In a career that began pre-iPhone, future Hall of Famer Tom Brady has pummeled the Bears like no other opposing quarterback.
Brady went into the Bears-Buccaneers game Thursday night with a 5-0 record, 109.2 passer rating and 175-104 scoring margin over the Bears for his career. All of those games were when he played for the Patriots, the team he left after 20 seasons to play for the Bucs.
No quarterback with at least five games against the Bears in the modern era has a higher passer rating against them than Brady, and the only teams he has lit up more than the Bears are the Falcons (116.7 rating) and Steelers (111.1). He had 14 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 70.4 completion percentage going into Thursday.
Brady first beat the Bears as a 25-year-old in 2002, when he threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to David Patten with 21 seconds left to escape 33-30 at University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium. In another game, this time in 2014 in Foxboro, Mass., he dropped five touchdown passes (four in the first half) on the Bears in a 51-23 romp.
In the other three games, Brady toppled each of the Bears’ playoff teams since 2005. Their ’06 Super Bowl team lost just three games, and one was a 17-13 defeat at New England. He also beat their team that reached the NFC title game in 2010 (36-7) and the 2018 NFC North champions (38-31) in Matt Nagy’s first season.
The rest of the NFC North is a combined 4-12 against Brady. He has torched the Vikings for a 5-0 record with a 108 passer rating; gone 3-2 against the Packers with a 93 rating; and 4-2 against the Lions with a 93.5 rating. The Bucs play everyone in the division this season.
Brady has played 41 career playoff games, compared to 36 for the Bears in their 100-year history.
