Tom Brady suffered a frustrating loss in Sunday Night Football to the New Orleans Saints in Week 15 of the 2021 NFL season. Not only was it his fourth consecutive loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' NFC South division rivals, but it also featured a rare scoreline in Tom Brady's career, with his team being shut out.
The Saints defense put in a dominant performance in the 9-0 victory over the Buccaneers. They accomplished a shutout over a team led by Tom Brady for the first time since 2006, and only the third time in his entire career.
The three shutouts of Tom Brady
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Tom Brady turned the ball over twice in the Week 15 loss to the New Orleans Saints, including one interception and one fumble. Since joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Brady has struggled overall against the Saints. He has played them four times in the regular season, and has lost all four of those contests.
The Buccaneers did lose three of their key offensive players to injuries during the game, including Chris Godwin, Mike Evans and Leonard Fournette. This clearly had a severe negative impact on the offense, but there's still no excuse to get shut out. It was one of the weakest performances by any Tom Brady-led team in NFL history.
Also read: What happened to Buccaneers WR Chris Godwin?
The last time Tom Brady was shutout was 15 years ago. All the way back in Week 14 of the 2006 NFL season, Brady's New England Patriots were shut out by the Miami Dolphins. The Patriots lost 21-0 as their offense couldn't get anything going against the Dolphins defense. Brady completed less than 50 percent of his passes for fewer than 100 passing yards in the loss.
The other time Tom Brady was held to a shutout in his career was in Week 1 of the 2003 NFL season against the Buffalo Bills. Brady went on the road to Buffalo and got destroyed. He completed just 50 percent of his passes for 123 passing yards but threw a massive four interceptions. It was one of the worst individual games of his entire career, as the Patriots lost 31-0 to the Bills.
Tom Brady's career in the NFL has spanned more than two decades, and he has played in over 300 games. That means he has only been shut out in less than one percent of the total games he has played in his career. It's a difficult task for an opponent, but apparently not impossible.
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