Tom Brady wasn’t too pleased with the Patriots’ performance after Sunday’s 23-16 win in Jacksonville, and that discontent doesn’t seem to be dissipating.
Brady, during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Morning Show, spoke at length about unnecessary mistakes that have cost the Patriots over the past two weeks.
“I think just the self-inflicted errors. That’s the biggest problem,” Brady said. “It’s the things that we’ve shown that we’re capable of doing and that we just don’t do on a consistent basis. If the defense makes a good play, they make a good play, but there was just a few too many times yesterday that we could’ve done something better that we just didn’t really handle as well as we’re capable of.”
Brady’s frustration is understandable, given the Patriots’ “lucky” win against the Jaguars, but he also wasn’t very happy with the way he performed either. Brady threw multiple interceptions and saw the Patriots dig themselves an early deficit for a second-consecutive game. The Patriots were able to rebound quicker this Sunday, but Brady knows his recent turnover streak can’t continue.
“The turnovers hurt,” Brady said. “We had two turnovers in the first quarter (Sunday), those definitely hurt. When we don’t turn the ball over, we’re pretty good. When we turn it over, we’re not very good. We’ve got to do a better job protecting the football and certainly I’ve got to do a better job protecting the football.”
As for the playoff picture, the Patriots’ future is still very much up in the air. Depending on a number of outcomes this coming weekend, the Patriots have an opportunity to take any of the top-four seeds in the AFC. Brady understands the situation, but he appears far more focused on correcting issues with his own team than who they’ll be facing come playoff time.
“I would just love to just go out there and play our best football here and beyond,” Brady said. “I don’t care who we play or where we play or when we play or the time or the place or the opponent, it’s about us, and we’ve lost four games this year, and we were pretty capable of winning all four of those games. If it wasn’t for some of our mistakes that we made, we could’ve. I’m sure a lot of teams could say that too.”
The Patriots definitely have some things to fix before reaching the postseason, but Brady’s confidence in his team remains sky-high.
“I have a lot of confidence in our team and what we’re doing. I just hope that our best football is still ahead of us,” Brady added.
The Patriots have some work left to be done, but if Brady’s demeanor is any indicator then they’ll have those mistakes fixed come January.
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