Bengals defense fires back at ‘old man’ Tom Brady after the quarterback called them ‘fairly tough’

Cincinnati’s defense got the last laugh after they were disrespected before a comeback win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

On an episode of his ‘Let’s Go!’ podcast, Tampa QB Tom Brady gave a rather dismissive and backhanded comment about the Bengals defense ahead of their game earlier Sunday.

‘Great team, great young quarterback,’ Brady said before adding that Cincinnati’s defense was ‘fairly tough.’

The Bengals responded to Tom Brady’s slights by forcing the quarterback to fumble twice

Well, that ‘fairly tough’ defense forced Brady to turn the ball over four times – through two interceptions and two fumbles – which allowed QB Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense to mount a big comeback to win 34-23.

After starting down 17-0, the Bengals put up 34 unanswered points to seal a victory over Tampa Bay. 

Three of those turnovers resulted in touchdowns – with the fourth ending in a punt – and they all came on four consecutive drives in the second half.

The Bengals swiped two interceptions in addition to the fumbles for a four turnover evening

The Bengals used those comments as a chip on their shoulders to motivate them to come back in this game – with CB Eli Apple and DL BJ Hill repeating the comments.

As they came off the field, Apple was heard yelling, ‘Hey, the future is now old man,’ and Hill telling the camera ‘Hey, we’re fairly tough on defense – remember that.’

‘We gotta keep that old man tap dancing, man,’ Apple told reporters after the game. When a reporter said that Brady was ‘pretty good’ in the first half, Apple replied, ‘He was fairly okay, but not good enough to win.’

Hill had similar points to make, telling reporters that they didn’t need to find any motivation. ‘We just knew we were a fairly tough defense, I mean, that’s how we played in the first half not gonna lie to ya, but we just came out in the second half and played our tails off.’

CB Eli Apple (center) was at least one member of the Bengals defense reveling in the win

On the offensive side of the ball, Cincinnati grabbed only 237 yards, but they spend most of the second half in the Tampa Bay half of the field. 

That couldn’t be more evident than in the final stat lines of the Bengals offense. Burrow completed 70 percent of his passes for four touchdowns and an interception, but could only get 200 yards on the short field.

Cincinnati will take their 10-4 record on the road to play New England on Christmas Eve next week.