When Tom Brady and the Buccaneers host the Falcons on Sunday, the star quarterback will be looking to avoid his longest losing streak in two decades.
Tampa Bay started the season 2-0, but after back-to-back losses to the Packers and Chiefs, Brady is staring at his first three-game losing streak since 2002 as a member of the Patriots, as ESPN’s Jeff Darlington pointed out.
Remarkably, Brady has only lost more than two games in a row once in his 23-year NFL career. The Buccaneers are heavy favorites (-9) against Atlanta and Brady does have a history of beating up on the Falcons (a perfect 9-0 in his career), but Tampa Bay will have to shake off its recent woes on both sides of the ball to prevent a third straight loss.
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What happened the last time Brady lost three games in a row, and how did he perform the times he avoided three straight losses? The Sporting News takes a look.
Tom Brady’s longest losing streak
Brady has lost more than two games in a row once in his career — in 2002 when the Patriots dropped four consecutive games.
Brady was fresh off an unprecedented run to a Super Bowl championship as a fill-in starter during his second season. The Patriots organization elected to stick with the 25-year-old moving forward, trading former Pro Bowler Drew Bledsoe to the Bills in the offseason.
Brady and New England showed no signs of a Super Bowl hangover with a perfect 3-0 start, posting 30 or more points in each of the team’s first three games.
Then, the Patriots had to travel to San Diego and take on an undefeated Chargers team. That’s where their losing skid began. LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for a pair of touchdowns as San Diego handed New England its first loss 21-14.
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The Patriots’ next stop was Miami the following week. They fell behind 16-0 in the first half and were unable to make a comeback as they dropped to 3-2 on the season.
You would think returning to New England for their next two games would bring the streak to an end, but that wasn’t the case. Brett Favre came into Gillette Stadium and threw for three touchdowns as the Packers beat the Patriots, and then the Broncos won a close one behind 111 rushing yards and two touchdowns from Clinton Portis.
It was far from Brady’s best stretch of quarterback play. He threw for more interceptions (seven) than touchdowns (six) to go with two fumbles lost for a total of nine turnovers in four games.
The Patriots would go 6-3 the rest of the way to finish the season 9-7, but they lost a three-way tie with the Jets and Dolphins for the AFC East title and a four-way tie for a wild card and missed the playoffs the year after winning the Super Bowl.
Tom Brady avoiding three-game losing streaks
Prior to this year, Brady experienced 13 regular-season losing streaks of two games or more in his NFL career. His record in the games immediately after losing two in a row is 12-1.
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There have been just three seasons in his career where he has had two losing streaks of two or more.
The list of Brady’s wins after losing two in a row, with team results and stat lines in the following game:
- Patriots, 2002: Losses to TEN & NYJ. Next game: Win, 27-24 vs. MIA — 221 YDS, 1 TD, 1 INT
- Patriots, 2006: Losses to NYJ & IND. Next game: Win, 35-0 at GB — 244 YDS, 4 TD, 0 INT
- Patriots, 2009: Losses to NO & MIA. Next game: Win, 20-10 vs. CAR — 192 YDS, 1 TD, 1 INT
- Patriots, 2011: Losses to PIT & NYG. Next game: Win, 37-16 at NYJ — 329 YDS, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Patriots, 2012: Losses to ARI & BAL. Next game: Win, 52-28 at BUF — 340 YDS, 3 TD, 0 INT
- Patriots, 2015: Losses to DEN & PHI. Next game: Win, 27-6 at HOU — 226 YDS, 2 TD, 0 INT
- Patriots, 2015: Losses to NYJ & MIA. Next game: Win, 27-20 vs. KC (AFC divisional round) — 302 YDS, 3 TOTAL TD
- Patriots, 2018: Losses to JAX & DET. Next game: Win, 38-7 vs. MIA — 274 YDS, 3 TD, 2 INT
- Patriots, 2018: Losses to MIA & PIT. Next game: Win, 24-12 vs. BUF — 126 YDS, 1 TD, 2 INT
- Patriots, 2019: Losses to HOU & KC. Next game: Win, 34-13 at CIN — 128 YDS, 2 TD, 0 INT
- Buccaneers, 2020: Losses to LAR & KC. Next game: Win, 26-14 vs. MIN — 196 YDS, 2 TD
- Buccaneers, 2021: Losses to NO & WAS. Next game: Win, 30-10 vs. NYG — 307 YDS, 2 TD, 1 INT
- Buccaneers, 2022: Losses to GB & KC. Next game: Oct. 10 vs. ATL
It’s also worth noting that after Brady lost consecutive games with the Patriots in 2018, he led the team to five consecutive wins that went through the playoffs to a Super Bowl championship.
He did the same thing in 2020 with the Buccaneers, leading Tampa Bay on an eight-game winning streak through the playoffs to another Super Bowl title.
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