Brady: Patriots need to put in more time
Published: December 7th, 2009 | Tags: New England Patriots, Tom Brady
Following consecutive losses for the first time since midway through the 2006 season, Patriots QB Tom Brady has come as close as he ever has to calling out his teammates.
The Patriots fell 22-21 to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, and at 7-5, their lead in the AFC East over the Dolphins and Jets was shaved to one game. During his postgame comments, Brady called out his teammates after watching the Patriots lose leads of 14-0 and 21-10, saying “at times I don’t think we fight very hard.”
Brady had an opportunity to back off that comment Monday. He didn’t. During his weekly appearance on WEEI, Brady said the Patriots need more commitment in their preparation.
“I’ve been here 10 years, and I’ve seen a lot of players and teams,” Brady said on The Dennis and Callahan Show. “It starts on Monday in our preparation. It starts on Wednesday through five hours of meetings and walk-thrus that we do, and practice [and] film study. I think when it gets hard, that’s when you have to dig deep. At times, we do that. And other times, it doesn’t show up.
“We’ve all got to do a better job of that. We’ve all got to put more work in and put more time in and put more commitment into each other. It’s a different team. We have a lot of new players. We’re trying, over the course of the season, learn each other and learn things we do well and things we don’t do so well. And that takes a lot of commitment. I have a lot of confidence in our team, and I have a lot of confidence that we do play tough, and we do play physical, and we do play smart … I just don’t think — as coach would say, and he says this to us all the time — we don’t do it on a consistent basis.”