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Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians isn’t one to use the ‘coach talk’ so often, if ever. He’s literally known to be the type of coach who will say what he thinks, which is exactly what he did on Monday in response to what he saw of his attack during training.
After the team had a day off on Sunday, they returned to the AdventHealth training facility for their first practice of the week ahead of Saturday’s preseason opener against the Bengals. Arians was clear he liked what he saw of the Tampa Bay defense, but he wasn’t very happy with the offensive performance throughout the morning:
“Very good training defensively today. I thought it was one of our best start to finish training defensively, and probably the worst offensive training we have had in three years. Kind of a role model now: after a day off our offense just stinks. They have to break this habit. Defensively, they answered the bell. They came out and dominated the whole practice. It was good to see.
Amid the praise from Todd Bowles’ defense, the head coach had a few sharp words for his offense and pointed out that it has become a trend for this unit to come out slow after a day off. When asked if he could comment on why this had become a problem, he replied:
“Ask them. You can’t be warned more than every week. Passes dropped, missed assignment on base games – it’s just a lack of focus.
According to reports from members of the media in training, it was a lighter day for Tom Brady, who returned to Tampa around 2 a.m. after attending the Professional Football Hall of Fame ceremony on Sunday night. In fact, Arians said he spoke with his starting quarterback on a day off, but the seven-time Super Bowl champion wanted to be there.
However, whether it was Brady or another quarterback on the team leading the offense, things got ugly. And it looks like the quarterback wasn’t necessarily the problem. Jon ledyard of Pewter Report mentioned on Twitter after practice that there had been falls from several receivers, and not just guys near the bottom of the depth chart:
Brady was great today, but had fewer reps than usual. Most of the first team reps I’ve seen from Gabbert.
Lots of drops today. Evans, Howard with a couple, Darden, Tyler Johnson, Fournette, Gronk… https://t.co/oIkP6kzSGX
– Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) August 9, 2021
The Arians noted the falls and missed missions of a number of guys and attributed them to a lack of focus. And while those days run throughout camp, it looks like the two-time NFL Coach of the Year is fed up with those gloomy days becoming a habit for his offense. When asked what he could do to stop such a trend, he continued to deliver strong criticism:
“Well, back then we would be here to fuck them up, but it doesn’t work anymore.” You’re going to jail for this stuff now. They just have to grow up and become men. It has been identified so they have to fix it. I’m not going to fix it, you have to fix it.
You have to think that the Buccaneer offensive will want to react in a big way after such criticism. We’ll have to wait and see what this unit has to offer on Tuesday against a defense that is certainly full of confidence.
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