Most important Buccaneers in playoff game versus Saints

The Buccaneers are searching for their second playoff win of the season, but they’ll need their stars to step up if they want to pull off an upset.

The last time the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played this New Orleans Saints team, they lost by 35 points. The Bucs rushed for a total of eight yards, and Tom Brady threw three interceptions. It was a game that was all but over after the first quarter.

The Saints swept the Buccaneers both games this season and both in convincing fashion. Being outscored this season by a combined 46 points, the Tom Brady-led Bucs are going to need dominant performances by a host of players to move on in the NFL playoffs.

Tom Brady

The train starts and stops with quarterback Tom Brady. In a career that has seen Tom Brady set some historic highs, the numbers against Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints aren’t in his favor.

The two (Brady and Brees) have faced each other eight times, with Brees having a 5-3 lead. One of those wins came way back in 1999 when Tom Brady was a senior at Michigan and Brees a junior at Perdue. Looking at the NFL numbers, Brees leads 5-2. This season’s stats favor Brees (6 TD, 0 INT) easily over Brady (2 TD, 5 INT) in the division matchup.

With all that being said, Brady and the Bucs look like a different team since playing the Saints. Since the week nine loss, Brady has thrown 20 touchdowns to only five interceptions, with the Bucs winning five straight. Football may be a team sport, but Sunday’s divisional playoff game will have a lot to do with number 12.