Patriots: Tom Brady opens up on postseason differences between Tampa Bay and NE

In his latest presser, Tom Brady compared playing in the playoffs with the Bucs and the Patriots.

As if watching the New England Patriots stumble to their worst season in 20 years wasn’t already miserable enough, fans also had to watch Tom Brady light it up in his first year with Tampa Bay, with whom he signed a two-year, $50 million contract in the offseason.

After a sluggish start, Brady helped lead Tampa Bay to an 11-5 regular season record. That fact that they were only rewarded with a wild card berth might seem harsh, but that’s simply the consequence of playing in the same division as an annual championship contender like the Saints.

If nothing else, the Foxborough faithful can at least be intrigued to see how Brady fares in his first playoff run without his former franchise. In his latest media session, the 43-year-old gunslinger was asked if he feels any different preparing for a postseason affair with the Bucs than he did with the Patriots and his answer was surprisingly insightful.

"“I think over the year you have to deal with a lot of different things that have kind of come up with me being in different place,” Brady told reporters. “Today, for example, it was 60-plus degrees at practice for a playoff game, so I haven’t had too many of those, even in 20 years. I just think it’s a different newness, but still the same excitement to be ready to go out there, take a bunch of teammates, and going on the road in the playoffs is a tough thing to do.”“We’re a team that has made a bunch of improvements over the course of the year and we have to be at our best. That is what this part of the season is all about. Regular season is what it is, you realize you put it in books, but we’re here to win playoff games.”"

Perhaps the most telling note from Brady’s response, at least in our eyes, was his comment about playing on the road in the playoffs. Since the Bucs failed to win the NFC South, they have to travel to Washington for a tough game against one of the league’s best defensive fronts. While his overall postseason record of 28-10 speaks for itself, it is worth noting that he’s stumbled to a 4-4 mark on the road in such games.

And, in all his years, he’s never entered the playoffs quite like this.

In those eight contests, Brady has completed just 58% of his passes for 264.7 yards per game and nine touchdowns compared to 10 interceptions. For those wondering, that completion percentage is way off the pace of his career average (64.0%) and he threw for less than two touchdowns in six of them.

Taking those numbers into account, you can’t sit there and tell us that Patriots fans aren’t excited to watch the organization’s greatest ever player go to work in the playoffs in a road atmosphere –albeit, one without a packed stadium — that has largely gotten the better of him over his prestigious career.

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