Tom Brady needed to step up for the Bucs, but was outplayed by Dallas’ Dak Prescott

In what could become the last game of his 23-year NFL career, Tom Brady just wasn’t Tom Brady.

Instead of the cool-headed quarterback and seven-time Super Bowl winner, NFL fans, pundits and even Brady himself seemed stunned as he threw 31 incompletions and one interception in Monday’s 31-14 playoff loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Dallas Cowboys visitors.

In Brady’s place, the role of a seasoned and unflappable NFL quarterback was played by Dallas’ Dak Prescott, who threw for four touchdowns and completed 25 of 33 passes for 305 yards. As a result, it’s Prescott and the Cowboys who advance to a divisional round matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, while Brady, a soon-to-be free agent, must ponder his future in Tampa and the NFL.

“I’m going to go home and get a good night’s sleep, the best I can tonight,” Brady said when asked about his future. “It’s just been a great focus in this game. It will only be one day at a time, really.

Officially, the Buccaneers quarterback was credited with just one interception in Monday’s loss. But things could have been a lot worse for the future Hall of Famer. Dallas dropped another potential interception in the end zone, which had Brady on edge for much of the Wildcard game.

The result itself was not that impressive. After all, the 8-9 Bucs qualified for the playoffs playing in the lowly NFC South, which failed to produce a single winning team in 2022.

Truth be told, Monday’s game in Tampa may have seemed like a repeat to the Bucs faithful, who have witnessed this battered team underperform for much of the year.

“Not the way we wanted to end it,” Brady said after losing his first game to Dallas in eight career games. “Something typical of the way we played all season.”

For the game, Brady completed 35 of 66 passes for 351 yards, including two second-half touchdowns to Julio Jones Cameron Brate. He was sacked twice and threw a costly interception in the end zone for the second time in his career.

He was ridiculed after a teammate’s fumble, when Brady was seen attempting a sliding tackle to bring down a Dallas defender. Fortunately, the rotation was reversed by officials.

“Trying to get a red card so I can get off the field,” one fan quipped.

What was strange, particularly to anyone who has followed Michigan’s skinny sixth-round pick over the past two decades, was the schism between Brady and his receivers.

During the better part of 20 seasons in New England and three more in Tampa, Brady had an almost supernatural connection with his teammates. He was famous for inviting friends and colleagues like Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski to do off-season work to fix his time, while other league stars worked on their summer tans.

But after Gronkowski’s second retirement in 2022 and various injuries to Bucs receivers like Julio Jones, Brady failed to dismantle defenses like he once did in 2022.

He still threw for nearly 5,000 yards in 2022, but his touchdown passes have dropped from 43 in 2021 to just 25 this season. Meanwhile, the Bucs’ offense dropped to 15th in the NFL after finishing second the year before.

Brady even broke his own league record for completions in a season and ranked third in passing yards behind Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, but Tampa Bay finished 25th in scoring at 18.4 points per game and never won more than two in a row.

Now Brady heads into the offseason weighing his future in Tampa and the NFL.

He briefly retired after being knocked out of the playoffs last season, only to reverse course 40 days later, a decision that reportedly contributed to his divorce from supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Brady’s comeback was unsuccessful, but that doesn’t preclude another comeback. Yes, he’ll be 46 next season, but there are more than enough teams in the NFL that see themselves as contenders with Brady at the center.

Whether or not he agrees with that assessment, or chooses to start his impending television career, is anyone’s guess.

“It’s always tough,” Brady said of his disappointment. But we don’t earn it. They did it.’

Meanwhile, Prescott looked like Brady as he dismantled the Bucs’ defense.

The 29-year-old threw the first of his two touchdown passes to Dalton Schultz to get the Cowboys going, then scored Brady’s first red zone interception since 2019 as he finished a 15-play, 80-yard drive surrounding the far left. for a 1-yard TD run on fourth down.

The Dallas quarterback extended the lead to 18-0 with an 11-yard TD pass to Schultz, then threw 2-yards to Michael Gallup for a 24-point lead early in the third quarter. It could have been 28-0 if Maher hadn’t lost all four extra points.

Prescott’s final touchdown pass, an 18-yard pass to CeeDee Lamb, put the Cowboys up 31-6 with 10:13 remaining.

For the Cowboys, a playoff win may have seemed like a lot to expect earlier in the season.

Dallas rebounded from a 19-3 loss to Tampa Bay in Week 1, overtaking Prescott who was sidelined for five weeks with a broken right thumb he suffered in that game to look like a Super Bowl contender for the most part. it’s from the season.

Prescott, however, entered the playoffs riding a career-worst seven-game interception streak and was returned a touchdown pick in three of the last four games, including an ugly 26-6 loss to Washington. in the regular season finale.

But when it mattered most, it was Prescott who stood his ground Monday.

“It just shows that he’s resilient,” Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons said. The light is different in Dak. I think criticism is unfair and unfair sometimes. But the way that he handles it, the way that he comes back every time and shows who he really is, is a credit to the work that he does. He makes us keep believing every time.