Tom Brady: Lions 'absolutely' best in NFC, 'would have loved' to play for Dan Campbell

Did the Detroit Lions' 24-14 win over the Green Bay Packers on a wet, windy day at Lambeau Field prove they're the best team in the NFC?

In the mind of Tom Brady, who was on the call for FOX Sports, there's no doubt.

"Absolutely," Brady told the "FOX NFL Sunday" crew. "Just the way they're winning these games. They run it on the ground. They've got incredible backs. The playcalling, the offensive line sets, the tone. We all thought today, coming into these conditions, 'it's a brutal game out here.' The wind was nasty. It was raining, slippery field. It didn't look like that for the Lions today. They did nothing today other than execute the plan. They played with the lead, [had] great, complementary football, an all-around win for this team. That was one of the best I've seen all year from them."

Brady said that style of complementary football in tough weather reminded him of his days with the Patriots in New England, where he played plenty of games in cold, rainy weather during his 20-year career with the team.

"I think so much of what I saw today from this style, the offense they played, so much of it comes down to playcalling," Brady said. "It's play design, it's play scheme, it's communication, and then ultimately, it's execution by the players. You don't want to put yourself in too many high-level-of-difficulty plays in this environment, and that's exactly how the Lions [avoided] playing. 

"They got a lead. They played on their terms. They ran the ball, they [ran bootleg pass designs]. They got out of the pocket. [Quarterback Jared] Goff had some wide-open throws, and yes, he made some very clutch throws, certainly the fourth-down throw and catch to Amon-Ra St. Brown for the [first] touchdown. But it's the exact opposite way the Packers played. They didn't play complementary football. That [pick-six] touchdown before the half was an absolute back-breaker for this team. So they got to clean those things up, Green Bay does. And Detroit just has to do more of the same."

Packers quarterback Jordan Love was limited by a nagging groin injury that also contributed to the aforementioned interception he threw before halftime. Despite Love's struggles, Brady commended the young Green Bay signal-caller for toughing it out through the second half even though the Packers' comeback bid was too little, too late.

"He was definitely feeling his groin, you could see it on a few of these throws from up here from the booth," Brady said. "But there's an element of toughness that I think you always want to display as a quarterback. I would never take myself out. If the coach wanted to take me out in a game like that, OK, I'm cool with the coach doing it. But I was never going to decide to do that. 

"You always want to be out there for your teammates — and quarterbacks, we don't have that much ability to show our toughness in a way that so many other positions do. The only way we can display consistent toughness is being out there with our team, fighting to the end. So I do appreciate that element. Jordan hopefully takes the bye week to heal up, feel as good as he can for this second [half] of the season that they got coming up."

Brady also praised Lions head coach Dan Campbell, despite the stark contrast of Campbell's coaching style to the famously stoic approach of Brady's legendary former Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

"I would have loved to have him as a coach," Brady said. "I would love to have him as a teammate. He's the exact kind of guy you'd want — selfless, determined, resilient. He's got this way about him that — he cares. He's a great leader. I believe leaders do two things: They're very curious, they're open to learning, and they continue to care about the people that they work with. 

"You could tell that Coach Campbell cares about his players. And then even the way he adapts to the games, he adapts to the weeks of practice. He's very authentic, and in a world where we're not dealing with that, and a lot of people are feeding us a lot of b.s., he's obviously so truthful with the guys that he's coaching, and I think they love him for that. They love playing for him."

Speaking of former coaches, Brady will reunite with the last coach he played for — Todd Bowles of the Buccaneers — next week as the San Francisco 49ers head to Tampa Bay for a showdown with massive implications on the NFC playoff picture.

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