Tom Brady recently revealed what he feels is the Buccaneers biggest fault. Brady understands the Bucs will have to work on this to beat the Rams.
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Tom Brady is referring to the deep ball game. Brady is by no means the best deep passer in the league, but he knows he must work on it.
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Tom Brady & Tampa Bay’s Deep Passing Game
How has Brady done throwing the ball deep this year? First, let’s define a deep pass as a pass that travels 20+ yards in the air.
Now that we know what a deep ball means, let’s look at how Brady has done in those passing situations. In the last three games, Brady has only hit on one of 13 total passes thrown over 20 yards.
Against the Panthers, Brady had Antonio Brown wide-open on a deep post in the first quarter, but Brady sailed the ball over his head. Further, for the year Brady is only averaging a mere 10.8 yards-per-completion, his lowest total since 2002.
This is what Brady had to say about his deep throws:
“Our guys are doing a great job getting down the field and it’s my job to find them and hit them. You know, if you don’t hit them, they’re just long foul balls and we had a few of those last game.”
Of course, the Bucs have no shortage of receivers for Brady to throw to, but that isn’t the whole story. Those receivers have been injured at various points in the season, and Antonio Brown just joined the squad.
Buccaneers vs. Rams
Brady knows he has to work on this issue ahead of a huge MNF matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. Brady also had a lot of praise for Aaron Donald:
“It’s amazing the production he has even when people are double-teaming him, triple-teaming him. He never lets down. He’s a hard-working guy. You can tell football means a lot to him. But he really sparks that whole defense.”
For context, here’s a stat to show you how dominant Donald has been:
The winner of this game only furthers their chances of making a deep postseason run. For the Bucs, they have to hope they can perform in another prime-time scenario. Their last showing under the lights was a 38-3 humiliation.
Perhaps it’s because of this that the Bucs held a practice at night-time. However, it still remains to be seen if Brady can fix his deep-passing issue.
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