Patriots coach Bill Belichick rarely if ever criticizes his players publicly. Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians has shown time and again that he won’t shy away from doing so.
On Sunday, Arians wasn’t bashful when assessing the two interceptions thrown by his new quarterback, Tom Brady.
“One was a miscommunication between he and Mike [Evans],” Arians told reporters after the loss to New Orleans. “He thought Mike was going down the middle -- it was a different coverage -- Mike read it right. He should have been across his face, but Tom overthrew it. The other one was a screen pass with an outlet called. He threw the outlet and it was a pick-six. Bad decision.”
Arians often tried last year to blame plenty of Jameis Winston’s umpteen interceptions on someone other than Winston. For the first two thrown by Brady, Arians put the bulk of the blame on the man who made the read and threw the ball.
Brady presumably can take it. The reality is that, for most of the first 20 years of his NFL career, he didn’t have to. Say what you will about Belichick, he doesn’t throw players under the bus before reporters, even when they deserve to be.