Tom Brady criticizes Bucs over 'effort level on gameday'

But a day later on his “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray on Monday night, Brady indicated that he was not happy with his team’s effort this season, which is a big reason why Tampa Bay entered the game against Los Angeles with a disappointing 3-5 record.

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

It’s unclear which players or units Brady is talking about, but the Bucs have not played well in all three phases of the game for several weeks. Tampa Bay’s special teams coverage units have had some lapses maintaining gap integrity, and the kick return game has not excelled this season.

On defense had been gashed in the second half for chunks of rushing yards and surrendering touchdowns in back-to-back losses to Carolina and Baltimore.

On offense, there has been some poor blocking up front in both the running game and passing game at times, as well as poor vision by some of the backs and some half-hearted pass-blocking at times. The receivers and tight ends have had some drops and bouts of inconsistent route running, which is something Brady eluded to after Sunday’s win.

“I don’t care about dropped balls — I really don’t,” Brady said. “I’d be more concerned if you don’t get open, then if you dropped the ball. I miss passes, they drop balls. I always go back to them. If they’re out there, I have confidence in them.”

At 4-5, Bucs Are Still In The NFC South Division Hunt

With a 4-5 record following Sunday’s win, the Bucs’ 2022 season is still very much alive. The fact that the Falcons lost to the Chargers, 20-17, on Sunday gives Atlanta a 4-5 record. As a result, the Bucs, who beat the Falcons earlier in the year, have a tie-breaker advantage with a 2-1 record in the NFC South division.

“The best teams start playing well around Thanksgiving,” Brady added. “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.”

Tampa Bay travels to Germany this week to play 6-3 Seattle in Munich. Kickoff is set for 9:30 a.m. ET on Sunday. A win against the best NFC team the Bucs will have faced so far would get Tampa Bay to .500 with a 5-5 record heading into their bye week.

The Bucs have a back-and-forth schedule with home and away games over the final eight weeks of the season following the bye week, beginning with a road game at Cleveland on November 27 at 1:00 p.m. ET