Chattanooga Times Free Press

Those guys are good

Bucs’ Brady, Gronk are trouble for Falcons again

ATLANTA — Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski teamed up for more history Sunday.

Rarely have two guys had such a connection.

Brady threw for 368 yards and four touchdowns — two of them to his longtime favorite target — and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved to the brink of clinching the NFC South title with a 30-17 division victory over the Atlanta Falcons.

The 44-year-old Brady was 38-of51 passing, including touchdowns of 27 and 11 yards to Gronkowski. Those were their first connections for scores since the Bucs beat the Falcons 48-25 on Sept. 19 in Tampa Bay, but they added to a long list of Brady-to-Gronkowski touchdowns that includes their time with the New England Patriots.

The prolific pair have combined for 90 regular-season touchdowns, passing San Diego Chargers greats Phillip Rivers and Antonio Gates for No. 2 in NFL history. Only Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison had more, hooking up for 112 with the Indianapolis Colts. Counting the playoffs, Brady has thrown 104 touchdown passes to Gronk, the 6-foot-6, 265-pound tight end who came out of a brief retirement to join him with the Bucs last year.

“Tom knows what he’s thinking before he does,” coach Bruce Arians said of Gronkowski. “Tom threw a couple of balls before Gronk was ready, because he knew where he was going. There’s great chemistry out there.”

Gronkowski missed four games this season after a devastating hit in a game against the Los Angeles Rams left him with fractured ribs and a punctured lung, but he’s going to keep catching passes from Brady as long as he can.

“We keep each other going,” Gronkowski said.

Added Brady: “He makes it easy for the quarterback.”

Brady shook off a huge blunder in the final minute of the first half, when 278-pound defensive lineman Marlon Davidson picked off a screen pass and glided 3 yards into the end zone for a touchdown that cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 20-17 at the break.

The Bucs (9-3) — seeking to repeat as Super Bowl champions — won their third straight game and pushed their division lead to four games over the Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints (all 5-7) with five games remaining in the regular season.

Brady improved to 10-0 in his career against the Falcons, including four straight wins since moving from New England to Tampa Bay ahead of the 2020 season.

“He’s just been on a better team for a long time,” Arians said bluntly.

The Bucs came out throwing. For the first time since 2004, they passed the ball on their first 13 plays of a game, accounting for the entire 75-yard touchdown drive on their opening possession. Chris Godwin had five catches on the opening drive and finished the game with a franchise-record 15 receptions for 143 yards.

Leonard Fournette capped the first drive with a 3-yard touchdown catch, making a slick, one-handed grab. Tampa Bay’s second possession also ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass, this one hauled in by Cameron Brate.

The Falcons scored their only offensive touchdown on their opening possession, doing most of their damage on the ground. Cordarrelle Patterson broke off a 39-yard scamper before Mike Davis ran for a 17-yard score.

Patterson finished with 78 of Atlanta’s 121 rushing yards in the game. The Falcons are 0-7 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium since Nov. 29, 2020, and they have been outscored 140-66 while losing all five of their home games in their first under coach Arthur Smith.

Trailing 13-7, Atlanta squandered a chance to pull ahead after having first-and-goal from inside the 1. Matt Ryan lost a couple of yards falling on a bobbled snap, sandwiched around a pair of incompletions that forced the Falcons to settle for Younghoe Koo’s 21-yard field goal.

“We’ve got to be cleaner with the football, there’s no doubt about that,” Smith said. “Deflate is not a word we use. We’re going to keep fighting and swinging. Call it damaging, call it deflating, but we don’t use those words. We’ll continue to swing and fight and we’ll fight till the finish.”

Brady’s first touchdown to Gronkowski had the Bucs on the verge of a blowout, but Tampa Bay got greedy near the end of the half, sending the Falcons to their locker room on quite a high after Davidson’s pick-6. It didn’t carry over.

“We had spurts, you know?” Ryan said. “But the consistency wasn’t there. I think there was better consistency there early. We have to find a way to keep drives going and then finish drives when we get our chances. You can’t give them anything.”

Ryan was sacked five times and called for intentional grounding, and Russell Gage lost a fumble in Tampa Bay territory when it looked as if the Falcons might be driving for a go-ahead score in the third quarter.

“When you’re playing against a really good football team … you know you have to come away with touchdowns,” Ryan said. “That was disappointing for sure.”

He was pressured all day, getting hit 11 times in all. The Falcons, meanwhile, hit Brady only once.

“The sacks are going to hurt you when you read a stat like that,” Smith said. “They did a nice job. They kept Brady clean. Obviously it’s everybody’s intention to get after the quarterback. They have got good players up front. We’ll look at it and see what we can tweak here, but that’s usually a pretty good tell of how it went.”

The Falcons continue division play next Sunday by visiting the Panthers in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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2021-12-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-12-06T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.timesfreepress.com/article/282153589569303

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