Brady directs win in return
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Tom Brady brought two decades of touchdown passes, victories and championships to New England.
He returned Sunday and reminded his former team what they’re missing.
Brady rallied the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 19-17 victory over the Patriots on a rainy night, with Ryan Succop hitting the winning 48yard field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Brady was 22 of 43 for 269 yards with no touchdowns but engineered the fourthquarter drive to beat his former team. Ronald Jones added an 8-yard scoring run for defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay (3-1).
“So many great guys that have been friends for a long time. What a great game,” Brady said. “They got a really good football team. They made us earn it.”
Brady eclipsed Drew Brees’ NFL career passing yardage record and became the fourth quarterback with victories against all 32 NFL teams, joining Brees, Brett Favre and Peyton Manning.
“In crunch time when we needed a field goal, he got us down the field,” Bucs coach Bruce Arians said. “He wasn’t going to make any mistakes that cost us the game.”
New England had a chance to win, but Nick Folk’s 56-yard field-goal try hit the left upright with with less than a minute to play. The Patriots are 1-3 for the first time since 2001. Coach Bill Belichick is now 8-12 since Brady left New England.
“The Bucs won this game,” Arians said. “Everyone wanted to make this Brady vs Belichick. I don’t think Bill took a snap.”
Belichick said nothing Brady did surprised them.
“We went against Tom Brady every day, every day in practice defensively,” Belichick said. “So it’s not like we’ve ever seen Tom Brady before.”
Patriots rookie Mac Jones finished 31 of 40 for 275 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buccaneers were hurt by multiple mistakes on defense as well as spotty special teams play — marked by poor punts, a missed early field goal and costly penalties.
But Tampa was able to come up with timely plays to stay in the game, including Antoine Winfield Jr., who starred at The Woodlands, forcing a fumble by J.J. Taylor that was recovered by Richard Sherman to thwart a promising drive early in the third quarter.
With Tampa Bay down 1716, Brady and the Buccaneers took over on their own 25 and needed just seven plays drive to the Patriots’ 30. After Antonio Brown failed to hang onto a pass in the end zone Succop calmly connected on a 48yarder with 2:02 left.
Leading 7-6, the Patriots punted and Matt Slater appeared to recover a fumble by Jaydon Mickens. But an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Slater negated the play.
The Bucs took over and finished an eight-play, 52yard drive with an 8-yard scoring run by Ronald Jones.