Bruce Arians “Frustrated” By Special Teams
August 22nd, 2021
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
When the Bucs entered the draft, Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians made no secret that the goal was to build depth and get special teams players.
The early returns are not good on the special teams angle. That seemed to be Arians’ biggest takeaway last night from the Bucs losing to the Titans, 34-3 in the summer’s second preseason game.
The return teams are a particular irritation.
“We’re still not blocking very well,” Arians said. “Our inside guys didn’t hold up well enough. Kickoff return — we’re not blocking anybody.
“That’s where I am most frustrated. To see these young guys improving and they are not doing it.”
It wasn’t only the return teams that got under Arians’ skin. On the Bucs’ final possession, Arians let punter Bradley Pinion try a 61-yard field goal. It fell short.
“Pinion made that field goal in practice a bunch so we were like, ‘OK, let’s see if he can make it a game,'” Arians said. “He sh!t the bed, too.”
The bright side to all of this? Outside of Ryan Succop and Pinion, the Bucs’ special teams were anything but special last year. In fact, they stunk.
Yet the Bucs still won the Super Bowl.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:02 am
The waiver wires will be under heavy scrutiny at OBPalace the next two weeks.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:20 am
Not sure why the Bucs continue on keeping their special teams coach. They need to fire Keith Armstrong. We have the talent….the coaching for special teams just isn’t good.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:24 am
This team is not very good w/o TB12.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:39 am
That game was a freaking travesty. On principal alone, they need to cut every last one of them. They stunk up the place.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:39 am
@Medicated Pete:”This team is not very good w/o TB12.”
You can say the same thing about every other NFL team.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:40 am
Last season they stank at return coverage as well.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:42 am
BA has to start having a hard look at his special teams coach. Been here for three years now and no discernible improvement.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:43 am
Talk about hitting the head on the nail. This appears to be commons sense. This should have been done last week.
AlabamaBucsFan Says:
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:20 am
Not sure why the Bucs continue on keeping their special teams coach. They need to fire Keith Armstrong. We have the talent….the coaching for special teams just isn’t good.
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:56 am
@Medicated Pete,
Based on your comment, you are saying TB12 could’ve played last night with that same 2nd and 3rd team line up and the Bucs would’ve not gotten smoked, mmmm. TB12 is that guy, but without the talent around him, he would be, well, mmmm
August 22nd, 2021 at 10:57 am
Dude was a graduate assistant to BA in 1987 at Temple when BA was head coach. Don’t know if they crossed paths again in the pros.
BA is loyal to a fault at times !
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:16 am
Well it is 2nd and 3rd string people. I wasn’t expecting first team quality of on field play last night.
Personally, I would let Ke’Shaun Vaughn return kickoffs and Darden returns punts. At least the Titans respects Darden by kicking it out of bounds. (Scouting)
Also, I think it’s a bad idea to train against other teams now due to shorter preseason. The element of surprise is gone. Plus, it appears we were scouted and planned against last night. It seem the Titans made no mistakes last night. This will affect the evaluation of talents of the bubble players.
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:17 am
When you keep changing players and the results are the same? Guess where the problem is?
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:18 am
Agree with Alabama Buc’s question. The special teams coach is highly suspect.
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:30 am
Vaughn returning KO’s is a joke. Right? To me he hasn’t shown me crap. OJ is another useless player. Right now he is probably the 4th TE. Darden hasn’t shown me much either. BA, you don’t have to hold on to guys just because they were high picks. Quit praising these losers.
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:56 am
The team has great speed and talents with some vet leadership and a bunch of young legs,i think it’s time to look at the special teams coaching. Not only is that one department that isn’t doing so well that’s the one coaching department you don’t hear very much about for the buccs. For now we are extremely solid at head coach, offensive coordinator, defense coordinator, linebacker coach, defensive line coach, quarterback coach, wide receiver coach, and the list goes on. But, special teams does not get on the right side of being mentioned. Sometimes when you can’t get the snake to move right you got to start with messing with the head of it. The snake here being the entity of the buccaneers special teams staff
August 22nd, 2021 at 11:58 am
Bring Ryan smith back ASAP!!!!!!
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Preseasom or not. When you lose by 30 plus points..Thats an A.. Whippin.
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:10 pm
Why is Armstrong still employed? What more do we think we’re going to get out of this guy?
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:15 pm
Physical tackling and camp cupcake not a match made in heaven
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:17 pm
I remember how BAD New England would look every year in preseason…and then dominate once the season started.
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:24 pm
rrsrq, Brady went 12-4 his last year with Patriots with 1 broken talented receiver, so the answer is yes, he would of.chewed their asses out.
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:35 pm
Like I’ve said….it’s a good thing we have Pinion kicking touchbacks (top of the NFL) because we can’t stop a kick return….last night a penalty saved us on one & another was returned well on us.
Our punter is solid as is our kicker…..other than that, we have little to nothing….actually Mickens hasn’t been improved upon. Darden looks and plays like a small-school rookie.
August 22nd, 2021 at 12:48 pm
so is clear once again why NO team on the league was crazy about our coordinators…. and yet we think that we are going to lose them, unfortunately we are not going to…. BA is as good as TB12 is good, period. After TB12, we going to be the same crappy team. I had no doubt about that….
Let hope TB12 still has some gas in his tank 🤞🤞🤞
…and I’m putting back my signature:
BA = Lovie S 2.0
August 22nd, 2021 at 1:12 pm
Joe Marciano is a helluva special teams coach and would love to finish his career in Tampa. Licht should call him.
August 22nd, 2021 at 1:19 pm
If you have a 4.2-4.3 guy on your roster he needs a look in the return game if you don’t you are incompetent
August 22nd, 2021 at 2:01 pm
Special Teams need a leader.
August 22nd, 2021 at 2:26 pm
@Mike Johnson … “Preseason or not. When you lose by 30 plus points..Thats an A.. Whippin.”
Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner. Agree wholeheartedly Mike, Bucs got their arse whooped. Titans played smashmouth football last night; we were the mouth that got smashed. Two months ago any number of JBFers were crowing that the Bucs would go 20-0. After these first 2 preseason games, I’m not hearing any of that crowing anymore.
Reality to me is that the Bucs have one of the Top-5 STARTING LINEUPS in the NFL on both offense AND defense. We’ve got SOME DEPTH in some position groups, but not-so-much in a number of other position groups. Thus how well we do this year will largely depend IMO on how healthy our starters stay. We can probably lose 1, maybe even 2 starters on the OLine & DLine and possibly survive (we’ve got some decent depth there IMO). Lose Tom Brady and we’re toast. Lose Gronk & we’ll be hurting also. Same thing with our receiving corps; lose 2 key starters & we’d be hurting.
Our Achilles Heel this year however could end up being Special Teams. Not at all comfortable with our coverage (especially) and to a lesser degree with our choices of punt returners & kickoff returners. Even though to some preseason games are irrelevant & unnecessary, I think that this next preseason game will set the tone for the early part of the season. Also have a feeling that Camp Cupcake just ended. BA’s pissed.
August 22nd, 2021 at 6:03 pm
How don’t the Bucs have any Depth there Top of League in WR Depth RB Depth TE OLine Depth is pretty Solid as Well Lets Go to Defensive side DL good plus Depth is Solid Nacho, PC79 , KD94, JTS9, an AN98, Linebackers you got KM51, Britt52, Safety is Good with Edwards32 an Hagan34 an Cockrell43 who is a CB an S so besides a handful of guys there wasn’t really to many guys playing that would even be on the 53 man roster maybe 9 on Offense an 8 on Defense 15 guys out of 53 an they all didn’t an Stinnie an Cappa played couple Drives They have Great Depth there A lot of guys playing yesterday were just having fun I wanna see trask play an throw to Gronk Evans Godwin an Brown also that’s why
August 22nd, 2021 at 6:07 pm
Darden will be fine in regular season when you have AB Gronk Evans an Godwin in the game Darden is the last Guy you are Worried about he will have CB4 on him or maybe a Safety like when there defense isn’t Focused on the All-Pro future HOFs guys like Johnson Miller an Darden will all have there time to make big plays in this offense I mean I’d like to see Darden catch a Screen pass with Gronk Godwin an Johnson Evans blocking for him he will be electric
August 22nd, 2021 at 7:49 pm
Buchead 588 … I noticed you didn’t mention GREAT DEPTH in the QB position group. Nor in the TE group. And as far as the ILB group goes, after LVD & White I’d say the Minter is solid depth, but not close to being on the same level with White & LVD. And after that … not impressed (Britt has yet to play his 1st NFL game).