Bruce Arians Calls Out Tom Brady After Bucs Loss
Bruce Arians called out Tom Brady after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell to the New Orleans Saints 34-23 on Sunday.
Rather than cover for his new quarterback, the Bucs’ head coach simply described it how he saw it when it came to Brady’s mistakes.
Brady finished the day with 239 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions on 23 of 36 passing.
Those two picks proved to be particularly costly.
After the game, Arians did not mince his words when analyzing where Brady went wrong.
“One was a miscommunication between he and Mike [Evans],” he said.
“He thought Mike was going down the middle. It’s a different coverage. Mike read it right. He should’ve bent across his face, but Tom just overthrew it. The other one was a screen pass with an outlet called. He threw the outlet, and there was a pick six. Bad decision.”
Brady’s first pick came when wide receiver Mike Evans read the coverage correctly, while his new quarterback got it confused. It resulted in the ball sailing over Evans’ head and straight into the Saints’ arms.
The second pick, as Arians observed, came when Brady blatantly telegraphed his pass and Janoris Jenkins made him pay for it.
Not a great start for the 49ers. https://t.co/EF8YpXLe8S
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 14, 2020
All in all, it was not the showing Brady hoped to have in his first game with Tampa Bay, that’s for sure.
“It’s a game of execution,” he said after the fact.
“Obviously they made more plays than we did, and I made just some bad, terrible turnovers. It’s hard to win, turning the ball over like that. So I’ve obviously gotta do a lot better job.”
As is usually the case, the brutally honest Arians also offered praise to Brady where it was due.
“He came out, lighting it up, went down the field and scored a touchdown, so I wouldn’t say he was out of sync at all ’til we started screwing it up,” Arians noted.
For his part, Brady owned what went wrong on Sunday.
“There’s no excuses — we’re the only ones that can do something about it,” he said.
“The Saints kinda played how they always play, they did a good job on offense. We hung our defense out to dry on some short fields, with not moving the ball, not doing very well on third down at certain times. The turnovers really hurt us. We’ve gotta clean that up for next week. We’ve gotta do a lot better job.”
The President thinks he knows why. https://t.co/l1vtABjU8Y
— Game 7 (@game7__) September 14, 2020
All in all, it was not the debut Brady wanted – clearly. Especially when compared to how good Cam Newton looked in his first game as Brady’s replacement with the New England Patriots.
But context matters.
Tampa Bay played a significantly better team in New Orleans than the Patriots did in the Miami Dolphins. Moreover, Newton got much better protection from his offensive line than Brady did from his.
Left tackle Donovan Smith struggled badly, and rookie right tackle Tristan Wirfs had a tough time slowing down Cam Jordan.
Brady ended up getting sacked three times for his troubles.
That coupled with an unproductive rushing attack all but doomed the Buccaneers in Week 1.
Fortunately, there is still plenty of time to pick up the pieces.
Next up for the Buccaneers: a showdown against the Carolina Panthers next Sunday. If Brady struggles in that one and Tampa Bay drops a game to Teddy Bridgewater and Co, then it will suddenly be time to panic.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
