When Tom Brady joined WEEI's Dennis and Callahan Show with Kirk Minihane and Gary Tanguay on Tuesday morning, he admitted that he was frustrated by his team's level of execution on Monday night. It led to some pretty fiery outbursts caught by ESPN's television cameras.
Asked about one particular exchange with teammates -- who weren't pictured -- Brady said he couldn't recall who he was talking to.
"I was pretty agitated all night," he said with a laugh. "For three hours and 20 minutes I was pretty agitated . . . When you're the quarterback, and you see things, you want to try to create some urgency and get into the game and start tightening things up."
According to Pro Football Focus, the Patriots allowed Brady to be pressured (sacked, hit or hurried) 23 times on 40 drop-backs in New England's 20-13 win over the Bills. The Patriots had several moving parts on the offensive line which may have had something to do with the breakdowns in protection.
Brady chalked those plays up to miscommunication.
"I think our execution, I said after the game, was a problem for us all night," he said. "Those were things that were self-inflicted that I know we're capable of doing because we've done it all year. And for one reason or another last night, we just couldn't get the communication right and we just weren't on the same page.
"They put a lot of pressure on. I think the challenging part about that type of defense is they test you in a lot of ways. They test your protections, they test you in the run game, they test you with different blitz looks and so forth. That's kind of the mark of their defense. If you really don't nail it to a 't', they get a lot of free plays. I think there was a lot of free plays where I basically took the ball and I tried to throw it away as fast as I could because for one reason or another . . . Like I said, our communication between all of us needs to improve so that we can have the confidence to stand in there and make the plays when they're there, make the reads and so forth."
New England Patriots
Of Brady's 19 incompletions on Monday, several of those were plays when he didn't even attempt to complete the pass. Whether it was because he was trying to avoid a sack, or whether he was looking to avoid a deflection, a turnover or a negative play, he simply threw it into the turf.
He explained that while he was forced to do that more than he would've liked, sometimes that's the best decision.
"Ultimately the quarterback position is making the best play possible based on the circumstances of the play," Brady said. "Throwing the ball away is sometimes a very good play based on your other options. You obviously don't want to go into the play and say, 'This one I'm going to get ready and throw it into the dirt.' But if you're looking out there and there's nothing to be gained by trying to throw the ball into tight coverage then you don't do it.
"When you're behind and you're trying to make some sort of play, there's a risk-reward element to the quarterback position. 'Do I squeeze it in there for a four-yard gain? Maybe I'll try to squeeze it in there for a 40-yard gain, but not a four-yard gain.' If they're kind of bearing down on you in the pass rush and no one's really separating in their coverage, rather than take a seven-yard sack, buy a little time and just try to put it at someone's feet.
"We did that probably more than we wanted to last night. Those plays are certainly avoidable, on a lot of the occasions I don't think our communication was very good. But if that's the best play to be made, then that's what you gotta do as a quarterback. You guys know me, I don't care about passer rating or any of that. I want to win, and I want to help our team win, and I want to make the best decisions I can to help us win. If that's throwing it away 40 times to win, then I'll throw it away 40 times."
Here are a few other highlights from Brady's weekly radio interview . . .
On how he tries to absorb hits in order to keep from getting injured: "I don't think you really want to resist some of those collisions. I think over the years you just kind of go with it. Whenever you get hit, just try to use . . . don't really fight back so to speak. Hopefully that keeps you from any serious serious injuries back there. We're all football players, we all get banged up a little bit. It's part of the season."
On the inadvertent whistle and how it may have negated a big play: "I'm not sure how much [Amendola would] have gained. The whistle blew and the [Bills] kind of stopped. I think the refs make mistakes too. It's just one of those things. They're not perfect. We're not perfect as players. I know they get a lot of criticism and so forth, but that crew is a good crew. We've had them a lot, and those things happen. We gotta figure out a way to overcome it. It was still a very positive play for us, we gained a lot of yards. We just didn't do much when we got down into their territory."
On not meeting with GQ for their Man of the Year interview, instead opting for a phone conversation with the magazine: "I didn't think twice about it. It was just right in the middle of the football season. I think ultimately there was a miscommunication between the person that was in contact with them. There was just a miscommunication that's all."
On if he met with ESPN as part of the production meetings before the game: "I did meet with Monday Night Football play-by-play man Mike [Tirico]. The production meeting is always pretty important. You develop a relationship with those guys. And Mike's a Michigan man so I like Mike a lot."
On his "Rex Ryan" call at the line of scrimmage in the first quarter: "We do a lot of communication at the line of scrimmage. There's different ways to communicate lots of different things in the protections, the play calls, the runs, the 'mike' points. Sometimes you use their name because you're playing them that week. We had some other names we could've used on other plays as they relate to the Buffalo Bills. It's just part of the verbal communication that goes on. The last thing I'm trying to do in the middle of the first quarter is tweak Rex. I don't need to do that."