Saints-Patriots Preview
 

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's streak of 52 consecutive regular-season games with a touchdown pass ended last week. He'll gladly accept another streak coming to an end Sunday.

Brady is 0-3 in his NFL career against Drew Brees, who will play at New England for the first time as a member of the New Orleans Saints.

Brady's only win against Brees came just over 14 years ago when he was a senior at Michigan and Brees was in his junior year at Purdue.

Brees has since topped Brady and the Patriots twice with San Diego and once in New Orleans. Brady, though, is focused more on executing the basics with his struggling offense, which could feature tight end Rob Gronkowski for the first time this season.

Gronkowski has been recovering from offseason surgeries on his broken left forearm and back. He participated in practice on a limited basis Wednesday.

"Our job is to go out there and score, so we're not doing a great job of that," Brady said. "Our execution has to be a lot better, and that's what we're working on. We're trying to improve in all areas. It's frustrating when we don't score, but we're going to try to do better this weekend."

A year after leading the league in scoring and yards per game, the Patriots (4-1) are 24th in points (19.0) and 18th in yards (343.4) after last Sunday's 13-6 loss at Cincinnati.

It was Brady's first regular-season game without a touchdown pass since Jan. 3, 2010, against Houston.

Five games before that, he played Brees and the Saints in New Orleans and also failed to pass for a TD in a 38-17 loss Nov. 30, 2009. Brees threw five touchdown passes in that meeting, the last between the teams.

While Brady has been without Gronkowski, Brees and tight end Jimmy Graham are more in tune than ever for the Saints (5-0).

Graham leads the league with 593 receiving yards and is tied for second with 37 catches and six touchdowns.

"I'm just blessed to be with such a great quarterback and a guy who has so much trust in me," Graham said.

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Re: Saints-Patriots Preview
 

Hopefully our D is somewhat used to covering Jimmy & will have an answer for the headache Gronk can be.

Re: Saints-Patriots Preview
 

pressure containment and sacking Brady is the key. we gotta get in his face up the middle. he is a master in the pocket when avoiding the rush. But he is best stepping up into the pocket and sliding left or right. sound familiar.

Hicks Jenkins and Jordan are the key.

Jenkins must push the pocket in the middle.

Hicks and Jenkins must contain that pocket and watch their lanes

if they do this our out OLB should be able to flush Brady back into the pocket and into their laps.