Can Packers’ Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine Finally Get The Best Of Tom Brady?
Rob Reischel
Mike Pettine is certainly not alone.
Pettine, the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator, has held that same position with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills.
In that time, Pettine’s defenses have run into quarterback Tom Brady 13 times. Like most of his peers, Pettine has had very few answers for Brady — who’s widely considered the greatest quarterback to ever play.
In their 13 encounters, Brady is 10-3 against Pettine and has won last eight meetings. Pettine’s last win over Brady came on Jan. 16, 2011 — more than a decade ago — in the AFC Divisional Playoffs.
Brady has thrown 24 touchdowns against Pettine’s defenses, seven interceptions and his teams have averaged 30.1 points per game.
Pettine and the Packers will hope for better results on Sunday when Green Bay hosts Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game.
“It’s as big a challenge as you’ll face as a coordinator, as a defensive staff,” Pettine said Thursday. “He doesn’t miss anything, and that’s the thing. If you have an area of weakness, whether it was in New England or now at Tampa Bay, they will exploit it and continue to exploit it until you make a correction and force them out of it. So it’s a huge challenge.
“It’s pretty clear and obvious he’s going to go down as one of the best of all time, and it’s, for me, I just love it because it’s a great challenge for our guys. That, ‘Hey, to go to the Super Bowl, we have to beat Tom Brady.’ I think our guys are excited for the challenge, but we’ve made sure we’ve stressed it all week, knowing what they’re in for.”
Brady spent the first 20 years of his Hall of Fame career in New England, and 12 of his meetings against Pettine came when he was a Patriot. The 13th came in Oct., 2020, when Brady and the Buccaneers routed Green Bay, 38-10.
Pettine was the Jets’ defensive coordinator from 2009-12 and faced Brady nine times there, including once in the playoffs. Pettine collided with Brady twice in 2013 when he was Buffalo’s defensive coordinator, then squared off with him in both 2018 and 2020 while in Green Bay.
Pettine had a top-10 defense all four years he was with the Jets, his one year in Buffalo and this season in Green Bay. Still, Brady has gotten the better of Pettine’s groups time and time again.
“You don’t let it consume you,” Pettine said. “This isn’t, I mean, the scheme is important, but the National Football League is still a players’ league, and that’s why just the emphasis on putting our guys in the best position to succeed, the best position to take away what they do, and go out and execute.
“We’ve played some good defense this year, and that’s gotten us here, and there’s no sense straying away from that. We’re re going to be who we are. We’re going to throw our fastball. But our guys understand that we have to, we’re not going to fool him, but at the same time, we can out-execute him.”
In 2009-10, Pettine’s defenses with the Jets held their own, and New York went 3-2 against Brady’s Patriots. In 2010, the Jets went 2-1 against Brady, including a win in the postseason.
Brady threw nine touchdowns, four interceptions and had an 89.2 quarterback rating in those five games. The Patriots also averaged just 24.0 points per game in those contests.
Brady has won eight straight, though, against Pettine. In those meetings, he’s thrown 15 touchdown passes, three interceptions and has a 99.5 passer rating.
Brady’s teams have also averaged 33.9 points against Pettine’s defenses in their last eight meetings.
“He’s seen everything. He’s been in the league for so long that he’s seen everything,” Packers safety Adrian Amos said of Brady. “He’s been in all these situations. So, it’s just a guy that you know is going to be calm and you know is going to have answers for the majority of stuff you want to do. So we have to be assigned to our details and not make it easy to him.”
What must be leading to sleepless nights for Green Bay’s defensive staff is that Brady is also the most accomplished postseason performer in NFL history.
Brady has a 32-11 record in the playoffs, a remarkable winning percentage of .744. Joe Montana ranks second in playoff wins among quarterbacks with 16, exactly half of Brady’s total.
Brady is getting set to play in his 14th conference title game. Montana again ranks second with seven.
Brady has played in nine Super Bowls, easily outdistancing runner-up John Elway (five). Brady has won six Super Bowls, well ahead of runners-up Terry Bradshaw and Montana (four).
And Brady has engineered 13 postseason game-winning drives. Amazingly, only six other quarterbacks have that many playoff wins.
“He’s seen it all, done it all, been in every situation,” Packers nose tackle Kenny Clark said of Brady. “We’ve got to just cause havoc inside and outside and get him off his spot and when we get a chance to hit him, hit him and do our job.”
The good news for Green Bay’s defense is they’ve done their job extremely well down the stretch.
Over the last six games, Green Bay is allowing just 17.3 points per game. In that time, the Packers have as many interceptions (four) as touchdown passes allowed, and opposing quarterbacks have a combined passer rating of just 78.0.
But Green Bay did much of that damage against quarterbacks like Mitch Trubisky, Teddy Bridgewater and an injured Jared Goff. The Packers know
things will be far most difficult when the GOAT comes to Lambeau Field Sunday.
“That’s everything you dream of playing here at Lambeau, having thousands of fans there cheering you on, trying to get to the Super Bowl and the guy you’ve got to beat is Tom Brady,” Clark said. “That’s everything you dream about.”
Unless Brady makes it a nightmare.
Green Bay Packers' defensive coordinator Mike Pettine has lost his last eight matchups against quarterback Tom Brady.
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