Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians message to his team was simple after the teams opening week loss, once they stop beating themselves they have a chance to be a very good football team. The final score was 31-17, but it could have been a lot of worse with the way the team played.
The Buccaneers offense turned the ball over four times, including two pick-sixes thrown by Jameis Winston. They were also undisciplined with their penalties having eight of them.
“That was the message,” Arians said, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “When we stop beating ourselves, we’ll be pretty good.”
Auman points out that this has been the message surrounding the Buccaneers for a few years, and nothing has seemed to change.
“We’ve been beating ourselves too often, and somebody said a long time ago (that) more games in the NFL are lost than won, so it starts with not beating ourselves,” former coach Dirk Koetter said in 2017.
“We can’t beat ourselves like we did today,” tackle Donovan Smith said in 2017.
“It’s just us beating ourselves, as usual,” Evans said last year. “We had our way and we beat ourselves again.”
It starts with Winston not making the same mistakes he has made some coming into the league. Too many times, Winston needs to throw away the ball, and instead, he throws it into traffic and is picked off.
If Winston can start to limit the turnovers, it would go a long way in this team taking a step forward this year.
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