We sports fans love to feel like we’re living in the present. Unlike music lovers that are tuning into a symphony written centuries ago or movie buffs that can recite an old film to you word for word because they’ve watched it so many times – sports fans are used to being anchored in the here and now.
While we may look back momentarily when we tune in to relive a famous play or sequence of plays, we tend to look forward more than rewatching last week’s game.
Yet what we have here, sports fans, is a rare exception: the Monday Night Wild Card game between the Buccaneers and Cowboys is must-watch football. If you missed it the first time, it’s crucial to watch it. If you watched it once, it’s crucial to rewatch it.
What’s one very inescapable reason you will want to see the entire game? Otherwise you are liable to analyze it off of the game stats, and the stats say that Brady threw more incompletions than he did in any other game. The stats will tell you that he completed only 35 of the 66 passes he threw in total.
This is just one example of how the game stats will underwhelm you. However, if you watch how Tom Brady handles himself throughout the game – how he relates to his coaches, still dialed in, still fully present, no matter what the score or any other number indicates, you will witness something very rare in sports.
On January 16th of 2023, Brady took the stage for what could be his final time. After the 31–14 game concluded, he walked off the field to join his mother and father and gave them both a kiss just a few moments before he headed off into the tunnel. Brady did what his team needed and put everything he had on the line. He was visibly playing his hardest even in the latter stages of the game, after you think that maybe he had already given his best in the earlier moments. He became the embodiment of tennis hall of famer’s Lindsey Davenport notable quote, “Champions always have something left.”
That separates Brady even from the players he faces that statistically have better games. In this case that was Dak Prescott. Prescott displayed the conviction of purpose and decisiveness he lacked in the season finale against the Washington Commanders. Prescott completed 62% of his passes while Brady finished at 53% overall in this game. Brady’s pass percentage, however, like many stats in this game, do not tell you the story of the game.
What we knew before kickoff
Pressure is something you feel when you do not know what you’re doing. Then you wouldn’t think that pressure would affect the Buccaneers very much. They are a very experienced team. On the other side, the Cowboys’ playoff woes are well-documented. Their showing in the season finale against the Washington Commanders was embarrassing. The pressure would be firmly on the Cowboys. “In football, the team that deserves it wins,” Brady tells anyone who cares to listen. He repeated that at the postgame press conference.
As commentator and former Cincinnati Bengals’ wide receiver, Cris Collinsworth, has the habit of saying, “sometimes you just need an old head.” However, this doesn’t reflect particularly well on the current roster as many think the Buccaneers have too many such players, to the point that it’s become a weakness of the team. Fans, and pundits alike, now believe that to be the Buccaneers’ achilles heel – their age. Tampa Bay has a roster chock full of veterans. That’s become a problem to many sports analysts lately. They feel these veterans’ best days are behind them and that the Buccaneers were sorely lacking a jolt of youth.
Health problems are liable to trouble players, regardless of their age. The news in that aspect was uplifting; the Bucs had their first team guys back before the face-off with the Cowboys. The talk around the Buccaneers was that they were finally healthy. When you looked up and down the roster, you spot many injured players back and the familiar names from the Super Bowl winning squad back on the slate. Chris Godwin had suffered an achilles injury, the kind of injury that necessitates a long recovery period. After so much time off, getting his sense of timing right with Brady’s could be a challenge but it’s one you would think they would have worked out before this pivotal game. Godwin sounded confident leading up to the game as he quipped, “Every time I get the ball I think I am going to score…”
How it played out
Brady’s lack of rhythm with his wideouts was a factor in the loss. The results of some of former offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich’s decision-making could really be felt as well. The offense in this game was a mirror image of the offense displayed throughout the season; for example, we would see a vertical “go” route with Chris Evans while Godwin runs a crossing route. The combinations are simple and lack creativity. Leonard Fournette, an integral factor on the Super Bowl winning team two years ago, did not spark the running game. He worked out in his “playoff Lennie” sweatshirt before the game, but the Cowboys’ defense made him look a step slow and he finished with only 11 yards on 5 carries.
Going into this game, Tom Brady had more playoff wins than the Cowboys do as a team.Brady struggled against Micah Parsons, against whom he was sacked once and completed only 2/8 passes. He threw his first red zone interception in over 400 pass attempts. His 53 QBR was the lowest since 2006. They call him the (GLA) greatest living American, but he is as human as any of us.
The stats likely gave the pundits fodder to claim that he should retire. He retired when he felt it was absolutely the right time; the announcement came on February 1st of 2023. Overall, Brady had a successful 2022 season with positive aspects to take away. For example, the Buccaneers were plagued by injuries but persevered and guaranteed fans one home playoff game. The game was a microcosm of the entire season. Brady remarked as much,
“Every once in a while you get lucky. This was typical of the way we played all season.”
The underperforming offensive line not only meant the running game was non-existent but that Tom Brady was often hurried. The inconsistent line translated to Brady’s discomfort in the pocket. At times he threw early or was just out of rhythm with his receivers. Even his favorite target, Mike Evans, went a different way than Tom intended a few times. On a play that would have made the comeback possible and within reach, a 50 yard pass attempt was barely out of the grasp of Evans. This was just another example of their timing being off. Brady encapsulated the Monday evening game when he said, “we came up short as a team.” Even with the players around him underperforming, Brady reminds us that greatness means staying humble and staying connected with your teammates no matter what events befall your crew. He showed perspective on the timeless nature of sports and camaraderie with his teammates when he said: “ (It’s) not the way we wanted to end it. But we didn’t deserve it.”
Looking to next season
The off season is not far away. After the Super Bowl is played and the reality that there is no more NFL football to watch this season sinks in, this is the game to be queued up and replayed. The time between Super Bowl weekend and training camp is the time when hunger pangs hit football fans hard. Even just watching the 4th quarter of this game separately is very rewarding because you get to see a legendary athlete fight for every single play, just oozing pride and love for the game of football.
You can find lots of stats showing Brady to be the greatest ever to play quarterback. You can also rewatch throws that result in touchdowns and big chunks of yards. But in this particular game, he showed how present he is – how he gives himself completely to the game he loves. Sports broadcasters everywhere love the moniker “goat.” And if you are looking for a way to explain the “great” part, look at Tom Brady communicate with his offense, showing urgency on every single down even when the scoreboard and shot clock indicated that nothing could change the inevitable outcome.
The headlines of this game will praise Dak and he was very effective. Watch this game yourself and you will see a laser focus by Tom Brady. an all-consuming love of this game that enables him to be engaged and present every moment of every play. So if at some point your kids ask you what made him great, what put that “G” in goat – of course, Super Bowl wins are hard to argue with, but there are immeasurables that take on a life of their own long after games, seasons and even careers are over. Those were on clear display one Monday night when the Buccaneers hosted the Cowboys in a Wild Card playoff game.
