Tom Brady hasn't been a prime-time quarterback in his first season with the Buccaneers. With two more interceptions in Monday night's frustrating 27-24 loss to the Rams to end Week 11, Brady is 1-3 under the lights with his new team — when he usually shined the brightest with his old team, the Patriots.
When Tampa Bay plays during the day in 2020, it is 6-1. So why has Brady suddenly turned into Kirk Cousins or Andy Dalton in big national spotlight games? Easy. In the battle to mesh his most successful past passing style with the principles of the Bucs' offense, his coaches are winning out for now — and losing games they shouldn't because of it.
Bruce Arians and Byron Leftwich operate a dynamic offense with an emphasis on aggressively throwing downfield. When it's all working, it's very good, explosive, fun to watch and high-scoring. That was true when Jameis Winston wasn't turning over the ball last season, and it's been true with Brady for most of this season.
What's happened to Brady — who's now up to nine interceptions in 11 games after throwing two bad second-half backbreakers against an extremely tough Rams pass defense — is that he's getting too enamored with his suddenly influx of weapons and big-play possibilities and getting out of his good habits with short-to-intermediate sensibilities.
He's gone from being bare in the cupboard with wide receivers and tight ends during his final season in New England to having an embarrassment of riches. When you have Mike Evans and Chris Godwin joined by Antonio Brown and Rob Gronkowski, you would be eager to swing for the fences at times, too. But now it's on him to readjust to what he does best.
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When Winston was throwing his NFL-high 30 interceptions last season, many came from forcing low-percentage longer passes into coverage. The two sailing throws Brady put into the hands of Rams were reminiscent of those. When throwing the ball 15 yards or deeper against the Rams, Brady was 1-of-9 for 18 yards, with those two interceptions. He was 25-of-39 otherwise for 198 yards.
There's no doubt Arians and Leftwich like the high-reward aspect of their offense. "No risk it, no biscuit" sums up how they want Brady, like Winston, to fearlessly take deep shots. But when Brady became a such an adept deep-ball thrower with the Patriots, it was about calculated shots outside, working off play-action and picking good spots on the field against weak single coverage.
At 43, even for the GOAT, Brady can't be expected to deliver downfield like he once did. The Saints, with Drew Brees when healthy, and the Steelers, with Ben Roethlsiberger, have adjusted well to their older future Hall of Fame quarterbacks' arm limitations tied to Father Time. The Bucs need to do the same to help Brady in tougher matchups.
A defense such as the Rams, with their ferocious inside-outside pass rush led by Aaron Donald, backed up by Jalen Ramsey's shutdown corner skills leading their symbiotic coverage, is hard to throw on often for great success, period. In the Bucs' other two prime-time losses, at the Bears and vs. the Saints, they saw teams apply good pressure to contain the Bucs' field-stretching.
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Watching Jared Goff operate for the Rams on the other side of Brady, he was at his best when continuing to interchangeably feed wide receivers Robert Woods and Cooper Kupp on short-to-intermediate routes, putting them in constant position to make big plays with their elusive after-catch skills. Woods' dash after a short pass to set up a end-of-half field goal ended up being the difference in the game. When Woods or Kupp wasn't targeted, it was mostly high percentage to the rest of their wideouts and tight ends. When Goff got off from doing this, he had bad incompletions and one of his two interceptions.
The Bucs were forcing things that weren't there against the Rams with Brady trying to get the ball out quickly under duress. They also were in a one-dimensional attack as the Rams, like the Bucs, having completely shut down the run. That took legitimate play-action out of the equation, too.
Brady failed to record a pass play that went for 20 yards or more. He was picking apart the Rams when using Evans, Godwin, Brown and Gronkowski like the Rams deployed Woods, Kupp, Tyler Higbee and Gerald Everett. But for a QB who's typically patient and takes what the defense gives him to full effect, Brady forced the issue when nothing there twice, and it was costly.
The Rams and Bucs each had their quarterbacks in daunting situations against well-rounded defenses. McVay got Goff to respond better by tailoring the more comfortable game plan to him, and that was the difference. Arians and Leftwich must do a better job of consistently facilitating their QB with more efficient plays and Brady, with his years of experience, has to be better at sticking to his current strengths
Evans, Godwin, Brown and Gronkowski are all guys who can stretch the field, but they also are gritty, quick and physical short-to-intermediate route runners, who can move the chains in sizable chunks and finish well after the catch — see Evans' and Godwin's high-effort surges to the goal line, which accounted for Brady's two TD passes of the night.
The Buccaneers are still a strong work in progress in the passing game and history shows that when Brady is struggling, that's when he digs deeper, shows his mental toughness and saves his best refined play when everything counts the most. The more Brady and Bucs fail in big games now, the more dangerous they should become in big games later.
