Bucs QB Brady: “In A Crazy Way, We’re Still In First Place”
Bucs quarterback Tom Brady discussed the team’s stunning 23-17 overtime loss to the Browns during his SiriusXM podcast “Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Gray.” Yet despite the loss, which dropped Tampa Bay to 5-6, the Bucs are still on top of the NFC South division.
Atlanta (5-7) and New Orleans (4-8) also lost on Sunday, while Carolina won and improved to 4-8.
“We have a losing record but the best part is we’re still in first place in our division,” Brady said. “Again, which is hard to imagine. It was like when Evander Holyfield got bit on both his ears and still won the fight against Tyson. It wasn’t pretty but he still got the job done.”
Brady indicated the Bucs’ next game against the Saints next Monday night is a big one. The Bucs are 2-1 in the division, while the Saints are on the bottom of the NFC South with a 1-2 record.
“We’re 5-6. In a crazy way, we’re still in first place in our division,” Brady said. “Our division has not performed very well. Our football season’s ahead of us and we’ve gotta go out there this week against a very good Saints team that’s very similar to us. They’ve been in a lot of close games. They haven’t won them. They’ve struggled on offense. They’ve played really good defense at times. So it’s gonna be a huge division game for us and we’ve got to find a way to get back to .500.”
The Saints have won the last four games against the Bucs at Raymond James Stadium, dating back to 2018. During Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl season in 2020 the Saints thrashed the Bucs, 38-3, on Sunday Night Football. Last year, New Orleans dealt Tampa Bay its only home loss of the season, 9-0, again on Sunday Night Football.
Brady and the Bucs beat the Saints in New Orleans, 20-10, in Week 2, snapping a seven-game losing streak in the regular season. But Tampa Bay will have to beat New Orleans without All-Pro right tackle Tristan Wirfs, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the loss to Cleveland.
Brady, Bucs Must Play Better
He knows he and his Bucs teammates have to play better than they did against the Browns in order to sweep the Saints.
“Well, I think it’s a consistency for, you know, so many positive plays and then undone by kind of untimely mistakes by our team,” Brady said. “And it’s not one player, it’s not one position. Football’s the ultimate team sport and I’ve always believed as a leader you always take the blame and you always give the credit. And that’s just, I always feel like that because really that’s what leadership is all about. I always look at what I need to do better. I had a chance to hit Mike [Evans] down the sideline in overtime to win the game and I didn’t get it done.
“You can give in to the outside noise and everyone telling you, ‘Oh, it’s not your fault, it’s someone else’s fault.’ I think that’s BS. It is your fault when you lose and you take it personally when you lose. And you shouldn’t sleep at night when you lose. And you should only think about what you need to do to help the team more. And that’s what I lay in bed at night after games thinking about. It’s a tough situation to be in, have a losing record, but that’s our reality and we haven’t done anything to earn more than that. And if you wanna win games, if you wanna win a fight, if you wanna win a golf match, if you want to win your Monopoly [game], you gotta earn it.”
