TAMPA ― This is what the pursuit of perfection looks like.
Tom Brady wears his emotions on his sleeve ― and apparently on his foot ― as evidenced by the end of Sunday’s practice when a two-minute drive bogged down with a sack and two incompletions.
Brady, who had a pretty good day overall, punted the football about 30-40 yards to an adjacent practice field out of frustration.
He also slammed his helmet on the ground when the next offensive period failed to result in a score.
After completions to Scotty Miller, Mike Evans and Giovani Bernard, the two-minute drive was stopped by sack and two incompletions.
“Gotta make plays when you’re tired, fellas!” Brady yelled to teammates.
Head coach Bruce Arians said he understood Brady’s frustration.
“Guys have got to make plays,” Arians said. “You’re in a critical situation, you can’t fall down. He gives you a chance to win the game. You’ve got to go down and win the game. I don’t care how tried you are.”
Overall, Arians said the Bucs were practicing hard for only the second day in pads, but not practicing smart.
“I’m really pleased with the effort,” Arians said. “We’re working extremely hard, two days in a row. Fast. But I’m not seeing the smart. We’ve got to be a much smarter football team. After watching (Saturday)’s practice, we made way too many mental errors.
“Same thing (Sunday) with guys getting lined up, especially those young wide receivers, and it’s time for them to grow up. Can’t ask any more of our football team in terms of work. Work, speed of practice and all those things. Very, very competitive, but we’ve got to become a smarter football team quick.”
When asked if some of that was the result of mental fatigue, Arians said, ”There’s no such thing. Fatigue makes a coward out of you. We got a few of them, and it’s whipping their ass.”
Trask listening, learning but not getting many reps
There’s no official count, but rookie quarterback Kyle Trask is having to learn the Bucs’ offense without the benefit of many reps.
The Bucs will often work on two practice fields ― starters and key backups on one ― rookies and guys fighting for a roster spot on the other.
But Trask is a little behind Brady, Blaine Gabbert and Ryan Griffin in terms of 11-on-11 reps while he learns the offense.
Trask has been in this position before, backing up quarterbacks in high school and at Florida before making the most of his opportunity when it arrived.
“The big thing for me throughout my football career has been that mindset of, hey, you can only control what you can control and you can’t worry about what’s going on around you,” Trask said. “So I’m going to continue to just have that mindset and challenge myself every single day to get better.”
Trask has been going onto the field early each day with quarterbacks coach Clyde Christensen to get some extra work.
“Our quarterback room is just solid,” Trask said. “I mean, we’ve got about 40 years total experience in that quarterback room, and that’s just the players. Any question I have, they always have a great answer for me. Anything that comes with being a pro, day in, day out, what it takes to win, I learn so many great things every single day.”
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