Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints kick off the second Sunday of the NFL season – Live on Sky Sports NFL at 6:00 p.m. – with Seattle Seahawks @ San Francisco 49ers (9:05 p.m.) and Chicago Bears @ Green Bay Packers (1:20 pm) tomorrow, Monday). triple action header
Tom Brady and Michael Thomas are among the players to watch in this NFC South rivalry as we pick six reasons to watch the game live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday at 6…
Thomas cashed in two trips to the end zone to help New Orleans beat the Atlanta Falcons 27-26, who sat out 20 months, including the entire 2021 season, with an ankle injury. Most recently, the 2016 second-round pick topped the statistical charts when he posted an NFL-record 149 receptions for 1,725 league yards during the 2019 campaign.
He’s in the Saints’ all-around offense with veteran Jarvis Landry, who led the team with 114 receiving yards in Week 1, rookie first-round pick Chris Olav and star running back Alvin Kamara. They’re facing a Bucks defense that lost just three points and 244 yards in the opening weekend, defeating the Cowboys, who were No. 1 in offense in 2021.
Tom Brady did his job in Tampa’s first 19-3 victory over Dallas, but that was all he did. The veteran quarterback completed 18 of 27 passes effectively for 212 yards, a TD and an interception, but it wasn’t a year ago for Brady, who led the league in passing (5,316 yards) and touchdowns (43).
This is not the case when a 45-year-old man necessarily has to fight physically, despite his age. The hand is still there, for now. Thing is, there are questions about the seven-time Super Bowl winner’s mental state right now, with rumors in the US that the moment he fell from preseason training camp centered around potential problems at home.
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Will Brady be able to ignore all the noise outside and focus on the football? This has always been one of his strengths and he certainly needs to be in his best form for Sunday’s game.
While few in the league can attest to positive results against Team Brady, the Saints are 4-0 over the Bucks since the arrival of the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Brady threw eight interceptions in those losses and failed to record a touchdown pass twice.
The Saints posted a 34-23 victory on opening day and a 38-3 win in week nine of Tampa’s 2020 Super Bowl-winning campaign. And while Brady’s Bucks bounced back in the playoffs that year, normal service resumed last season, with New Orleans first winning 36-27 before securing a 9-0 shutout.
“This is a very strong team, I think they beat us physically. It’s a tough, stubborn team,” Brady said. “They train well, they have a lot of good players. They have had a winning organization for a long time.”