Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians has never been shy to call out his quarterbacks, and the trend continued this past Monday night.
Following a disappointing 27-24 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Rams, Arians pointed to Tom Brady’s two interceptions as a problem that needed to be solved going forward.
The message for his quarterback was simple: stop misreading coverages and turning the ball over.
“The first one he got hit,” Arians said regarding Brady’s first pick. “It looked like he had Chris [Godwin] going right down the middle, stepped up and just didn’t get enough on it with the pressure. The last one was just a misread of the coverage.”
And misreads of coverage, per Arians, are something that cannot continue to happen.
“I thought [offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich] called a good ballgame. We just have to execute better. When guys are open, we have to hit them and we can’t misread coverage.”
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— Game 7 (@game7__) November 23, 2020
Eleven games into the season, Brady has now thrown nine picks. Last year he recorded only eight interceptions total. Throughout his career he has never thrown more than 14 – a record that unfortunately suddenly looks very attainable with so many games remaining.
Against the Rams, Brady amassed a pair of touchdowns and a pair of interceptions while throwing for 216 yards. He completed 54 percent of his passes for the night.
This isn’t the first time this year that Arians has called out Brady. He did something very similar in Week 1, when the Buccaneers fell to the New Orleans Saints following another two-interception performance.
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— Game 7 (@game7__) November 22, 2020
Interestingly enough, after getting called out, Brady bounced back strong. Coming off losses, the 43-year-old threw for six touchdowns and one interception en route to three victories.
After Monday night’s defeat, Brady owned up to his issues in the outing – particularly that second pick.
“Just a bad read, bad throw, decision, everything,” Brady said of his final interception. “It can’t happen.”
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— Game 7 (@game7__) November 21, 2020
Brady also acknowledged the one big issue that has plagued him all season – deep passes.
“We’ll have to study it,” Brady remarked.
“Again, we’ve had some chances, definitely. Receivers are doing a great job, and I got to get them the ball. So, I got to figure out how to do that.”
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— Game 7 (@game7__) November 21, 2020
As noted, Brady has historically been pretty good in bounce back games.
Unfortunately his next one is against the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, so it will be interesting to see if the trend ultimately continues.
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A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
