Tom Brady still believes Patriots are ‘as good as anybody’ after two straight losses
For the first time since 2012, the New England Patriots have lost two straight games. Tom Brady wasn’t exactly quoting Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ R-E-L-A-X mantra after the Patriots’ 35-28 loss to the Eagles on Sunday, but he sounded relatively positive about the state of the team by Monday.
“You know, 10-2 is obviously not terrible,’’ Brady said Monday on WEEI’s The Dennis and Callahan Show. “It’s not where we would have liked to be have been two weeks ago. But our whole season is ahead of us. We’ve just got to make some corrections and understand the issues that we’re facing and try to do a lot better and go out there and play a lot better than we’ve played the last couple of weeks.’’
Brady, who threw a pair of second-half interceptions in the loss, owned up to some of his own mistakes during his postgame remarks as well as his radio appearance on Monday.
“It’s certainly hard to win a game when we play the way we played yesterday,’’ Brady said on Monday morning. “Just too many critical errors. That’s how you get beat.’’
Brady’s first interception proved especially costly. With the game tied, 14-14, in the third quarter, the Patriots’ quarterback attempted to squeeze the ball between Eagles defenders to wide receiver Danny Amendola near the goal line. The ball was tipped to Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, who returned the interception for a 99-yard touchdown.
His second interception came on a deep pass in the direction of wide receiver Brandon LaFell that was easily picked off by Eagles cornerback Byron Maxwell in the end zone. With tight end Rob Gronkowski and wide receiver Julian Edelman inactive due to injuries, LaFell was targeted nine times by Brady against the Eagles for four receptions and 27 yards.
“Your margin of error is less,’’ Brady said of the impact of injuries. “Especially when you make the mistakes that we made yesterday, you’re not giving yourself much of a chance. We as players have to clean that up.’’
Despite the harsh assessment of the Patriots’ performance on Sunday, Brady appeared to take some solace in the late comeback bid and struck an upbeat note when describing the team’s chances over the remainder of the season.
“In some ways it’s very disappointing. In other ways you realize that as bad as we’ve played in the last couple of weeks, we still had an opportunity to win the game. So in some ways you come out and you go, look, if we just play the way we’re capable of, we can beat anybody. We’re as good as anybody when we play the way that we’re capable of playing.’’
Tom Brady Career Timeline
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