It wasn’t Tom Brady’s poor play that sunk the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ ship for the second week in a row on the road, so let it be clear the blame is not being pinned on the 45-year-old quarterback. Still, it’s obvious something has been wrong with Brady since the preseason.
A lot of things are going wrong for the Buccaneers as a team, with everything exposed Sunday in one of the most humbling losses of Brady’s long career.
The Carolina Panthers, 13-point underdogs who came into the game with an interim coach and seemed to be tanking by trading away star players, coasted to a 21-3 win behind a quarterback who was fourth on the depth chart in training camp.
P.J. Walker, who played for the Houston Roughnecks in the XFL in 2020, outplayed Brady in the Panthers’ second win of the season.
It was mid-March when Brady ended his 40-day retirement. Since his comeback, the seven-time Super Bowl winner has lost four of his seven starts and his supermodel wife, who is reportedly aiming for a divorce. Brady’s personal problems are being compounded by setbacks on the field.
“Brady probably made the right call by retiring,” DraftKings sportsbook director John Avello said. “He retired on a high note and I don’t know why he came back. It’s probably time for Brady to call it a day. He can still throw the ball and read defenses well, but that team can’t score.”
The Buccaneers have scored more than 21 points in only one game this season, after averaging 31.4 points through seven games last season. Tampa Bay’s offensive line is a weakness, its ground game has vanished and star receiver Mike Evans dropped what would have been a 64-yard touchdown pass on the third play of Sunday’s game.
First-year coach Todd Bowles must take some blame for the Bucs’ defensive issues. At this time last year, Tampa Bay top-ranked run defense was allowing 67.4 yards per game — and it is now allowing 118.3 per game after yielding 173 yards to Carolina.
For the record, Avello was not depressed about the Bucs’ downfall and venting frustrations by calling for Brady to retire a second time. He called it a “good day” for his book, mostly due to Tampa Bay and Green Bay going down as road favorites.
Westgate SuperBook vice president Jay Kornegay went a step further, saying, “It’s our best Sunday of the season.”
Before burying the Bucs, it’s important to remember they are still tied atop the NFC South at 3-4 and play their next three games at home. The remaining schedule is relatively soft and sets the table for a potential Tampa Bay turnaround.
“It’s a crazy year in the NFL,” Avello said. “But I would not count them out just yet — the Bucs or the Packers.”
It’s crazy to see Brady lose as a double-digit road favorite in consecutive weeks. In Week 6, Tampa Bay was taken down by Pittsburgh and its clumsy quarterback tandem of Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky.
Brady, for many years a cash machine after a loss, is no longer an automatic bounce-back bet, one of 10 lessons to take away from Week 7.
It’s going from bad to worse for Aaron Rodgers
The box score showed two touchdown passes and no interceptions or sacks for Rodgers. The opposing quarterback, Taylor Heinicke, threw a pick-six. Somehow, Green Bay squandered a 14-3 second-quarter lead in a 23-21 loss at Washington.
The Packers (3-4) have lost three in a row and are 11-point road dogs at Buffalo in Week 8, the first time in Rodgers’ career that he’s a double-digit dog. It’s not going to be easy to build a strong case for taking the points.