All of the focus on the controversial ending to the Patriots-Panthers game from Monday night has surrounded the officials. But it appears Tom Brady deserves some of the blame as well.
While Luke Kuechly was busy wrapping up Rob Gronkowski in the back of the end zone, Brady threw a pass that fell about five yards short of his tight end, allowing Panthers safety Robert Lester to make the easy interception. The underthrown pass was the officials’ reasoning for picking up the flag on the play, claiming that it was “uncatchable.” Brady accepted responsibility for his role in the play, admitting that he should have made a better throw.
“I didn’t really want to throw it over his head and out of bounds, so I was a little indecisive.” Brady said after the 24-20 loss. “It wasn’t a great throw. No excuses. It should have been a better throw.”
Brady refused to make any excuses after the loss, and his Patriots teammates followed suit. The quarterback’s initial reaction to the final play was to berate the officials for what he clearly deemed to be a missed call. After the game, Brady changed his tune a bit, though, acknowledging that the ending was unfortunate but accepting that there were many other factors that led to the Patriots’ third loss of the season.
“I wish it wouldn’t have come down to that,” Brady said. “I think there are plenty of plays we could have made. But it did, and they are going to make a call or they are not going to make a call. We can play better than that.”
The Patriots will have to fix things and quickly. Brady and the Patriots will welcome Peyton Manning and the Broncos to New England this weekend for a Sunday Night Football showdown. The short week has the Patriots at a slight disadvantage, meaning they’ll have to put the Panthers’ loss behind them and start focusing on Denver.
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