Not many teams have given Tom Brady fits the way the New Orleans Saints have.
Since joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers prior to the 2020 campaign, Brady has a 1-4 record against New Orleans. He’s lost to the Saints every time he’s faced them in the regular season, with the lone win coming in the playoffs of his debut year with the Bucs.
Brady has put together some ghastly performances against the Saints in the regular season, throwing seven interceptions to just six touchdowns across the four games. Save for his 375-yards passing in Week 8 last season, he’s yet to throw for more than 239 yards in a game against New Orleans as a Buccaneer.
For Brady, it’s the turnovers that stand out to him.
"That's probably the thing that jumps out the most, turnovers," Brady said, via Buccaneers.com. "They're a very physical team, I think they beat us up, physically. It's just a tough, hard-nosed team. They're well-coached, they've got a lot of good players. They've kind of had a winning organization for a long time. They know how to get the job done.
“They've got a lot of great core players on both sides of the ball that have been there a long time. It's a tough environment to play but you've got to go play…you play good teams on the road, you've got to go play well. The last couple times we've played them we haven't done a great job of that.”
The Buccaneers are coming off a 19-3 win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 1, a victory in which their first 12 points came off Ryan Succop field goals before a Mike Evans touchdown in the third.
If they want to make it two straight to begin the season, Brady knows they're going to have to be a lot better than they usually are against New Orleans.
"They don't make a lot of mistakes, they make you earn everything," said Brady. "Every third down's important, every kicking situation's important, every third down in the low red area is important, turnovers are important. It's a lot of things that lead to winning and losing and obviously we haven't done a good job of that in the regular season. We're going to have to play a lot better if we expect to win."
Kickoff for Bucs-Saints is set for Sunday at noon.