Giants Week 8 Opponent Preview | Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Giants will face Tom Brady in his 21st NFL season and first as a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Can Joe Judge lead a winning effort against an old ally?

Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady's legacy will always be marred by the Giants thanks to two Super Bowl losses to New York. However, when it's come to the regular season, Brady has typically held the upper hand.

Brady has posted a 4-1 regular-season record against the Giants, all of those with the New England Patriots, and his most recent win over New York coming last season in a 35-14 thumping in Foxboro

.But now the future Hall of Fame quarterback has taken his talents south to Tampa Bay, where, in his 21st year in the league, he will be pursuing his seventh ring and first without Bill Belichick as his head coach in a Week 8 meeting on Monday Night Football.

Brady's arrival in Tampa Bay has pretty much rejuvenated a franchise that last year finished with a 7-9 record and third place in the NFC South.

Suddenly the Bucs, who by the way are now early favorites to win the NFC, have morphed from a team that's struggled to find its way into a potential contender.

However, football is a team sport that was evident last year when Brady couldn't overcome the lack of quality receivers. He finished 2019 with a pedestrian 88.0 NFL rating, his lowest rating in a 16-game season since 2002 (85.7).

And his 24 touchdowns were one better than his career-low in a 16-game season of 23, set in 2003.

The good news for Brady and the Bucs is they have a better crop of receivers than what Brady had last year in New England, starting with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin as the perimeter guys.

Toss in tight ends Rob Gronkowski and O.J. Howard, and it's little wonder that the Bucs and Brady, in particular, seem rejuvenated about the coming season.

By The Numbers

• Giants lead all-time series 16-7
• Giants lead all-time postseason series 1-0
• Since 2000 Giants lead series 7-2
• First Meeting: November 13, 1977, Giants 10 at Buccaneers 0
• Last Meeting: September 22, 2019, Giants 32 at Buccaneers 31
• Largest Giants margin of victory: September 27, 2009, Giants 24 @ Buccaneers 0
• Largest Buccaneers margin of victory: November 18, 1979, Giants 3 @ Buccaneers 31

Key Matchup: Bucs Tight Ends vs. Giants Back Seven

Rob Gronkowski has only faced the Giants twice in the regular season, but he's caught 13 of 22 pass targets for 114 yards and two touchdowns.

O.J. Howard, meanwhile, has faced the Giants three times in the regular season, catching 10 of 14 pass targets for 207 yards and one touchdown.

The common thread? Both are tight ends, the position that has embarrassed the Giants defense in their attempts to cover the position over the years.

Recognizing that they had a significant deficiency in covering tight ends--last year the Giants allowed opposing tight ends to catch 74 of 118 pass targets for 825 yards and eight touchdowns--the Giants added some more speed to their defense by drafting four linebackers in addition to signing free agents Kyler Fackrell and Blake Martinez.

The key to shutting down the tight ends might lie with the safeties, Jabrill Peppers and Xavier McKinney. The Giants are believed to have the personnel to run a three-high safety set, a formation that served them well in guarding the middle of the field the last time they successfully ran it in 2011.

The Giants can undoubtedly help themselves if they take a page out of the playbook of the 2007 and 2011 Super Bowl championship teams. In those games, the defense made life unbearable for Brady by getting after him.

By disrupting his timing the way they did, the Giants pass rush proved to be Brady's undoing to where it didn't matter to whom he was throwing.