Transcript - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Postgame Quotes | Saints-Bucs 2020 Week 1

Get postgame reactions from Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians and quarterback Tom Brady

Sep 13, 2020 at 11:03 PM

BUCCANEERS HEAD COACH BRUCE ARIANS

(Opening Remarks)
"Very disappointing. I would never have thought with the we practiced for the last two weeks – would have never thought I'd see us have that many penalties, turnovers and just basic mental errors that really cost this one when we got back in the game with the coverage. It's round one – we've lost round one and we'll get ready for round two."

(On the miscues on special teams in Sunday's game)
"I didn't see any of that coming. We practiced all that stuff. We had poor protection up the middle on the long field goal [and they] had good timing and [Ryan Succop] hit it good, we just got beat inside. Then, you never go backwards for a football. You learn that in high school. Mike Edwards decided to go backwards for a ball. It's another thing you practice and you never anticipate guys doing it in the heat of the battle."

(On what took place on QB Tom Brady's two interceptions)
"One was a miscommunication between he and Mike [Evans]. He thought Mike was going down the middle – it was a different coverage – Mike read it right. He should have been across his face, but Tom overthrew it. The other one was a screen pass with an outlet called. He threw the outlet and it was a pick-six. Bad decision."

(On Brady's overall performance in the game)
"He came out lighting it up – we go right down the field and score a touchdown. I wouldn't say he was out of sync at all until we started screwing it up. We didn't run the ball as well as I thought we would on the edges. We had some success [and] we had some good drives and we had some really poor drives. But the turnovers and the penalties were the key."

(On if the issues running the ball were on RB Ronald Jones II or the offensive line)
"I thought RoJo– I'll go back and watch the tape – he looked like he ran it really well."

(On the team's communication on the field)
"There was no noise. It was like a regular practice with no noise. We practice with a heck of a lot more noise than that. I was kind of disappointed – I don't think it was fair to the Saints to have it that low because you can have an easy conversation across the field to somebody. It's not a very good deal [and] it should be fixed."

(On the offensive line's performance)
"[Brady] held the ball some. We'll go back and watch the film, but once you get in those known passing situations, it's tough on [the offensive line]. But they have to do their job, so I'll go back and look at the film."

(On if the Buccaneers beat themselves Sunday)
"There's no doubt. I said it to start with – it's my job to make that stop. I thought we had it fixed. Obviously, I didn't do a very good job of getting it fixed."

(On the defense needing to force more takeaways in order to win the game)
"Yeah – we had a couple go right through our hands. [Saints QB Drew Brees] threw it to us two or three times. We had a penalty on one when we should have had an interception and another one goes right through Jamel [Dean's] hands. We just have to catch it when they throw them to us."

(On losing Sunday after the build up to the regular season)
"We kind of cancel all that noise out. We knew we had a tough opponent [and] we were going to have to play really, really well and we didn't play very well. That's the most disappointing thing – the way we played, the mental errors and the penalties. We practice fourth-and-short [and] never jump offside 100 times. Actually, guys were telling each other, 'Don't jump offsides' and we jump offsides. That's unexplainable to me. We've got a lot of things to correct."

(On ILB Devin White and ILB Lavonte David's performances)
"Oh yeah. I thought the defense played really well the whole second half. [They] got a bunch of three-and-outs and gave our offense a chance. Those two guys especially, I thought, played really, really well from what I could watch."

(On WR Mike Evans only catching one pass and if that was due to his hamstring injury)
"To me he had 100 [receiving] yards. You get that many pass interference calls – those are yards. They're not catches [and] they don't go in the stats, but he had a 100-yard game easily with just pass interference penalties. He's going to catch those balls if you they don't hang all over him. I don't think Mike was bothered that much. We tried watching him as much as we could."

(On if he needs to figure out a way to get Evans more involved offensively)
"Like I said, he had 100 yards. I don't know how many targets, but when you get that many balls down the field thrown to you and you're getting [pass interference calls], I don't know what else we can do to get you the ball. No, I don't think so."

(On what stood out to him in changes to how the game is played in an empty stadium)
"Obviously it was the first game for the officials with no preseason too. I would have liked to have had [the recorded crowd noise] really loud. We're OK with noise, so there's just more energy in the building. There was absolutely no energy in the building with the noise the way it was. Other than that, it's just like practice."

(On if he would like the crowd noise to be louder at Raymond James Stadium next week)
"I would hope so. My mom probably wants it louder too, so she doesn't hear me cussing all the time."

(On WR Scotty Miller's performance)
"He's done it every day in practice. He's getting better and better, Tom trusts him, he utilizes his speed really well and that's what I expect of him every week now."

(On the positives from the defense's performance on Sunday)
"I thought our second-half defense was outstanding other than the one busted coverage when we let [Saints TE Jared] Cook catch the ball down the sideline. Other than that, I thought it was really, really [good] in the second half. They gave us a chance to win."

(On if he still feels the Buccaneers can win the division)
"Hell yeah. The Saints didn't do some of the things we did to ourselves, so we have to play better. There's 16 games – we can win this division without a doubt."

(On if it was too much to expect Tampa Bay's offense to click this early in the season)
"Yes and no. I thought we came out, went right down the field, made some good plays and scored. Then we hit some lows when we weren't on the same page. Don't know why, but we'll work on it. We try not to listen to the hype and just go to work every day. We'll go back to work Tuesday and get better before Carolina."

(On Brady's grasp of the offense at this point in the season)
"He's got a total grasp of it. He made a bunch of checks today – some were good, some weren't, but he was on top of it."

Photos: Game Action #2 | Saints-Buccaneers Week 1 2020