Bucs quarterback Tom Brady made a comment on his “Let’s Go!” podcast that players on the Bengals defense clearly took personally. Talking to his co-host Jim Gray, Brady was discussing the upcoming matchup between the Bucs and Bengals where he said the Bengals had a “fairly tough” defense.
That evidently was enough bulletin board material to rile up the Bengals’ defense on the way to a 34-23 win. In a video captured by Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic, cornerback Eli Apple and defensive tackle B.J. Hill both had some words for Brady as they came off the field at Raymond James Stadium and went into the tunnel.
Apple started it off by shouting “The future’s now, old man,” referring to the 45-year old Brady. Not long after, Hill looked into the camera and said “We’re fairly tough on defense. Remember that, alright?”
Watch the video:
Bengals Took The Game Over From The Bucs In Second Half
The Bengals defense made a statement in the second half causing five turnovers and erasing a 17-3 halftime deficit to outscore the Bucs 31-6 in the second half. After the array of turnovers began with a botched fake punt attempt by former Bengals running back Giovani Bernard that led to a turnover on downs at the Tampa Bay 16. Cincinnati forced another four turnovers on the next four possessions to climb back. This included two interceptions and forced fumble on Brady, and recovering another fumble in which it looked like Brady fumbled the football before he could cleanly exchange it to Leonard Fournette on a routine handoff.
If there was any way to get back at your opponent, it’s hard to top what the Bengals defense did.
“Just unforced errors,” Brady said after the game. “Two fumbles, two interceptions – can’t win football games like that. Turnovers kill you and they killed us today – it’s not the way we need to [perform] in order to win and that’s certainly not how I need to play in order to win.”
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