TAMPA, Fla. — Anytime you get shut out as an NFL team, it's bad. What the New Orleans Saints did to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday Night Football was one of the best defensive performances you'll see in the modern NFL.
The Saints defense blanked the NFL's highest-scoring offense even as the New Orleans offense proved barely capable of scoring points themselves. Tampa managed to put up 302 yards of offense, but gave up four sacks, lost a fumble, and saw Brady throw another interception against the Saints.
Even as the Bucs continued to throw everything at the Saints defense they could, New Orleans' D wouldn't budge. It was so dominant, the Bucs couldn't even get to the Saints' red zone.
As first pointed out by the New Orleans Times-Picayune's Jeff Duncan, Tampa Bay never crossed into the Saints red zone during the entire game Sunday night. Going further, Duncan pointed out the Bucs only ran three total plays inside New Orleans' 35-yard line!
Extraordinary revelation: The Bucs didn't run a single play in the Saints' red zone. Closest they got in 73 plays was the Saints' 21. In fact, they ran just 3 plays all night inside the Saints' 35. And the Bucs came into the game leading the NFL in scoring offense & total offense
— Jeff Duncan (@JeffDuncan_) December 20, 2021
To put a further emphasis on how New Orleans has been able to dominate Brady in the regular season, against the Saints during 4 regular season matchups Tom Brady has thrown six touchdowns, eight interceptions, and been sacked 13 times.
Against the other teams in the division (Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers), Brady has thrown 19 touchdowns, three interceptions, and been sacked eight times, with two games against Carolina left over the next three weeks.
