Getty Tom Brady could face his old team again come February.
With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning again and the New England Patriots red-hot, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick could meet again.
The Bucs and Patriots own the third- and fourth-best odds respectively of winning the Super Bowl according to FiveThirtyEight on Dec. 3. With the Patriots being the highest of any AFC team, that easily makes a Bucs-Patriots one of the most likely matchups.
Writing for the New York Times, columnist Mike Tanier strongly claims the average football fan won’t like a Bucs-Patriots rematch. Tanier likened the potential pregame hype to being like “a neighborhood full of leaf blowers” though Brady vs. Belichick part two “objectively” should captivate fans.
Will the Patriots and Bucs meet in the Super Bowl this season? 👀
Many others, such as the TV networks, don’t share Tanier’s sentiment outside of Tampa Bay and New England. Former Fox Sports executive Patrick Crakes called it “the dream Super Bowl” according to Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg.
“You could see it get to 110 million viewers,” Crakes told Yahoo! Sports, “but we’d need an all-time classic.”
Bucs, Patriots Drew Big Ratings in Week 4
Brady’s return to New England in Week 4 on Oct. 3 drew 28.5 million views, the second-highest ever for a ‘Sunday Night Football’ game ever according to Deadline.com. The Bucs held off the Patriots 19-17 Brady mustered 269 yards passing and no touchdowns against his former head coach’s defense.
Joey Knight of the Tampa Bay Times likened a rematch to an epic movie sequel such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens — whether or not Belichick dons his famed hoodie look on the sideline. It’s not a set script, and a lot has to happen for the Bucs and Patriots to meet again near Hollywood in Super Bowl LVI as Knight noted.
The Bucs own the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoffs at the moment, which means at least a trip to No. 2 seed Green Bay, Knight wrote. New England has the No. 2 seed in the AFC, but has a tough schedule remaining.
Bruce Arians: ‘January Won’t Happen if We Don’t Take Care of Business’
Don’t bother telling Bucs head coach Bruce Arians about any collision course for the Bucs and Patriots.
“January won’t happen if we don’t take care of business now,” Arians told the media on Friday, Dec. 3. “You can’t worry about January now. You’ve got to get to January. Like last year – we go to Green Bay, we don’t have Antonio (Brown), we don’t have Antoine (Winfield). Guys stepped in and stepped up. You can’t worry about that. You’ve got to win now to make sure you’re in January.”
The Bucs face Atlanta on Sunday, Dec. 3 before a final stretch of the season that includes a tough Buffalo team, Carolina twice, New Orleans, and the New York Jets. Arians expects the rematch with Atlanta to be more challenging than the first.
“A couple fluky plays there at the end really — that was a 28-25 game in the fourth quarter (before) a couple fluky plays that we make to spread it out a little bit. They’ve grown so much since then. Hopefully we have, too,” Arians said.
Similarly for the Patriots, Belichick has his team focused on the next game against Buffalo on Monday, Dec. 6 — regardless of the weather in the northeast or any other distraction.
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Potential Bucs-Patriots Super Bowl Elicits Strong, Mixed Reactions