Secondary Warts Grow
October 11th, 2015
Cornerback Tim Jennings isn’t cutting it
Joe is in ecstasy. Today’s home victory was nearly as sweet as Joe being invited to a postgame group shower with the Buccaneers cheerleaders.
It’s also enough to forgive, but not forget, the shoddy collapse of the Bucs defense, which coughed up a 14-point to the Jaguars.
Trailing 20-7, the Jaguars scored on three consecutive drives, 17 points in all, to take a 24-20 lead. And these weren’t flukes. Jaguars offensive coordinator Greg Olsen (no Benn’d around today) appeared to wake up and realize the Bucs have serious issues defending the pass.
If not for the huge forced fumble by George Johnson, scooped and scored by Jacquies Smith, there might have been a much different outcome today. That play was huge, and it masked troubles, particularly at cornerback and in the secondary.
Watching the game from the press box, Joe simply can’t see what coaches see in starting cornerbacks Tim Jennings and Mike Jenkins. The duo of 30-something corners appear a step slow consistently, and Jennings is often seen — and often caught — clutching, grabbing, holding, etc., to make up for his shortcomings.
Joe watches those guys and fears for what might happen in Atlanta, or against another high octane offense with elite pass catchers.
Come back soon, Johnthan Banks! And Joe sure hopes Alterraun Verner and/or Sterling Moore get another shot to win those jobs.
Lovie Smith’s defense won’t be ranked ninth in the NFL come Tuesday, as it was before today’s game. There’s a lot of work to be done back there. Joe sure hopes injuries today to safeties Chris Conte and Keith Tandy aren’t serious. The Bucs sure can’t afford a depth issue.
October 11th, 2015 at 6:34 pm
Lovie clearly falls in love with his guys. I don’t see how the players can buy into that, but surprisingly you haven’t heard anything from them. Verner might not be Revis, but he’s a helluva lot better than both of those guys.
October 11th, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Revis was more than worth $16 million now that we’ve seen the alternatives.
October 11th, 2015 at 6:42 pm
Bortles best day as a pro
October 11th, 2015 at 6:43 pm
Am I crazy or was Verner healthy and not starting? Inexcusable. Tim Jennings has no business being anything other than a nickel corner. While there is a healthy Banks and Verner, he should be rotating with Jenkins. Nothing more than that.
October 11th, 2015 at 6:52 pm
I am confused as to why Verner isn’t starting over Mike Jenkins!? Then again i’m not going to act like I know more about our team than our coaches who evaluate our players on a daily basis! I’m not stupid like that…
“Pressure on Lovie? Nah, man. Lovie is a great coach,” – Kwon Alexander
October 11th, 2015 at 6:57 pm
Thrilled with today’s win. But the D had six sacks, a score, takeaways, no offensive turnovers — and still gave up 31. Not good.
October 11th, 2015 at 7:09 pm
Jennings Sucks period..
But Lovie love him
Lovie is too Loyal. Bench this Clown.
October 11th, 2015 at 7:15 pm
Not to mention the horror that is Mike Jenkins!!
October 11th, 2015 at 7:18 pm
At this point, I’d be perfectly happy with drafting a DB in the first round next year.
October 11th, 2015 at 7:24 pm
Jennings made us forget how bad Jenkins is… This is not a good thing.
Verner & Banks better be back as starters after the bye…
Funny how our shtty CB Jennings, a former Bear, is coached by CBs coach Gil Byrd, Lovies former assistant in Chicago…
Seems that Lovie is putting his Loyalty above the Team… Oh well, his $20 mil contract is garunteed, win or lose, fired or not! Might as well help his friends out along the way!
October 11th, 2015 at 7:36 pm
Today reminded me of that year a couple years ago when we came extremely close to giving up the most yards in nfl history. You guys remember when we had Myron Lewis and the other dude with the dreads(his name escapes me now)
October 11th, 2015 at 7:44 pm
Today reminded me of that year a couple years ago when we came extremely close to giving up the most yards in nfl history. You guys remember when we had Myron Lewis and the other dude with the dreads(his name escapes me now)
Solinor it was Ej Biggers
October 11th, 2015 at 7:49 pm
Jennings also let a WR run by him on a redzone play. Hurns was wide the f open in the endzone with his hand up – but Bortles forced it over the head of his TE.
October 11th, 2015 at 7:51 pm
celly
Don’t get me wrong, I would LUV to have Jalen Ramsey on this team. But this offensive Line is far from complete.
October 11th, 2015 at 8:02 pm
Defense contributed 6 pts off that fumble recovery (followed by a 2 pt conversion). McDougald’s INT also set up the offense with a short field and resulted in another 7 pts.
So those 2 takeaways resulted in a total of 15 pts for the Bucs. I’d say that’s a big deal, and yes they did definitely impact the outcome of the game.
October 11th, 2015 at 8:32 pm
@celly @LUVMYBUCS
I think the O-Line will be just fine. They are leaps and bounds better than last year. And if the scouts keep finding D-Line talent like Jacq Smith and Howard Jones (who??), then the D-Line should be okay also (can we get Ryan Delaire back??). DB needs to be the 1st round pick. Bring on Jalen Ramsey! Someone who can cover man-to-man without getting burned by no name receivers.
October 11th, 2015 at 8:34 pm
I think Lovie has a dreads fetish. Verner and Banks should start wearing those Bob Marley wigs around One Buc Palace to get some playing time.
October 11th, 2015 at 8:35 pm
If Jennings starts next week I’m gonna flip.
October 11th, 2015 at 8:39 pm
I’d be MUCH happier with Leonard Johnson.
October 11th, 2015 at 9:13 pm
@chocolatecvb
One thing that has plagued – our franchise- is terrible offensive line play.
So until the problem has rectified – I will continue to preach its importance. Especially since the offensive line play is paramount to the success of Young QB.
So if, either of the following prospects are still on the board – when we pick
Get’em
• Laremy Tunsil, OT, Ole Miss
• Ronnie Stanley, OT, Notre Dame
If not – sure go with the best player available.
October 11th, 2015 at 9:15 pm
The pass defense is turrible, just turrible.
AGAIN we make a mediocre QB into a fantasy superstar.
4 TDs for Bortles. Four!
Luckily Dougie, CS, Vjax, Koetter and Americas QB Jameis Winston
had something to say about it. 38 POINTS! Yeah!
October 11th, 2015 at 9:32 pm
Jalen Ramsey…yes, yes. We need MORE Noles on this team!
October 11th, 2015 at 9:44 pm
If only we had the best CB in football. Oh wait, we did and we got rid of him. Okay, not going to go there today, but I’m really struggling to forgive Lovie for that blunder.
October 11th, 2015 at 9:49 pm
Why have one Revis on your team when you could have
5 crappy players instead?
October 11th, 2015 at 10:23 pm
At least we got 3 quality starters for getting rid of Revis. Oh wait, never mind. We got nothing.
October 11th, 2015 at 10:55 pm
How long have I been complaining about Jenkins and Jennings? Too long. Before this game anyways.
October 11th, 2015 at 11:08 pm
What happened to @noleonsatbuconsun?
I want to know if we should still be waiting on something. Like maybe a pass defense from a head coach who is supposed to be defensive minded.
October 11th, 2015 at 11:10 pm
Can we stop dwelling on Rivas? Its done, over with. Move on. @DefenseRules is right on. Without the defensive plays, we lose this game. Even though they gave up the late TD, we still won the game. This team is finally showing some promise. That is what matters. Don’t forget, Lovie has a plan. The Bucs have a boatload of cash available in FA next year. 49M under the cap to be exact. Lovie is going to get a shutdown CB, a heavy hitting Safety who can cover, an elite WR with blazing speed and a monster LT or Guard to shore up the OL. Then he will draft another CB in the first round followed by another Safety. That is all it will take to make this team a contender. Look at how well most players perform in their second year? Next year will be Winston’s year. Next year will be Lovie’s year.
“Pressure on Lovie? Nah, man. Lovie is a great coach,” – Kwon Alexander
October 11th, 2015 at 11:23 pm
I posted this in the article “day of the piranha”
But it goes here
I have been supportive of Lovie and the team because they have talent and a lot of youth and the system on D is proven.
BUT…. TOdays NFL is 90% dump a pass at about 5 yards.
The defense is designed to allow that and come up and make the tackle. Back in the day that was great because the offenses would try some deep passes and runs and the Tampa 2 would stop the runs and the deep balls– whether in Tampa or chi or Indy etc…
But now teams use the short pass (part west coast part spread etc …) as the run. They will dump 4 yard passes in the flat, hit slants, and quick Seem routes all day.
This is the major reason for the DBs not looking good. The defense needs to adapt slightly. They need to play tighter. Look for the slants and Seems more.
Hell Tom Brady is hitting 70% by throwing in 2 seconds. ELI does mostly the same thing now. Mariotta did it. Bottles did it. They all do it. It negates the pass rush.
The answer is simple, play tight. They can still play there zones or get back but they need to look for those quick hits first.
I was a college DB (nothing big) and it is easy to watch the QB the first 2 seconds to see if he is about to release on a 3 step drop. They may look hard to defend but jumping slant is pretty easy if you look for it.
October 11th, 2015 at 11:24 pm
Both these guys sucked the last couple of games. Jeez man. I don’t know what Lovie see’s in these guys either. Always getting beat and always late.Hope we get a new CB pretty early in the next draft. Banks is a keeper, but we need another guy who could start.
October 12th, 2015 at 12:14 am
We won’t win many games like today if the defense is allowing easy passes like that the entire game. 23/33 for 300 yards and 4 TDs is s problem. We need a better secondary . Mcdougald did have an Interception, however him and Tim Jennings were getting burnt every play . Need a faster more athletic cb . Someone who is fast backwards and can jump high preferably long arms .
October 12th, 2015 at 3:34 am
Everyone is entirely to harsh on these guys. Lovie Smith needs to become innovative and move both Jennings and Jenkins to the safety spots I promise they will perform. Jenkins issuited for sstrong safety at this point in his career because he still has tackling ability and run stopping ability as well as Jennings is better suited for free safety because of his open field speed and open field tacking ability. LOViE should make this accommodation for his guys to get on the field effectively and we can give up on Conte and Tandy finally as well. Mcdougald gets run in rotation too which will balance out their snaps. Something to think about on the bye week