Are Tom Brady and the Buccaneers even a playoff team? | You Pod to Win the Game
Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson and Frank Schwab discuss Tampa Bay’s shocking loss to the depleted and struggling Steelers. Tom Brady continues to yell and scream at his teammates. Is this what TB12 came back for? Does Brady regret his decision to return? If the Bucs weren’t in the NFC South would they have a shot at the postseason? Hear the full conversation on the You Pod to Win the Game podcast. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
CHARLES ROBINSON: You have Tom Brady and Tampa just straight up dumping against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They lose 20 to 18. And I know that that score, you're going to listen to the score, and you're going to say, well, it's not that bad. I mean, look, it's a bad Pittsburgh team there a week ago, just you want to put them out of their misery.
FRANK SCHWAB: And a bad-- by the way, a bad Pittsburgh team without Minkah Fitzpatrick, TJ Watt, and their top three cornerbacks. OK?
CHARLES ROBINSON: Yeah. I mean, everything about it is-- you got Brady yelling at his offensive line. I think I know the exact player he was yelling at because there were a couple really bad moments in the game where Brady either got decked or the line just completely had a catastrophic failure. And I swear to God, it was center. If you watch the center play, it is not great. And I think that's who he was yelling at. I mean, he was probably yelling at all of them. But-- you just can't--
At this stage, and I know Todd Bowles said afterward that guys on the team that are still dining on that Super Bowl win are living in a fantasyland right now. Basically what Todd Bowles is telling you is, this ain't a Super Bowl team. And frankly, maybe if they're NFC South. If they're not in the NFC South, it might not be a playoff team right now. Because I know the NFC South is dog [BLEEPS] sorry to the rest of the NFC South. But there's a reason why this team can play so poorly and be so mediocre.
And what I'm concerned about is Brady is now getting other guys back on the field. They should be better. Fournette, he's playing at a high level.
FRANK SCHWAB: There's no injury excuse right now, Charles. This is healthy-- hey every team has injuries by now. They're as healthy as they're going to get.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And this is what we're getting.
FRANK SCHWAB: I do wonder if Tom is like, I came back for this? Really? To get pounded behind an offensive line that's not really blocking for me, to put up 18 points against a Steelers team that had a skeleton secondary out there? I mean, he's-- we all know what's going on outside of football with him. I do wonder. And I've said this before, and we've talked about it. I do wonder if he has regrets. He could have just stayed retired. What's this-- I mean, he's not Peyton Manning 2015 or anything. But this is not what he came back for.
He came back to chase the Super Bowl. And like Todd Bowles said, you kind of read between the lines there. This ain't a Super Bowl team right now. It's not even close. You're right. If they were in the NFC South, if they were-- of all things, if they were in the NFC East, we'd be like, are the Buccaneers going to make the playoffs? They're bad right now. This is a team that, I mean, even offensively, or even defense, Mitch Trubisky comes in the game and they have some success.
CHARLES ROBINSON: And closes it out. I mean, Trubisky closed it out basically. I mean--
FRANK SCHWAB: It's hard to understand how bad of a loss this is for Tampa Bay. This is a really, really, really bad loss. And because they play in the NEC South, it's not critical mass or anything, but man. Just baffling. And good for the Steelers. They got the win. Gutty. I mean, this is kind of Mike Tomlin's piecing things together. I respect that. But man, if you're Tampa Bay and you want to be even a good team this year, dangerous team, you can't lose this type of game. It was just bad, bad, bad.