The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set to face NFC East champion Washington Football Team in Saturday’s Wild Card Game at FedEx Field. The Buccaneers clinched the No. 5 seed in the NFC after finishing the regular season with an 11-5 record. Despite having a losing record at 7-9, the Washington Football Team clinched the NFC East following their 20-14 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in their season finale. While quarterback Tom Brady has 41 playoff games under his belt, many of his young teammates have no postseason experience as the Buccaneers last made the playoffs in 2007.
Aside from Brady, among the notable players who have playoff experience are tight end Rob Gronkowski (16 games), wide receiver Antonio Brown (10 games), defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh (6 games) and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul (4 games), based on data from Pro Football Reference.
Ahead of their clash with the Football Team, the 43-year-old Brady posted a strong message on his Instagram account. The veteran quarterback shared a photo of his offensive line in a huddle during practice and accompanied it with the caption “We didn’t come this far to only come this far.” Brady’s post received several comments, but the most notable was the reaction of his wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, who commented “Let’s go!!!” with a fire emoji.
Brady confident with his offensive line
The Buccaneers are eight-point favorite over Washington, but Brady, in an earlier interview, said they are in for a tough challenge against the Football Team, especially their defensive unit. Despite the challenge posed by Washington’s defensive unit, led by rookie defensive end Chase Young, who earlier called out Brady, the veteran quarterback is confident that he will be ably protected by his offensive line, per a report by Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com.
Brady’s blockers, composed of left tackle Donovan Smith, left guard Ali Marpet, center Ryan Jensen, right guard Alex Cappa and rookie right tackle Tristan Wirfs, have allowed just 21 sacks, tied for third-fewest in the NFL. With the protection provided by his offensive line, Brady has thrown 12 touchdown passes and just one interception in the last four games.
Brady-Gronk connection in spotlight
During his 21 years in the NFL, Brady has collected various regular-season and playoff records. On Saturday, Brady has a chance to rewrite some of them, but he could clinch one more mark with the help of Gronkowski. According to John Breech of CBS Sports, if Brady connects with Gronkowski for a touchdown pass, they will clinch the record for most touchdowns by a pair in the postseason. Brady and Gronkowski currently have 12 touchdown passes between them in the postseason, tied with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice for the record. Brady and Gronkowski played nine years with the Patriots, winning three Super Bowl rings. In the offseason, Gronkowski came out of his one-year retirement and joined Brady in Tampa.
