When the Buccaneers went after Tom Brady in the offseason, they were dead set on breaking the second-longest playoff drought in the National Football League (NFL). They understood the risks; even as they knew the pluses of getting arguably the best player in history, they acknowledged that he was likewise all of 43 and on the downside of a long pro journey. And it was precisely his extraordinary body of work that made him a question mark moving forward; with 20 extended seasons’ worth of pounding compelling the Patriots to part ways with him, how much more of a beating could he still take?
For the Buccaneers, the answer had been varying from week to week. For a while there, it even looked as if they had to temper their expectations from doing battle for the division crown to simply getting a wild card slot. Then something happened: Brady happened. They began to win with more consistency anew after an atrocious November that had them being shellacked by the rival Saints and absorbing two more setbacks over the next three contests. Yesterday’s triumph over the Lions both presented their potential and represented their ceiling; everything clicked, and their acquisition at center couldn’t have been better.
How dominant was Brady in his latest outing? Consider this: He led five touchdown drives, four off his passes, in going 22 of 27 for a whopping 348 yards in the first half. No, it’s not a typo. And, yes, it had the Buccaneers up by so much — 34-0, to be precise — at the break that he didn’t need to get back on the field anymore. So good were his numbers that they were just the second set to surpass 240 yards and four touchdowns in a half through the last four decades. The first was, of course, his as well; in 2009, he went for 345 and five.
Always with a flair for the dramatic, Brady went for the record books on the 300th game of his NFL career, which just so happened to begin in the same state 20 years ago. That said, he’s not done — and, if he’s to be believed, nowhere near to being done; he’s angling to play even after he turns 45, and until he can’t. First things first, though, and, for the Buccaneers, it means moving up the standings to secure a better postseason seed. Up next: the dangerous Falcons, who had them on the ropes last week before he managed to engineer a second-half comeback.
As foolhardy as it may be to draw conclusions from a small sample size, the Buccaneers can’t help but be buoyed by Brady’s showing. For all the pitfalls of decency bias, it’s fair to argue that they’re trending in the right direction. Whether or not the pieces are finally falling into place remains to be seen, but there’s no denying the strides they made in any case.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.
