Buccaneers: Bruce Arians should be on the hot seat after Saints debacle

Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians should be on the hot seat after the Saints debacle

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were firmly outplayed, outcoached and embarrassed by the New Orleans Saints Sunday evening in front of the entire nation.

Despite the fact that the Buccaneers entered the game as nearly a touchdown favorite, they were completely waxed on their way to a 38-3 loss that could’ve been much worse than that.

Tom Brady threw three interceptions. The offensive line couldn’t block- particularly Donovan Smith in pass-protection. The defense made Drew Brees look like he was 10 years younger. The coordinators’ play-calling was suspect on both sides of the ball, especially offensively. Nothing went right throughout the entire night. Oh, and just to avoid a shutout, the Bucs elected to kick a meaningless field goal in the fourth quarter down 30 points.

There’s plenty of areas to place the blame in this one, but it all comes back to one man: Head Coach Bruce Arians.

Arians is the man who’s tasked with making sure this team is ready- and they weren’t. As a matter of fact, they haven’t been ready in any single primetime game this year. They lost to the Bears and Saints, and barely squeaked one out against the New York Giants- one of the league’s worst teams.

It’s not to say he should be fired, but it is to say that the Buccaneers should turn up the heat on Bruce Arians

Tampa Bay sold out to winning during the 2020 season and, so far, the Bucs are still on pace to make the playoffs and potentially compete. Let’s not forget that fact.

However, Bruce Arians has put no confidence in anyone that this team can win a meaningful game when it counts. They’ve been outcoached basically all season long from that perspective and just have used their talent to overmatch teams when it finally came down to it.

You don’t go ‘all in’ on winning in a season if it’s just talent on the roster. You can’t simply rely on your Pro Bowlers to get the job done. You’ve got to coach them to a victory and there have been way too many times this year where Arians has mismanaged situations.

That has to stop.

If the Buccaneers can’t find a way to make the playoffs, there’s no doubt that Arians should be gone. If the Bucs make the playoffs and they’re not able to even compete and win a game, the hot seat should certainly be turned up a notch.

We love Arians as a person and think that he’s a solid coach, but pressure needs to be put on him because this team is underperforming and there’s no other way around it.