Though Tom Brady admitted he hadn’t managed “a ton of sleep” after a Sunday night loss to the Ravens, he was still able to keep a positive outlook on Monday morning.
Being back with his family helped the Patriots’ quarterback, as he explained in his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”
“My daughter came in just as she was ready for school and said, ‘Dad, can I cuddle with you?’ And I said get in here,” noted Brady.
The 42-year-old acknowledged that despite being “angry” over the loss in Baltimore, he is optimistic about the circumstances.
“That actually for me puts a lot of things in perspective,” Brady explained. “Being healthy and coming out of football games, and even though it didn’t go our way, we can learn from it and try to improve and be better. That was not our best. It’s different if you think you played your best and you lose. If you don’t feel like you played your best and you lose, you feel like, ‘Man, if we can correct some things, we’ll be right in it.’ That’s a much better feeling.”
His thoughts on Lamar Jackson
Brady praised his quarterback counterpart, Lamar Jackson. The Ravens’ quarterback rushed for two touchdowns and also threw for a score, spearheading Baltimore’s win.
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“I thought he played very well,” said Brady. “He has a very unique style and he does a really good job with his ball handling. You’re never really quite sure who’s got it and you hesitate for a little bit and then he pulls it and runs.
“It’s pretty tough to stop,” Brady added. “He’s done a great job for them, did a great job for them last year. He’s a really talented player and made a lot of really good plays.”
What he said to the official after a non-call
At one point during the game against the Ravens, Brady petitioned the NFL official for a call after he thought a Baltimore defensive back had “drilled” New England receiver Phillip Dorsett.
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“The guy drilled him at eight yards,” Brady said. “So I said, ‘Isn’t that illegal contact?’ And he was like, ‘Well, no.’”
Brady joked about his polite choice of words.
“And I was like, ‘I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know what you’re looking at.’ Or something like that.”
“It was very polite,” Brady continued. “It was like, ‘Excuse me, mister. I thought that there might possibly have been a penalty actually by them.’ When I looked at the film, I don’t know, I thought they jammed him pretty good on that one.”
“That was a fun one. I get pretty animated,” Brady admitted.
How he feels after a loss
Brady’s tone during the interview drew a comment from show host Greg Hill, who said was worried about the Patriots’ quarterback being “sad” after a loss.
“I’m more angry,” Brady explained. “I’m angry during football season. I think it’s just always at a boil, just below a boil. It doesn’t take me much to push me over the edge, just kind of my football time of year.”
When asked what specifically makes him angry, Brady had a direct response.
“I think anything during football season that doesn’t go our way makes me angry,” Brady said of the Patriots’ quest to win another Super Bowl.
Looking ahead to the rest of the season
Brady knows that the team — regardless of a win or a loss going into the bye week — still has a long way to go.
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“We’re 8-1, so our whole football season is ahead of us,” Brady noted. “That is the reality. That is not an emotional thing. We’ve put ourselves in a decent position here and it’s not going to be about what we’ve done the last nine weeks. Our season is about what is going to happen the next seven weeks. It is going to be up to the guys in the locker room to determine what we want it to be. Are we going to dig deeper and fight harder and play better and prepare harder and play tougher, or are we not? If we do the first part of that then I think we will be in a great position.”
Brady advised teammates to “ignore the hype” as the now looks to its next game on Nov. 17 against the Eagles.
“When everything is great it’s really not and when everything is bad it’s really not,” Brady said of the outside discussion of the team. “You have to evaluate these weeks for really what they are. Even though we’ve been winning, we certainly know that it hasn’t been great and that we’re [not] just this unstoppable team. We have to play good. That is ultimately what it comes down to. It’s not about the Patriots rolling their helmet out there. We don’t approach it like that. We put the work in each week and we try to focus on the things we need to do better and try and improve in areas we think we can.”
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Hayden Bird can be reached at hayden.bird@globe.com. Follow him on twitter at @haydenhbird.