Saturday night was the 42nd playoff game of Tom Brady’s career. He launched 75 touchdown passes in those 42 games.
This is the context that makes the following statistic so surprising: The Buccaneers’ quarterback launched two touchdown passes of at least 20 yards on Saturday in the Tampa Bay Wild Card Round’s victory over Washington – for the first time in his postseason career.
To clarify: in 17 post-season trips over 20 years with the New England Patriots, Brady never launched multiple TD passes over 20 yards in a single playoff game.
Image of Brady and Blanda impresses Twitter
For a more incredible context, Brady played at least two TDs in 23 playoff games with New England, including a six-touchdown burn from the Denver Broncos in 2012. In neither game, however, TB12 landed two deep TD hits on the same game.
The Bucs needed both deep balls from Brady on Saturday, barely managing to beat the Football Team 31-23 and advance to the NFC Divisional Round.
Here is Brady’s last line of statistics at night:
22 to 40, 381 yards, 2 TDs, 0 INT, 104.3 draw frame classification
Now for the highlights. Here is Brady’s first TD pass in the game, 36 yards to old friend Antonio Brown on the right touchline:
And here’s Brady’s second deep TD pass: a 27-yard wide receiver Chris Godwin that put Tampa Bay at 15-7.
Brady was excellent at throwing the long ball all night and joined Mike Evans for this beauty of the fourth period that created a basket of Bucs:
Washington QB Taylor Heinicke (306 yards, a passing TD, a running TD) kept things closed for the football team, but the Tampa Bay defense remained strong at the end of the fourth quarter to seal the franchise’s first playoff victory since the 2002 Super Bowl.
If the Saints beat the Chicago Bears on Sunday, the Bucs will travel to New Orleans next weekend in the NFC Divisional Round. If the Bears win, Tampa Bay will host the Los Angeles Rams.