Everything looked so easy for Tom Brady on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers opening drive. Brady led his new team 85 yards down the field, capping it off with a two-yard touchdown run. After that, it went downhill for the Bucs' with their next four drives ending in a punt, an interception, a blocked field goal, and another punt. The Bucs trailed the New Orleans Saints 17-7 going into halftime.
The second half didn't start much better as Brady threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown, giving the Saints a commanding 24-7 lead. Brady bounced back and led the Bucs to the endzone less than a minute later and brought his team with ten points of the Saints. The Patriots added a field goal to make it a one-possession game going into the fourth quarter.
In previous years, fans would have expected to see Brady lead his team to victory in the final minutes, just like he had done 36 times before with the New England Patriots. On Sunday, there was no comeback for Brady and the Bucs as they lost their opening week match-up to their division rivals by a score of 34-23.
Brady finished the day completing 23 of 26 passes for 239 yards. He threw two interceptions to go with two passing touchdowns and one rushing score. He was also sacked three times. After the game, Brady said the Bucs were done in by the turnovers and bad penalties.
"Three turnovers," Brady said. "They didn't have any. We had penalties, they didn't have many."
Brady said that he needed to do better and took the blame for both interceptions.
"It doesn't matter how much talent you have if you throw interceptions returned for touchdowns," Brady added.
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