Tom Brady: Buccaneers' effort level on game-day is 'embarrassing'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady seemed to call teammates out following Sunday's win over the Los Angeles Rams. 

"The best teams start playing well around Thanksgiving," Brady told broadcaster Jim Gray during Monday's edition of their "Let's Go!" SiriusXM show and podcast, per Jenna Lemoncelli of the New York Post. "That’s because you basically figured out what you are and what you need to do, and there’s definitely some things we do well but there’s a lot of things we don’t do well.

"I think too much of good, bad, good, bad, good, bad, leaves you average and no one’s trying to be average. If you want to be a great team, you gotta be way better than average. So correcting our mistakes, improving our effort — which that is probably the most embarrassing part of our team is our effort level on game-day, and that’s something we better fix."

Brady, who defended teammates who have committed costly drops of his passes during Monday's show, made his comments after the Buccaneers ended a three-game losing streak and improved to 4-5 via Sunday's 16-13 victory. That result put Tampa Bay in first place in the NFC South standings thanks to the club's tiebreaker advantage over the Atlanta Falcons. 

The third-place New Orleans Saints are 3-6, while the Carolina Panthers are at 2-7. 

Brady and the Buccaneers have an interesting week in front of them, as they will travel internationally to face the 6-3 Seattle Seahawks in Munich, Germany, this Sunday. Tampa Bay then goes on its bye before a Week 12 game at the Cleveland Browns on Nov. 27.