Bruce Arians: “Win The Coin Toss”

November 6th, 2020

What’s always open to interpretation is the subject of football luck.

Take the Bucs’ win at the Giants. There are many ways to interpret what was seen. It all depends on your perspective.

Were the Giants lucky the Bucs went for two when they didn’t have to early in the third quarter, effectively making it a one-score game (instead of two) for the Giants’ final drive? That was the same drive that saw Lavonte David drop a game-ending interception.

Were the Giants lucky that Ronald Jones fumbled very deep in his own territory? He’s not a fumbler.

Some think the Bucs were very lucky that Giants QB Daniel Jones was off-target on deep throws to receivers covered/non-covered by Jamel Dean. There also was the matter of the final play of the game, which saw a pass interference call on Antoine Winfield in the end zone overturned by officials.

Game-changing plays and non-plays, and how they shed light on a team’s performance, are always open to interpretation.

Bucco Bruce Arians was asked this week on SiriusXM NFL Radio about his mindset when Winfield was flagged with seconds remaining. The head coach had a fantastic and candid response. “Win the coin toss,” Arians said, referring to looming overtime.

The coin toss line really underscored for Joe that you often need luck on your side in football to find a “W” in a tight game, especially the kind the Bucs are expecting Sunday night against New Orleans. Maybe this is the year (Bears game aside) the Bucs get the majority of the breaks?

8 Responses to “Bruce Arians: “Win The Coin Toss””

  1. bucfanforever Says:

    my thought after the flag was stop the second try

  2. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    I think BA was thinking…..if the worst happens, win the coin toss…..

    I’m thinking we may have stopped the 2 pointer on the second try.

    My problem is that it shouldn’t have been that close. We can’t have an offense that scores only 6 points in a half…….

    We scored only 6 in the 2nd half vs Bears and lost by 1
    We scored only 6 in the 1st half vs Giants and won by 1

    Those games were close because of an impotent offense for half of each game

  3. cmurda Says:

    In fairness, the Bears game was desecrated by the officials. I get Joe’s policy of not blaming the refs. I also understand that the Bucs still could have won that game. Now, that’s Joe’s policy not mine. I blame the refs for that loss. The calls and non calls in that game which seemingly always favored the Bears was a travesty. It also made that game close when the Bucs should have pulled away.

  4. Ftmyersbuc Says:

    Tbbf, we won by 2 against the giants.

    Giants got lucky. But their d is good. 6th best redzone defense, ain’t no joke. Hard to get 6 on them, hence 4 succcop fg’s

    Sunday night looking like a rainy windy slugfest. If it doesn’t get postponed. Take the under.

  5. Ericb Says:

    Tampabaybucfan: hey look at all the games vs giants ..they are low scoring they have a pretty good defense and once again we had no goodwin a win is a win…we should of won bears game but guess what were second in the NFC right and will be first when its all said and done..on to NO its a home game this time and take away Alvin and thomas pressure the hell out of Drew and lets win this game exploit thier weaknesses…take away thier strengths

  6. Pickgrin Says:

    Karmically the Bucs are long overdue for some “breaks”.

    Bucs have been getting totally hosed by “bad calls”, week in and week out for how long now?

    10 years at least – right?

    Which leads to an interesting observation.

    The fat Freeman led 2010 Buccaneers squad was among the luckiest football teams I have ever seen. We got break after break after break. Aside from the infamous Winslow OPI call vs Detroit (which I have seen Joe reference as the “reason” the Bucs did not make the playoffs that year – SMH) – that 2010 Buccaneers team got damn near every lucky bounce and favorable call that occurred all season long. Won several games as a result – directly or indirectly as I recall.

    I’ve actually been convinced for years that Rah and Freeman and that “youngry” team – that inspired such hope for fans thinking the team was on the “rise” – but quickly imploded the following year into some kind of sick Milly Vanilly mirage of a decent football team – I think that team sucked up all of the Bucs ‘good call Karma’ for the last decade. With NOTHING to show for it no less. Not even a one and done playoff appearance.

    Just a theory – but I ask seriously – HOW MANY TIMES have the Buccaneers gotten screwed by bad calls, bad rulings and overzealous flag throwing in the last 10 years? The answer is self evident. Ever since that 2010 season the Bucs get the worst of it from the Zebras way more often than not.

    Hopefully the “Tom Brady effect” is real in this regard moving froward – although you would have a hard time convincing me after re-watching that Bears game – SMH

  7. PSL Bob Says:

    Early in the week, I posted a comment on one of Joe’s posts that said because of the way the Bucs played Monday night, they were lucky to get out of that game with a win. The Joes posted back that luck had nothing to do with the Bucs win. This post seems to suggest otherwise.

  8. Leighroy Says:

    PSL Bob is perhaps a victim of Dr. Joe and Mr. Joe? Don’t worry my friend. The entire NFL took notice of Shaq’s pressures and their consequences this week, and the winds shifted in this cove yet again.