Tom Brady explains fourth-down confusion on Buccaneers’ final drive of loss to Bears

The Bears appeared to seal 20-19 victory over the Buccaneers in amazing fashion: with a mental error by Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady.

After the Bears took the lead on former Chiefs kicker Cairo Santos’ field goal with 1 minute, 13 seconds to play, many viewers thought Chicago had left Brady too much time to mount a comeback.

Instead something odd happened. With the Buccaneers facing fourth-and-6 from their own 41-yard line, Brady tried to complete a pass down field to tight end Cameron Brate. When the ball fell incomplete, Brady held up four fingers, seeming to signal Tampa Bay had another down.

After the game, Brady and Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians each said Brady knew it was fourth down.

“Yeah,” Brady said, per USA Today. “You’re up against the clock and you’re up against — I knew we had to gain a chunk, so I should have been thinking more first down than chunk.”

According to Yahoo Sports, Arians said: “Yeah, he knew. He knew.”

Others weren’t so sure.

“At the end of the game, that’s something you would never expect to happen with one of the greatest players of all time,” former Chiefs tight end Tony Gonzalez said on Fox’s postgame show. “That’s something they coach up in high schools and college. It was just weird. I would never expect to see Tom Brady lose track of the downs, but it happened.”

Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner said, via the Washington Post: “It was amazing to see what happened at the end of the game.”

Doug Kyed, who covers the Patriots for NESN, took note that New England’s Brian Hoyer lost track of downs in Monday’s loss to the Chiefs with this joke: