After his retirement U-turn, this is not the season Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady wanted nor expected. A season of struggle for the Bucs offence hit a new low on Sunday with a shock defeat to the Carolina Panthers, the consensus worst team in the league heading into the weekend.
Brady's Bucs mustered just three points against the now 2-5 Panthers, who fired head coach Matt Rhule earlier this month and traded offensive weapons Christian McCaffery and Robbie Anderson to the San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals respectively. The Panthers' offence has been statistically the worst in the league and they have a middling defence, but they were too strong for Tampa Bay in every phase of the game, winning 21-3 in Charlotte to drop the Bucs to 3-4.
The Bucs remain top of a poor NFC South, but they have lost four of their past five games and are averaging just 17 points per game. Brady continues to look after the ball, throwing just one interception in seven games, but his tally of eight touchdowns is reflective of an offence lacking in explosiveness.
