tom Brady experienced some growing pains in the new system.
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This season has not been perfect, but the growth has been undeniable. The Buccaneers are a much better team than the one that lost terrible games to the Saints and a heart-breaker versus the Bears. The Bucs still had one of the better offensive units in the league early on, but that group has shown massive improvements in the last month.
A big cause of this resurgent effort is Tom Brady and Byron Leftwich getting on the same page with the play-calling. This hasn’t been perfect yet, but the Bucs are back to their roots as a pass-first offense, and Brady appears to love it.
If the Bucs can establish the pass early and get Brady into a groove with analytics-based play-calling like Tampa Bay has done in recent weeks, the outcome of this game could be very different.
The Buccaneers have already played their two worst games of the season against the Saints. New Orleans has played their best games of the season with the Bucs. While the odds may be a temperamental side of the sports world, decent money rests on the luck to run out for both teams simultaneously.
The Saints haven’t looked convincing during the past several weeks, but the Bucs sure have. Regular season records go out the window once the playoffs begin, and the Buccaneers should be chomping at the bit to get another shot at their division rival with an MVP-caliber Tom Brady leading the charge.
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