Bucs head coach Bruce Arians addressed the media following Tampa Bay’s 19-14 loss to Cincinnati in the preseason opener. The following is a transcript of Arians’ press conference.

Arians’ opening statement

“First, I wanted to give my condolences for Mark Cook and his family. He was a great guy and a dear friend and hell of a professional. I wish his family peace and happiness. He was a helluva guy.”

“The ball game, there were good and bad – a lot of bad, a lot of ugly. The good was we came out healthy. It’s a start. Obviously really bad communication on the fake extra point where the kicker didn’t know the rule. You can’t line back up to kick it you don’t get a point for it. Evidently it wasn’t communicated well enough to him that he couldn’t do that. So that’s on me. Called a timeout to get an explanation on Joe Tryon’s sack on a runner – not a quarterback, so there’s no such thing as body weight. Really wasn’t happy with the explanation, but I was happy with the timeout. Other than than that, probably the worst tackling experience I’ve seen in a long time. It’s like we had no arms, everything was shoulder blocking. Some young guys put some embarrassing stuff on tape. I thought Kyle [Trask] played well. Kyle went in there and made some throws and guys didn’t make plays for him. I like his poise and where he’s at. A little disappointed in Griff (Ryan Griffin) with his experience and throwing those balls over the middle. For the turnovers I liked the turnovers defensively early, and I hated the offensive turnovers in the third quarter. I would’ve liked to stop them there and get a chance to see Jose [Borregales] kick a game -winner but it didn’t happen.”

On using RB Gio Bernard on third down and if that’s the role he likes him in

“Yeah, that’s his role right now. I don’t mind him out there on first and second, either. He’s a heck of player. A lot of trust in him right now. He’s been a great addition.”

On WR Jaelon Darden’s performance

Bucs WR Jaelon Darden – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Like a rookie he’s hand fighting too much instead of using his speed. Just things he’s gotta learn, but he’s doing alright. He looked real fast when we got that little quick screen out to him and he’s dangerous with his hands on the ball.”

On RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn’s play

“Ke’Shawn I thought played lights out. He made a hell of a play as a gunner. He ran the ball well, blocked well. I thought he made a really nice step, especially his special teams snaps. We know he can run and we know he can catch but those plays on special teams are big for him.”

On whether he was worried when QB Tom Brady got sacked

“No, he saw it coming and just folded up like a cheap tent – and smart as hell.”

On the team’s performance tonight compared to what he’s seen in training camp

“We talked about it pregame, you don’t cut block in practice and your offensive line normally in the first game is going to play high, which we did. And our defensive lines are going to play high. Tackling is always going to be a problem. You know last year it wasn’t because we tackled each other all the time and we didn’t have a preseason. That normally is a problem for guys who struggle tackling and it showed up big time.”

On different scenarios on the “aborted kick”

“You could call a timeout, you could’ve taken a delay of game or you could’ve just ran the damn fake. Alright? That’s what we wanted to do.”

On if the plan was to have QB Kyle Trask take a lot of deep shots

“That’s just the way it was. That’s the way he saw it and we put some good ones out there we’ve just got to catch them.”

On safety S Javon Hagan’s play

“Javon missed a lot of tackles, made some plays [but] missed a lot of tackles. He’s too good of a tackler to play like that.”

On LT Nick Leverett’s performance

Nick, I didn’t see him make a mistake. I didn’t see any problems out of his guys. I gotta give my hats off to Earl Watford. Earl gets a walk-through and to go out and plays about 50 plays. It wasn’t easy for all those guys especially when Hutch (guard Sadarius Hutcherson) went down that was it. We didn’t have anybody left unless we put the starters back in so they really gutted it out.”

On an update on G Sadarius Hutcherson who left the game with an injury

“It looks like a possible MCL sprain but nothing we won’t know till tomorrow.”

On if he’s still “heated” about the call on OLB Joe Tryon

“Yeah. [The QB] is a runner. He wasn’t a quarterback he was running the option. That plays been in the league for a while now. Hell you can hit ‘em when they fake it. I mean there’s no such thing as body weight. He wasn’t in a passing position he was a runner. He misread it obviously and that might be one of the worst calls I’ve seen in about 10 years.”

On Tryon’s play as a whole

“Joe, he was disruptive. He showed some stuff. He didn’t get there all the time but he was disruptive.”