The Buccaneers lost on a late field goal – by a former Bucs kicker to make matters worse – and fell to 3-2 on the season with a 20-19 loss to the Chicago Bears. There was plenty of blame to go around on both sides of the ball, and also by the coaching staff.
Here is our weekly list of the most disappointing Bucs from Thursday night.
QB Tom Brady
This selection undoubtably will cause a lot of debate, as it did with our staff following the game, but at the end of the night Brady failed to deliver a win against a team that the Bucs should have beaten.
First of all, his coaches did him no favors. Byron Leftwich called possibly his worst game in his 21-game career as offensive coordinator. The last two drives were as bad of a series of play calls as we have seen since former Movie Smith O.C. Marcus Arroyo was on the headset. His offensive line looked discombobulated for almost the entire second half, and head coach Bruce Arians couldn’t decide if he wanted to risk it, or forgo the biscuit for a slice of plain Wonder Bread.
But as far as Brady’s responsibility in the loss, his decision making on the last drive was that of a rookie and not a 20-year veteran quarterback. His first pass of the last drive was a first down completion to Mike Evans, but his next pass for Evans was wildly off target. On third down, his pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski was off target and could have been picked off, and his fourth down pass to Cameron Brate was just a poor decision when needing only five yards.
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