Tom Brady Very Critical Of Himself, Entire Patriots Offense After Loss To Jets
BOSTON (CBS) -- Tom Brady does not like the New York Jets. The only thing he may dislike more than the New York Jets is losing to the New York Jets.
But on Sunday afternoon in New Jersey, Brady and the Patriots came up short, losing 30-27 in overtime. While the penalty call on a missed Jets field goal in overtime will be the main talking point coming out of the game, the fact that the game had even gotten to that point was already a loss for the Patriots.
The Patriots took a 21-10 lead into the locker room at halftime, but things turned sour offensively in the third quarter. Brady was sacked on the first play of the second half and threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown on the second play. Things remained ugly for the New England offense, which accumulated a grand total of negative-five yards in its first four possessions of the third quarter.
Brady, who had Rob Gronkowski back for the first time this season, eventually leveled out, but it was too little, too late, and the game headed to overtime.
Brady finished with a 47.8 percent completion percentage, 228 yards, no touchdowns and the interception, and after the game he was highly critical of the entire offense -- including himself.
"There's no excuses," Brady said. "We didn't play well. I've got to do a better job out there. That's what I need to do."
Brady said the team has been close plenty of times, but close doesn't cut it.
"We're close, and we're close a lot. We just gotta start making them -- from all of us," Brady said. "The ball has to be better thrown, everyone has to look at themselves and do a better job, because what we're doing right now isn't good enough. You come out of a game like this where we had one conversion on third down, and we have to do a better job all the way around. Everybody on offense has to look at what they need to do better and certainly make it a point of emphasis. It's got to be a strength for us going forward."
The Patriots failed to convert their first eight attempts on third down, finishing the day just 1-for-12 on third down.
"We haven't been good on third down all year. Obviously, that's a big problem," Brady said. "You can't stay on the field and help our defense out. We have to be better in all areas, but certainly we have to be better on third downs and in the red area."
The quarterback gave credit to the Jets' defense for applying pressure, being well-coached and not making anything easy, and he said the instance of Antonio Allen stepping up to make a play on that interception stood in contrast to what the Patriots weren't able to do on offense.
"He made the play. That's what it takes. It takes good plays, and he made it," Brady said. "And we had some opportunities where we had chances to make plays and we got guys, we gotta throw, we gotta catch it, we gotta run with it, and that's what our job on offense is to do. And the only way to score points is to do it consistently. But we're just not doing it consistently enough to march the ball down the field and put it in the end zone."
