The Bucs lost to the Saints, 36-27, in tough fashion as they clawed their way back in the second half, only to see Tom Brady to throw a back-breaking pick-six. Tampa Bay was trailing by two points and was trying to get into field goal range when Brady’s pick-six to P.J. Williams sealed the win for New Orleans.

This loss stings a little bit more considering that the Saints were forced to use Trevor Siemian at quarterback for the majority of the game after Jameis Winston was knocked out of the game with a knee injury. There were a series of miscues and penalties by the Bucs in crucial moments, including a taunting penalty by Devin White.  There was questionable officiating as well, which included suspect roughing the passer penalties on White and Will Gholston.

Here were the most disappointing players from the Bucs’ second loss of the season.

ILB Devin White

We normally like White’s aggressive nature to the game, but his over-aggressiveness is starting to become an issue. White can look like a bull in a china shop as he gets out of his lanes or is going so fast that he can’t stop and change direction to stop a player. He missed multiple tackles in pass and run coverage as he kept looking for the big play. Even worse than that, White was penalized for three personal fouls. Granted, one was a roughing the passer penalty that many believe was a bad call, but he then got called for a taunting penalty on the Saints’ last drive to put them in reach of eventually taking the lead again. That’s just undisciplined and can’t happen from the Bucs’ star player and team captain. White finished with 10 tackles in the game.

NFL Officiating 

We’re getting to a point in the NFL where the officiating across the entire league has been dreadful. Any time there’s the slightest bit of contact with a quarterback, a roughing the passer penalty is called. I’m all for player’s safety, but it’s football. The game is supposed to be physical and the officials are eliminating it from the game.

I’m not saying that officiating cost the Bucs the game because they still should have played better. There were many moments that one could point to, though, that were just terrible calls. The big one came on a roughing the passer penalty on Gholston after Antoine Winfield, Jr. made an interception. Gholston’s own helmet was ripped off by the offensive lineman, and yet there was no call for that.

Then there was a horse collar penalty on White where he clearly had the jersey of Winston when he was taking him down, not any of the padding. It was unfortunate that Winston got hurt on the play, but it wasn’t the right call by the refs.

Even after the Bucs made a great pass rush late in the game to force an incomplete pass on third down, they then hit Ross Cockrell for a holding penalty on weak call. The egregious roughing the passer penalties have gone on for too long, and the others were just as bad.

CB Ross Cockrell

Bucs CB Ross Cockrell and Saints WR Tre’Quan Smith – Photo by: USA Today

Cockrell was responsible for allowing the first touchdown of the game after getting beaten by Tre’Quan Smith in the end zone. Later on, he missed on his coverage on a fourth-and-3 that kept the Saints drive going and led to an eventual score. The Saints receivers are considered subpar, and yet Cockrell had a difficult time with them. He recorded one tackle in the game, and his holding call was a key blunder.

CB Pierre Desir

This was Desir’s chance to prove himself with Dee Delaney out and it did not go well. Desir was beaten down the field, allowing a 38-yard gain to Kevin White to open up the second half. He also had an inexcusable missed tackle when Smith was running down on the sidleine. All Desir had to do was knock him out of bounds, but he decided to wrap him up instead, which Smith broke out of and got a yard away from the goal line. Desir finished the game with seven tackles.

Bucs QB Containment

This went on more when Winston was in the game, but how many times were the Bucs going to get out of their pass rushing lanes and allow the quarterback to scramble up the field? Winston escaped time after time before leaving the game and rushed for 40 yards on four attempts. Then Siemian came in and right off the bat he broke away from a sack to keep a play going. Later on the Bucs made some progress, but they have to do a better job of finishing the play.

ILB Lavonte David

It was great to have one of the leaders back on the defense with David. There was a little rust to his game, however, as a couple of misplays at the goal line lead to two Saints’ touchdowns. David bit hard on a play action from Siemian leaving fullback Alex Armah, Jr. wide open for a touchdown. Later on, David was not able to fight off a block by tight end Adam Trautman and stop Alvin Kamara from reaching the end zone on a fourth down pitch that he bobbled and slowed up on. David made eight tackles on the afternoon.

OLB Anthony Nelson 

Nelson does not get a lot of playing time, but in the moments he was in, he struggled. An offsides penalty by Nelson on second-and-goal helped the Saints get into a third down situation from the 1-yard line. Two plays was a touchdown for Kamara, who got the pitch on the outside to the left on fourth-and-goal from the 1, where Nelson couldn’t catch up to him. He looked like he was wearing cinder blocks running after Kamara because it initially looked like Nelson could get there after Kamara had to regroup to hold onto the ball. A stop there keeps points off the board. He recorded two tackles.

Bucs Penalties 

When the Bucs lose games there’s usually a common theme behind it. Once again penalties were that theme. Tampa Bay committed 11 penalties for 99 yards. While there were some bad calls by the refs, there were still too many that were self-inflicted. Jason Pierre-Paul going offsides, Ronald Jones II getting a false start penalty, and many more like that. Pre-snap penalties are so avoidable and yet the Bucs keep committing them. They can’t continue this pace moving ahead on the schedule.