Buccaneers vs Panthers: Tom Brady’s presumed final season continues to sour after humiliating 21-3 loss to Carolina



CNN

It shouldn’t have gone like this.

When Tom Brady came out of retirement in March, his 23rd season in the NFL was to be the last celebration and opportunity for GOAT — the greatest player of all time — to compete for an eighth Super Bowl title.

However, the first seven weeks did not go according to the plan of the 45-year-old football player.

Brady and his Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell to 3-4 for the year with a disastrous 21-3 loss to the lowly Carolina Panthers on Sunday.

Even though he faced a team with an interim head coach, a backup quarterback under center and who traded their top player at the beginning of the weekBrady and the Bucks offense failed to score a touchdown as presumed Super Bowl contenders fell to a record under .500.

Brady talks to Nick Leverett of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers before a game against the Carolina Panthers.

While the Bucks still lead the NFC South division, Brady has suffered humiliating losses to both good and bad teams this season as what will likely be his final season just gets worse and worse.

After the loss, Brady said that “no one is happy with where we are, no one is happy with the way we played or what we do”, reiterating the need for his team to work out the details with more attention. accuracy

“We were talking about the execution the other day and it still comes up. I think we all just need to do our jobs better,” he told reporters.

“There is no easy way. They try to stop us from doing our job, we try to do it, and they do it better than we do. Every time you score three points, it pretty much sums it up.”

Brady has been reflecting on his future in the NFL, suggesting in recent months that his second and presumably final retirement is just around the corner.

FROM side flashes taken during games as well as messages about family problemsBrady’s typical fiery rivalry escalated at times into anger and frustration.

For a man whose desire for victory and drive set him apart, this was not the season he wanted to be in.

The Bucks lost 4-1 to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week. This week it was a 1-5 loss to the Panthers.

Brady passes the ball in the third quarter against the Panthers.

Sunday’s game couldn’t start much worse for Brady. A laser pass to Mike Evans that would have been a touchdown early in the game was dropped. The Bucks’ first nine drives ended with six punts, one down, one halftime ending, and a field goal.

With a poor connection to his offensive weapons, a porous offensive line, and a shaky game, problems are mounting in Tampa.

According to ESPN, this is the first time since 2002 that Brady has had a losing record after seven games in an NFL season.

Bucks head coach Todd Bowles admitted that his team was not performing at its peak.

“We’re not playing very well,” Bowles told reporters. “We play badly individually, we play badly as a team, we coach badly. Quite the contrary – we score a little in attack and stop enough in defense.

“And as a result, we have to wear it on the sleeve. They must be grown men. We’re going to see what we’re made of, how many people can handle adversity, and it’s about as grim as it is right now.

“Those guys who are going to become more active will appear this week at training. Our leaders will lead, our coaches will coach, and we will just dig and keep our heads down… We will see what we have in the future, see how many collapse in the dark and see how many people step forward and start play better and coach better.”

Given Brady’s struggles – finishing with 290 passing yards after 49 tries and no touchdowns – the difficulty in running play and the lack of a normally dominant defense, this could be the worst moment of Brady’s time in Florida.

Writing off the greatest NFL player of all time at your own peril, but digging that hole and fixing all those problems would be one of the seven-time Super Bowl winner’s greatest accomplishments.