Buccaneers overcome multiple Bruce Arians blunders in win over Cardinals

Despite head coach Bruce Arians giving away two free timeouts, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers managed to squeak out a gutsy win over the Arizona Cardinals.

It was not pretty, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are finally back in the win column after four straight losses. While head coach Bruce Arians donated two timeouts to charity, the Buccaneers were able to mount a game-winning drive offensively; the defense managed to hold up their end of the bargain afterwards.

Someone needs to take Arians’ challenge flag away from him as he continues to waste them, then additionally timeouts by constantly losing pass interference calls. That was far from his biggest blunder as well, as he threw the challenge flag for the third time, even though he had none left; this cost the Buccaneers an additional timeout as well.

Overall, the pewter and red earned their third win on the season, and played good enough on both sides of the football. While the offense did turn the ball over three times in this matchup against the Arizona Cardinals, they still managed to put up 30 points and total over 400 yards on the day.

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Defensively, Cardinals’ quarterback Kyler Murray was able to do more or less what he wanted to, but when the game was on the line, they grew a backbone. After a horrendous game last week, rookie cornerback Jamel Dean came away with a much needed goalline interception, and the defense managed to keep the Cards out of field goal range on the last drive of the game.

Quarterback Jameis Winston finished the game with 358 yards passing and a touchdown; he also threw two interceptions in the game. While it was not his best performance, it was also not his worst as he orchestrated the game-winning drive for the pewter and red.

On the ground the Bucs did not get much production out of either Ronald Jones nor Peyton Barber, combining for just 72 yards on 22 carries; Jones, however, led the Bucs in receptions with 8 and tallied an addition 77 yards receiving.

Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were again steady, recording 82 yards on four catches and 74 yards on six catches respectively. It was tight end O.J. Howard’s best game of the season by far, as he tallied four catches for 47 yards and found the endzone for the first time this season.

Defensively, the Bucs forced two turnovers, as Lavonte David pounced on a loose ball in addition to Dean’s clutch goal line play. They recorded two sacks on the day, as Shaquil Barrett has again overtaken the league lead in sacks.

It feels good as the Buccaneers are finally winners again. They will look to continue to tally wins as they have seven games left; the pewter and red are set to take on the division rival New Orleans Saints next week at home.