Patriots’ Brady ‘pissed off’ after losing unbeaten status

(Reuters) – New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady can be hell on opposing teams when he feels he has something to prove, so his team’s upcoming opponents have been duly warned.

Brady, who went an edgy revenge crusade in the wake of the “Deflategate” scandal by leading the Pats to a 10-0 start to the 2015 NFL season, said Sunday’s overtime loss to Denver left him “pissed off” and motivated to get back to his winning ways.

“It was a very hard loss,” Brady said on Monday during his regular appearance on Boston’s WEEI radio station a day after New England fell from the ranks of the unbeaten.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been so visibly pissed off after a loss. And I think everyone felt the same way. Hopefully we can use it as motivation going forward.

“How it all played out, I guess I was just pretty pissed off … just how the last 20 minutes of the game played out.”

There was room for frustration and complaint after the Patriots squandered a 21-7 lead as they muffed a punt, lost All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski with a knee injury and were on the wrong side of a number of borderline officiating calls.

“Like I said, there’s things that we could have done better. And it’s certainly not to leave it up to a call here or a call there or one player,” Brady said.

Brady rattled off details of calls that went against the injury-hit Pats during the 30-24 loss and some that could have been called on Denver. After getting that off his chest, the man with four Super Bowl rings put his business face back on.

“There’s things across the board that we need to do a better job of and we can do a better job of. And that’s what the focus is going to be this week,” said Brady, whose freshly motivated Patriots host a Philadelphia Eagles (4-7) team on Sunday that have lost three consecutive games.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)