Quarterback is the most important position on the field in football. So it’s easy to see why Bruce Arians thinks the Bucs would’ve lost their thrilling, comeback win against the Chargers before Tom Brady arrived.
The Bucs quickly found themselves down 24-7 in the first half, but were able to make it a 24-14 game heading into halftime thanks to a botched handoff between Joshua Kelley and Justin Herbert.
That mistake gave the Bucs a window of opportunity and man, did they take advantage.
Especially Brady.
He completed 15-of-17 passes for 263-yards and three touchdowns in the second half. Per Sports Info Solutions, his 1.19 EPA/att in that second half dwarfed his average of 0.06 EPA/att in the other 14 games (Blaine Gabbert played the second half of the Detroit game). Those numbers led the Bucs to 24 second-half points, which was just enough for them to eek out the 38-34 win.
The Bucs escaped with a win, but it was clear that Brady’s second-half dominance was the reason they won.
Any good coach would recognize this. And that’s exactly what Arians did after the game.
Cornerbacks coach Aaron Ross approached Arians and said, “We would’ve lost this kind of game last year,” to which Arians promptly replies, “Oh yea, no doubt.”
Ross then continues, saying “[We were able to] come back and compose ourselves a bit.” Arians confidently replies with, “Ain’t no doubt.”
You can’t blame either one of them for thinking this way. The comeback against the Chargers was the epitome of the “Brady Effect”. Some could even argue it set the tone for the rest of the season forward.
“It talks about the great leadership we have, you know?” Arians said on buccaneers.com’s team-produced series, In The Current. “Lavonte [David] and Devin [White] do such a great job. Shaq [Barrett], JPP, [Ndamukong] Suh – we have great leaders on defense. But when you have Tom, the guys know they are never out of it.”
You can check out all of Episode One of the 2020 Season’s In The Current, here. Buccaneers.com will release a new episode every Wednesday night at 8PM EST.
