Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Lovie Smith backs Kyle Brindza, says it was just 'an off day'

Published Sep. 29, 2015 1:35 p.m. ET

foxsports

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers suffered a tough 19-9 loss in Week 3 to the Houston Texans. What made the loss even tougher to swallow, is the fact that kicker Kyle Brindza missed three field goals and an extra point.

Yes, you're doing that math right, Brindza cost the Buccaneers 10 points in a 10-point loss. Fortunately for the young kicker, head coach Lovie Smith had his back, according to Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times.

"No. Kyle is our kicker," Smith told the Tampa Bay Times. "He, like a lot of us, had a disappointing day (Sunday). That hasn't been the case. You're going to have off days, and this was an off day."

"When a player has an off day, we need to rally around him in other ways, and that's what we weren't able to do (Sunday)."

It's good to hear Smith has Brindza's back, especially after the kicking carousel the team went through this offseason. Brindza wound up winning in the end, and the Buccaneers don't seem to be ready to throw in the towel on the kicker after one rough outing.

(h/t Pro Football Talk)