Time For Secondary To Rise Up

October 19th, 2013
dashon goldson

Sunday against the depleted Dixie Chicks should be time for the secondary of the Bucs to dominate for a change.

Yes, many Bucs fans have focused the past week on if/why Darrelle Revis is playing zone coverage. Or too much zone coverage. Or exclusively zone coverage.

What is important is if the Bucs are to find their first win of the season, then it will be the defense that will lead them, likely the secondary. The defensive backs of the Bucs may not get such an opportunity to dominate as they could and should tomorrow, writes Trey Cunningham of Pro Football Focus.

Julio Jones is done for the year. Roddy White has been playing with various injuries and may not be able to play in this contest. Aside from Tony Gonzalez, who should now be focused on even more by defenses, who is going to receive Matt Ryan’s passes? The fact Steven Jackson, who was supposed to bring a pass-catching threat the team lacked with Michael Turner, seems iffy at best to play on Sunday doesn’t help.

It seems that 2008 third-round pick Harry Douglas will be the No. 1 WR if White is unable to suit up. Douglas, who has actually played one more snap than White, has disappointed thus far in 2013 with only 16 catches, no scores, a fumble, and two drops. The last drop was near the goal line in the Jets loss, one play in a sequence of events that saw the Falcons stopped on the 1-yard line right before halftime. To be fair, that pass, which could have gone for a TD and changed the game, was a bit overthrown, but Douglas still could have made a play. The next wide out with the most snaps on the year is former undrafted free agent Drew Davis, who has played in every game but hasn’t had a pass thrown to him since Week 1. After Davis is Kevin Cone, who has played in four games and actually had a 12-yard catch-and-run and forced a missed tackle against the Jets, but that was his only target. Fourth-round rookie TE Levine Toilolo could become a bigger target for Ryan. Toilolo has caught all but one pass thrown to him this season, forced two missed tackles and scored a pair of TDs. Otherwise expect a lot of short passes to HBs Jacquizz Rodgers and Jason Snelling, who have a combined for 32 catches, 20 forced missed tackles and two TDs.

Look. The Bucs have All-World cornerback Revis, who as Bucs commander Greg Schiano likes to say, even at 70 percent is 50 percent better than most. The Bucs have stud Dashon Goldson. They have high first round draft pick Mark Barron. They have promising rookie Johnthan Banks. They should take the game over. The only receiver to worry about, and he is a big worry, is Anthony Gonzalez.

That’s it. The rest are scrubs. Joe knows Matty Ice is a helluva quarterback but this is the time for the secondary of hte Bucs to dominate and shut down these scrubs. Take the game over. Smother them.

If not, the Bucs just may have bigger problems than just being winless.

9 Responses to “Time For Secondary To Rise Up”

  1. MadMax Says:

    Time to go easy on our injured/recovering players and even sit them if need be…..season is done 🙁

  2. dee Says:

    I think if we can score early and often and make matt throw the ball we will win this game

  3. Buc1987 Says:

    If they can’t beat THIS Falcons team, then who can they beat?

  4. MadMax Says:

    I thought the same thing last week Buc1987 🙁

    I give up until a house cleaning is done….including Dom.

    Look, you witnessed it when I was all over Freeman, right? Unfortunately theres more….

  5. BuccaneerBonzai Says:

    I’m not giving up. Neither should anyone else.

    The Bucs are overcomers o their way to becoming conquerers.

  6. k1ngadroc Says:

    No more excuses, just win the game

  7. Rrsrq Says:

    A secondary who’s aggressive advantage has been “fined” away.

  8. MadMax Says:

    Yup @Rrsrq, they may as well remove the pads and helmets…..wear some pink flags around their waists..smdh!

  9. dmatt Says:

    This is the time for the coaches to step up and take over the Falcon’s shortcomings. The Patriots game planned for Tony Gonzalez n Jimmy Graham, they shut them both down…that’s good coaching. Do we have a plan for Gonzalez? Trueblood has played awful…our front four should b in Mattie’s face all day. I say take Underwood out, n give Page n Russell Shepard more playing time. How about letting Glennon run the no huddle offense other than when we’re behind losing.