Why it's great to watch the newest era of Brady dominance
Matt Harmon and Liz Loza attempt to explain Tom Brady's enduring brilliance after a walk-off OT win over the Bills.
Hear the full conversation on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Forecast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
LIZ LOZA: Another overtime game, the Buccaneers and the Bills. We talked about Tom Brady throwing an absolutely gorgeous pass to the unexpected Breshad Perriman to win this game in an extra quarter. But who do you want to talk about first? Should we talk about Tom Brady then because--
MATT HARMON: I think we should talk about Perriman some more.
LIZ LOZA: Tom Brady, 363 passing yards, two touchdowns, 16 rushing yards, and a rushing score as a quarterback sneak. But, like, I-- maybe this is me getting older and being jaded, but I kind of love seeing Tom Brady crush. Like, there is something satisfying the rational mind to see him go out there and just win. It's like-- it's like believing that if you work really hard at something, success can be yours, which, you know, doesn't always ring true.
MATT HARMON: I think I said this last year towards their Super Bowl run but, like, at this point in life if you're, like, out there just hating Tom Brady, you're just wasting energy.
LIZ LOZA: Yeah.
MATT HARMON: Just, who cares?
LIZ LOZA: Like, sit back and applaud it. Enjoy it.
MATT HARMON: Yeah.
LIZ LOZA: Like, we are seeing-- I don't know if I'll ever--
MATT HARMON: You'll never see this again.
LIZ LOZA: --see something this again, yeah.
MATT HARMON: We'll never-- we'll never see anything like this again. I mean, I don't know who's out there still just like, jeez little Tom Brady, I hate to see it. It's like what a waste of emotional energy. It ain't like-- it ain't going anywhere. He looks great. He looks better than ever. This is football. Like, everything changes in this game except Brady.
And I do-- I actually do think the one thing that I've appreciated about Brady the most this year-- and there's a lot of things, right, but the number-one thing I appreciate is that, like, we are talking about-- at least I feel like we're having this kind of leaguewide conversation about, oh, man, like, defenses are now kind of coming into this new era where they're just, like, stopping the vertical passing game. They're allowing you to run on them. This old cover-two-style defense is kind of back.
And I just think it's really cool that, like, Brady has lived through when that era was happening, you know, long, long ago to the era where the Seattle offshoot defenses took over the league and then the big passing boom, and now we're back at this era where, like, him and Leonard Fournette are cooking in, like, an equal sort of partnership in this offense. I mean, Fournette was, you know, huge again today. 47-yard run. He scores a touchdown. 19 carries overall. You know, they ran on the Bills. We thought they would run on the Bills, and that's exactly what happened.
And I just think that's-- that's probably the thing about Brady that I appreciate the most this year is that, like, we're having this conversation about, man, this year of football feels very different than, like, 2020, 2019, and 2018 in terms of, like, how we analyze passing games and passing defenses, and Brady's, like, lived through this before. I don't know. I find that to be-- I find that to be cool.
LIZ LOZA: I also think it's amazing that this isn't the Peyton Manning Super Bowl season, right, where, like, he's clearly a limited player physically but such a surgeon and so cerebral that he can just-- he has the experience necessary to outsmart opposing defenses. He's doing that, and the arm strength is still there. The mobility, which he never really had, is still there. I mean, it's-- or there at the same level as it ever was, I suppose.
Like, I don't know. I think it's absolutely incredible. And I don't-- call it Kool-Aid. Call it avocado tequila. I am drinking all of it up.
MATT HARMON: I would say when you make the analogy to Peyton Manning, like, it's not Peyton Manning's Super Bowl year. It's Peyton Manning the year he went to the Super Bowl with the Broncos, and obviously they got blown out by the Seahawks. But that was his second year with Denver, and, you know, the first year with Denver was great. The second year was even better, and I think this year with Tom Brady and the Bucs is even better despite the fact he's missed Antonio Brown for most of the season.
Like, you know, now he's got a year's worth of chemistry with Mike Evans, a year's worth of chemistry with Chris Godwin. Obviously Gronk has been in and out of the lineup too, and, like, I think these guys are all better than-- even though he's not going to hit probably the statistical accolades of a guy like Peyton Manning in that year they went to the Super Bowl and lost it-- and he already has the Super Bowl in the bag, you know, with his new team. So, like, he's already done the legacy building BS, and now it's just like, oh, it just is more and more. I don't know. It's cool. I love it.
