More often than not, Tom Brady has gotten the better of Titans' DC Dick LeBeau

The numbers aren’t quite as dominant as say, when Tom Brady goes up against Jack Del Rio. But when the New England quarterback meets up with esteemed defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, the stats are certainly in Brady’s favor.

Since Brady arrived in the league in 2000, LeBeau — one of the pioneers of the zone-blitz scheme who is currently the defensive coordinator for Tennessee — has been a defensive coordinator and/or head coach for several teams, including the Bengals, Steelers and Titans. One of the more well-regarded coaches in the business, Bill Belichick had nothing but good things to say about him on a conference call Monday morning.

“He can utilize his personnel and find ways to create matchups and take advantage of — whether it’s by scheme or by player, by individual matchup — to put problems and put pressure on the offense,” Belichick said of LeBeau. “He does an excellent job of that. His play calling is outstanding. He does a great job of keeping teams off-balance and making it difficult to execute offensively against his group.

“You’ve got to work for everything,” Belichick added. “It’s hard to gain many yards against them. You have to run a lot of plays together, and they’re good at preventing that because they just don’t allow you to get into a good rhythm or get into consistency. And again, it’s hard to move the ball with big plays. They just don’t allow many of them. He does a tremendous job.”

However, more often than not, Brady has had the answer. Overall, the Patriots quarterback has faced a LeBeau-led defense eight times over the course of his career, and is 6-2 lifetime (5-2 against Pittsburgh, 1-0 against Tennessee)

vs. Pittsburgh
10/31/04: 25-for-43 for 271 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions (34-20 loss)
1/23/05: 14-for-21 for 207 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions (41-27 win)
9/25/05: 31-for-41 for 372 yards with no touchdowns, and one interception (23-20 win)
12/9/07: 32-for-46 for 399 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions (34-13 win)
11/14/10: 30-for-43 for 350 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions (39-26 win)
10/30/11: 24-for-35 for 198 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions (25-17 loss)
11/3/13: 23-for-33 for 432 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions (55-31 win)

vs. Tennessee
12/20/15: 23-for-35 for 267 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions (33-16 win)

Totals: 202-for-297 (68 percent) for 2,498 yards with 19 TDs and 3 INT
Average: 25-for-37 for 312 yards

If the Titans are going to have a hope of pulling off the upset Saturday, the conventional wisdom says that LeBeau is going to have to throw something different at Brady. At the very least, LeBeau needs to figure out a way to patch up a defense that's the worst in the league when it comes to defending running backs in the passing game, a vital point this weekend when you consider just how important New England's backs are in the passing game. If he doesn't, Brady's chances of moving to 7-2 against LeBeau -- and the Patriots chances of moving on to the AFC title game -- appear to be excellent.