When asked about whether some of his Bucs players lacked passion in the team’s 29-19 loss at Washington head coach Bruce Arians agreed by saying, “Totally.”

It was clear Arians was not talking about linebacker Devin White, who finished with a game-high and career-high 18 tackles against Washington. White also recorded his first two sacks of the season in the nation’s capital after not registering a single sack in the first eight games of the year.

Arians lauded the play of his team captain for the energy he brought to the field on Sunday.

“If everybody played with the passion and the energy that Devin played with, we wouldn’t have any problems,” Arians said. “He should have been the player of the week with the game he just had and the way he played the game. We’ll use that as an example for everybody else to play with.”

Arians might be talking about starting outside linebackers Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul, who were manhandled on Sunday and finished with a combined one tackle (Pierre-Paul), among others. That type of pitiful production can’t happen when Barrett averages $17 million per season and Pierre-Paul is making $12.5 million and is in a contract year.

Bucs ILBs Lavonte David and Devin White – Photo by: USA Today

Arians was incredibly disappointed in Tampa Bay’s defense looking lifeless and not getting off the field while allowing Washington to drive 80 yards for the game-clinching touchdown in the fourth quarter in 19 plays while consuming over 10 minutes off the clock.

“Them scoring after we scored,” Arians said. “When we had momentum in the second half and got it to three, they scored. We scored, missed an extra point and never got the ball back.

“So, we didn’t capitalize with the energy level on defense after we made plays on defense and our offense scored a touchdown. That was the most disheartening thing for us to [let them] have a 10-minute drive against us, that just can’t happen.”

White certainly played better at Washington than he did in New Orleans when his passion was out of control, causing him to draw three personal fouls, including a taunting penalty and roughing the passer. Yet despite the gaudy tackle totals and being the team’s leading sacker on Sunday, White wasn’t perfect on the field. He was on the field for all 19 plays of Washington’s game-clinching drive. There were some missed tackles and a few plays where White was not gap sound on Sunday.

Arians can live with a few mistakes. He just wants more passion out of his players like the kind White, who has a team-high 79 tackles this year, played with on Sunday.

According to Arians that passion shows up during the week in practice, but not enough on game days. Arians noted that the Bucs haven’t traveled well this season, evidenced by Tampa Bay’s 2-3 record on the road.

“When you practice as well as we did last week, I think they assumed they were just going to go out and play [well],” Arians said. “That’s something we’ll address. Just because you have a great week of practice, you have to show up on Sunday.”