Tom Brady led the Buccaneers to the Playoffs; the defense leads Tampa Bay to the Super Bowl

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed a player like Tom Brady to make the jump to the playoffs, but in this case, the defense is the one that has them in the Super Bowl LV.

The victory over the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game is a prime example of the definition of teamwork needed to win football.

The game was the story of two games for Brady: a superb first half with a historic execution in the final seconds of the second quarter, with a conversion on the fourth and three with six seconds left and the next game, a touchdown pass of 39 yards to put Tampa Bay 28-10, but a performance to forget in the last two quarters with three interceptions.

When Brady was ineffective and struggling due to Packers pressure, the Buccaneers defense came to the rescue.

It must be remembered that in the victory over the New Orleans Saints in the divisional round, Brady managed to lead the offense to score only three field goals when he started the attacks on his own field and it was Bucs’ defense that, with four steals on the ball, he put his defender on the table to score a touchdown three times.

At Lambeau Field, the situation was not so different, although the Buccaners defense faced the favorite to win the MVP award, Aaron Rodgers, who was fired five times. In the regular season, Green Bay’s offensive line allowed only 21 sacks.

After Brady’s first interception, with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Rodgers and his offense scored on a 13.68-meter run in 7:30 minutes to bring the Packers closer to 28-23 after missing the conversion. points, but after Brady’s second and third interceptions, the Buccaneers defense closed the Packers door.

After Brady’s second interception in the second and 11th, Green Bay fell back five yards in three games, and their volume was zero after the Tampa Bay defender’s third interception.

On the other hand, the Tampa Bay defense was not to blame for the strategic mistakes made by Green Bay, when Rodgers led his offense in the Bucs 10-meter line and did not take advantage of a wide space to run diagonally or to the fewest to get closer and the Packers decided to go on the field instead of betting on the fourth and goal from the 8-meter line to Tampa Bay.

Buccaneers’ responsibility is to execute whatever the opponent does at key moments and minimize their defender’s mistakes.

In turn, the deep passages made Brady’s performance sublime and a disaster.

In the first half, Brady completed both passes of 30 yards or more that he attempted, including the 39-meter pass to Scotty Miller in the final seconds of the second quarter, but all three of his interceptions. were on passes of 15 or more meters in the second half.

At passes of 15 meters or more, Brady was 7-4 for 133 meters and two touchdowns in the first half, but in the second he completed only one of six for 16 meters and three interceptions.