Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady saw one of his most impressive streaks as an NFL quarterback come to an end with a loss to the Falcons on Sunday. For the first time in his 23-year professional career, the seven-time Super Bowl champion finished a regular season with a losing record.
Brady started Tampa Bay’s regular-season finale in Atlanta on Sunday and was pulled in the second quarter with the game tied 10–10 to prevent injury before the playoffs. Backup Blaine Gabbert relieved him and was unable to keep the Bucs in the game, as the Falcons pulled away to win, 30–17.
Though Brady was on the bench for the majority of the game, the loss still gets attached to his record as the starting quarterback, and with the Buccaneers’ finishing 8–9, his remarkable 22-year run of winning seasons has ended.
The 2022 campaign has been a difficult one for Brady and the Bucs, even though the team managed to win the middling NFC South. Earlier in the year, when Tampa dropped to 3–5, Brady reached another unfortunate milestone as it marked the first time a Brady-led team had ever dropped two games below .500 in the quarterback’s 23-year NFL career.
Nevertheless, the Buccaneers stayed the course and managed to win the necessary games to make the playoffs at 8–9. Brady even managed to cancel out Sunday’s negative milestone by eclipsing his own record for most completions and Matthew Stafford’s record for most passing attempts in a season after going 13-of-17 passing against the Falcons.
Though someone inevitably will inform Brady of his winning-season streak coming to an end, the 45-year-old quarterback surely already will have his sights set on making some noise in the playoffs. The Buccaneers are the No. 4 seed in the NFC and will host a postseason game during wild-card weekend.
