TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' defense has given up too many explosive plays for defensive coordinator Mike Smith's liking, and he plans to fix the problem.

Against the Arizona Cardinals last week, there were six plays that accounted for 209 yards, and in the past two games, they have given up 12 plays that have totaled more than 400 yards. Despite facing the likes of Julio Jones and Larry Fitzgerald, two of the league's elite receivers, Smith believes it really isn't about the talent on the other side.

"We’re giving up way too many explosive plays, and really it’s about us, not necessarily about them," Smith said. "Sometimes they’re missed tackles, sometimes they’re missed assignments, and sometimes they’re bad calls by me. So we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to tackle better, we’ve got to execute better and I’ve got to make better calls."

Mohamed Sanu was wide open in Week 1 for a 59-yard catch, with Vernon Hargreaves III biting on the play-action fake, forcing him completely out of position.

In Week 2, Jaron Brown was wide open on the left side of the field for a 27-yard completion by Carson Palmer. On a 51-yard touchdown catch by Brown, safety Chris Conte hesitated, Brown raced downfield and Conte dove at his ankles but didn't even touch him. Kwon Alexander missed a tackle that set up a 58-yard catch-and-run by David Johnson.

Alexander took personal responsibility for the defense's performance. "We just weren’t tackling well," Alexander said. "I wasn’t, I blame the whole thing on me, because I need to set the tempo, that’s on me. I have to do better, if I don’t do better, then the defense isn’t going to be right. I’m putting a lot of pressure on me. I’m going to do better."

Though Alexander did miss some tackles, Smith believes he should have put the defense in better position from a coaching standpoint. "A couple of those long plays were on me, I’ll tell you that," Smith said. "We can try to pinpoint it on looking at, if you don’t know what the call [is], you really don’t know who’s responsible for it. So I’ll take responsibility for those long plays and we’ve got to do a much better job on the explosive plays."

It comes down to several things -- being in the position to make plays, players reading their keys, tackling technique and better communication as a unit so everyone understands their respective job responsibilities. The Bucs are in a new defensive system with two new starting cornerbacks, including a rookie. They're still learning the system and each other.

"There's things that we can't have happen," Conte said of the Arizona game. He acknowledged that communication has to improve. "We all have to do better ... we didn't do the job. We have to come back stronger, prepare better and not lose confidence."

Through two games, the Bucs' defense has given up an average of 316.5 passing yards, which is the fifth-most in the league. Interestingly though, their 10.16 yards per completion is the fifth-lowest in the league, and a big improvement from their 14.07 yards per completion last season, which was the third-most in the NFL. This suggests that these breakdowns are happening on just a handful of plays and not the majority of a game.

The Bucs are also giving up just 33.3 percent on third down though, tied for eighth-best in the league and a huge jump from the 46 percent they gave up last season, which was third-worst in the league.

The Bucs will have their hands full Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, even if it’s a team that has yet to score an offensive touchdown this season. The Rams have speed demon Tavon Austin (4.25-second 40-yard dash), who lines up all over the field and scored two touchdowns on them last season, and running back Todd Gurley, the 2015 Offensive Rookie of the Year.

One area they would really like to improve on though, is getting takeaways. The Bucs are one of three teams this season that has yet to force a turnover on defense.

"We preach, like every defensive staff, we preach 'attack the ball,' They haven’t come our way in the first two ball games,' said Smith, who believes when they do come, they will come in numbers. "When you start getting them, they start coming and that’s something that we have to do. We’ve got to turn the ball over and we’ve got to put our offense on short fields and give [the offense] extra possessions."