Tom Brady didn’t face the 49ers often during his 23-year career. His teams squared off against his hometown team just five times, and going into this year he’d mostly had success against them. Then Brock Purdy came along and made the 49ers one of just three teams to finish with a positive point differential against Brady.
Prior to this year, Brady’s teams had seen the 49ers four times. He missed the 2008 meeting because of his torn ACL, but he won two of the other three in mostly convincing fashion – 21-7 in 2005 and 30-17 in the 2016 season. Sandwiched in between there was a 41-34 victory for the 49ers in 2012 when Colin Kaepernick went to Foxboro in December and out-dueled the future Hall of Famer.
Brady going into what would be his final season was on track to have a negative point differential against two teams – the Saints and Chiefs. He was minus-20 vs. the Chiefs and didn’t face them this year. Then he was minus-42 vs. the Saints and it wasn’t likely he’d beat them by more than 42 in their two matchups this year.
Tom Brady's career point differential per opp:
NOR -31
KAN -20
SFO -8
NWE 2
SEA 7
ARI 12
LAC 37
PHI 48
BAL 51
NYG 54
LAR 55
GNB 56
DET 60
DEN 67
CLE 70
LVR 72
JAX 75
TEN 81
TAM 81
WAS 82
DAL 83
HOU 85
MIN 90
PIT 97
CAR 100
CHI 105
ATL 106
CIN 114
IND 131
MIA 333
NYJ 390
BUF 472— Jeff Asher (@Crimealytics) February 1, 2023
Against the 49ers Brady was a plus-20, and that plus point-differential looked safe when seventh-round rookie QB Brock Purdy took over as the 49ers’ starting QB the week Brady’s Bucs visited Levi’s Stadium.
The beatdown that took place in Purdy’s first start – a 35-7 49ers victory – was enough to catapult the 49ers into the plus against Brady. The 28-point win pushed Brady’s plus-20 against the 49ers to a minus-8. It was also one of the worst defeats of Brady’s career.
Not only did the 49ers survive Tom Brady’s reign with a 2-2 record against him, but they ultimately wound up outscoring him. It’s a small sample size, but impressive nevertheless.
