Tom Brady, Bucs hoping to carry Rams victory into rest of season

With 13 seconds remaining and Tampa Bay trying to steal away a victory from the Los Angeles Rams this past Sunday, the fire could be seen lighting up in Tom Brady’s eyes.

“It’s important for us,” said Brady, who would lead the Bucs down the field in 44 seconds to defeated the Rams 16-13. “We just had not played the way were were capable and some things had kinda not really gone our way.”

That fire had been missing.

The Bucs were losing, Brady was in the middle of a not-so-private divorce with his supermodel wife and the Tampa Bay season was bobbing in the wake.

The last time we saw Brady, he was sitting at his locker in Raymond James Stadium after having lost a Thursday night game against the Baltimore Ravens. His elbows were on his knees, head in his hands and he looked to be in desparate need of consoling. Backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert took care of that, coming to his friend’s aid and sitting with him the rest of the time the locker room was open to the media.

He needed Gabbert that night. On Sunday he needed Bucs fans. They had started to turn as the Bucs once again fell behind, this time to the Rams, and it appeared Brady and the Bucs were headed toward their fourth straight loss.

Fans shouted:

“You shoulda stayed retired, Brady.”

“Go back to New England.”

And even, “Put in Kyle Trask,” a reference to the Bucs backup quarterback and former Florida Gator.

Brady likely couldn’t hear the noise from the hecklers, nor did he listen. Brady had a job to do trailing 13-9 — drive the ball 60 yards in 44 seconds to win this game.

Not only was the end zone 60 yards away, but so too, it seemed, was the rest of the Bucs’ season. A loss to the Rams would have dropped them to 3-6 and a last-place tie in the NFC South, not a good spot to be in with the playoffs in mind.

Two years ago they were Super Bowl champs. Now they were floundering in mediocrity.

During the game, Brady surpassed the 100,000-yard mark for passing. He didn’t care about that.

Just wins, baby.

No. 12 went into Tom Brady mode. We had seen it so many times in the past and suddenly it was back. Three straight complete passes inside 28 seconds remaining had the Bucs in the red zone and a penalty flag on the next play stoked that Brady fire.

End zone pass interference on the Rams’ Derion Kendrick.

Brady spun quickly toward the sideline and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and signaled the play. Leftwich agreed. Then Brady hit tight end Cade Otton, just like he used to connect with Rob Gronkowski — for the 1-yard, game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds left.

“By and I have a great relationship so we talk about it a lot.” Brady said of Leftwich. “I thought I liked that play and I went over and told By, and he was like, ‘Yes, go for it.’ "

He went for it. Celebration ensued. Season saved. For now.

“[Expletive] awesome … that was awesome,” Brady said in the postgame interview room. “We needed it, we got it, we fought to the end.”

That’s what could be expected of the Bucs the rest of the season, to fight until the end.

“That’s why we play,” Brady said, “to get out there and win and give it all we got.”

Backup nose tackle Deadrin Senat summed it up quite succinctly.

“It means everything for us,” said the former FSU star. “We hadn’t won in a couple of weeks. … I’m just happy for the way the D-line played and this is stack one. We stack one win at a time each week and we can continue to move on. The guys did their thing on all levels.

“And Tom Brady is a great leader. One of the best leaders I have ever had and I feel like he does his thing day in and day out. I’m very, very grateful to be part of this team with him and experience this with him. I’m just happy to start winning and see him perform with it.”

The Bucs (4-5) have eight games left starting with a game in Germany against Seattle on Sunday. There is plenty of time left for Tampa to turn this thing around.

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from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/4UF72Gc