Bruce Arians on struggling Bucs secondary: 'We're too soft'

Bucs head coach calls out porous pass defense after another lackluster showing.

Two weeks ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave up over 300 yards to New York Giants rookie quarterback Daniel Jones in his first NFL start. Last week, they surrendered a career-high 517 yards to Jared Goff and the Los Angeles Rams.

Sunday, they made Teddy Bridgewater look like the man he's currently replacing, injured future Hall of Famer Drew Brees.

Bridgewater completed 26 of his 34 passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns, as the Saints tightened their lead on the NFC South with a 31-24 victory.

After the game, Bucs head coach Bruce Arians acknowledged his secondary still has plenty of work to do.

“We weren’t (good enough) today, "Arians said at his postgame press conference. "We have been at times, but we still are too soft. We’re too soft. I don’t know any other way to put it. When we’re in press-man . . . Now, we’ve got some guys that are getting after it, but we’ve got some guys that are just soft.”

Soft is definitely an accurate way to describe a unit that ranked next-to-last in pass defense heading into Sunday's game, and their performance against the Saints did nothing to challenge that assertion.

Bucs rookie safety Mike Edwards admits nobody in his position group wants to elicit that kind of description, and that they need to step up in order to change the narrative.

"Nobody wants to be called soft," Edwards said after the game, per Greg Auman of The Athletic. "We have to take it on the chin as a secondary, step up, make plays."

The last time the Bucs' secondary looked effective? A Week 2 road win over the Carolina Panthers, when Cam Newton completed less than half of his passes and finished the game without a passing touchdown. 

In Week 6, the Bucs will travel to London to face the Panthers yet again, though this time with backup Kyle Allen likely to start at quarterback for Carolina. Perhaps another matchup with this division rival can be the recipe for getting Tampa Bay's defensive backfield back on track.