Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady notched two more NFL records as he led his team to a 44-27 win over the Atlanta Falcons in their regular-season finale on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. Brady clinched the record for most starts by a quarterback with 229 when he took his first snap on Sunday, eclipsing the previous record of 298 set by Hall of Famer Brett Favre. Since he took over the starting job for the New England Patriots in 2001, Brady has started in nearly every game in his career. Brady missed almost the entire 2008 season with a knee injury and was suspended for four games in 2016, per Cassandra Negley of Yahoo Sports.

Brady erases Manning’s record

Brady also set a new NFL record for most touchdown passes for a quarterback on his first year with the team with his 38th touchdown pass of the season to wide receiver Antonio Brown, per independent NFL reporter Dov Kleiman. With that pass, Brady broke the record set by Peyton Manning, who threw for 37 touchdown passes in his first year with the Denver Broncos in 2012. Brady added a four-yard touchdown pass to Chris Godwin and a 30-yard scoring strike to Antonio Brown to push his regular-season total to 40 touchdown passes, his second-highest touchdown tally in a season in his 21-year career. He threw 50 touchdown passes in 2007 and 39 in 2011. Overall, Brady completed 26 of 41 passes for 399 yards and four touchdowns, and an interception.

With the Buccaneers’ win, they officially clinched the No. 5 seed in the NFC and a date with the NFC East champion, a team with a losing record. The Buccaneers also finished the season with an 11-5 record, a significant improvement to their 7-9 finish last season.

Evans also makes it to record books

Wide receiver Mike Evans also made history on Sunday as he became the first wideout in NFL history to start his career with seven straight 1,000-yard receiving yard seasons.

Evans entered the game needing just 40 yards to break a tie with Hall of Fame wideout Randy Moss and he clinched the record when he caught a 20-yard pass from Brady in the first period. However, Evans suffered a knee injury on the next play when he landed awkwardly while trying to catch a pass in the end zone. Evans was ruled out for the rest of the game after recording three catches for 46 yards.

Jenna Laine of ESPN reported that Evans was set to undergo an MRI to determine the extent of his knee injury. The primary concern now for the Buccaneers is if Evans would be available when they play in the postseason for the first time since 2007. Brown stepped up in Evans’ absence, recording 11 catches for 138 yards and two scores while Godwin added five receptions for 133 yards and two scores while Brown had 11 catches for 138 yards and two scores as well for the Buccaneers.
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