Bruce Arians Says His Relationship With Tom Brady Is Fine, Buccaneers Are 'On To Carolina'
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was quick to blame Tom Brady for the quarterback's costly miscues in Week 1. He changed his tune a bit on Monday, and by Wednesday, he threw out his own version of a famous line by Brady's former coach in hopes of moving on.
Someone may want to warn Arians that sounding like Bill Belichick might not improve his relationship with Brady, given how things ended for the QB in New England. But alas, that's where Arians went on Wednesday.
"We're on to Carolina," the Bucs coach told reporters.
It's not as catchy as "On to Cincinnati," but maybe it will lead to Brady torching the Panthers like he did to the Bengals back in 2014. Brady had a terrible game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football in Week 3 that season, tossing a pair of picks in a 41-14 New England loss. It prompted some questions about the quarterbacks future, which Belichick scoffed at.
That's when the coach threw out his famous response over and over and over again during one of his more entertaining press conferences.
The Patriots crushed the Bengals, 43-13, the following weekend on a pair of touchdown passes by Brady, and New England ended up winning the Super Bowl that season. We're a long way from finding out if Arians' line on Wednesday has a similar result, but we'll see if Brady has a better performance against the Panthers on Sunday.
As for his relationship with his new quarterback, Arians says it's just dandy and he really doesn't care what is being said by outsiders.
"Tom and I are fine so I do not really care what other people think,"Arians said Wednesday. "We left the stadium fine and we showed up fine so there ain't nothing to talk about."
Brady threw two costly interceptions in his Tampa Bay debut on Sunday, one of which was returned for a touchdown by the New Orleans Saints. The Buccaneers lost 34-23, and after the defeat, Arians put the blame for those picks on Brady. On Monday, he changed his tune and admitted that it was wide receiver Mike Evans who didn't make a proper read on Brady's first interception.
But Arians didn't want to chat about that come Wednesday, and moved on from those comments in a very Belichickian way.