Tom Brady Says 'There's No Excuses' for Bucs' Failures on Game-Winning Drives

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady said Friday there's "no excuses" for the failure to produce a game-winning drive in two of the team's four losses in 2020.

The Bucs lost 20-19 to the Chicago Bears in Week 5 and suffered a 27-24 defeat to the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night. In both instances, Brady and the offense had a chance deep in the fourth quarter to change the result and came up short.

"Our job is to get the job done, so there's no excuses for when we don't get it done," Brady told reporters. "At the end of the day, that's the reality of the sport. It's a production-based business, and when you have opportunities like we had in those two games, it's very disappointing when you don't [succeed], especially when you're the quarterback and the ball is in your hands. It's something I have to do a better job of."

Tampa's other two losses came to the New Orleans Saints by a combined 46 points.

Brady has been solid, albeit unspectacular, for the majority of his first season with the Buccaneers after two decades of dominance with the New England Patriots. He's completed 64.7 percent of his throws for 2,955 yards with 25 touchdowns and nine interceptions in 11 games.

The 43-year-old future Hall of Famer has received criticism, including from Bucs head coach Bruce Arians, after the Rams loss for his lack of efficiency at times, particularly on deep throws.

"Other than the deep ball, I think he's getting confused a few times with the coverage," Arians said. "That might be the cause for some inaccurate balls, but I don't see it at all in practice. We're not missing the deep ball in practice, that's for sure."

Brady didn't necessarily disagree with that assessment in his comments Friday.

"Just not executing at the highest level," he said. "I don't think it's more than that. I think we didn't execute on some short throws [and] we didn't execute on some medium throws. Just comes down to not as good execution as I think we're capable of. We're working hard to improve it, and we'll go out there and try and do a much better job this week."

The Buccaneers sit second in the NFC South with a 7-4 record. The Saints lead the way at 8-2.

Tampa is on pace to earn a playoff berth via the wild card even if it comes up short in the division race, but Brady and the offense will probably need to make more plays late in the fourth quarter if a Super Bowl run is going to become reality.

The Bucs host the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs for a litmus test at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday before heading into their Week 13 bye.