Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have steadied the ship after an early-season swoon in which the future Hall of Famer fell to two games below .500 for the first time in his career as a starter.
The Bucs lost three in a row at one point, prompting questions about whether Father Time had finally come for Brady, but back-to-back wins heading into the bye week seems to have scuttled that talk for now.
And at 5-5, Tampa appears to be in relatively firm control of the dismal NFC South.
The rebound seems to have the Bucs feeling good about things, including former head coach turned senior adviser Bruce Arians.
The famously outspoken Arians, who coached the Bucs to a Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl LV, told Ira Kaufman of Joe Bucs Fan that he's "really optimistic" about the second half -- and he also didn't shy away from assigning blame over the team's first-half struggles.
While offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich was a frequent target of criticism as the play-caller for a stagnant offense, Arians believes Brady was also part of the problem:
“I don’t think it was fair to Byron,” Arians said. “Nobody is going to say that Brady was playing bad, but he was playing bad. We also had growing pains on a young offensive front and we weren’t running well. There comes a time as a play-caller when you’re losing yards running the ball and you say, ‘Forget this, I’m putting the ball in Tom’s hands.’ “
Of course, it didn't help that, as Arians mentioned, the Bucs offense has been hampered by wholesale changes on the offensive line, rendering the rushing attack anemic. As well, many of Brady's top targets in the passing game have been in and out of the lineup due to injuries.
But the in-house criticism of Brady is interesting, if for no other reason than Arians' apparent history of butting heads with the 45-year-old legend.
Last season, Arians seemed to call out Brady publicly on at least a couple of occasions. Then, in the offseason, Arians abruptly assumed a front-office role shortly after Brady returned from his bizarre 40-day retirement, prompting speculation that Brady had forced the coach out as a condition of his comeback.
In the Joe Bucs Fan interview, Arians even seemed to take a playful jab at the famously intense Brady.
“I’m really optimistic about the rest of the season,” he said. “First off, we’re getting healthy. Tom smiled at practice last week for the first time this season. He’s going to be fine. I love the swagger we played with Sunday, especially defensively. It’s been missing. Seattle’s a good running team, but that kid (Walker) went nowhere.”
Arians may be gone from the Bucs sideline after losing an apparent power struggle with Brady, but that doesn't seem to be stopping him from tweaking the legendary QB.
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