“It’s Just A Matter Of Each And Every Week If The Quarterback Plays Well Or Not”
November 25th, 2020
Bucco Bruce Arians speaks
Bucco Bruce Arians served up an intriguing answer to an important question last night on his radio show.
Right now, the Bucs are a hard team to peg. Are they overrated (2-4 against non-losing teams)? Or are they right on track with a 7-4 record without a major hiccup yet in their season and the easy part of their schedule ahead?
They start slow. They start fast. They have tale-of-two-halves games.
What is the identity of this team?
Buccaneers in-house reporter Casey Phillips pressed Arians on this issue during Bucs Total Access.
Joe’s got the verbatim exchange.
Casey Phillips: Do you feel like you have a sense of the identity of this team, what they are and what they’re made of on both sides of the ball or just one side of the ball? Because it just feels like there’s been some inconsistency between either one game the next or even maybe one half to the next. What kind of a read do you feel you have on them at this point?
Bruce Arians: I know we’re going to play really, really hard. And we’ve been playing a lot smarter; those two [presnap] penalties [by Devin White and Shaq Barrett against the Rams] were costly. And we’ve been a really good tackling team, and in this ballgame we were not a very good tackling team. But offensively, it’s just a matter of each and every week if the quarterback plays well or not. And our job is to make sure he’s comfortable and let him play well.
Joe thought Arians’ plain-spoken phrasing there about Tom Brady was telling when it comes to the team identity. It was as if he said the offense comes down to whether Brady is playing well or not.
Maybe it is that simple?
Early in the show, Arians described the Bucs’ pass blocking against the Rams as “really, really good.”
On Brady’s loss-clinching interception, the second of his two interceptions, Arians said, “the last one was just a poor decision, did not read the coverage properly and threw a poor ball.”
November 25th, 2020 at 12:03 am
Interesting he’s so willing to throw Brady under the bus but never says a negative word about Leftwich, the play calling nor Arians on stubborn insistence on throwing deep when it isn’t favorable to do so.
November 25th, 2020 at 12:28 am
I think we are pretty much what we are.. we are a wildcard calibre team. Prob won’t beat the division winners. Can bat bad teams and sometimes good ones.
Funny thing about rams game.. we had a decent offensive plan to start and a bad defensive plan. Came outta half and went away from what was working on offense but figured out some things that worked on defense. Rarely ever play a complete game
November 25th, 2020 at 12:33 am
Funny how when they win all we hear is how good they are and “best” team stuff and then when they lose they are garbage. Brady has done wonders with this team already now its up to coaching and thats where we are not that good at and then like I said when they win we hear how Leftwich and Bowles are top coaches. Leftwich should not be a offensive coordinator. Every Qb he has coached looks awful at times. Brady is gonna be a 3rd string next year or out the league
November 25th, 2020 at 12:38 am
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The coaching staff gets out coached in every big game, yet the coaches see it as a player problem after every loss.
November 25th, 2020 at 1:24 am
HomerSimpsonRocks Says:
November 25th, 2020 at 12:03 am
Interesting he’s so willing to throw Brady under the bus but never says a negative word about Leftwich, the play calling nor Arians on stubborn insistence on throwing deep when it isn’t favorable to do so.
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my exact thoughts !
November 25th, 2020 at 3:08 am
We are underachieving. It’s as simple as that. Let’s not lay blame. Just fix it!
November 25th, 2020 at 3:59 am
Just because on a play there is a deep route, it does not mean the qb has to throw the deep ball. You cant blame BL or BA for where the qb decides to throw it. Like BA said, Brady made a wrong read and threw a poor pass. Why is it so hard to believe? Brady f’ed up. Simple as that
November 25th, 2020 at 5:29 am
Nobody said Leftwich called all those bad deep shots – the QB has 4 to 5 choices every play
The issue is plainly when TB12 gets in the face pressure early in the game, he tends to play rushed the entire game and not read through his progressions many times when he has more time, but just forces a throw
The other thing I noticed is he is throwing fastballs way more when he takes any pressure – a couple of the RB drops w ere laser middles from 2 yards away
He looks great when kept clean, when pressured he has looked very, um, OLD
November 25th, 2020 at 5:37 am
I’m glad there’s some sanity to this conversation.
Coaches coach and players play!
On the field it is the QB’s decision where to throw the ball.
Yes, the play-calling could be better but lets not put ALL the blame on coaching here. Leftwich didn’t throw those INTs.
November 25th, 2020 at 5:45 am
Jameis fault!!
November 25th, 2020 at 6:28 am
Bucsfanman I agree … “lets not put ALL the blame on coaching”. But I don’t absolve them of being a significant part of the problem either. It seems to me that when you look at our best wins (Packers, Raiders, Panthers) that this offense … and Tom Brady … is at its absolute best when we play BALANCED FOOTBALL. And that’s wasn’t by happenstance; you have to INTENTIONALLY PLAY BALANCED FOOTBALL for the most part. It takes an uncompromising commitment to MAKE that work IMO.
o Packers game (38-10 win): 35 runs (158 yds) to 28 passes (166 yds) with 0 sacks (run-pass 55.6%) … Bucs ahead 28-10 at halftime after 2 key TOs by the Packers in the 2nd qtr.
o Panthers game (46-23 win): 37 runs (210 yds) to 39 passes (341 yds) with 1 sack (run-pass 47.4%) … Game tied at halftime 17-17 then RoJo broke it open with his 98-yd run.
In our other high-scoring game against the Raiders (45-20 win), we didn’t run the ball nearly as much (only 25 times for 85 yds as compared to 45 passes for 369 yds and 0 sacks). Run-pass ratio was 35.7% , but there were some very key runs in there. And BTW, Fournette did VERY WELL in that game (11 run for 50 yds and caught 6 passes out of 7 targets for another 47 yds).
Seems interesting that our OLine protected Brady very well in those particular wins (he took only 1 sack total in all 3 games). Also interesting that our defense played exceptionally well in all 3 of those high-scoring games, and generated 5 key TOs, even though Bucs lost the TOP battle in every one of those wins. Either we matched up well or being ahead by so much allowed our defense to really tee off & play very aggressively (I like the latter).
November 25th, 2020 at 7:03 am
Each, and every week if your QB plays well, or not. So every week the game plan is flawless, and it’s on the QB whether the plays work, or not? That’s what he’s saying. How about as a staff we didn’t put Brady in a position to succeed? This Arain’s, Leftwich offense sucks! The game plan seems to be throw deep, and if we don’t hit them blame Brady. Twenty years Brady has been a master of reading defenses, and picking them apart. One season in with BA,BL he’s making bad reads. That last pick was Tom making a bad read, not Tom doing the best he could with a play call that was doomed to fail. Someone is going to have to explain to the Glazers what went wrong this year. Good luck selling them I need a better QB.
November 25th, 2020 at 7:03 am
Brady said he goes to bed at 9:15 every night. I don’t think it’s coincidence these losses and bad games (Giants) were at night.
Chiefs game is a 4:25, but then the final 4 games are all 1 pm. Should tell us something.
Even the Super Bowl would only be at 6:25, not 8:25. Let the old man sleep!
November 25th, 2020 at 7:30 am
We put a LOT of pieces of this roster together at the last minute in a season with no preseason. We’ve added big pieces after the season started.
I agree with Joe that’s it’s an excuse but it does perhaps explain a little.
We are a good team that is INCONSISTENT. That’s it. We can’t ever be a great team without that consistency.
This is not rocket science. D.R. is correct. Our D did not play their best game at all. I was screaming at the TV at all the missed tackles and even our normal closers like Winfield played poorly. But STILL we had the ball trailing by only three at the two minute warning.
This was against a good Ram’s team. The way we failed to close the show when we achieved EXACTLY what we wanted…2 minutes…timeouts…trailing only a FG to OT or for a killer team the TD that closes the deal.
So we are NOT a great team right now…we are still a good team and if all the stars aligned we could approach greatness.
November 25th, 2020 at 7:46 am
It’s Brandy’s fault says the most overrated coach in the league. When asked about play calling Quote
” Brain called a good GAME”
November 25th, 2020 at 7:50 am
Arians when asked about Fournette’s drops its Bradys fault, throws were off target.
Quote ” Fournette has great hands”
November 25th, 2020 at 8:10 am
None of you blamed the coaches for not putting jameis in the position to succeed. Heck you applauded BA when he said jameis made a wrong read or made a bad decision. Why aren’t you applauding BA now. Im sure Brady sees on film that he made the wrong read. Brady f’ed up. Simple as that.
November 25th, 2020 at 8:40 am
Well said stpetebucfan. Our victories this year are proof that we’re at least good. We’ve had a few games where they do look great
November 25th, 2020 at 9:21 am
Really telling lowlight on the local sports yahoo news last night. Methuselah TO which helped lose the game. There was no Buc player anywhere near that ball. So what happened? Old goat had a massive brain fart. Bucs will make the playoffs, but SB? Nope, doubt it with the 2 Methuselahs calling the shots.
November 25th, 2020 at 9:34 am
I think we just don’t match up well against teams that can rush 4 and drop 7…Remember we’ve lost to NO 2x the Rams, and Bears…outside of maybe the Bears…we are losing to very good teams with very coaching staffs.
I think our Offense will be very good against the Chiefs, Vikings, Atl (2x) and Lions…these teams don’t have the personal that NO/ Rams have…I’m more concerned with our defense. I’m not sure why we cant play man with Safety help when we don’t want to blitz…this off-zone we play SUCKS!
November 25th, 2020 at 9:39 am
BA, Leftwich and Bowles have been noticeably out coached in at least 3-4 games this year. They don’t adjust and they try to insist on their schemes even when it’s clear as day they’re not working. If Brady can’t throw deep then how about some short passes. If DBs can’t cover, then try to mix the coverage up. If Jones and Fournette can’t catch a pass out of the backfield try someone else. Players are also not executing. This is a team that will be very lucky to sneak into playoffs to get blown out in the first game.
November 25th, 2020 at 9:40 am
Agreed Aaron may nailed it!
November 25th, 2020 at 10:03 am
The offensive inconsistency is because you have no identity in the running game.
BECAUSE THE RUNNING PACKAGE SUCK. Again predictable, but this OL is built to pass block, Wirfs, Jensen, and Maroet can plow forward but man the chemistry and personnel to run the ball sucks.
Shannahan is making a mash unit competitive in San Fran and scheming guys open. While we lineup with the all star team that can play anyone that doesn’t play a traditional game.
Coaching has been exposed and it’s enough of a sample size to start holding them accountable.
I’m not ready to say fire the staff but let’s just say again the arrogance of Leftwich bothers me. We can see exactly how this is playing out and it’s not good enough. Arians is transparent but righ now that’s not winning games. They need to really do some self scouting and get their stuff together.
November 25th, 2020 at 10:09 am
Yea ok nothing to do with play calling. One and done in the playoffs for this dumb coaching staff
November 25th, 2020 at 11:27 am
Shanahhan dances circles around Leftwich and Arians.
Tom is getting old.
None of this is surprising.
November 25th, 2020 at 5:23 pm
This where Arians is old and just plain wrong and this is also in alignment with his Ultra Ultra Stupid Comment “ we don’t miss those long balls in practice” “ Hey Dumb Ass ,Brady isn’t hit in practice” !!! Every team in the f ing NFL would be undefeated if they played on Sun like they play in practice !!! A percentage of practice is familiar, known and familiar ,,,, This just is ,, Again a Coach not being Realistic with his own down falls or those of his hand picked protected coordinator. ………… These Bozos continued to run empty backfields , not utilize MCCoy or Vaughn when needed , not utilize heavy tight end sets , run motion into their run game ( Uh duh)and just do Ultra Stupid and I mean Ultra Stupid, Dumb,stubborn,clueless, head in the ass burying,inability to change,brain numbing idiotic repetitive plays and sets that on paper are so so so provenly unsuccessful. The talent on this team just saw their coaches out coached like 80/ 20 or A minus Rams , D minus Bucs …….. Some of the same plays being run by each team were so much better run and executed by the Rams and The Rams Staff was just so superior in game plan and attack but still only won by 3…………..I feel sorry for the players counting on Brady, Arians and Lefty as they just count on talent over scheme and even Bowles could have switched JPP and Shaq as Shaq game didn’t match up well against the Rams right tackle ( worst game as Buc ). BTW Shaq s effort was great just a bad match up for him and please stop talking about Devin White he didn’t do anything in pass coverage that came to his zone at least 15 times and he didn’t even come close to pass break up. He is as over rated as they come and has zero instincts , makes some ok run stops but isn’t good in coverage, zone and not a good blitzer that constantly gets abused by rb s stepping in the blitz hole . Brady is mentally weak and Arians knows it and Arians and Lefty are stubborn, not great short game schemers,don’t hv a back that can catch, give up on the run game, don’t run enough double tight sets and Brady knows it !!! Brady lost the game and Arians and Lefty had a big big hand in it !! Brady is a Lil bitch at times and some great offensive minds are f ing LOUD LAUGHING 😂 some of the fundamentally dumb stuff Arians and Lefty are doing . I mean you are looking at at least half a dozen experienced names saying different things they see repeated are a joke and keep in mind this is a brotherhood and they don’t say anything unless it’s really really bad !!!
November 25th, 2020 at 5:28 pm
Btw way switching Shaq and Jpp May just be a series or two or a few plays here or there as they both excel from both positions but have much different games for the tackles to defend .
November 25th, 2020 at 8:26 pm
As a longtime Pats fan, I can assure you that the deep pass was rarely central to Brady’s game, simply because it’s never been his strength. If Arians can’t maximize the specific talents of the players he has, the Bucs will remain inconsistent at best.
And if he thought the O-line did a good job against the Rams, he’s nuts.