Bruce Arians: We’ll be pretty good when we stop beating ourselves

[Captain Fear]

Getty Images

The Buccaneers came into this season with the hope that head coach Bruce Arians’s arrival would clean up the kinds of mistakes that have led to painful losses in recent seasons.

Arians’s debut showed that such a project is very much a work in progress. Four turnovers, including a pair of interceptions returned for touchdowns, and eight penalties helped pave the way for a 31-17 loss to the 49ers. Two of those penalties were holding calls on right tackle Demar Dotson that wiped out touchdowns by tight end Cameron Brate and Arians had a simple message to the team after the defeat.

“That was the message,” Arians said, via Greg Auman of TheAthletic.com. “When we stop beating ourselves, we’ll be pretty good.”

Getting Jameis Winston to stop would be a great help. His first interception should have been a catch by tight end O.J. Howard, but the next two were bad decisions and he missed Mike Evans on the end zone on a fourth down with a throw that should have been picked off by 49ers safety Tarvarius Moore.

“You just have to move on to the next game and get better,” Winston said. “That’s all I can say.”

The next game comes Thursday against the Panthers and the Bucs looked like a team that may have more to fix than time to do it.