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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had 11 penalties for 99 yards in the team’s loss to the New Orleans Saints. Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians was fuming about the penalties, particularly the roughing the passer infractions.
“About 14 penalties and hey, to make it first down with all 15-yard penalties for roughing the quarterback,” Arians responded when asked about the penalties during his October 31 press conference. “I mean, stupid.”
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The Buccaneers Were Warned About the Referees Calling Roughing the Passer
The penalties should not have been a complete surprise for the Buccaneers as Arians detailed that the defense was warned about the officiating crew consistently calling roughing the passer. Arians explained how the defense was instructed to be careful against the Saints.
“Well, this was the one that was the most disappointing,” Arians told reporters on November 1, per Buccaneers.com. “We do a scouting report on who’s calling the game every week. This referee is very, very protective of the quarterback. They lead the league in roughing the passer penalties and we committed obvious penalties. Any time you touch them on the head, it’s a penalty. Players just have to take the responsibility to play smarter.”
The Bucs’ 59 penalties is the second-most in the NFL, just one behind the league-leading Eagles. Arians cited “discipline” as the one area he wants to see the most improvement when the Buccaneers return from their bye. Last season, the bye proved to be the turning point for Tampa, but the Bucs have had a much better start to 2021.
Tampa has struggled in recent years against New Orleans losing six of the last seven matchups dating back to 2018. Arians cited penalties and turnovers as the main contributors to the Bucs’ struggles against the Saints in Week 8.
“Strictly offense turning the ball over, that and penalties,” Arians explained. “You know, in this one both times down there we turned over three times and you’re not going to beat those guys down there with the number of penalties and the turnovers. That’s all we talked about all week going into the game.”
Brady: ‘The Losses Feel the Exact Same, They Suck’
One of those turnovers was Tom Brady throwing a costly interception during the potential game-winning drive. Brady admitted he took the loss to the Saints hard, only getting about an hour of sleep.
“You know what’s pretty amazing, I’ve played this game 22 years professionally plus nine others, high school and college, and the losses feel the exact same, they suck” Brady explained during his Let’s Go podcast on November 1. “God, I got an hour of sleep and the way we lost was tough. We had a great opportunity there in the fourth quarter.
“You know, the Saints have been really a great team in our division for a bunch of years. They’re really well-coached, got a lot of good players, and they beat us in the regular season last year. We had a great opportunity to go to their stadium and win and we put ourselves in a position at the end for a two-minute drive to kick a field goal. I just made a bad decision trying to throw a ball to a place where I couldn’t fit it in and unfortunately, it hit the wrong color jersey and that was that.”
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