TAMPA, Fla. — As game plans go, this one may be filed neatly away in the bottom of Todd Bowles' wastebasket.
The Bucs defensive coordinator, who is known for exotic blitzes and aggressive man-to-man coverage, decided instead to take it a little easier on 41-year-old Saints quarterback Drew Brees Sunday night.
"The game plan (Sunday) was to try to play more zone and get our front four home," coach Bruce Arians said.
Not only did the front four not get home, the pass rush rarely reached Brees' neighborhood.
To compound the issue, the Bucs' secondary had only two of the Saints' 35 passes defensed, including the one linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul dropped on the first series of the game.
Brees picked the Bucs apart like a biology class frog, completing 26 of 32 passes for 222 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions for a 135.2 passer rating. Twelve players caught passes.
Backup Taysom Hill was 2-for-2 for 48 yards, and Jameis Winston completed his only attempt for 12 yards.
"Going back, we blitzed more than I even thought we did on the field," coach Bruce Arians said. "It's whether it was either blitz-zone or blitz-man. We went (cover) zero (no safeties) a couple times. We got (Brees) off the spot.
"Drew did a great job I thought last night of moving in the pocket and still being accurate. Guys were getting ready to hit him, and he threw some really good balls down the field accurately. It's the best I've seen him play in a while."
The Bucs sacked Brees only once. Arians is right. They did blitz on occasion. On the first series of the game, cornerback Jamel Dean came off the edge unblocked but left his feet when Brees used a pump fake before throwing to tight end Josh Hill for a first down.
A few plays later, Dean jumped what he thought would be a pass in the right flat to running back Alvin Kamara and left Tre'quan Smith uncovered on his way to a 14-yard touchdown reception.
"Guys were (ticked)," linebacker Lavonte David said. "You saw it on the sidelines, you see it today (and) you saw it after the game. Guys were pissed, because we know we're not that type of team, especially against a team who we obviously wanted to really beat. To go out there and put on a show like that on Sunday night, guys feel some type of way about it.
"We came in today, and the good thing about it is (I) didn't have to go to (anybody). Guys were coming to me (and saying), 'That's unacceptable. We can't have (a) performance like that again. We have to do find a way to get better.'"
What made the zone-coverage scheme even more surprising is the fact that Brees hasn't pushed the ball downfield this season.
He had the lowest average intended air yards in the league (5.8 yard average) and the fifth-lowest aggressive throw percentage (passes over 20 yards) of 11.2 percent. Playing a soft zone made those shorter throws easier for him.
Perhaps just as disheartening, the Bucs' No. 1 defense against the run yielded 138 yards on the ground. It's only the second time an opponent has reached the century rushing plateau against the Bucs this season and came one week after the New York Giants accomplished it.
Arians said the communication between the Bucs linebackers and secondary was poor and that players overreached their boundaries.
"Yeah, it's really gap control and getting out of gaps," Arians said. "A couple guys tried to do too much yesterday, and when you try to do more than your job? A good running back is going to find that gap, and that happened twice. You look at the film and you figure out why."
No player had more success running the football against the Bucs Sunday night than Taysom Hill.
The hybrid quarterback/running back/tight end/receiver led the Saints with 54 yards rushing on only seven carries.
"When they ran the ball with him, they were having success just running the power," Arians said. "And it's just squeezing it and the basic fundamentals. He's a big, strong guy, but still you've got to go in there and blow it up."
Linebacker Devin White had 14 tackles, but many of those came down the field.
David, who played despite hyperextending his knee, added seven tackles, one tackle for loss and a fumble recovery.
"Defensively, our safeties and inside linebackers did not play very well," Arians said. "There was really, really poor communication."
Quarterback Tom Brady, who endured four three-and-outs to start the game and was intercepted three times, blamed the lack of execution on offense for hanging the Bucs' defense out to dry.
"We just didn't play well in any phase of the game," Brady said. "We've got to start better on offense and help our defense out. That's how I see it."
"Offensively, we got out of that game plan so fast, I felt terrible for the left side of the line because there was no threat of the run," Arians said. "And we had, I felt, a really good plan for the running game. But when you go down 21-0, we tried to jumpstart with the two-minute drive just to get something going, but that didn't work.
"We got our (butt) kicked pretty good."
