What Tom Brady said about making it to the NFC Championship Game
"There's only four teams left. We're one of them."
There’s an old saying in football that it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season. There’s also a common belief that it’s tough to beat Tom Brady in the playoffs. Unfortunately for the New Orleans Saints, they found both of those statements to be true on Sunday.
After getting dominated by his divisional rival twice during the regular season, Brady led the Buccaneers to an upset victory over the Saints on Sunday night, winning 30-20 in the NFC’s Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Brady played a part in all three of the Buccaneers’ touchdowns on Sunday night. He threw for two of them and rushed for a third that put Tampa Bay up 30-20 with just minutes remaining.
While Brady did the scoring, what may have been more important was the turnovers forced by the Buccaneers’ defense. Tampa Bay’s defensive unit forced four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble recovery) with three of them leading to scores. The fourth let the Buccaneers run the clock out to end the game.
Brady tipped his cap to his defense following Sunday’s performance.
“Yeah, the defense was incredible all game,” Brady told reporters. “The turnovers were huge. The last time we played them we lost the turnover (battle) minus-three. Today was plus-four. You’re not going to lose any games when you’re plus-four. It was a great effort. They came up huge.”
Brady had more to thank though than just his defense. He threw for only 199 yards in the game, but got some help from his offensive line and running backs. The Saints only sacked Brady once while the Buccaneers’ running back duo of Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones rushed for a combined 125 yards.
“Offensively, made some plays when we needed to,” Brady said. “Running game was great. Line protected great upfront. Just a great week of prep. Really proud of our team and everything we’ve put in to get to this point.”
“The way the offensive line played, Leonard, RoJo it was just huge,” Brady added. “Those guys came up big. We talked about it all week: what we’re going to need to win and get it accomplished.”
Brady couldn’t help but remark that Sunday’s win came in the same spot he lost his first game in a Buccaneers uniform.
“It’s a long way from the last time we played these guys at home and certainly we started the season here,” Brady said. “It’s a lot better feeling sitting in this tent this time around than the first time I was sitting here about, 18 weeks ago.”
Still, while revenge tasted sweet, Brady was just happy to win a playoff game.
“It feels great to obviously beat a great football team,” Brady said. “That’s what feels best. It’s a team effort and it speaks to the commitment level of everybody in the organization, and the coaches, the players, and everyone coming together. You don’t beat great teams like this…they do a lot of things the right way. I knew for us, going into this week, we had to play a great game.”
With Sunday’s win, Brady will now play in a conference championship for the 14th time in his 21-year career. This season is obviously different as it’s his first conference title game appearance away from New England and his first NFC Championship Game.
Sunday’s NFC Championship Game will also bring a different difficulty. With the Packers holding the top seed in the NFC, Sunday’s game will be played in Green Bay, where the early weather forecast predicts a temperature of 24 degrees and even some snow.
Brady’s of course played in his fair share of snow games, but practicing in Florida isn’t ideal to prepare for those kinds of elements. He still expects his team to be ready, though.
“You’ve just got to have some mental toughness and wear some warm clothes and be ready to go,” Brady said with a smile. “Yeah, it’s chilly man. That’s January football (in) the Northeast, Midwest. We’ll be prepared. The team that plays the best is going to win not the team is the coldest. We’re going to have to go out there and play well.”
Sunday’s NFC Championship Game will surely be hyped around the battle between two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks. It’ll mark the fourth time that Brady has gone up against Aaron Rodgers in his career, with Sunday being the first playoff matchup between the two. Brady’s won the last two matchups, including a 38-10 blowout win by the Buccaneers over the Packers in Week 6 this season.
While the Packers are 10-2 since that matchup and look to be as tough a matchup as any, Brady seems happy just to be in the position he’s in now.
“There’s only four teams left. We’re one of them,” Brady said. “It’s tough to get to this point. We need a big week. We need a great week of prep against one of the best teams in the league obviously in Green Bay, the top seed. Aaron is playing incredible. They’ve got a great defense. It’s going to be a great matchup.”
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