Saints spoil Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay debut

Posted by Darin Gantt on September 13, 2020, 7:46 PM EDT

USA TODAY Sports

For much of the afternoon, the two old guys looked mostly like two old guys.

In the fourth quarter, the slightly less old one pulled away.

Drew Brees threw a pair of touchdowns to lead the Saints to a 34-23 win over the Buccaneers, in Tom Brady‘s first game outside of New England.

The 41-year-old Brees was 18-of-30 passing for 160 yards, and made way for more Taysom Hill experiments along the way. Running back Alvin Kamara celebrated his new contract with 67 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns. It wasn’t a day of offensive explosions, and wide receiver Michael Thomas limped off late after getting his ankle rolled up, giving them something to worry about.

But Brady was uncharacteristically off in his debut. The 43-year-old threw a pair of interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, negating his two touchdowns. He was 23-of-36 for 239 yards, for a 78.4 passer rating.

The Bucs also had plenty of other problems, getting a field goal blocked and fumbling a kickoff, giving coach Bruce Arians plenty of things to yell about this week.

The Saints also had a lot to do with Brady’s off day, based on the way they were playing defense. When Brees was hurt last year and Teddy Bridgewater was tending to things, they won games with defense and special teams, and that was similar to what happened Sunday.