In his 21-year NFL career in which he has become the most successful player of all time, Tom Brady has probably experienced everything the sport has to offer.
However, the 43-year-old showed he is still human on Thursday night, as he misjudged a key play late on which proved costly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In the fourth quarter of the Buccaneers game against the Chicago Bears, trailing 20-19 with just 1:13 left, Brady got the ball back and attempted to lead his side to a game-winning score, something he has become very accustomed to doing – he had led 59 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime, the most by any NFL quarterback since the AFL merger.
Having moved down the field, with just over 30 seconds remaining, on third-and-six, a pass sailed over the fingertips of tight end Rob Gronkowski. On fourth-and-six, Brady could not connect with tight end Cameron Brate.
After the ball had hit the turf and Bears got the ball back enabling them to see out the win, TV cameras panned to Brady showing four fingers to the Buccaneers sideline, appearing to suggest that he thought he had one more play left.
Brady walked back to the bench visibly frustrated, slammed his helmet a few times on the ground before leaving the field as the Bears ran out the clock in victory.
When asked if Brady knew it was fourth down, Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians said: “Yeah, he knew.”
Brady’s own explanation didn’t shed much light on the situation. “You’re up against the clock … I knew we had to gain a chunk so I should have been thinking more first down instead of chunk,” he told the media afterwards.
“I didn’t really see that,” Tampa Bay running back Ronald Jones II said. “I think we knew the down and distance. We were just looking – it looked like it was a bad call. It could have went the other way.”
Having been able to hold on to the victory, the Bears moved to 4-1 on the season while it was the Buccaneers’ second defeat of the season.
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Super Bowl rematch
There aren’t many NFL quarterbacks that can say they have never lost to Brady.
Chicago Bears quarterback Nick Foles though, after his 243 passing yards and one passing touchdown led the Bears to victory, has a 2-0 record over the NFL legend.
The pair’s last meeting came at Super Bowl LII where Foles, standing in for the injured Carson Wentz, produced one of the Super Bowl’s finest performances to help the Philadelphia Eagles outscore Brady’s New England Patriots and win the team’s first title.
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Thursday’s game was the first game in NFL history where two quarterbacks that started against each other in a Super Bowl would face off again as starters with both quarterbacks being on different teams.
After 19 years with the Patriots, Brady joined the Buccaneers earlier this year whereas Foles was traded to the Bears from the Jacksonville Jaguars in March.
