Arians not speaking for Brady on 4th down mishap

TAMPA, Fla. — If Tom Brady lost track of what down it was on the final play of a failed comeback bid against the Chicago Bears, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback is keeping it to himself.

And coach Bruce Arians is steering clear of speaking for the six-time Super Bowl champion, whose fourth-down incompletion sealed the team’s fate in an errorfilled 20-19 loss at Soldier Field on Thursday night.

“I don’ t know how to answer it for him,” Arians said Friday, reflecting on Brady’s decision to try to move the Bucs closer to field goal range rather than attempt a shorter throw to pick up a first down on fourthand-6 from the TampaBay41.

“We all knew it was fourth down,” the coach added. “I think he saw what he saw.”

After the throw intended for tight end Cameron Brate was broken up by Bears safety DeAndre Houston-Carson, Brady raised four fingers in the air and appeared to be surprised Tampa Bay had turned over the ball on downs with 33 seconds remaining.

If the potential winning drive endedwith Brady mistakenly thinking he had another down to try to keep his team’s hopes alive, it wasn’t the only miscue on offense that affected the chances for what would have been a fourth consecutive win.

Brady was sacked three times and knocked down another eight by the Bears (4-1), who overcame three deficits to take the lead for good on Cairo Santos’ 38-yard field goal with 1:13 remaining. The Bucs also hurt themselves with a critical first-half fumble and accumulated 11 accepted penalties for 109 yards.

Arians, who on Thursday night initially said Brady knew it was fourth down, pinned the loss on poor coaching.

While Brady talked about the need to correct mistakes and eliminate turnovers and costly penalties, the 43-year-old quarterback did not say if he lost track of what down it was on Tampa Bay’s final offensive play.

“I knew weneeded a chunk and I was thinking about more yardage. It was just bad execution,” Brady said.

“You’re up against the clock. I knew we had to gain a chunk, so I should have been thinking more first down instead of chunk in that situation,” the quarterback responded when asked a second time about the final play.

The Bucs were the NFL’s most penalized team last season. They’re on course to rank among the league leaders again.

“Just gotta do a better job of coaching. It all falls on the staff — mistakes that we’re making in ballgames that shouldn’t be made,” Arians said. “And they’re not every week. That was one of those games where there were a bunch of them. Penalties, technique errors, things that we should have coached better .”