The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Minnesota Vikings square off on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium as the race for postseason gets tighter with the regular season winding down. This showdown is a must-win for both the Buccaneers (7-5) and the Vikings (6-6) to improve their position in the standings in the last four weeks of the regular season. The Buccaneers are currently the sixth seed in the NFC postseason ranking, while the Vikings are trying to hold on to the final spot. Aside from the usual heat in Tampa, the Vikings are in for some additional challenge as they would face veteran quarterback Tom Brady, who has completed 307 of 474 passes for 28 touchdowns, 11 interceptions and a passer rating of 95.1 in his first season with the Buccaneers after a 20-year stint with the New England Patriots.
Zimmer says Brady still moves well in the pocket
"He looks good to me," Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer said when asked of the 14-time Pro Bowler Brady. Zimmer said Brady moves well in the pocket and still has accuracy, good arm strength and velocity, adding that the veteran quarterback sees things really well. “He's been doing this forever. Yeah, he looks like the same old guy to me,” he stressed. Despite the lack of training camp due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the constant changes in the offense, Zimmer said Brady has transitioned well and progressed throughout the season. Zimmer said the Buccaneers have had some issues with their receivers and still getting comfortable with the addition of veteran wideout Antonio Brown.
Zimmer is also wary about the presence of Pro Bowl wideouts Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and the addition of veteran tight end Rob Gronkowski, who played for nine seasons with Brady with the Patriots. “I mean, they've got terrific players,” said Zimmer.
Buccaneers favorite over Vikings
Despite heading into their bye week on a two-game losing streak, the Buccaneers are 6.5-point favorite over the Vikings in their Sunday’s clash, per a report by Johnny Parlay of USA Today.
In terms of money line, the Buccaneers are -300, meaning you have to bet $300 to win $100. As for the Vikings, bettors can win $240 from their $100 bet. The Vikings were 10-point favorites over the Jacksonville Jaguars but they had to go through overtime before escaping with a 27-24 win. Before their bye week, the Buccaneers suffered back-to-back 27-24 losses to the Los Angeles Rams and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs.
Brady earlier said that he’s focused on the last four games of the regular season with their road to the postseason on the line.
Brady has classic response to Romo
During his appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Wednesday night, former Dallas Cowboys starting quarterback and current CBS football analyst Tony Romo showed off his Brady, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre and they were on point. It was so on point that it drew a comment from Brady on his Twitter account. Brady shared the show’s clip of Romo with the comment: “Not bad @tonyromo...getting some strong spiderman vibes from that @BrettFavre impression.” Brady and Romo are known friends.
