A relieved Tom Brady stepped as much as the rostrum with a large smile.
“Just like we drew it up,” the seven-time Super Bowl quarterback mentioned after throwing a couple of landing passes within the ultimate 3 mins on Monday evening to lend a hand the Tampa Bay Buccaneers rally from a 13-point deficit with simply over 5 mins to head and beat the New Orleans Saints 17-16.
It used to be the forty fourth fourth-quarter comeback of Brady’s occupation, giving him sole ownership of the NFL document, which he up to now shared with Peyton Manning.
Clearly pissed off and at the verge of being stuck and not using a TD cross at house through the Saints for the 3rd immediately season, Brady led scoring drives of 91 and 63 yards and the Bucs (6-6) again to .500, tightening the staff’s grip in first position within the susceptible NFC South.
“We’ve had a lot of games come down to the end,” Brady mentioned. “Some we’ve won, some we’ve lost, which is why we’re 6-6. It’s not where we want to be, but we’ll keep fighting.”
The 45-year-old quarterback tossed a one-yard TD pass to rookie Cade Otton to make it 16–10 with exactly three minutes remaining. He got the ball back with 2:29 to go, then won the game with a six-yard throw to another rookie, Rachaad White, with three seconds left.
“They played hard, they showed grit. It was a complete team effort, obviously,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. “The defense got the ball back, the offense cashed it in. Got it back one more time, cashed it in one more time.”
The Saints (4-9) swept the season series between the division rivals each of the past two seasons, holding Brady without a TD pass in a 38-3 New Orleans rout in 2020 and again in a 9-0 road victory in 2021.
Tampa Bay ended a seven-game, regular-season losing streak in the series with a 20–10 victory in Week 2, sacking Jameis Winston six times and forcing five turnovers.
Andy Dalton, who didn’t play in the earlier meetings, threw for 225 yards and a touchdown without an interception for New Orleans on Monday. However the Saints ultimately paid for having to settle for three field goals by Wil Lutz on drives deep into Bucs territory.
The Bucs rebounded from an overtime loss to Cleveland to extend their division lead over the Atlanta Falcons to 1.5 games.
The last-place Saints missed out on an opportunity to pull into a tie for second with the Falcons. None of the four teams in the NFC South have a winning record.
“I’ve got to go into a bye week knowing that we should have beaten this team,” Saints defensive finish Cameron Jordan mentioned. “The first time we will have to have overwhelmed this staff. This is the time we will have to have. … We will have to have overwhelmed numerous different groups. We did not.
Brady, who before the game exchanged greetings with the biggest prize on this winter’s baseball free agent market AL MVP Aaron Judge, finished 36 of 54 for 281 yards and two touchdowns.
“Tom Brady is Tom Brady. He was meticulous in sticking to the plan of his dink and dunk,” Jordan mentioned. “He had the one prayer that he sent out there and got bailed out with the flag.”
