LA Rams pass rush could terrorize Tom Brady in Divisional Round

Can it be as simple as sacking Tom Brady?

Now here come the LA Rams, all 52 quarterback sacks of them. And you can bet that they would love to make personal and direct introductions to Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. Hopefully to the tune of 3+ quarterback sacks, to be perfectly honest. Why?

We have the New Orleans Saints to thank for that magic number. Whenever the Saints have faced Brady with the Bucs, they have mastered him by generating a very active and harassing pass rush.  In their lone loss to Brady in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs, they were only able to get to him once. In four regular-season games: Two before and two after that contest, the Saints have not lost to the Buccaneers. And in each of those games, their defense was able to generate three or more quarterback sacks on Brady.

When the Buccaneers played against Brady and the Buccaneers earlier in 2021, the LA Rams got to Brady… wait for it… three times. The LA Rams won that game by a score of 34 to 24. When the Rams faced Brady in 2020, they were only able to get to him one time. But two Jordan Fuller interceptions sealed the victory.

Brady bends under pressure

That intrigued me. So I went back and examined the statistics of each Tom Brady game over the past two years and focused on the number of times he was sacked during the game. Here is what I learned

2020
0 sacks     5 times   5-0
1 sack        8 times  6-2 *
2 sacks      2 times  2-0
3+ sacks    5 times  2-3 **
*includes 3 playoff games – all wins
**includes 1 playoff game – a win

2021
0 sacks     7 times   6-1
1 sack        3 times  3-0
2 sacks      3 times  3-0
3+ sacks    5 times  2-3 *
*includes 4 sacks to Eagles in Wildcard Round

So it appears that one way to rattle the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is to rattle the passing rhythm of quarterback Tom Brady. Now the question is, can the LA Rams do it?