Bucs, inching toward playoffs, visit Falcons
ATLANTA — At 43 years old, Tom Brady is on the verge of proving he was the right choice to help the Tampa Bay Buccaneers end the NFL’s second-longest playoff drought. At 35, Matt Ryan is determined to answer new questions about whether he’s still capable of taking the Atlanta Falcons back to the postseason, a hope already lost for the third straight year.
The Bucs (8-5) could move closer to their first berth since 2007 when they visit Atlanta (4-9) this afternoon in a matchup of NFC South teams and quarterbacks in different situations.
Tampa Bay hold the conference’s No. 6 spot in the postseason race after last Sunday’s 26-14 win against the Minnesota Vikings. The Bucs visit the Detroit Lions (5-8) next Saturday before hosting the Falcons to close the regular season. The only way Tampa Bay can clinch a playoff berth today is by winning and having Minnesota and the Chicago Bears play to a tie.
Brady is making no assumptions about the team’s path to the playoffs.
“Wherever that takes us, it takes us. It will be up to us to earn it,” Brady said. “No one is going to give you anything in the NFL. It’s too competitive, it’s too tough. Every week is a challenge.”
After 12 consecutive years of missing the postseason, the Bucs signed Brady, who led the New England Patriots to nine Super Bowls — winning six, including Atlanta’s infamous collapse at Super Bowl LI in February 2017 — in 20 years with the team before moving on this past offseason.
Brady, who holds the NFL playoff wins record for quarterbacks with 30, is 6-0 against the Falcons. Ryan needs no reminders of the Super Bowl collapse — the Patriots rallied from a 28-3 second-half deficit to win 34-28 in overtime — and he’s not interested in revisiting bad memories by watching a replay of the game.
“I don’t pop that one in all that often,” Ryan said. “Different memory for him than it is for me.”
Ryan threw a season-high three interceptions — one of them late and particularly costly — in last Sunday’s 20-17 road
loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, which officially eliminated Atlanta from the postseason. He has thrown eight interceptions in the past six games after being picked off only three times in the first seven games this season.
Even while playing in the same division with Brady and 41-year-old Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints — the record-setting quarterback who’s set to return from injury after missing four games — Ryan faced questions this past week
about his age and signs of a possible decline.
“My body feels great,” said Ryan, the No. 3 overall pick in 2008 and the league MVP in 2016. “I feel like I’m fresh and I’m in a good spot. I haven’t played as well as I’d like, and that happens sometimes.”
Compounding the Falcons’ trouble on offense is the continued absence of Julio Jones, who has been ruled out for the second straight week and fifth time this season as he deals with a nagging hamstring injury.
Calvin Ridley — like Jones, he is a former Alabama Crimson Tide star — has emerged as Atlanta’s leading receiver. Ridley had eight catches for 124 yards with a touchdown against the Chargers, his sixth game this season with at least 100 receiving yards, tied for the NFL lead. The 2018 first-round draft pick already has career-best totals of 67 catches and 1,029 yards this season.
Falcons interim head coach Raheem Morris, who was the team’s wide receivers coach during the Super Bowl run to cap the 2016 season, said he doesn’t blame Brady if the quarterback celebrates his postseason success.
“No, that game’s in the past,” Morris said. “I hate Tom enough. I don’t need more motivation. … He’s the best player in the game I’ve seen, and when you’re the best and you’re able to prove it every single week, you have the right to put up your old Super Bowls and your old rings. … I do hate him for it. I just hate him for it.”
Morris is also facing his former team, having spent two stints as a Tampa Bay assistant before taking over as head coach for three seasons (2009-11).