Tom Brady is 44 years old, which is a fact you’d never believe by watching him in the first two games of the season. He leads the NFL in touchdown passes with nine, two more than any other player. He also has the most first-down passes, is tied for the most 20-yard completions and has a passer rating of 113.3.
No player in NFL history has had this much success so late into his career, which makes his red-hot start to 2021 all the more impressive. Sean McVay doesn’t need to dive deep into the Buccaneers’ film to know that Brady is playing as well as he ever has.
He’s well aware of Brady’s skill players, his decisiveness and his accuracy, which have all been on display through two weeks.
“To say I have really dove into the tape to give you a true educated answer, I mean, you can see the way he’s playing. There’s a great understanding,” McVay said Monday. “He’s playing fast, he’s decisive, he’s throwing the ball as well as he’s ever thrown it. And he’s obviously one of the best of all time, if not the best of all time. He’s got great skill players. He knows how to distribute the ball. You can see they’re really firing on all cylinders in all three phases and that’s why they played so well. Really, when you look at it, after we played them, then they lost to Kansas City and then they have not lost since that game, so it’s been a long time and that’s why it’s going to be such a great challenge and Tom is playing as good a ball as he’s ever played.”
The Bucs lead the NFL in scoring at 39.5 points per game, putting up 31 against the Cowboys and 48 against the Falcons on Sunday. Brady has done a great job spreading the ball around, too, hitting 10 different receivers through two games. Rob Gronkowski already has four touchdowns, and Mike Evans and Chris Godwin have two each, with Antonio Brown catching the other touchdown from Brady.
Covering all of those playmakers will be a test for the Rams, putting a great deal of pressure on Jalen Ramsey, Darious Williams and David Long Jr. to step up. This secondary and defense got the job done last year in the Rams’ 27-24 win over the Bucs, so it’s not as if Tampa Bay is unstoppable.
It’s just that this offense is playing much better than it was in Week 12 last year when the Rams beat them.
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