Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians gave emphasis on the defensive side of the field when he took over the head coaching reins last season.
His team unexpectedly got a ton better with the arrival of quarterback Tom Brady to which a bevy of offseason acquisitions also followed afterward. In reality, the Bucs' stacked offensive rotation often overshadowed the capabilities of its solid defensive line.
“There’s no doubt. We built this team on defense,” Arians said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “Tom was just the icing on the cake. When we came into the offseason, it was, ‘Hey, let’s keep this defense together because they can be special.’ And then all of a sudden, Tom was like the icing on the cake for us offensively.”
The Buccaneers' suffocating defense was on display once again in their Week 3 game against the undermanned Denver Broncos. Linebacker Shaq Barrett tallied 5 total tackles and 2 sacks against his former team. Rookie safety Antoine Winfield Jr. balled out once again with 4 total tackles and a sack of his own.
Sophomore cornerback Jamel Dean, safeties Jordan Whitehead and Mike Evans, linebacker Devin White, along with veteran defensive end Ndamukong Suh all made life harder for the opposing offensive players.
Their impressive performance as a unit limited the Broncos to only 10 points while the Bucs pulled away with 28 points of their own to grab their second win of the season.
Arians and the rest of the team will continue their good showing as they host the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 4 proceedings.
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