Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coach Bruce Arians is known for telling it like it is.
So it wasn’t surprising he had a lot to say about his team’s embarrassing loss on Monday Night Football.
The New Orleans Saints demolished the Bucs by a score of 38-3; the game got away from Tampa Bay quickly as the Saints took a 31-0 lead into halftime.
Even though QB Tom Brady is the GOAT, Arians cast a lot of blame in his direction.
Brady’s Interceptions
Two different nights for two legendary QBs.
🏴☠️ Tom Brady: 22/38, 209 Pass Yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs
⚜️ Drew Brees: 26/32, 222 Pass Yards, 4 TDs, 0 INTs pic.twitter.com/FT19lECGi2— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 9, 2020
Tom Brady threw 3 interceptions on Monday night, and Coach Arians addressed two of them in his postgame press conference.
Arians talked about the interception before halftime where Antonio Brown was the intended target.
“The interception to A.B., that was just a poor throw.”
He attributed the one intended for Chris Godwin to miscommunication.
“The one to Chris [Godwin], Chris read the route properly. Tom thought he was going deep, he stopped. Those things can happen sometimes when you’re doing it on the run.”
Missed Targets
Arians was frustrated about Mike Evans‘ lack of use and cast all the blame on Brady.
“Mike was open a bunch in that ballgame, he just didn’t get targeted, that’s all. He was open. Mike was open.”
On another play, Arians talked about Brady’s choice of receivers.
Brady threw a ball to Gronk that Arians clearly disagreed with; he thought AB should have been targeted.
“[W]e should have went to him [but] decided to go to Gronk.”
The last time Coach Arians has been this blunt and visibly frustrated was after his team’s 34-23 Week 1 loss to the Saints.
Change Of Pace For Brady
Tom Brady was previously coached by another strong personality, Bill Belichick.
The difference between Belichick and Arians is that Belichick coaches hard behind the scenes.
He is not as frank or forthcoming with the media as Arians is.
Brady didn’t appear bothered by Arians’ public browbeating when asked about it earlier in the season.
“He’s the coach. I’m a player. We’re trying to win a game.”
To his credit, Tom Brady knew his team played poorly and also talked about it in the postgame, calling out himself as needing to improve.
“We didn’t play well in any phase of the game. Everyone’s got to do a lot better. And it starts with me.”
New Orleans Is Tampa Bay’s Achilles Heel
Remarkably, the #Saints become the first division opponent to ever sweep Tom Brady.
It NEVER HAPPENED to TB12 in 20 years in the AFC East.
— Rich Eisen (@richeisen) November 9, 2020
Perhaps the reason that Arians is so harsh is because he knows the Saints are his team’s main competition in the NFC South.
Going into Week 10, the Saints are 6-2.
The Bucs are 6-3 and already have two losses to the Saints.
Tampa Bay’s other loss came at the hands of the Chicago Bears where Nick Foles once again beat Tom Brady in a head-to-head matchup, the first between the 2 QBs since Super Bowl 52.
Kansas City Is Coming To Town
All eyes will be on the Bucs’ November 29 game against Kansas City.
Depending on how Brady and the Bucs perform against the defending Super Bowl champions, we may not have heard the end of Coach Arians’ public critiques of his quarterback.
NEXT: 2 Moves The Bucs Should Make At The Deadline
