Tom Brady needed to step up for the Bucs’, but was outdone by Dallas’ Dak Prescott

In what may turn out to be the final game of his 23-year NFL career, Tom Brady simply wasn’t Tom Brady.

Instead of the composed tactician and seven-time Super Bowl winner, NFL fans, insiders and even Brady himself appeared stunned as he tossed 31 incompletions and an interception in Monday’s 31-14 playoff loss to the visiting Dallas Cowboys.

In Brady’s place, the role of an experienced, unflappable NFL quarterback was played by Dallas’ Dak Prescott, who tossed four touchdowns while completing 25 of 33 passes for 305 yards. As a result, its Prescott and the Cowboys who are advancing to a Divisional round matchup with the San Francisco 49ers, while Brady – a soon-to-be free agent – is left to ponder his future in Tampa and the NFL.

‘I’m gonna go home and get a good night’s sleep, as good as I can tonight,’ Brady said when asked about his future. ‘It’s just been a lot of focus on this game. It’s just gonna be one day at a time, truly.’

Brady declined to say whether or not he will be retiring after his 23rd NFL season

Dak Prescott tossed four touchdowns while completing 25 of 33 passes for 205 yards

Officially, the Buccaneers quarterback was credited with only one interception in Monday loss. But things could have been far worse for the future Hall of Famer. Another would-be interception was dropped in the end zone by Dallas, who had Brady rattled for much of the Wildcard game.

The outcome itself wasn’t so much of a shock. After all, the 8-9 Bucs qualified for the playoffs by playing in the lowly NFC South, which failed to produce a single winning team in 2022.

Truthfully, Monday’s game in Tampa may have seemed like a rerun to the Bucs faithful, who have witnessed this battered team underperform for much of the year.

‘Not the way we wanted to end it,’ Brady said after dropping his first game to Dallas in eight career meetings. ‘Kind of typical of the way we played all season.’

Dak Prescott #4 of the Cowboys and Tom Brady #12 of the Buccaneers embrace on the field after their game in the NFC Wild Card playoff game at Raymond James Stadium

For the game, Brady completed 35 of 66 passes for 351 yards, including two second-half touchdowns to Julio Jones Cameron Brate. He was sacked twice, and tossed a costly interception in the end zone for just the second time in his career.

He drew ridicule after a teammate’s fumble, when Brady was seen attempting a slide tackle to bring down a Dallas defender. Luckily, the turnover was reversed by officials.

‘Trying to get a red card so he can get off the field,’ joked one fan.

What was odd – particularly to anyone who has followed the skinny sixth-round pick out of Michigan for the last two decades – was the schism between Brady and his receivers.

For the better part of 20 seasons in New England and three more in Tampa, Brady had an almost supernatural connection with teammates. He would famously invite friends and colleagues like Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski to do off-season work to iron out their timing, while other league stars worked on their summer tans.

But following Gronkowski’s second retirement in 2022, and various injuries to Bucs receivers like Julio Jones, Brady failed to pick apart defenses as he once had in 2022.

Brady walks into the tunnel at Raymond James Stadium for what may have been his last game

He still tossed for nearly 5,000 yards in 2022, but his touchdown passes dropped to from 43 in 2021 to just 25 this season. Meanwhile, the Bucs offense fell to 15th in the NFL after finishing second a year earlier. 

Brady even broke his own league record for completions in a season and ranked third in passing yards behind Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herbert, but Tampa Bay still finished 25th in scoring at 18.4 points per game and never won more than two in a row.

Now Brady heads into the offseason weighing his future in Tampa and the NFL.

He retired briefly after getting knocked out of the playoffs last season, only to reverse course 40 days later – a decision that reportedly contributed to his divorce from supermodel Gisele Bundchen.

Brady’s comeback proved unsuccessful, but that hardly precludes another return. Yes, he will be 46 next season, but there are more than enough teams in the NFL that see themselves as contenders with Brady under center.

Whether or not he agrees with that assessment, or chooses to begin his impending broadcast career, is anyone’s guess.

‘It’s always tough,’ Brady said of his disappointment. ‘But we didn’t earn it. They did.’

Tom Brady #12 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers looks on during an injury timeout during the fourth quarter against the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Wild Card playoff game at Raymond James Stadium

Prescott, meanwhile, looked Brady-esque in dismantling the Bucs defense.

The 29-year-old tossed the first of his two TD passes to Dalton Schultz to get the Cowboys going, then turned Brady’s first red-zone interception since 2019 into points by finishing a 15-play, 80-yard drive by circling left end for a 1-yard TD run on fourth down.

The Dallas quarterback expanded the lead to 18-0 with an 11-yard TD throw to Schultz, then threw 2 yards to Michael Gallup for a 24-point lead early in the third quarter. It could have been 28-0 if not for Maher missing all four extra points.

Prescott’s last TD pass, an 18-yarder to CeeDee Lamb, put the Cowboys up 31-6 with 10:13 remaining.

For the Cowboys, a playoff victory may have seemed like too much to hope for earlier in the season.

Dallas rebounded from a 19-3 loss to Tampa Bay in Week 1, weathering Prescott being sidelined five weeks with a fractured right thumb suffered in that game to resemble a Super Bowl contender much of the season.

Prescott, however, entered the playoffs on a career-worst, seven-game interception streak and had a pick returned for a touchdown in three of the last four games, including an ugly 26-6 loss to Washington in the regular-season finale.

But when it mattered most, it was Prescott who stood tall on Monday.

‘It just shows he’s resilient,’ Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons said. ‘The light’s different on Dak. I think the criticism is unfair and unjust sometimes. But the way he handles it, the way he comes back every time and shows who he truly is, it’s a credit to the work he puts in. It makes us keep believing every time.’

Dak Prescott #4 of the Dallas Cowboys celebrates while running to the tunnel after an NFL wild card playoff football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium