Well, if this was the last time these two greats face off against one another, it certainly won’t be remembered for their play. The fabled ‘Last Brady vs. Rodgers’ matchup will go down as a stingy, defensive fight as the Green Bay Packers barely scraped by Tampa Bay 14-12.
Brady’s Buccaneers and Rodgers’ Packers are definitely going to face one another again, though I hope when they do it’s a little more exciting than the game today. It was evidently clear that both Brady and Rodgers were sorely lacking receiving talent as I don’t think I’ve seen such a low-scoring game between the last two MVPs in my life.
Going into this game, the Bucs were without Mike Evans (who was wrongfully suspended), Chris Godwin (injured), Julio Jones (injured), and also lost RT Donovan Smith to injury as well.
Reversely, the Packers were without Sammy Watkins (injury) and Christian Watson (injury). Plus, the Packers were short on WR talent to begin with.
Though, I must say, Aaron Rodgers and the Packers didn’t look like they were missing a beat early on as Rodgers led the team to two touchdowns, with one in the 1st Quarter and one in the 2nd Quarter, to put the Green Bay Packers up 14-3.
With Rodgers finishing the game with 27/35 (77%), 255 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT, I can safely say that he easily played better than Brady (31/42 (74%), 271, 1 TD) did this game.
The Packers offense was picking apart the Bucs defense throughout those first two quarters as Bucs HC Todd Bowles had no answers for Rodgers mix of high-tempo and regular-pace offense.
I thought this game was going to end in a blowout as Tom Brady was out-of-sync with his receivers and Rodgers was on fire…but then they went ice cold.
And I mean ICE COLD. Really, the Packers offense fell off worse than Maroon 5.
I’m not sure if I heard this right, but I think I heard the Fox Broadcast say at the end of the game that the Packers offense was held to under 100 total yards in the entire 2nd half.
Now, even if that stat was wrong, it wasn’t wrong by that much. Watching paint dry would have been more exciting than watching that iteration of the Packers offense.
I don’t know what Todd Bowles did on defense, but it worked. He stifled Aaron Rodgers for the rest of the game and even managed to get an interception out of him too (which is a quite a rarity).
Unfortunately for Tampa, their own offense wasn’t much better. Actually, it was worse.
Tom Brady was practically throwing to pilons out there as his receivers would either run the wrong routes, drop easy catches, make boneheaded plays up field, fumble the ball in key scoring positions, etc. It was horrible to watch for everyone involved, including Tom Brady as he came to the sidelines after every possession either screaming, cursing, or breaking something.
It was actually kind of funny to see how angry a 45-year-old man could get while playing a game.
Anyway, do you want to hear a fun fact from this game? There were more combined punts, 13, between the teams (Green Bay: 7; Tampa Bay: 6) than there were points on the board for the Buccaneers.
Yup, the Bucs were unable to outscore the punting department in this game (don’t laugh to much Green Bay fans, you guys only managed to score one more point).
That’s how bad the Bucs looked on offense. They were utterly dreadful today.
In fact, the only positive thing Tampa Bay did on offense was their 90-yard TD drive as time expired to put them within 2 points. It was a classic ‘Tom Brady comeback drive’ that we’ve seen time after time again with the Patriots and now the Buccaneers.
Though, just as I was starting to think that Green Bay was about to choke yet another game against the Buccaneers, the Bucs were unable to get off the 2-point snap in time and were pushed back 5 yards for delay-of-game. And, on the ensuing attempt, Brady rolled out to his right as his protection broke down and rifled the ball to the endzone…only to see it get deflected away from his target and fall to the ground incomplete.
Thus, the game thankfully ended 14-12.
I pray that these teams are healthy come the playoffs as they are obviously destined to face off against one another for one last matchup between the two greatest QBs (in terms of legacy) still around in the NFL today. To be honest, I don’t think I can survive watching another one of these types of Brady Vs. Rodgers matchup again.
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