Bruce Arians said special teams were the reason why the Buccaneers beat the Cowboys last week and it looks like the NFL agrees.
The league announced its Player of the Week awards Wednesday and named Bradley Pinion as 2021's first NFC Special Teams Player of the Week after a stellar opening night.
The seventh-year punter was instrumental in the Bucs' win. As you can see, Pinion finished the game with a 45.8-yard net average, a long of 65, and was able to pin Dallas inside its own 10 on three separate occasions. Both the net average and long are good for second-best in the league. The net average would've led the NFL in 2020 and his long of 65-yards was his first punt of the game that went out of bounds, pinning Dallas at its own 2.
"Our special teams won the ballgame, there's no doubt," Arians said Friday after the game. "Between Bradley [Pinion] pinning them inside the 10 three times and ‘Mick’ (Jaydon Mickens) covering...they showed up exactly in the ways we want them to."
Per Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com, Pinion is the fourth Bucs punter to win the award and its the second time throughout his career that he's been named as such.
You can check out the entire list of the NFL's Players of the Week, here.
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