Patriots Enemy Profile: Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The New England Patriots lost at home last week 28-13 to the New Orleans Saints. Offensively, Mac Jones completed 30-of-51 passes for 270 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. The offensive line struggled throughout and several drops stunted promising drives, leaving several points off the board for the Patriots. That isn’t necessarily a recipe for success.

Defensively, New England has pushed around many teams this year and couldn’t get off the field in crucial third-down situations last week. Alvin Kamara rushed for 89 yards and caught a touchdown pass from Jameis Winston. Special teams are something the Patriots pride themselves on but struggled in that department as well. A blocked punt gave the Saints terrific field position, and a kickoff that fell out of bounds gave them momentum. The moral of the story is, nothing went right last week.

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As for the Buccaneers, this is a team that Patriots fans should know well because it looks eerily familiar to what the Patriots have been for many years.

Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski are returning to Gillette Stadium for the first time since leaving the Patriots and moving to Tampa and lead an elite offense that just saw a streak of nine-straight games scoring 30+ points snapped. An NFL record. In addition to Brady and Gronkowski, the combination of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Antonio Brown make it incredibly difficult to defend over the course of 60 minutes. Getting pressure on Tom Brady will be the key if the Patriots have any chance to win this game. Easier said than done because they need to create this pressure without sending more than four defenders at the quarterback. Any more and Brady could pick apart the Stephon Gilmore-free Patriots secondary.

Defensively, the Buccaneers are stout against the run with the likes of Vita Vea and Ndamukong Suh up front and linebackers Devin White and Lavonte David. The Patriots lost James White for the season this week and will lean even more on Damien Harris as the lead back, however, this is a tough team for anyone to run against. One silver lining is the Bucs are vulnerable against the pass, allowing opposing quarterbacks to average more than 300 yards in the air. This would be an ideal time for the Patriots’ skill position players, mainly Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith, to make some plays for their quarterback.

Brady’s relationship with Bill Belichick has been a point of focus for many years and will continue to be leading up to and through the conclusion of this game. Belichick’s knowledge of Brady from their time together should help in putting together a game plan, however, it is ultimately up to the players to execute said plan. And, as Patriots fans know all too well, you may have the perfect game plan but the other team has Tom Brady.

Be sure to tune into the game this Sunday at 8:20 PM ET on NBC!