Tom Brady was thoroughly discouraged with the New England Patriots’ offensive performance Sunday in Philadelphia.
His main gripe? Missed opportunities.
During their 17-10 victory over the Eagles, the Patriots gained 7 and 5 yards on two drives that began at their own 48-yard line and settled for field goals on series that started on Philadelphia’s 48 and 22. New England scored just one touchdown in the win — a Julian Edelman-to-Phillip Dorsett double pass on the opening drive of the second half — and punted on its final six possessions.
“We’re 9-1,” Brady told Jim Gray during an appearance on Westwood One Radio’s “Monday Night Football” pregame show. “Our defense is playing great. Our special teams units are playing great. They’re keeping us in every game. And offensively, I’ve said we’ve got to take advantage when we get opportunities in short fields. We had a few of those (Sunday) and really didn’t, and those are the ones that probably frustrate me the most.
“… I think when you get the ball on the 50-yard line a couple of times and don’t do anything with it, those are the frustrating ones. It’s one thing when you’re backed up on your own 5-yard line all day — and we haven’t had many of those — but there are some times that we’re getting great field position, the defense is putting us in great field position, and we’re not taking advantage of our opportunities.”
The quarterback’s frustration showed in his postgame news conference, which lasted less than two minutes before a visibly unhappy Brady walked off the podium. Speaking with Gray one day later, Brady said the Patriots have discussed ways of improving their offense, which has scored just three touchdowns in the team’s last two games and punted 13 times during that span.
That offense, Brady believes, has yet to reach its full potential.
“It’s just part of how our season has gone,” Brady said. “There’s a lot of things we talk about internally — things that we see that we need to do to continue to try to improve, which I would obviously not say that publicly. I don’t want to give our opponents any type of advantage. We’re going to have to just execute better than we did and better than we have.”
