Advertisement

Bruce Arians on Buccaneers' loss to Washington: 'We're a very dumb football team'

Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians is known for speaking his mind, which is exactly what he did on Sunday after the Bucs lost 29-19 to the Washington Football Team. During his postgame media availability, he was brutally honest about his team's performance, and didn't even spare himself from criticism.

"It has nothing to do with ability," Arians said via ESPN's Jenna Laine. "It's about execution and being a smart football team. We're a very dumb football team. And that's a reflection on the coaches."

And there was more. Here are a few more choice Arians quotes, via ESPN:

"It's very disappointing," Arians said. "It's very alarming to watch the energy at every practice and show up with a lack of execution and energy that it takes to win on Sunday. We've got a lot of soul-searching to do."

"Energy and passion are very fixable," Arians said. "The penalties — they've gotta get corrected sooner or later. The first play of the game — they're shifting and we jump offsides. They don't even run a play and we jump offsides. The stupidity has to go away if we're gonna go anywhere."

Does some of that seem harsh? Definitely. But to be fair to Arians, the Bucs were pretty underwhelming on Sunday. Tom Brady threw two interceptions in the first quarter, something he hadn't done since 2012. He completed just three passes of over 20 yards, and as a team the Bucks managed just 273 yards of total offense, their lowest total of the season by over 60 yards. Their top-tier run defense couldn't stop Antonio Gibson from rushing for two touchdowns, and their offense had major issues, even after Washington lost star defender Chase Young to a non-contact knee injury.

Brady not quite as talkative

While Arians was happy to dissect the Bucs' issues for the media, his quarterback wasn't so keen. Brady absolutely did not want to speak after the second-largest road upset of his career, so his availability was short. How short? It lasted just one minute and 43 seconds. And if reporters hadn't started peppering Brady with questions, it would have been done in under a minute.

While Brady didn't say much about his performance, Arians was more than happy to.

"It has nothing to do with the receivers. It was him," Arians said about Brady's interceptions.

You can always count on Bruce Arians to tell it like it is.