Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians hasn’t been shy about airing his grievances about his team’s performance against the Saints in Week One and that continued on his weekly radio show Tuesday.
The topic this time was wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans dealt with a hamstring injury last week and there was some question about whether he’d play, so it was easy to chalk up a quiet day to him being less than 100 percent. Arians said that was not the case and the numbers back him up.
Evans played 65-of-70 offensive snaps and Arians said he was “full speed” while getting thrown the ball four times. He caught one for a two-yard touchdown and drew a couple of pass interference calls, but Arians would have liked to see passes come Evans’ way a lot more often.
“We got to do a better job when we play the Saints of getting Mike in different positions,” Arians said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “I think we let him sit there on the backside too much last week and it’s something we’re going to have to address when we play them later on again. . . . I never want to come out of a game without 10 targets to Mike, at least.”
Ten different players had passes thrown their way in Week One and Arians said he thought “the distribution was pretty solid” overall, but the exception to that assessment was a big one