If a two-point Week 6 loss to Mitch Trubisky and the Pittsburgh Steelers was enough to raise the question—Tom Brady came back for this?—then what is the proper response to a 21-3 Week 7 loss to the Carolina Panthers? I mean, really, Tom Brady came back? For this?
Brady and the Bucs better hope that losing by 18 points to a team that just traded away its best offensive player and started P.J. Walker at quarterback is the low point of this season, because if it isn't we are going to have to put on the table the possibility of Brady retiring in the middle of a game. Bucs head coach Todd Bowles sure made it sound like his team has hit rock bottom (maybe this is wishful thinking on his part) with his postgame quotes, which repeatedly referenced how "dark" things are around the team right now. "We're going to see what we're made of—how many people can handle adversity?" said Bowles. "This is as dark as it's going to be right now."
Brady was less alarmist during his postgame presser, choosing instead to give a lot of rote answers about how everyone on the team just needs to execute better and do their jobs and blah blah blah. But people don't always communicate with words, and Brady's face sure was something to look at while he listened to reporters' questions. He looked like a guy who was replaying in his mind every mistake he's ever made over the course of his life.
If the phrase "I should have stayed home and been a family man" had a face, this is what it would look like.
Or maybe I'm reading into this a little too much. Maybe he just kept replaying that Mike Evans drop over and over in his head.
The Bucs play the Ravens on Thursday night. Win or lose, Brady will go home alone after the game.
