Tom Brady called on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to improve after he equalled an NFL record by moving to 11-0 in his career meetings with the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday.
Brady shook off a shoulder injury to help the Bucs to go 3-2 for the season with a 21-15 home win over their NFC South rivals, cutting a two-game losing streak.
The 45-year-old's 11th straight win against Atlanta saw him equal the record for most wins by a quarterback without losing against a single NFL opponent, matching John Elway's 11-0 return against the New England Patriots and Andrew Luck's perfect record against the Tennessee Titans.
Speaking after the win, however, Brady said he was simply focused on halting the Bucs' alarming slide following recent defeats to the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs.
"Yeah, it's obviously tough to lose straight at home, right? And we didn't deserve it, but that's football, you've got to earn it," Brady said.
"There's no easy games, you've got to play good. Certainly, five games in, we've got a lot of work to do.
"We need a lot of people to step up. We've got to get people out there, healthy, playing consistently, we've got to keep practicing, make the corrections and continue to improve."
Brady threw 52 passes throughout Sunday's game, completing 35 for 351 yards and a touchdown.
However, the Bucs were pegged back after storming into a 21-0 lead, and Brady acknowledged they failed to maintain their standards in the second half, adding: "We just had a lot of three and outs, we just weren't very good.
"Bad execution and it wasn't our best in the second half. We've got to learn from it and get better."
Brady was aided by a questionable roughing the passer call against Atlanta's Grady Jarrett late on, when a third-down sack would have given Atlanta the ball with a chance to steal victory late on.
But the Bucs star was unwilling to get involved in debates surrounding the controversial call, simply stating: "I don't throw the flags."
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