Arians Down On Punting, Punt Coverage
September 14th, 2020
Saints returner Deonte Harris beat Bucs cover man Kevin Minter on more than one occasion.
After the first and second waves of the 2019 free agency period, Bucco Bruce Arians made a declaration. His punter was the biggest/most important signing of the offseason.
Joe was aghast in the moment. What?
Punter Bradley Pinion arrived and was not a great punter last season, though he was fantastic on kickoffs. Yesterday, Pinion wasn’t special, and today Arians expressed disappointment in his punting and punt coverage units.
“We have to do a better job of tackling and punt returns when we’re punting the ball,” Arians said. “We were gettin’ down there pretty good; we were just missing tackles. They had a 14-yard average on returns. That put’em over the 50 twice. And we got to do a better job of punting the ball and a better job of covering, tackling.”
So what happened yesterday?
Well, Pinion’s late second-quarter punt went 50 yards and Jamel Dean missed the initial tackle, and then Kevin Minter whiffed before Dean recovered to make the tackle after an 18-yard return. (Can’t we just punt out of bounds? What a lost art that is.)
With the Bucs trailing 24-14 with 8 minutes left in the third quarter, Pinion hit a low bad punt and Deonte Harris had a relatively easy 16-yard return. Bucs tight end Anthony Auclair had a shot at him early but missed.
Pinion was back with 14:20 remaining the fourth quarter and the Bucs trailing by just a touchdown. His 59-yard boot gave Harris room to operate and Minter missed him at the 30 yard line before another broken tackle landed Harris at the 38 yard line.
On the last Pinion punt, Ryan Smith and Quinton Bell both missed tackles.
Throw in a blocked field goal and a botched punt return, and the Bucs’ special teams locked up a D- grade for the day.
September 14th, 2020 at 7:25 pm
Man I agree with punting out of bounds or to a corner rather than center of the field where the returner is standing!!!! Gives a huge advantage to punting team that knows where the ball is going
September 14th, 2020 at 7:28 pm
The entire special teams execution is a good idea. There was no aspect of it that was of an NFL level. I’ve seen better on peewee teams.
September 14th, 2020 at 7:34 pm
I don’t know if you guys caught it or not but Pinion put the kickoff after our first TD through the uprights and would have been good from probably another 10 yards. 7:27 in the first Quarter on your DVR.
September 14th, 2020 at 7:40 pm
Seams like our special teams has been subpar since the departure of a certain Superbowl winning coach by the of Rich Bisaccia, who is now reunited with Chucky in Vegas. How are the Raiders on ST?
September 14th, 2020 at 7:46 pm
Field position was pathetic all game – what was the average starting plays for each team
September 14th, 2020 at 7:54 pm
wtf obviously punting to a corner is better–Joe get this important information to Arians and his squad. ASAP Buddy!
September 14th, 2020 at 8:27 pm
So ST was bad last year and starting the same this year. Anyone see the problem? Why the hell is that coach still here? Accountability? In a regular world job? Good bye.
September 14th, 2020 at 8:37 pm
Rrsrq
Indeed. Seemed every time Moorhead pinned us on the 10. Shoulda just watched groundhog day.
September 14th, 2020 at 8:39 pm
ST was absolutely horrible yesterday. So was the offense. It was boring to watch tbh. I expected us to lose this game. I didn’t expect us to lose because of TB12. 14 points off of his interceptions is not what we brought him in here for. Hopefully this is the only game we lose because of inefficient and ineffective QB play. I’m tired of it like everyone else.
Go Bucs
September 14th, 2020 at 8:43 pm
Joe I hate to change the subject but I saw no article about our secondary. Sorry if I missed.
One of the biggest question marks heading into this year is basically answered after one game IMO. They proved last years final few games was no fluke.
Can we call Carlton a shutdown corner now? Shut down Thomas. I may be mistaken but did he not shut down J.Jones, Hopkins and then Jones again last year.
Bunting was arguably our best player yesterday too. Only one game but I say enough to say the secondary answered the bell. No longer a question for me.
September 14th, 2020 at 8:54 pm
Yeah, the punt coverage stunk. Rack up another debacle for the ST coaching.
September 14th, 2020 at 9:02 pm
It’s a good thing that Pinion led the NFL in touchbacks because I don’t trust our ST to tackle a KR……
it’s the height of the punt…not the distance that is the problem……notice how many fair catches we had with their punter?
September 14th, 2020 at 9:20 pm
D?!?!!!
Wtf are you smoking joe. What does it need to do to get an F? Are 2 turnovers on special teams not enough to warrant an F for the Bucs these days? If that’s the case, I’ll start keeping my shekels instead of giving them to the Bucs
September 14th, 2020 at 9:55 pm
DBS I couldn’t agree more. I think the biggest coaching staff in the nfl has an accountability problem. Lots of talk about it but nothing changes. Sooner or later if nothing changes Ariens will be held accountable and they will all be gone.
September 14th, 2020 at 9:58 pm
Everything was negative or down yesterday. As long as Bruce aka wide receiver coach is around.
So far nothing as improve since his arrival. Same old Bucs.
September 14th, 2020 at 10:19 pm
Tampabaybucsfan.
Just the kick returner? After what I saw yesterday I am pretty sure Kicker Wil Lutz could have returned one to the house.
September 14th, 2020 at 11:25 pm
ST coach needs to go. My junior high punter knows to never kick the ball down the middle of the field. My up men on KO return know to never run backwards to catch the ball. Get a block and let the deeper man run up to catch it.
Why can we never get a return on punt but everyone we play can? There’s nothing special about our Special Teams. I was worried every punt that he was gonna take it to the house.
September 14th, 2020 at 11:35 pm
@jimmyjack you’re totally right. The secondary made a huge statement yesterday. Dean had an ugly mistake and Whitehead’s stupid pass interference was brutal, but overall the group had a very impressive game. Davis is pretty solid and SMB is a star on the rise.
Another big “if” was Tristan Wirfs and he proved himself early and often. This kid is special, Cam Jordan’ll miss Dotson a lot.
I really think our D is top-10 and the Offense will click very soon. On other hand, ST… OMG, dreadful.
September 15th, 2020 at 12:24 am
This is just not fair …last year losses fell on Mr 5000, that YOU PEOPLE MIVEMENT blamed him for :in my 300 voice: EVERYTHING!! This lose belong squarly on the shoulders of THE GOAT!!!…HENNY AND HOG…get yo-self some!!!
September 15th, 2020 at 12:38 am
This is just not fair …last year losses fell on Mr 5000, that YOU PEOPLE MOVEMET blamed him for :in my 300 voice: EVERYTHING!! This lose belong squarly on the shoulders of THE GOAT!!!…HENNY AND HOG…get yo-self some!!!
September 15th, 2020 at 6:10 am
BigHog- You’re hittin’ the Henny too hard my friend!
This is not a new issue, and it goes well beyond Mr. Turnover’s tenure.
The sad part is that a lot of teams ignore ST.
“COMPLEMENTARY football” is not telling a ball it has nice laces! There are three phases to a football game, even though they keep trying to tell us ST isn’t important (see NO vs TB!):
Offense
Defense
Special Teams
It’s painfully obvious that this is not a priority for the Bucs. What I would say is that a team that has been soo, sooooo bad should be making a living at rolling the dice. I’m Hokie alum and can tell you that the Hokies were an average team without special teams. Because they were able to block punts, kicks, and field decent return men, they won more games than they should.
Sean Payton understands this. We play him twice a year. I would start trying to find out if it’ll work for us.
September 15th, 2020 at 6:36 am
New QB same results? Perhaps the play calling needs to be changed!
September 15th, 2020 at 7:17 am
can anyone say the name:
rich bisaccia…
we had wicked special teams back then
September 15th, 2020 at 7:41 am
Why can’t we punt out of bounds? If a ball is in the middle of the field, it will have to travel 26 yards or more to get out of bounds. If a punter can punt a football 55-65 yards from the spot where it leaves his foot (back 15 yards for the snap) and now we use some geometry to figure out the 26 yard extra distance to kick it out of bounds… the punter is only going to be getting the ball 40-50 yards off his foot before it goes out of bounds…and that’s if he isn’t off and doesn’t kick it out of bounds sooner or off and kick it in the field of play. We’re talking about instead of a 45 yard gross punt, maybe 30…that’s why you don’t kick out of bounds.
September 15th, 2020 at 7:59 am
“Dare I say
The owners and their blind sheep of this website owe me a apology
Kiss my Dare riere!”
Dare Ogunbowale
September 15th, 2020 at 8:05 am
As HC you can’t cut your ST’s capt. them b#tch about ST’s. Kobe’s right. It’s not like McCoy was sooo much better then Dare we had to keep him. He looked shot Sunday. We don’t need anymore names, Clay washed up Matthews next? We need players.
September 15th, 2020 at 9:16 am
Punt team?
How about FG unit and Kick off return team.. they sucked too. Pinion was terrible last year, and looks to be the same this year.
That muffed KO return was something you don’t even see in pee wee football.
September 15th, 2020 at 9:43 am
Bucfanman I have never heard you say three phases of the game when Jamies was the quarterback . I know it’s just one game but you know that if this was Jamies yall will be blaming him for the lost and him alone . A lot of us has been saying this a long time and yall said we were just making excuses for Jamies . But now it’s Brady everyone is looking at the hold team now because yall don’t want to blame Brady for nothing .
September 15th, 2020 at 9:56 am
Oneil- That is so untrue, and you KNOW it. That’s OK, you just keep moving the goalposts to fit your narrative.
Don’t believe me? Go to posts, type in Bucsfanman and “complementary football”.
And just for reference, I do believe that Brady is continuing to be called out EVERYWHERE. Don’t be such a whiner.
September 15th, 2020 at 10:49 am
Bucfanman You guys move the goalposts when Jamies was the quarterback . Look at how many times we ran the ball when Jamies was the quarterback in the first quarterback versus Brady. Brady threw the ball 10 times the hold first quarterback . It’s just funny how yall blame Jamies for every lost and now with Brady yall looking at the hold team .
September 15th, 2020 at 12:48 pm
See, that’s the problem with you Oneil. We’ve played ONE game and you’re trying to frame it against the last FIVE YEARS.
Oneil, I’m not going to let you try and take me down this path, we KNOW who you’re a fan of. He’s not on the roster.
Trying to stay on topic here, the post is about special teams!
September 15th, 2020 at 1:47 pm
Bucsfanman: The HENNY is nice, SHAKEN not STIRRED…our special teams is just where you put them..shameful, sometimes I can’t believe I still believe in this team! I’m sure it will be better next game! But after that pick-6, this is what I saw, let down, heads hung, absolutely no fight-back,…with Mr. 5000 there was always, knuckle up bit*h, we go down fighting, maybe I’m the only one who saw this, but I do know everyone saw that pick-6 and it will not be the last! And one more thing with offensive games like this NE12 will struggle to get to 4,000 passing, better hurry and find that run game!!
September 15th, 2020 at 2:36 pm
BigHog (I assume!)- Don’t bruise the HENNY!
I have to agree with you on the deflation after the pick-6. Almost like a “here we go again!”
Where it was really evident was after Dean got roasted by a TE for 46 yards. After that, there was little fight left overall.
Can anyone remember the last time the Bucs played a “COMPLETE” game? Offense, defense, special teams?
Either I can’t remember or the Crown erased the memory!
September 16th, 2020 at 10:12 am
It’s OK Bucsfanman …that Crown will erase a lot things done in both day and nite!!