TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — If Tom Brady retires in the offseason, he’ll walk away following one of the worst playoff games of his career.
The seven-time Super Bowl champion had a tough night against Micah Parsons and the Dallas Cowboys, tossing his first red-zone interception with the Buccaneers in a 31-14 loss that ended Tampa Bay’s up-and-down season Monday night.
Brady won’t be returning home to the Bay Area for a rematch against Brock Purdy and the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional round. He may be going home for good, however.
The 45-year-old, five-time Super Bowl MVP already retired once after last season only to return 40 days later. He said he’ll take more time to make his decision this time around.
“It’ll be one day at a time, truly,” Brady said.
Brady waved his cap to the crowd as he jogged off the field for perhaps the final time and stopped to kiss his parents before heading into the tunnel.
Before leaving the podium, Brady thanked reporters, saying: “Hopefully, you know, I love this organization. It’s a great place to be and thank you everybody for welcoming me. … Very grateful for the respect and hopefully I gave the same thing back to you guys.”
Brady had been 7-0 against Dallas before this game, including a 19-3 road win in Week 1.
Though he was only sacked twice, the Cowboys pressured him into several throwaways and forced a bunch of ill-advised passes.
He threw a career-most 66 passes, completing 35 of them for 351 yards, two TDs and one interception. Brady had 65 attempts for New England against San Francisco on Dec. 16, 2012.
After the Buccaneers went three-and-out on their first two possessions, Brady led a long drive before things fell apart.
On first down from the Cowboys 22, Brady rolled to his right and had open field in front of him but threw incomplete across his body into quadruple coverage in the left corner of the end zone. A few plays later from the Cowboys 5, Brady threw the ball up for grabs in the back of the end zone where the closest player was Cowboys safety Jayron Kearse, who made the pick.
“Not the way we wanted to end it but we didn’t deserve it,” Brady said. “Give them credit. They played a good game, made a lot more plays than we did.”
Brady hadn’t been shut out in the first half of playoff game since his first one in 2001, the Tuck Rule game on Jan. 19, 2002. The Patriots rallied to beat the Raiders in that game.
Brady and the Bucs (8-10) had no chance for a comeback against Dallas (13-5). Parsons and Co. dominated Brady from start to finish.
“It was typical of the way we played all year, inefficient in the pass game, not very good in the run game, so it’s hard to beat good teams like that,” Brady said.
