Per usual, Bucs quarterback Tom Brady and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich have received most of the blame for Tampa Bay’s 9-0 loss to the Saints in Week 15. But, as I wrote in Bucs Briefing, it was pretty much everyone else who let the team down on Sunday night.

Obviously the Tampa Bay offensive line struggled, giving up a season-high four sacks of Brady. But injuries to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans impacted the Bucs even more. Without Antonio Brown or Breshad Perriman to lean on, the Bucs were down to just three inexperienced wide receivers. And under the bright lights, Scotty Miller, Tyler Johnson and Jaelon Darden wilted badly.

“Offensively, when you start losing guys like Mike and Chris, young guys have to step in,” Arians said on Bucs Total Access. “They need to play better when they get their opportunity.”

Bucs WR Scotty Miller – Photo by: Getty Images

Miller is the most experienced of the Bucs receivers, and it showed on Sunday night. He got open a few times and ran some good routes. Once, Brady could have hit him for a deep touchdown if protection had held up. But overall, the Saints physical corners gave Miller issues as an outside receiver. He finished with two catches for 18 yards.

“Scotty had a couple catches,” Arians said. “But he just needs to get off press coverage a little bit quicker and faster. He’s always struggled with big corners who press him. And then he can’t use his speed.”

Johnson was the receiver most expected to step into a bigger role. He’ll need to now, with the injury to Chris Godwin. But Johnson has really failed to impress despite ample opportunity this season. He has just 27 catches for 288 yards and zero touchdowns on the year. Against the Saints, Johnson caught four of seven targets for 41 yards.

“Tyler played ok,” Arians said. “He can block a whole lot better. And he needs to do a better job of getting open when Tom needs him. He got covered too many times one-on-one in that game.”

Bucs WR-PR Jaelon Darden – Photo by: USA Today

Darden has three targets and no catches on Sunday night. He was a non-factor for most of the game, struggling with technique and finding the football. In fairness to Darden, nobody expected him to contribute this much offensively this season. But with Bucs down four wide receivers, he played a career-high 41 snaps.

“Jaelon Darden got targeted,” Arians said. “Didn’t catch any, but he was open a few times.”

Two more experienced depth options for the Bucs could have stepped up, but didn’t. Tight ends Cam Brate and O.J. Howard played 20 and 10 snaps, respectively, but neither played well. Both players struggled to separate, and Brate had two great passes go through his hands. The Bucs really need to be able to lean on one of these players to produce, and on Sunday both played poorly.

“They were out there, but you just gotta get open,” Arians said. “They gotta get open. Yeah, you gotta get open. That’s the big one.”

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