Tom Brady has rewritten one record in his first season in Tampa.
Brady's second touchdown pass of Saturday's 47-7 win against the Detroit Lions was his 34th of the season and a record-breaking score, . Brady surpassed former No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston's record of 33 passing touchdowns set last season. Brady unsurprisingly one-upped the man he replaced when he connected with Mike Evans on a 27-yard score.
Brady's own single-season high is 50 touchdowns, which he certainly won't reach before the end of the campaign, but his record-breaking Saturday is just another example of the impact of Brady's high expectations on a franchise that hasn't enjoyed success in over a decade. His presence has helped elevate the play of Evans, too, who set his own single-season receiving touchdown high of 13, .
Brady reached halftime with a stat line of 22-of-27 passing for 348 yards, four touchdowns, and a perfect passer rating. Brady was incredibly sharp on deep passes, too, completing 5 of 7 attempts of 20-plus air yards for 162 yards and two touchdowns, per Next Gen Stats, making his first-half pass chart look more like the beginning stages of a Home Run Derby spray chart:
Brady's first half performance was just the second instance (since at least 1991) of a player reaching halftime with 340-plus passing yards, four-plus passing touchdowns and zero interceptions. Brady is in a group of one, as he's also the player who did so in the first half of a 59-0 win over the Tennessee Titans back in 2009.
That was enough for Brady to take up a cozy metal seat on the sideline for the second half. Blaine Gabbert replaced him to start the third quarter.
Brady made more history Saturday by simply suiting up. The quarterback , joining the rare company of Pro Football Hall of Famers George Blanda, Brett Favre and Jerry Rice.
Brady can pass Rice and Favre on the all-time list by playing just a quarter of the 2021 regular season, but he's still far from the incredible 340 regular-season games played by Blanda, who retired at 32 years old before returning to play through his age-48 season.
Brady has said he wanted to play to 45, getting within striking range of Blanda, who set that career games played mark before the ¹ú²úÍâÁ÷Íøexpanded the regular-season schedule to 16 games. At 43, Brady is showing few signs of slowing, leading the Buccaneers into prime playoff position and making his impact on a record book yet again.
