The Chicago Bears defeated Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-19 on Thursday night.
With 38 seconds left in the outing, his team down by one, and a single down to work with, Brady was unable to deliver a pass to tight end Cameron Brate — thanks in large part to excellent coverage by Bears safety DeAndre Houston-Carson.
Game over.
As all the players began walking off the field, a clearly befuddled Brady just stood there. He seemingly could not figure out why everyone was leaving. Many immediately assumed that he didn’t realize it had been fourth down.
After the game, Brady attempted to address the situation.
“Yeah, you’re up against the clock and you’re up against the … I knew we had to gain a chunk, so I should have been thinking more first down instead of chunk in that situation,” he said.
“I knew we needed a chunk and I was thinking about more yardage. It was just bad execution. We had a great opportunity there so … just didn’t execute when we needed to.”
The reference to gaining a “chunk” seems to confirm that Brady thought fourth down was in fact third down.
When asked after the game whether his quarterback knew what down it was, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians covered for his guy.
“Yeah, he knew,” Arians replied.
Yikes. https://t.co/hCOTxaRJAm
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 8, 2020
Overall, Brady didn’t dwell on that final play. He laid the blame for the loss at the feet of a bad team performance in the second half of the game.
“We just had some negative plays in the second half,” he said.
“When you get behind in down and distance, that’s not where you want to be. So we all have to do a better job. This isn’t any one position. This isn’t any one player.
“This is a teamwide thing that we all got to collectively learn each other quickly and make improvements quickly. We all have to do a better job.”
Interesting development. https://t.co/7ODJIvjQTR
— Game 7 (@game7__) October 8, 2020
With the victory, the Bears are now 4-1 on the season. Tampa Bay, meanwhile, falls to 3-2.
Things won’t get any easier for the Buccaneers after this. They return next week to a game against Aaron Rodgers and the red hot Green Bay Packers, before taking on the always dangerous Las Vegas Raiders.
Fortunately, Nov. 2 will provide a nice little reprieve when they get to play the New York Giants, before once again being thrust into the thick of things with a second battle against a New Orleans Saints team who they’ve already lost to once this year.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
