Tom Brady on the officiating, the ‘healthy rivalry’ with the Chiefs, and his ‘fish out of water’ run
"I was just kicking myself all night thinking about what we could've done to get it in there," Brady said of the failed final drive.
Less than a day after suffering a second consecutive loss, Tom Brady is already on to Cincinnati.
“I’m doing alright,” Brady said in his weekly WEEI interview on “The Greg Hill Show” Monday morning. “Not a ton of sleep last night but I’m just anxious to get in there and get to work this morning.”
Asked about his elbow, which was wrapped in ice following the game, Brady downplayed the injury.
“It’s alright. It just took a helmet right on the inside of it,” said Brady. “Just a typical football game, so nothing I haven’t dealt with before. Just going to try and get some extra treatment and hopefully be 100 percent next week.”
Here’s what Brady had to say on a range of other topics:
The officiating
Brady was asked about the controversial series of calls (and non-calls) that affected the outcome of the game.
“I think when you play sports long enough, sometimes you’re the recipient of things that go your way, and you [can be] on the other side of it too,” said Brady. “For me, I don’t think too much about them. I wish it would go our way and unfortunately they didn’t, but it doesn’t take away from when you watch the game, all the different things that we had in our control that I wish we could’ve done a little bit better. And we’re just trying to keep grinding them out and we put ourselves in a position there at the end with four plays in the red area and just didn’t produce well enough to get the job done.”
“I don’t ever make any excuses and I’ve certainly never blamed the referees,” Brady added. “I just look at what we’ve got to do and how we’ve got to go out there and try to get back to work this week and go to Cincinnati and get a win.”
The offense
The Patriots offense had another difficult day, managing just 278 total yards. It’s become a recent point of concern for New England.
Brady explained that it isn’t necessarily any single adjustment, but more of a lack of execution.
“I wish it was just one magic thing that you could just do and it would just change everything, but it really comes down to all of us, eleven as a unit executing well whether it’s a run or a pass,” Brady noted. “Whoever I’m throwing to, I got to make a good throw and give our guys a chance to make a play, so I could just focus on what my job is, to read it out, to try to find a good matchup and try to make a good accurate throw.”
Trash talking
During the second quarter of the game, Brady was shown on television cameras trash-talking with Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones. Jones noted afterward that he has respect for Brady, but “anytime you’re able to affect his game any type of way, whether it’s talking, whether it’s hitting him, whether it’s getting him uncomfortable, you got to.”
Brady admitted that none of what he said could be repeated on radio.
“Oh man, yeah we were going at it for a little bit,” said Brady of the exchange. “You know it was pretty talkative out there, so I think it’s a healthy rivalry. But yeah there’s definitely nothing that I could really repeat. I typically don’t try to make the d-linemen any more angry than they probably already are with me, because they’re the ones who get paid to hit me. So I don’t give them anymore incentive, typically. But I couldn’t really resist at certain points.”
His 17-yard run
On a critical fourth down in the fourth quarter with the Patriots driving for a possible game-tying score, Brady tucked the ball down and ran for a first down. His 17-yard gallop was the third-longest run of his career, but is apparently not a bid to match the style of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
“Definitely not why I’m out there,” Brady said of his scramble, adding that he felt “like a fish out of water” running.
“But that was a good opportunity for us,” Brady added. “I’m glad we were able to do that. It was fourth and 5, whatever it was, and that was a big play, got us into the red area. But I just wish we could’ve finished the drive. I was just kicking myself all night thinking about what we could’ve done to get it in there.”
Getting booed at halftime
An unusual sound echoed down on the Patriots at halftime from the fans at Gillette Stadium. A chorus of boos could be heard as the team left the field trailing 20-7.
Brady had a familiar reaction to the treatment, emphasizing the fans will reflect the team’s performance.
“Look, we’ve had millions of people show up for our winning celebrations, our rallies after we’ve won Super Bowls,” said Brady. “I think when you play sports, nothing’s guaranteed and you have wins, you have losses, you have highs, you have lows, you have great, thrilling wins, and you have very tough losses. I think how you handle those things I would say gracefully is most important to me.”
“Everyone has the right to do what they want to do and feel how they want to feel and we as a team obviously feel very disappointed when we lose games,” Brady explained, “so you just take it for what it is and try to move forward and do the best you can do and that’s what everyone’s trying to do out there.”
Mohamed Sanu’s role in the offense
One receiver who was specifically asked about was Mohamed Sanu. The 30-year-old, who was traded to New England from Atlanta in October, made a 13-yard catch on his only target during the game.
Brady was questioned about Sanu’s role in the offense, and why he didn’t get more of an emphasis.
“We were trying to get him the ball at different times and sometimes the coverage dictated it go somewhere else, but he’s doing a great job,” said Brady. “He’s a really tough, hard-nosed guy that wants the ball. He’s competitive and I have to do a better job finding him and getting him the ball because he can do good things with it. I just love the way he’s come in with his attitude and he’s been a very hard-working guy. I’m going to keep finding ways to get him the ball because you have to get the ball to guys who can make plays, and he’s one of them.”
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