With an ailing offence, Brady keeps it moving for Buccaneers
TAMPA, FLA. The Bucs offensive line is hurting.
All-Pro tackle Tristan Wirfs is in a walking boot. His backup, Josh Wells, has a quad injury. Pro Bowl centre Ryan Jensen gutted out Sunday’s 31-15 win over the Eagles with a severely sprained ankle but finished the game because “that thing was going to have to be broken for him not to go back in,” Bruce Arians said.
All in time for a Rams defence that has added Von Miller to a lineup that already included Aaron Donald and Leonard Floyd and notched 50 sacks during the regular season, third-most in the league.
Good luck in Sunday’s NFC division playoff game, fellas.
You’ve got 2.17 seconds to get to Tom Brady. That’s how long Brady held the football before passes in the NFC wild-card game, the quickest of any quarterback this season, according to NextGen Stats.
Brady was sacked four times Sunday, including twice by Eagles defensive end Ryan Kerrigan. But on one of those plays, Wirfs attempted to return to the game, discovered his sprained ankle he injured on the opening possession wouldn’t hold up and was done for the day.
“I thought Josh Wells — other than the one bull rush — I thought he played really (well) because he was playing on a bad leg, too,” coach Bruce Arians said. “Our inside guys got beat on a couple of twists. That shouldn’t have happened. We misread what we thought they were going to do and we turned the guy loose. Easy things to correct.”
Meanwhile, Brady offers the best protection for Brady.
Quite simply, there’s no defence that can fool him, and he demonstrated that he’s patient enough to surgically carve up an Eagles unit bent on preventing the big play. Brady completed 29 of 37 passes for 271 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions.
He hasn’t blinked despite watching the talent on offence evaporate. While relying heavily on Evans and Rob Gronkowski, other players have stepped up, including Tyler Johnson, Breshad Perriman, Scotty Miller and running backs Ke’Shawn Vaughn and Giovani Bernard.
But the answer to nearly every problem has been Brady. The Rams sacked him three times in a 34-24 win over the Bucs in Week 3 at SoFi Stadium in a game that saw Gronkowski go down with fractured ribs and a punctured lung.
The health of the offensive line is a concern, sure. Brady has a few days to figure it out.
“I don’t ever take it for granted,” Evans said of playing with Brady. “When he came to this team, I knew he was going to change the franchise. He’s done that and then some.”