Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints: Tom Brady and Michael Thomas among six reasons to watch NFC South clash | NFL News

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Highlights of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Dallas Cowboys from Week One of the NFL season.

Tom Brady and Michael Thomas are among the notable players in this NFC South rivalry clash as we pick out six reasons to watch the game live on Sky Sports NFL on Sunday @ 6…

Michael Thomas keeps coming back

The sight of a smooth and goal-scoring Michael Thomas will come as welcome news for Dennis Allen, Jameis Winston and the Saints organization in Week One as the team’s widespread star collector has returned. long-awaited action again.

Thomas cashed in on two trips to the last quarter to help New Orleans win 27-26 over the Atlanta Falcons after a 20-month break, including the 2021 season, due to an ankle injury. Not long ago, the 2016 second-round pick topped the stats charts as he scored an NFL record 149 catch with 1,725 ​​yards leading the league in the 2019 campaign.

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Highlights of the New Orleans Saints against the Atlanta Falcons from Week One of the NFL season.

He featured in a multi-pronged Saints attack alongside veteran Jarvis Landry, who led the team with 114 yards received in Week One, as well as first-round rookie pick Chris Olave and star run back to Alvin Kamara. They encountered a Bucs defense that surrendered just 3 points and 244 yards in total in their opening weekend win over the Cowboys, the team that ranks first in attack in 2021.

Worried about Brady?

Tom Brady got the job done in Tampa’s opening 19-3 win over Dallas, but that’s all he did. The veteran quarterback was pretty efficient completing 18 of 27 passes for 212 yards, TDs and interceptions, but this isn’t the classic Brady style of a year ago, who led the league in passes. ball (5.316) and touch the ball (43).

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Highlights of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Dallas Cowboys from Week One of the NFL season.

It’s not the case that the 45-year-old struggled physically, regardless of his age. The arm is still there, now. There are questions surrounding the current seven-time Super Bowl winner’s mental state, with speculation in the United States during his departure from pre-season training surrounding potential problems at home.

Can Brady ignore all the noise outside and focus on football? That has always been one of his strengths and he will certainly need to be at his best for Sunday’s game.

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Watch some of the top plays from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide-set collection side-by-side with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.

Happy hunting saints

While few people across the league have been able to demonstrate a positive profit against the Brady-led outfit, the Saints boast a 4-0 record against the Bucs since the arrival of a seven-time defense quartet. Super Bowl enemy. Brady threw eight interceptions in those losses, and failed to score a touchdown pass on two occasions.

New Orleans Saints head coach Dennis Allen helped mastermind a four-season win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Saints won 34-23 on opening day and won 38-3 in Week 9 of Tampa’s 2020 Super Bowl-winning campaign. And though Brady’s Bucs did earn some revenge in the knockouts that year, normal service was resumed last season, with New Orleans winning 36-27 for the first time and then winning it. 9-0.

Brady said: “They are a very physical team, I think they beat us. “They are well coached, they have a lot of good players. They have had a winning organization for a long time.

“They know how to get the job done. They have a lot of great core players on both sides of the ball that have been there for a long time. It’s a tough environment to play but you have to go out… you play. good teams on the road, you have to play well. The last few times we’ve played against them, we haven’t done that well.”

Role increase for ‘Lenny playoff’ in regular season?

While Brady didn’t have his best start in his season opener against the Cowboys, the Buccaneers re-run Leonard Fournette certainly enjoyed a great outing, coming back 127 yards after 21 carry – his highest point. in a single match for almost three years.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers rerun Leonard Fournette earned him the nickname ‘playoff Lenny’ due to his stellar performances in season after season

The 27-year-old, who joined Tampa Bay for their 2020 season and later earned the nickname ‘playoff kick Lenny’ for his impressive displays throughout their Super Bowl, has tended to. underperformed during the regular season. This is only Fournette’s fourth game with more than 100 meters of dash since a 131-meter effort for his former team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, in October 2019.

He looks leaner and sharper than he is for a while and, as Brady is looking to get back to top fitness, the Buccaneers might be wise to rely on their butts backstage.

The best solution in the business?

One of the duels of Sunday’s game could happen to the right of the Bucs’ attack when facing Tristan Wirfs, arguably the league’s best player in his position, next. Continue the passionate battle with frontier racers Cam Jordan. in the past two seasons.

Wirfs has allowed just three bags since entering the tournament as the 13th overall pick in 2020, winning the Super Bowl championship in his rookie year before winning the Pro Bowl and His first All-Pro in 2021 as an indispensable cog to protect Brady’s pass. His talent was highlighted again in Week One when the Cowboys were forced to move Micah Parsons to the left of Tampa’s attack line for any fun through their over-the-line pass.

The Saints’ Jordan has had 107 eliminations in 11 seasons since entering the league in 2011, trailing only Chandler Jones (107.5) and Von Miller (117.5) in that period, being one of Wirfs’ toughest test of his youth career with ferocious powers and one of the league’s coolest menus of hasty moves.

Redzone is back!

In case it passed you last week… Scott Hansen is back, ladies and gentlemen!

And if those words mean nothing to you, they will soon if you follow NFL Redzone live on Sky Sports Mix from 6 p.m. Sunday, the NFL’s crazy, totally fun answer. for Saturday Football.

Think of Jeff Stelling on a high road of epic proportions, except Hansen just loves football, football and other football!

Stay up-to-date with the seven NFL games that take place in the 6 p.m. slot on Sunday night and the five games that kick off later at 9:05 p.m. and 9:25 p.m., with Hansen and his team bring you every touchpoint. It was a wild ride!

Watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ New Orleans Saints on the second Sunday of the NFL season – live on Sky Sports NFL at 6pm.