One of the great things about covering a team led by Bruce Arians is the transparency. The Bucs head coach isn’t afraid to say what went wrong for the team and why it happened. Sometimes, that comes out in honest criticism of players. But this week on Bucs Total Access, Arians offered some defense (and criticism) for quarterback Tom Brady.

When asked by team reporter Casey Phillips how he evaluates Brady’s performance in Week 8, Arians gave a complete answer.

“It was really good, really bad,” Arians said. “The two minute situation, where [Brady] has been outstanding, we failed this week. Threw two picks. But there was a blatant holding on [the first] pick on Chris Godwin coming out of his route that wasn’t called. But we can’t turn it over in two-minute.”

I wrote this week about the two blatant penalties that occurred on this play, right where the ball was thrown. The lack of a call resulted in a touchdown-drive before the half for the Saints, while likely taking points off the board for the Bucs. A costly mistake by the officials.

Arians has taken the high road with the media this week, saying his players need to be more careful after four personal fouls against the Saints. Several questionable calls went against the Bucs, but Arians has chosen not to criticize the officials much. It’s a calculated move to get his players to focus on what they can control. But it was nice to hear him identify one of the more damaging officiating errors of the week.

Still, Arians is right about the costly end of interception from Brady. As brilliantly as Brady played, his poor decision at the end of the game hurt. Obviously, the offense was only in that spot because the defense wilted to Trevor Siemian. Again. But it was clearly a decision Brady would like back.

“I felt very, very confident at the end of the game with a minute and whatever-it-was and one timeout that we were going to go kick a field goal and win that game,” Arians said. “And we just make a bad decision.”

The Bucs will return to action on Sunday, November 14 against the Washington Football Team.

You can listen to the tremendous entirety of Bucs Total Access with Casey Phillips right here.