Without making the playoffs this year, the Buffalo Bills would extend their league leading playoff drought to 18 seasons. The last time they made the playoffs was in 2000, one year before Tom Brady took over as the New England Patriots starting quarterback.
Since Brady took over as the quarterback for the Patriots, they have made the playoffs in all but two seasons. That’s a total of 14 playoff appearances for Brady, in which he’s played 34 games, winning 25 of them, five of which were Super Bowl’s. Since the NFL and AFL merger, the Bills have only made the playoffs 14 times total. They’ve played in 29 playoff games, winning 14 of them, and appeared in four Super Bowl’s, losing all four.
Tom Brady Dominating the Buffalo Bills
To put Brady’s domination into perspective, he has made the playoffs as many times in his career as the Bills have as a franchise and won more playoff games than they have in their history. He’s won more Super Bowl’s than the Bills have played in.
Brady has started against the Bills in 29 games and he has an astounding 26-3 record in those games. Through those 29 games he has 66 passing touchdowns and two rushing. Brady has more passing touchdowns against the Bills in 29 games than Tyrod Taylor has total touchdowns (63) starting for the Bills.
Brady also has more wins against the Bills than Taylor’s 20 total wins starting for the Bills. As a quick side note, Taylor has started 39 games for the Bills, 10 more than Brady has played against the Bills.
Take the domination a step past Taylor. Brady has more touchdowns against the Bills than any of their previous 16 starting quarterbacks have thrown for the Bills with the exception of Ryan Fitzpatrick. The number 16 is significant because that’s the amount of starting quarterback’s the Bills have had since their drought started. He has more passing yards against the Bills than all of those quarterbacks have for the Bills aside from Fitzpatrick and Taylor.
In Brady’s 29 games against the Bills, he has thrown enough passing touchdowns to be fifth on the Bills all-time passing list. If you take out Jim Kelly, it takes the next six leading passers for the Bills to combine for as many touchdowns as Brady has in his career. That’s having combined to play 186 more games than Tom Brady has played in his career. Brady hasn’t had a season with a losing record in his career. In that time span, Buffalo has only had a winning record four times.
Brady has swept the Bills in 11 of his 14 seasons playing them. That’s almost as if the Bills are starting with an automatic 0-2 record every year that Tom Brady is playing. Since 2007, only 10% of teams that have started 0-2 have made the playoffs.
With a win on Sunday, Brady would break yet another record. He would have the most wins versus a single opponent in history with 27 against the Bills.
Here in Buffalo, the day Brady retires is anxiously and avidly awaited. What was once a putrid hatred of number 12 has slowly started to turn into an irrefutable amount of respect for quite possibly the greatest football player to ever step on the field.
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