Vikings, Giants and more NFL Week 14 picks | Lorenzo’s Locks
Lorenzo Reyes is back with his picks for NFL Week 14. Find out which matchups he loves, and which ones he’s fading.
Lorenzo’s Locks
Tom Brady has had quite the love/hate relationship with the San Francisco 49ers.
While growing up in the Bay Area, Brady was a fixture in the stands for 49ers games at Candlestick Park, a witness to a glorious run of success during the 1980s and 1990s. And the kid who ultimately became the most prolific Super Bowl winner in NFL history couldn’t get enough of Niners quarterbacks Joe Montana and Steve Young.
“Going to 49er games, that’s where I feel in love with football,” Brady reflected to reporters this week. “We’d sit up there in the nosebleeds. We had four tickets – my mom and dad would go; I would usually go and then one of my sisters would go. I was lucky to grow up in the Bay Area and that time. It was just a great time. There were so many great players. It was a great era of football and I loved the 49ers.”
It’s an appropriate time for a walk down memory lane as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers icon – whose parents still live in the house where he and his three sisters were raised in San Mateo – makes the trip home to face the 49ers on Sunday in Santa Clara, California.
He pointed out how he loved the 49ers through his college years at the University of Michigan before the script flipped. Like 29 other NFL teams, the 49ers passed on multiple chances in 2000 to draft Brady, who wasn’t picked until the New England Patriots chose him in the sixth round, 199th overall.
“When they skipped over me six times, I started hating the 49ers,” Brady added, “and that’s just the way it went down.”
Now, 23 years into his illustrious career, Brady is poised to play as a pro in the Bay Area for just the second time. It’s weird-amazing that for as long as he’s been in the NFL, the league’s scheduling formula did not produce more homecoming games. Largely, the reason is that Brady played in the AFC for so many years. Until an extra non-conference matchup was added last year with the advent of a 17-game schedule, intra-conference rivals rotated to meet once every four years, with alternating venues dictating that teams would play at some sites just once every eight years.
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So, Brady never played at Candlestick. And after Brady suffered a torn ACL in the season opener in 2008, wiping out the rest of his season, he missed the Patriots game at Santa Clara that year.
The one game Brady played in the Bay Area against the 49ers came in November 2016, when the Patriots drubbed San Francisco, 30-17, in the rain.
“I had a lot of friends and family in the crowd,” Brady recalled. “I ran out for pregame warmup and I remember (then-49ers coach) Chip Kelly coming over and he was like, ‘Damn, it’s a home game for you.’ And it really was.”
Well, there might have been other opportunities for Brady to play “home games” at Santa Clara in recent years, but similar to the 2000 draft, the 49ers apparently passed. When Brady left the Patriots as a free agent in 2020, the 49ers – with Brady’s former backup, Jimmy Garoppolo, in tow – were apparently on his short list and the 49ers considered pursuing the quarterback before he landed in Tampa.
In retrospect, and with the injury prone Garoppolo out with another setback after suffering a fractured foot last weekend, the 49ers can be second-guessed for not signing up Brady for the chance for the icon to finish his career for the hometown team he loved.
Brady isn’t as prolific and consistent as he was during his best years, but he guided the Bucs to a Super Bowl crown in his first season after leaving New England. And as demonstrated during a stirring comeback win against the New Orleans Saints on Monday night – the largest regular season fourth-quarter comeback of Brady’s career as the Bucs rallied from a 13-point deficit in the final 5 minutes – Brady still can’t be counted out in the clutch.
“Tom, he played the position better than anyone ever and he’s definitely the GOAT from what I’ve seen, but I don’t say that just because he has won (seven) Super Bowls,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters. “I say it because of how he plays the position. The ball always goes to the right spot and that answer is based off of a thousand different things that could be matchups, it could be the coverage that could be based off of down and distance, the time in the game, how the defense is playing.
“If you just watch him throughout his whole life and you see him make a decision and you see him make a different decision in the second quarter, he just has command of the game and knows how to win it and what it takes, whatever that is.”
It’s a tall order for Brady on Sunday to try beating the NFL’s best defense – and a unit that has allowed just seven points total in the second halves of its past five games – as the 49ers (8-4) need to win to stay ahead of the Seattle Seahawks atop the NFC West. The Bucs (6-6) have struggled on offense all season and at times it has been painful to watch Brady when comparing his play to previous versions of himself. Sure, injuries have wreaked havoc on the consistency, but Brady has struggled to connect on the deep passes, which was such a threat during his first two seasons as a Buc.
Brady again leads the NFL in attempts (524) and completions (347), while ranking fifth in passing yards (3,332). He’s also minimized mistakes, throwing just three interceptions and tying for the league lead with a 0.6% interception rate. But the impact has waned. Brady ranks just 16th for passer rating (91.6). And after leading the NFL with 43 scoring passes as he threw for 5,316 yards in 2021, Brady has thrown just 16 TD passes on the season. No, it doesn’t help that he is flanked by a rushing attack that ranks dead-last in the NFL.
Still, with the switch flicked on for the huge comeback against the Saints, the Bucs headed to California with a boost of confidence that they could perhaps launch themselves with momentum that might extend for the stretch run and playoffs.
Remember, in 2020, the Bucs were 7-5 in early December. They cleaned up inconsistences and found a rhythm that took them to a Super Bowl crown. It’s a bit much to expect a repeat, albeit not impossible. The roll in 2020 included a stretch of dominating defense. These Bucs have shown as much prowess on defense.
In any event, a measuring stick awaits for Brady and his struggling unit. There’s been much buzz about the possibility of using the hurry-up offense extensively, given the effectiveness in crunch time on Monday night when Brady called plays at the line of scrimmage.
“It’s a great tool,” Brady said. “I’ve done it quite a bit over my career. Everyone likes to do it when it works and sometimes we’ve tried it and it hasn’t worked.”
Could they tire out the fast, complete 49ers defense by using the no-huddle for the entire game?
“I think that’s tough for a number of reasons,” Brady said. “It’s like, blitzing’s good, but should you blitz every play?”
The intriguing subplot to the matchup revolves around the “other” quarterback on the field with Brady. Rookie Brock Purdy, who opened the season as the third-string quarterback, will make his first NFL start.
Someone mentioned to Purdy that Brady has never lost when the opposing quarterback made his first start.
“I don’t like to overthink things,” Purdy replied. “I’m just trying to keep it simple.”
Brady could probably relate to the kid to some degree. The task on the field is challenging enough without the extra layers of buzz.
Save the sentimental stuff. At least that’s how he’s spinning it.“Well, I’m not a 49er fan anymore,” he said. “Yeah, that’s long gone. I put those emotions away, too.”
