The New Orleans Saints get a chance to deal a third victory this season to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Sunday’s NFC Divisional round game.
It will be the first time quarterbacks in their 40s — Brady is 43, Brees turns 42 on Friday — meet in the postseason.
“I guess it was inevitable,” Brees said after the Saints bounced the Chicago Bears, 21-9, Sunday. “Listen, the minute that he signed with the Bucs and came in the division, you felt like that was gonna be a team to contend with. That was gonna be a team that had playoff aspirations and beyond, just like us.”
The Bucs lost the 2020 regular-season opener at New Orleans 34-23 in Brady’s debut with Tampa Bay.
Brady passed for 239 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, including one that was returned for a Pick-6 by Janoris Jenkins. He also ran for a score; Brees passed for 160 yards and two TDs
The rematch was a rout as New Orleans won, 38-3. Brady was intercepted three times, while Brees threw four touchdown passes.
The Saints swept the NFC South, going 6-0. It is the first time since realignment in 2002 any team has done that in the division.
There have been 24 times teams pulled off six-game division sweeps since ’02. The AFC East’s Buffalo Bills and the Saints did it in 2020.
The Bucs played the same team three times in the same season twice, in 1997. They split the regular-season series with Detroit before beating them in the playoffs. They were swept by Green Bay, including a loss in a division-round game.
Brady is 4-3 against New Orleans in the regular season but is 2-5 overall against Brees. Two of Brees’ victories over Brady came as the quarterback of the San Diego Chargers in 2002 and ’05.