Tampa, Fla. — Tom Brady isn’t concerned about being an underdog at home in the NFL playoffs for the first time in his career.
After all, no one has enjoyed more postseason success than the seven-time Super Bowl champion, who begins his quest for a record in the eighth ring when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9) host the Dallas Cowboys (12-5) in an NFC Wildcard matchup Monday night.
Brady owns a number of playoff records, including most games played (47), wins (35), passing yards (13,049), touchdown passes (86), and Super Bowl appearances (10).
The 45-year-old quarterback, making the playoffs for the 14th straight season, has something else going for him:
The Cowboys – 2½ point favorites according to FanDuel Sportsbook — have never beaten the five-time Super Bowl MVP.
Not that Brady thinks career victories or a 7-0 win against the American team, including a 19-3 opening win in Dallas four months ago, will have any bearing on their final clash at Raymond James Stadium.
The Bucs also beat the Cowboys and Dak Prescott 31-29 in Tampa to open the 2021 season.
“It’s just such a blessing for me to have such memories and experiences. I’m very blessed to be a part of great teams that got to this point and then had a lot of big wins,” said Brady, who retired in 2020 after a historic two-decade streak that included six NFL wins the Bucs came out titles with the New England Patriots.
“They have a great team,” Brady said of facing the Cowboys, who have not only recovered after losing the season opener to Tampa Bay, but also lost Prescott for five weeks with a fractured right thumb, which is down in this game to earn the top wild card spot in the NFC.
“I’ve played against them quite a bit over the years and I have a lot of respect for the organization, their history and a lot of great players. But the whole thing takes about three hours on Monday night,” he added.
“It will all come down to what we do in those three hours. Nothing in the past, nothing about the color shirts we wear. It’s about who is playing, what we do, how we perform, how we act under pressure. That’s what it will come down to.”
The Bucs ended a 13-year hiatus from the playoffs and became the first team to win a Super Bowl played at their home stadium in their freshman season with Brady. They lost at home in the NFC divisional round a year ago to eventual champion Los Angeles Rams.
Still, Tampa Bay’s 5-1 record in the last two postseasons is the best in the league. Despite winning four fewer games than Dallas and ending the regular season with a losing record, the Bucs are hosting Monday night’s game for repeat as NFC South champions.
“You have to take advantage of these opportunities,” said Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, whose team is the No. 5 in the NFC.
“But at the end of the day … what we’re going to pay most attention to is that we’ve had the opportunity to go up against Tom Brady and Tampa twice (in two seasons). That’s actually how far we’ve gotten. That’s all we can focus on,” McCarthy added.
“We have no responsibility or even time wasted for what happened before those two games. None of that responsibility falls to us.”
Dallas hasn’t won a postseason game on the road in 30 years, a stretch spanning eight games. The last win was 30-20 in San Francisco in the NFC Championship game during the 1992 season.
The Cowboys won three of the next four Super Bowls. They haven’t reached an NFC championship game since the last of those titles.
Prescott, who ended the regular season with the worst interception streak of his career in seven games, is starting in the playoffs for the fifth time of his career. He understands the importance of competing against a team led by Brady, who announced his retirement last winter only to change his mind and return for a 23rd season.
“Obviously, the guy has respect. I mean he’s won as much as anyone else in this league. So you have to show him the respect but understand that this is a team game and of course knowing how good and talented our defense is, trust these guys to go out there and do their job and they’re going to handle that side of the ball.” said Prescott.
“For us, it’s about seizing opportunities. And like I said…if we stand up, we don’t give them a chance,” the Dallas quarterback added. “And if it’s a close game to understand they have a quarterback and what they’re capable of, like they’ve won a lot of their games this season in the last few minutes. Just knowing that we have to take care of our business and cannot leave it in his hands.”
Brady has averaged 277.9 yards per game in seven career games against the Cowboys and thrown for 15 TDs against five interceptions.
He shrugged off questions about whether being a home underdog was an added motivation, saying he’d never really paid attention to “those things.”
“It’s not the best team that wins, it’s the team that plays best (that) wins. I was part of a team that won every game up to the Super Bowl and we didn’t play the best that day and we lost and in the end you don’t reach your goal,” Brady said.
“I was at the other end, where I was a big underdog, my freshman year against the Rams and we played better than we did that day. But that’s all that matters,” Brady added.
“That’s what single elimination is all about. You have to be at your best at this moment.”
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AP Pro Football Writer Schuyler Dixon in Dallas contributed to this report.
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