‘No one feels good about where we’re at’: Tom Brady, Buccaneers fall to Panthers, drop to 3-4
"It's about as dark as it's going to be right now."
Tom Brady and the Buccaneers slid even further on Sunday, falling to the one-win Panthers 21-3 in a loss that left both the former Patriots star and Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles without answers.
The Buccaneers, who are now 3-4, have lost three of their last four games, two of which were embarrassing stumbles against the Steelers and Panthers. Both the Steelers and Panthers now have just two wins (including the Buccaneers).
“They’ve got to be grown men, and we’re going to see what we’re made of, how many people can handle adversity,” Bowles told reporters after the game. “It’s about as dark as it’s going to be right now.”
Brady (32-for-49, 290 yards) acknowledged the failures of the offense, which generated just a solitary fourth-quarter field goal and 46 rushing yards against the Panthers.
“I think we just all have to do our job better,” Brady said. “There’s no easy way about it. They are trying to keep us from doing our job, we’re trying to do it, and they are doing a better job than we are.
“Any time you score three points, that pretty much sums it up.”
When reporters asked Brady about specific plays or specific problems, he deferred to the film, noting that there were “a lot” of things the Buccaneers didn’t do right.
“No one feels good about where we’re at, no one feels good about how we played or what we’re doing,” Brady said. “We’re all in it together, man. We’ve got to go pull ourselves out of it.”
Brady called for accountability, discipline, mental and physical toughness, and commitment as the Buccaneers prepare for games against the Ravens and Rams in the coming weeks.
“We’re plenty capable of making plays, we’re just not making them consistently enough to score points,” Brady said. “Make a big play, make a bad play, make a big play, make a bad play. In football, it’s just not good enough. You can’t play like that. You have to string enough good plays together to get the ball into the red area and score points. We just haven’t done that.”
Bowles, meanwhile, challenged the entire team — including both players and coaches — to be better moving forward.
“The older guys have to prove they can still play. The young guys have to prove the belong, and the coaches have to get better every day,” Bowles said. “That’s really it. Mental toughness.”
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