For a second straight week, an unexpected road loss and a struggling offense has Tom Brady and Tampa Bay Buccaneers searching for answers.
The preseason NFC South favourites dropped to 3-4 following Sunday’s 21-3 defeat to a Carolina Panthers team that was starting a third-string quarterback, while being led by an interim head coach.
The Brady-led offence failed to produce a touchdown one week after not reaching the end zone until late in the fourth quarter of a 20-18 loss to the-then 1-4 Pittsburgh Steelers.
"It’s still there," said Brady of Tampa Bay’s need to self-evaluate. "We talked about execution the other day and it still comes up. I think we all just need to do our job better.
"There’s no easy way about it. They’re trying to keep us from doing our job, we’re trying to do it, and they’re doing a better job than we are. Anytime you score three points, that pretty much sums it up."
Though the Bucs still reside in a first-place tie in what’s been a weak NFC South thus far, they’ve now lost four of their past five games to place Brady in a spot he’s rarely been in during his storied 23-year career. The future Hall of Fame quarterback hasn’t been under .500 seven games into the season since the 2002 New England Patriots started 3-4, and he’s never had a losing record at any time after eight games.
"We’re not playing well," head coach Todd Bowles admitted. "We’re not playing well as individuals, we’re not playing well as a team, we’re not coaching it well. All the way around – we’re not scoring enough on offence and we’re not stopping them enough on defence.
"We have to wear this on our sleeve. They’ve got to be grown men. We’re going to see what we’re made of, (see) how many people can handle adversity, and this is about as dark as it’s going be right now."
While a defence that’s now gone three straight games without forcing a turnover and surrendered 173 rushing yards to the Panthers has played in a role in Tampa Bay’s tough stretch, much of the focus has been centred around the offence’s continued problems to consistently generate points. The Bucs were held under 20 points for the fourth time this season in Sunday’s loss; they scored fewer than 20 only three times while going 13-4 and earning the NFC’s second seed in 2021.
"We’re plenty capable of making plays, we’re just not making them consistently enough to score points," said Brady, who’s averaged a mere 6.0 yards per pass attempt during the current two-game losing streak. "We make a big play, make a bad play, make a big play, make a bad play. In football that’s just not good enough.
"You can’t play like that. You’ve got to string enough good plays together to get the ball into the red area and score points."
With a Thursday night home game against Baltimore next on the schedule, the Buccaneers will have a short time to try to find solutions to their current problems.
"We’re going to see what we have going forward," said Bowles. "See how many crumble in the dark and see how many people step up and start playing better, and start coaching better."
Warren Gatland ‘no idea’ if Louis Rees-Zammit will return to rugby after NFL bid
Wales boss Warren Gatland admits he has “no idea” if Louis Rees-Zammit will play rugby union again following his switch to American football.
While Wales prepare for a Guinness Six Nations opener against Scotland, Rees-Zammit will be concentrating on the NFL’s International Player Pathway in the hope of forging a gridiron career.
His move to the United States with immediate effect has left Wales and his club Gloucester without a box-office wing, whose try-scoring ability thrilled crowds on domestic, European and international stages.
Rees-Zammit’s rugby union career comes to a halt after winning 32 Wales caps and a World Cup campaign in France when he scored five tries.
Asked if the 22-year-old would come back to rugby one day, Gatland said: “No idea. There aren’t a lot of people who make it in the NFL who haven’t been brought up with the game and played it at a young age.
“There is probably not a lot of difference with rugby league players (trying to play union). Unless you have been brought up playing union, some are able to make it, but very few.
“So it is going to be a challenge for him, but good luck to him.
“We saw Christian Wade (ex-Wasps and England wing) do it, and if you look at rugby league, there was Jarryd Hayne from Australia who had a few games but wasn’t really able to crack it.
“Christian got quite close to doing it. He was a bit older, though. Louis sees it as an opportunity at his age, and if he doesn’t take that chance now it probably won’t come around again.
“We are disappointed to lose a talent like him, but we’ve just got to take that on the chin, move on and focus on the rest of the squad.
“The last thing I can do is dwell on losing him, because the focus has got to be on preparing the squad for the first game.”
Gatland believes that American football will see a player who is “a bit of a freak as an athlete” and someone who is still developing in the sporting arena.
“I thought he was outstanding in the World Cup,” Gatland added. “The pleasing thing for me was that he hardly missed a training session and he was playing well.
“He is probably a bit of a freak as an athlete. He is a freak physically and he gets a chance to challenge himself.
“He has obviously been a big fan (of the NFL) as a youngster and he has got a very high profile away from the game in terms of social media, so this probably helps him enhance that. I am not saying that is a negative at all.”
Another player who will not be part of Wales’ Six Nations squad is 21-year-old Exeter wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso.
Cardiff-born Feyi-Waboso qualifies for Wales and England, but he is believed to have been involved in a recent England alignment camp organised by head coach Steve Borthwick.
He could now be named in Borthwick’s Six Nations squad, which is announced on Wednesday.
Gatland said: “I didn’t personally speak to him. Mike Forshaw (Wales defence coach) had a conversation with him and he had expressed that he wanted to go down the English route, so good luck to him with that.
“He has definitely got some talent, there is no doubt about it. He is as green as anything.
“He has obviously had an approach from England, and he has decided to take that path.”
Belichick and Brady 'needed each other', says former Patriots safety Harmon
Former New England Patriots safety Duron Harmon has credited Bill Belichick with helping Tom Brady become the greatest player in NFL history, saying the legendary duo "needed each other".
Belichick and the Patriots parted ways last week, bringing an end to one of the most remarkable coaching tenures in league history.
The 71-year-old led the Patriots for 24 seasons, overseeing 18 playoff visits and taking the team to nine Super Bowls, winning six of those showpiece games with the most recent coming in 2019.
However, New England missed the playoffs in three of their last four seasons under Belichick, prompting team owner Robert Kraft to replace his long-serving coach with former linebackers coach Jerod Mayo.
Some have suggested Belichick's failure to win a Super Bowl without Brady diminishes his achievements somewhat, with the coach's overall NFL record without the quarterback standing at 85-102, but Harmon does not subscribe to that view.
"I think both those guys are motivated by one thing; being the best they can each and every day," Harmon – who played for Belichick's Patriots between 2013 and 2019 – told Stats Perform.
"Tom's job would be to be the best quarterback and rally his team. Bill's job was to be the best head coach and rally his team as well, and to make sure the coaches understand his vision so they can pass it to the players and put the best product on the field.
"It's easy to try to put those two against each other, but I think at the end of the day, they needed each other.
"They understand that they couldn't have accomplished what they accomplished in New England without each other.
"I think there's a great amount of respect that they have for each other. I'm still grateful and appreciative that I got to be around the greatest quarterback and the greatest head coach of all time."
Brady did manage to win one more title after he and Belichick parted ways in 2020, collecting his seventh ring by leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to glory at Super Bowl LV.
Harmon does not believe Brady was motivated by a desire to prove he could succeed without Belichick, saying: "I truly don't believe he needs any extra motivation.
"This guy wanted to be the best player that he can be every day, whether it was with the Buccaneers, whether it was with the Patriots, he just wants to get the best out of himself every day.
"I don't think it was, 'I want to prove I could do this without Bill', I think more so it was just him going to Tampa and doing what he does.
"The thing that people don't realise, and I know Tom was always a great competitor, but the cultural style that came from Bill to him is what I believe gave him that extra motivation, that extra push to make Tom truly who he is.
"As a young player, when he first took from Drew Bledsoe [in 2001], it was a very veteran-based team, so he wanted to gain the respect of not only the players, but also Bill Belichick.
"Bill pushed him as best he could to be the best that he could be, and in the end, he became the best ever."
Having won three Super Bowls in six years in New England, Harmon is uniquely placed to offer an insight into the relationship between Belichick and Brady at the height of the Patriots' dominance.
"It was like yin and yang. It was Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson. Kobe Bryant, Phil Jackson," he recalled.
"I was fortunate enough to be captain one year with the Patriots and saw how they interacted in the captains' meeting and how they were always on the same page.
"There were times when Bill got on Tom in front of everybody, and it wasn't to demean Tom, but it was to let everybody know that there is a standard in this organisation, it doesn't matter who you are, whether you're the best player or you're the last guy on the practice squad.
"Seeing those guys work together allowed me to see what that head coach-quarterback partnership is supposed to look like at the highest level."
Wayne Rooney unhappy as Birmingham are held by Rotherham
Wayne Rooney said his Birmingham squad need to show improvements as he was left frustrated by a “very bad” performance against Rotherham in the Sky Bet Championship as the Blues were held to a 0-0 draw.
Rooney and Birmingham were booed off the pitch after failing to defeat a struggling Rotherham side still winless on the road this season, with minority owner Tom Brady in attendance.
Rooney admitted it was not a good game and his side were fortunate to come away with a point.
“I thought we started the game really well for 20 minutes,” Rooney said.
“But we got sloppy, we got slow, and we created a lot of our own problems.
“We were probably fortunate in the end to come away with a point.
“A lot of things we need to address, basics of the game like heading the ball, it was not there today.”
On whether the current crop of players are good enough, he added: “Today was a really frustrating day.
“My job is to improve them as players so in the next six months we hope there will be changes because you want to bring players in and players will leave.
“It’s important we don’t get carried away we do have a lot of good players but today we should win that game.
“That’s an accountability the players need to understand.”
Rooney believed his team did not win the game because of complacency after a positive start.
“We haven’t won the game because we got complacent,” he said.
“I felt in the first 20 minutes we (found) it easy to get into their final third so the players then felt the game was a bit too easy for them.
“They get sloppy and forget to do the right things.”
Rooney also spoke of the presence of Brady at the game and at the training ground during the week, adding: “Tom was around all the players, and it was great to have him over.
“He was speaking to players individually, so the more he is here the better it is for us.”
Rotherham caretaker boss Wayne Carlisle felt the Millers deserved more than a point.
“I’m pleased with the performance but I’m slightly disappointed that we didn’t come out with the three points,” Carlisle said.
“We wanted a reaction after the Hull game (4-1 loss) and the boys rolled their sleeves up and gave a real Rotherham United performance.
“I’m delighted we were creating changes away from home and putting ourselves in these positions but disappointed we were not taking them.”
Carlisle said this result and the draw with Leeds last weekend can be a building block for his side and that he has a job to do until a new manager is appointed.
“I’ve got a job to do, my most important job is keeping the guys together and now it’s to try and win games of football until someone tells me I’m not doing it”, he added.
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