Buccaneers' Tom Brady defends receivers who drop passes
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady has come to the defense of teammates who drop his passes during games.
"It’d be like me calling the wrong play or checking to the wrong play," Brady said about the subject during Monday's edition of his "Let's Go!" SiriusXM show and podcast with broadcaster Jim Gray, per Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk. "I mean, it’s like saying — I know there’s a lot more people that probably play golf than play football — but if you hit a bad shot, you hit a bad shot. But I think the problem comes when you make the wrong decision before the club’s in your hand, you know?"
Brady offered his comments a day after Tampa Bay wide receiver Scotty Miller committed what was nearly a disastrous drop in the end zone late in the fourth quarter of what became a 16-13 win over the Los Angeles Rams:
Brady eventually connected with tight end Cade Otton for the game-winning score:
"So if you make the wrong decision before you even step up to the play, you don’t even give yourself a chance," Brady continued during the segment. "So that’s when I have a problem. If we don’t know what to do or we don’t know how to do it, both of those are problems. If we make a physical mistake, I can live with a physical mistake. I can live with a drop. I can live with a missed block. And, you know, if I throw bad passes and I miss my mark, I know the receivers can live with that.
"I think the problem is if we’re doing the wrong thing from a communication standpoint, whether that’s me communicating poorly or the backs or the line and you have unblocked people or you have things that just don’t go right, you don’t even give yourself a chance, really an unforced error, that’s what we need to eliminate. In football, we always say you can’t win until you can keep from losing. And to keep from losing means you have to do the right thing before the play even starts. You have to be on the same page with the people next to you because it’s a coordinated effort. We’re all in it together and everyone’s got to be on the same page"
The victory on Sunday improved the Buccaneers to 4-5 on the season and put them in a mathematical tie with the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South standings. Tampa Bay beat Atlanta 21-15 in Week 5.
Per ESPN stats, Brady is second in the NFL with 2,547 passing yards on the campaign. The 45-year-old is 13th among eligible quarterbacks with a 90.5 passer rating, 16th with a 51.4 total QBR, and 13th with a 65.3% completion percentage. He's thrown 10 touchdowns and one interception across nine games.
The Buccaneers face the 6-3 Seattle Seahawks in Munich, Germany, this Sunday.
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