The Bucs starters dominated as expected when they were in the game against the Texans, eventually wining 23-16. At one point, Tom Brady completed 10 passes in a row as the Bucs scored touchdowns on two out of their three drives. Meanwhile, Joe Tryon-Shoyinka had a tackle-for-loss, a sack and a forced fumble once he hit the field.

The starters were great, but not everything went as smoothly with the backups. There were bad snaps and undisciplined false start penalties, along with some other mistakes.

Here are the most disappointing players from the game.

C Robert Hainsey

Bucs C Robert Hainsey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

There was a lot of excitement around Hainsey making his preseason debut tonight, but it quickly soured. A low snap just a couple of plays into entering the game led to a safety for the Texans.  The Bucs were backed up at their own end zone and the bad snap forced quarterback Blaine Gabbert to jump on the ball behind their goal line. Hainsey then had two snaps not long after that were so high that Gabbert had to jump just to catch the ball. It didn’t help the team get in rhythm for what was a rough performance for the rookie in his first game.

LT Josh Wells 

Wells has his spot all set as the top backup tackle, though his performance on Saturday wasn’t promising. He badly missed a block on the first drive when he was in the game, leading to a defender having a free run at Gabbert. It looked like he took the wrong blocking assignment and doomed the play from the beginning. Wells later had a false start penalty that set the Bucs back again as they were looking to go down the field.

Bucs’ Run Defense

It was very uncharacteristic of the Bucs’ defense, whether it was the starters or the backups. They allowed 112 rushing yards in the first half, which is unheard of for a team that has led the league in run defense for the past two seasons. The Bucs defense kept getting gouged by the Texans on a bunch of plays, moving further down the field than Tampa Bay would have liked. The trend continued in the second half as the Texans continued to keep the run game going. Eventually, they finished the whole game with 209 yards.

QB Blaine Gabbert

This was a game that Gabbert would like to have back. Though the offensive line didn’t do him a ton of favors, Gabbert wasn’t able to make the proper throws when he had some guys open. His worst pass of the night came when he tried to get a ball to Scotty Miller even when there were multiple defenders around him. The ball was incomplete, but Miller got up slowly after taking a shot. It was a pass that really shouldn’t have been thrown. Gabbert completed 4-of-10 passes for 26 yards and an interception.

RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn

Bucs RB Ke’Shawn Vaughn – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The experiment of Vaughn as a kick returner should be done. While he can still make an impact as a running back, he just doesn’t have the explosiveness to handle kickoffs. To make matters worse, Vaughn bobbled a handoff exchange from Kyle Trask, which turned the ball over. On the next kickoff after Houston scored Vaughn fumbled the return, but got bailed out when Jeremiah Ledbetter recovered the ball. Vaughn couldn’t hold onto the ball for most of the night as he finished the game with 15 rushes for 29 yards.

CB Antonio Hamilton 

Hamilton looked to be a step or two behind in a game where the pass defense mostly excelled. He was beat on a couple of routes by receivers when he was in primary coverage. In a game where Herb Miller made an interception and Dee Delaney had two picks, it was a bad time for Hamilton to struggle. Will it cost him a spot on this team? We’ll see. Hamilton made four tackles in total to finish his night.

Bucs’ Field Goal Team

Bruce Arians can talk until he’s blue in the face about making the special teams better, but we still see miscue after miscue. The Bucs had two kicks that were blocked on either an extra point or field goal attempt. The first came on an extra point following their first touchdown, as Jose Borregales’ kick was too low and got blocked by a Texans defender. Later in the game, he had a 49-yard field goal blocked by a defender off the edge. Once again the Bucs were unimpressive across the board on special teams.