Tom Brady looked human against the Chicago Bears on Thursday night.
This was by far the most impressive performance by the Chicago Bears defense over the course of the 2020 season. It’s been just five weeks, but Khalil Mack and his unit made a statement that will be hard to match going forward.
Coming off a 5-touchdown performance last week, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady looked like he and his offense were finally coming together. Without a preseason, Brady needed a few games to get accustomed to his new teammates. Tossing five touchdowns in a comeback victory sure made it seem like he was comfortable.
Thursday night, though, Brady was anything but comfortable. The Bears sacked him three times but were all over him throughout the game.
The Bears got to Brady throughout the entire night, putting pressure on him regularly. He was hit, knocked down and pressured more and more as the game went on. Mack ended up putting on a clinic with two sacks, and had a third one taken away from him due to a penalty.
While Chicago came away with a dramatic 20-19 victory, Brady experienced a few things he had never experienced over his two decades in the NFL. At 43 years old, he still had room for a few firsts.
Over his career, Brady was 7-0 on Thursday Night Football before this loss to the Bears. This was also the first time Chicago had ever beaten Brady, with the Hall of Fame quarterback boasting a 5-0 career record against the Bears before losing Thursday night.
Aside from those two records finally being tarnished, we saw something from Brady in the final seconds that we had never seen before — and he’s going to want to forget this one.
On the Bucs’ final drive with just over 30 seconds remaining, Brady tossed an incomplete pass on fourth down to tight end Cameron Brate. That ended up being the final play for Brady and the offense before Nick Foles and the Bears ran out the clock.
The hilarity that ensued saw Brady hold up four fingers as though he thought it was supposed to be fourth down.
He forgot what down it was.
It was indeed a turnover on downs. Brady had forgotten what down it was and thought his incompletion to Brate was on a third down. The Bears had just sealed the game, while Brady may have been showing his age.
For the first time to anyone’s knowledge, Brady had forgotten the down — and in the most important moment of the entire game. On the same night, he lost to the Bears for the first time while also experiencing his first Thursday Night Football loss.
It was an unforgettable night for Brady. Let’s just say he’ll hope most do forget it, though.
For the Bears, they move to 4-1 and look forward to some extra time off before a Week 6 tilt with the Carolina Panthers. Meanwhile, Brady is likely going to be a little extra motivated and angry going into his Week 6 battle with none other than the Green Bay Packers.
