INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The opportunity was right there for Tom Brady, and he didn’t even entertain the thought of taking it, not for a moment. As he stood in his postgame news conference, a six-hour flight ahead of him and those silly notions of a 20-0 season evaporated, Brady was offered the chance to turn things forward immediately, away from Tampa Bay’s comprehensive defeat to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday and ahead to the game everyone has waited for since even before the schedule was released. What did he think, Brady was asked, about next weekend’s visit to the New England Patriots — that deliciously anticipated return to the place where he held court for two decades and crafted six Super Bowl rings? If he’d bitten, it would have shifted the narrative. One little anecdote about life as a Patriot — one snippet of a story about Bill Belichick, a single punchy quote about how he and Rob Gronkowski couldn’t wait — and it would have been a contender for a headline-topper, even on a day of impossible field goals and overtime dramatics and upset results. But he didn’t bite. Brady has been around the National Football League long enough to know how the media game works and how a couple of choice words could have deflected what happened at SoFi Stadium, where the Rams were far too composed, and the Tampa Bay Bucs far too toothless on both sides of the ball, to make any other result feasible. Instead, he chose to take it on the chin, knowing what criticisms await during the week and what doubts will be raised, despite the fact this was the team’s first defeat since Nov. 29 of last year. “It’s a tough loss,” Brady said, when quizzed about New England but answering about L.A. “So I’ll just get through the plane trip and evaluate what we need to do. I want to win every time we take the field.” It was the most “non” of non-answers that you could possibly get, and Brady cut and ran from the podium moments later. It was the first blip Tampa Bay has had for a good while, all through an otherwise perfect run that picked up steam in the final quarter of last year’s regular season and catapulted all the way through the playoffs. He wanted it to sting, so it seemed, if only to serve as a reminder that things don’t always go your way. Very little went right for the visitors in Los Angeles. Brady looks younger when he smiles, and there wasn’t much to smile about Sunday, not with the Rams dominant and decisive and completely worthy as 34-24 winners. Even when he’s miserable, he still doesn’t look 44, just a little closer to it. But there was a clear intention to digest this rare defeat rather than simply skip over it. The Tampa Bay defense suddenly doesn’t seem quite so mighty and has issues at corner, where they got easily dissected by Matthew Stafford, who looks utterly settled just three weeks into his new job. Online, Bucs fans quickly clamored for the team to sign Richard Sherman to bolster the defensive stock. Brady threw for 432 yards on 41-for-55 passing, but was often harried and frustrated by a Rams defense marshaled by Aaron Donald. There were some untimely drops, Gronkowski got crushed by a hellacious third-quarter tackle and had his ribs X-rayed, and running back Giovani Bernard first accidentally clattered into the knees of coach Bruce Arians, then had the wind knocked out of him on a consolation touchdown run. “The throwing needs to be better, the all-around offense, the red area, better on third down,” Brady added. “We definitely had some opportunities to help the team win, but we didn’t get it done.” Just because Brady didn’t feel minded to talk about next week, that won’t stop everyone else from doing so. The Patriots also had a disappointing afternoon, knocked askew by the New Orleans Saints, who look unexpectedly good at times and far from it at others. The matchup doesn’t, in all honesty, lose the ability to make us salivate because the Patriots are 1-2 and both teams are coming off a loss. Just seeing the interactions, if any, between Brady and Belichick, will be intriguing enough, plus the are-we-really-seeing-this factor of witnessing Brady at Foxborough, trying to actively beat New England in another team’s colors. Belichick wasn’t happy after his team got crushed 28-13 and if ever a reminder was needed that Mac Jones isn’t Brady, it came with a three-interception performance that saw the offense break down completely. There will be some added spice as well, with Alex Guerrero — Brady’s personal advisor and TB12 mentor — critical of Belichick’s behavior in the final years of the most successful coach-player partnership in NFL history. There’s going to be some fire next week, and Brady knows it only too well. It will be emotional, extraordinary and mouth-watering, and he’ll embrace it to the max. But not just yet. Brady is aware how his own mind works and that he’s never more dangerous than when his pride has been wounded and his team is being questioned. Which is why he’ll stew on this one a little while longer, even when he was gifted the means to put it behind him. Here’s what others have said … Bucky Brooks, FOX Sports: “A tough loss on the road might help Bruce Arians’ squad refocus and re-commit to playing solid football on both sides of the ball.” Colin Cowherd, The Herd: “Tom Brady doesn’t need a lot of home runs. He really doesn’t even need doubles. It’s protection mode for TB12 and his legacy.” Shannon Sharpe, Undisputed: “If you want to stand toe-to-toe with a gunslinger, you’ve got to look him in his eye and perform just as well as he did, and Stafford did that. Matthew Stafford was the difference in this ball game.” |
