Did Buccaneers' Tom Brady take shot at Bengals defense?

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady may have given some bulletin-board material to the Cincinnati Bengals ahead of this Sunday's clash between those clubs. 

"Great team," Brady initially said about the Bengals during Monday's edition of his "Let's Go!" SiriusXM show and podcast, as shared by Bryan DeAardo of CBS Sports. "Great, young quarterback. Fairly tough defense. Good skill players. They do a lot of things well. We're going to have to put everything we've got into it." 

Individuals such as DeAardo and James Rapien of FanNation's All Bengals couldn't help but notice the difference between Brady calling quarterback Joe Burrow "great" and the 45-year-old referring to the Cincinnati defense as "fairly tough." 

According to ESPN stats, the "fairly tough" Cincinnati defense ranks 11th in points surrendered per contest (20.4). To compare, the Tampa Bay offense is 28th in the league in scoring and averaging just 17.2 points per game. 

Brady and the Buccaneers fell to 6-7 on the season via this past Sunday's 35-7 blowout loss at the San Francisco 49ers. The Bengals improved to 9-4 thanks to a 23-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns that same afternoon and will now travel to Florida for this coming Sunday's matchup that's vital for both clubs. 

The Buccaneers are atop the NFC South standings but have the 5-8 Carolina Panthers and 5-8 Atlanta Falcons close in their rearview mirror. Cincinnati trails only the 9-4 Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North standings due to losing to Baltimore in October. 

"We're gonna have to put everything we got into it. Like everything we got mentally, physically, emotionally," Brady added about facing Cincinnati, per Rapien. "There's a lot of things this time of year that can pull your focus away from where it needs to be, but we gotta put everything into it if we're gonna beat a good team."