Bruce Arians Compares Bucs To Super Bowl Winner
January 5th, 2021
Yes, Bucco Bruce Arians owns two Super Bowl rings.
They were earned calling plays for the Steelers.
Arians’ first came in 2005, with Willie Parker (1,202 yards) and Jerome Bettis (9 touchdowns) pounding the rock for run-first Pittsburgh that could also carve up a team with receiver Hines Ward and tight end Heath Miller. Those Steelers, of course, were more about ferocious defense, marching through the playoffs and beating Seattle 21-10 in the Super Bowl.
Talking yesterday on WFLA-TV, Arians said he sees that club in the current Bucs.
“This team reminds me a lot of the 2005 Steelers,” Arians said. “They have a lot of fun. They’re really, really close. Some times are offense and defense and they don’t click together sometimes. But this team really reminds me of the 2005 Steelers in how much they care for each other; we were also Wild Cards and went all the way and won the Super Bowl. So I think each and every day in the last month the intensity has picked up. And I expect to pick it up again a little more this week.”
As far as the closeness of the Bucs, don’t discount how much the delayed flight to Carolina in mid-November helped further bond the team.
Players were stuck on the plane and at Tampa airport for several hours. Cameron Brate talked about this phenomenon on the Buccaneers Radio Network. Remember, in this year of The Sickness, guys can’t eat lunch together in groups and don’t go out for beers and babes after games.
The Bucs are three more wins from the Super Bowl. Joe’s glad to hear Arians believes they mirror a Super Bowl team.
January 5th, 2021 at 7:13 am
Good to hear there is team chemistry and that AB is coming out back to form but that defense is terrible. The bucs should blow out the WTF team and then Bowles needs and the secondary coach needs to earn their checks
January 5th, 2021 at 7:21 am
The defense needs all the help they can get. No turnovers by the offense and no penalties.
January 5th, 2021 at 7:30 am
Stop with the 10 yard cushion and get off on 3rd downs! We do that, we will be a lot more successful!!
January 5th, 2021 at 7:37 am
The D is not the problem. Slow starts by the Offense has forced played a huge roll in ToP and naturally, the more your D is on the field the more they will give up.
I will be the first to say it. If we win the ToP battle throughout the Playoffs. We will when the SB.
That is the only stat I will be paying attention to.
January 5th, 2021 at 8:09 am
@I CARE NOW … ” If we win the ToP battle throughout the Playoffs. We will when the SB. That is the only stat I will be paying attention to.”
It’s awesome to win the TOP battle, but that’s only one part of it, and not necessarily the biggest part even. I’ll take winning the Turnover Differential over TOP every day of the week.
Last year our TOP was 30:54 on the season, we scored 458 pts & accumulated 6366 total yards. We gave up 449 pts and our Turnover Differential was MINUS 13 (41 giveaways against 28 takeaways). We went 7-9.
This year our TOP was 28:54 on the season, we scored 492 pts & accumulated 6145 total yards. We gave up 355 pts and our Turnover Differential was PLUS 8 17 giveaways versus 25 takeaways). We went 11-5 and made the playoffs.
Bucs lost the Turnover Battle in only 3 games this year: Saints (twice) and Chiefs … we lost all 3 games. We tied in Turnover Differential in 4 games this year … we lost 2 of those. We won the Turnover Battle in 9 games this season … we won all 9. Hard to win if you keep giving the other team the ball.
The mantra for this year’s Bucs IMO is ‘Don’t beat yourselves’. We did that consistently for far too many years & it sucks. This year we reversed that. We didn’t beat ourselves with giveaways. We didn’t beat ourselves with penalties. And we didn’t beat ourselves by giving up gobs of big plays. And we’ve gotten better at all 3 in these last 4 games (as in only ONE giveaway). Need to carry that forward now into the playoffs.
January 5th, 2021 at 8:12 am
Time of possession is not nearly as important to teams like the bucs and packers. They score quick. The bucs aren’t some grinder team. The d needs to get off the field on 3rd down. This team has a 60 point game in them of both sides put it together at the same time. Not saying we will see it this year but you never know. Bucs lost TOP battle against Vikings and probably Atlanta too.
January 5th, 2021 at 10:14 am
Good stuff Defense Rules, I appreciate it.
I’m sticking to my guns on this one. Our O is about to ball out like it did in our SB run. So all I am saying is if they manage to keep the ball, they will score enough to make our D look awesome. Besides, I think the two go hand and hand. Cant win ToP if you keep giving the ball away. However we can overcome (if) turning the ball over by controlling the clock.
Side Note”
Truth be told I come to JBF to read your comments as much as I come to read the fluff
January 5th, 2021 at 10:32 am
Kentucky,
I agree entirely, I am not a big ToP advocate TBH. However I think to beat the teams we are going to face, we will need to keep our D fresh and limit the amount of opportunities the other team has to score.
The games against the Viks and Birds where against teams that we could beat defensively.
Against KC. The ToP was 37-23 KC. We lost by 3. Imagine if we had another Possession or Two? 2 turnovers for us, none for KC
1rst game against NO was 31-29 NO. While not a huge difference. Two Turnovers lead to the two scores and we lose 23-34. NO did not turn the ball over in that game.
2nd game against NO was 40-20 NO. Granted we where never in that game. And 3 turnovers by us to none for NO killed us. But who’s to say the lack of possessions early didn’t greatly affect the rhythm of the O?
So turnovers clearly lead to losing ToP. However, we likely could have overcame the turnovers in two of the 3 games if we could have managed to have the O on the field just a few minutes longer.
That is why I am placing ToP as my number one key to success.
PLUS, I just want to see Brady and this O as much as possible. I am a deprived Bucs lifer.
January 5th, 2021 at 11:14 am
agree with Kentucky….
defense has to get off the field on 3rd down….
offense cant turn the ball over…
GO BUCS!!!!
January 5th, 2021 at 1:03 pm
@ICN-D.R. and KB
Great discussion guys. Love sports debating at this kind of logical and RESPECTFUL level. IMHO all three of you make good points.
Kentucky Buc
Where’d you grow up bro. I grew up in Newport and then Fort Thomas right on the Ohio river across from Cincy.
January 5th, 2021 at 2:14 pm
I agree about good football debates.
The thing with ToP for me is when the Bucs throw a 30 up pass on 3rd and 3 when a RB was wide open 4 yds away.
This team takes inopportune shots IMO.
I get that maybe the other team doesn’t expect it and we sure have seen lots of TDs thrown way down the field on 3rd and 3 or 4.
It’s not ideal in the playoffs though and sometimes looks like desperation.
Throw deep on 1st or 2nd unless you are going for it on 4th down.
Sick of seeing Rojo truck people for 7 or 8 yds, then we take 2 deep shots and punt.
January 5th, 2021 at 4:38 pm
I CARE NOW … You’re very kind; thank you. For years I was of the opinion that TOP AND Turnover Differential needed to go hand-in-hand for a team to truly excel. It was all about CONTROL … control the game by keeping the other team’s offense on the bench (TOP) AND by holding onto the ball (kind of a no-brainer that if you keep giving the ball away you can’t score BUT eventually the other team will).
Last year changed my thinking. We did great on points AND TOP (almost 31 mins per game average). Unfortunately we gave the ball away MORE than we took it away, resulting in a MINUS 13 TO Differential. Needless to say, the result was ‘less than desirable’.
This year we did even better on points but TOP slipped considerably (to not quite 29 mins per game average). Understandable actually since Brady finally mastered BA’s ‘Bombs Away’ philosophy and we had a LOT of explosive plays that resulted in scores.
But where do you think we’d be IF Tom Brady put up the same INTs & fumbles that Jameis did last year? Jameis had 30 INTs in 2019 to go with 12 fumbles (recovered 3). This year Tom Brady had 12 INTs to go with 4 fumbles (recovered 3). That’s a monstrous difference.
So this season we had 2 minutes LESS TOP than in 2019, we had 69 FEWER plays on the season (1017 this year versus 1086 in 2019), yet we scored 37 MORE points this year (492 vs 455). The reason IMO? We held onto the ball much better AND we did a better of job of scoring when we did have the ball.
We agree 100% on the bottom line though. I’d much rather see Brady & the offense on the field than our defense. The other team’s offense can’t score while they’re sitting on the bench.
January 6th, 2021 at 9:05 am
Good luck with Tom Lady in Green Bay. Tampa WILL NOT get to Super Bowl. Bye bye cheater.