Tom Brady's surprisingly dour mood Sunday night was off-putting for many, especially since his New England Patriots had just beaten the Philadelphia Eagles to move to 9-1.
But offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has worked with Brady long enough to know his quarterback's frustrations shouldn't be over-scrutinized.
"I can’t comment exactly on his frame of mind,” McDaniels said Tuesday on a conference call when asked about Brady's repeated laments regarding New England's offensive struggles. "I just know that he’s a competitive guy.
" ... I've been with Tom a long time. I appreciate his competitive spirit, his desire to be perfect in everything he does and everything that our unit does, and I don't ever take that as a negative."
The Patriots' offense has been far from perfect: Sunday marked Brady's third game this season without a touchdown pass, and New England ranks 16th in the NFL in yards per game despite its 9-1 record.
But McDaniels doesn't think it's a bad thing that Brady is vocalizing the unit's need for improvement.
New England Patriots
"I talk to him frequently," McDaniels said. "We've had games where we've scored 40 points and we haven't been real happy either because there were certain things that we didn't do as well."
As Brady mentioned in an interview Monday, the Patriots don't even need to drop 40 points per game the way their defense has been playing. McDaniels seemed to share his quarterback's sentiment while acknowledging his offense must be better entering next Sunday's game against the Dallas Cowboys.
"When you don't do as well as you'd like to do, you can understand that ... you're frustrated with your output," McDaniels said. "But at the same time, understanding the big picture: Our number one goal and the most important thing for all of us is to contribute to wins.
"I think there were many things the other day that we did that helped contribute to that, and there were certainly things that we did that need to be better going forward."
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