Bucs Are A Beat Up Football Team
September 14th, 2014
Joe always thought playing on the road for Thursday Night Football is overblown in that coaches will often tell you there is not enough time to prepare.
The Bucs showed that is a wive’s tale two years ago when they traveled to Minnesota for a Thursday night match-up with the Vikings and just about blew the baggy roof off its foundation, boat-racing the Vikings.
But if there was ever a team that did not need to play another game in less than 96 hours it is the Bucs. Quite frankly, they are beat up as if Nelson Muntz got a hold of Waylon J. Smithers, Jr. in a dark alley.
Simply put, the Bucs defense, playing two very physical teams to open the season, has been seal-clubbed physically. Virtually the entire front seven defensively was out of today’s game. Only Lavonte David, Clinton McDonald and Jonathan Casillas were able to finish.
Late in the game, starting cornerback Johnthan Banks had to leave due to an injury.
Of the Bucs’ starting 11 on defense, only six were healthy after the game.
Joe spoke with Mason Foster and he said he tried to play with a bum left shoulder. He has no idea how he got hurt and tried to “tough it out” but his shoulder would not respond.
Gerald McCoy broke his hand.
Banks suffered an unknown injury.
Michael Johnson has a bum ankle.
Adrian Clayborn torn up his elbow.
It is like a M*A*S*H unit out there. And, oh yeah, in four days that same decimated defense gets the chance to stop Matty Ice in his own house.
Ice up the beers!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:23 pm
Michael Johnson is bum
September 14th, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Damn second game of the season and the bucs are already beat up.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:24 pm
Give them all whizzi.nators, like Lovie likes to do, and they’ll all be fine.
Lovie – treating grown men with respect!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:26 pm
I don’t remember Joe making excuses for the BUCS last year when we had a 1st year QB, one receiver, and on our 4th running back and finished the back half of the season 4-4!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:26 pm
Florida Heat that we practice in breaks our team bodies down. It’s 2014 Tell lovie get with the time. Go read up on a chip Kelly’s practice and look at the science that goes into his practice.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:27 pm
Injuries are the least concern joe. I’ll say it again: we have a running team offense deluded in the 1970s steeler fantasy land w no OL protection. On defense we have an outdated cover 2 defense w no up front pressure to make it work.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:28 pm
I guess last year’s injuries we Not caused by being worked hard in the preseason then!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:28 pm
So are the Rams, and the Chiefs, and the fins, and so on and so on. We knew depth was an issue based on the preseason. The positive is we thought the O line would be the weakness and it’s probably the strength right now.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:30 pm
Everybody wants to talk about “toughness” and all these nonsense buzzwords, but if your training program isn’t adequate, your players will get overpowered and it will lead to injury. That’s exactly what we’re seeing with the Bucs. The other team is faster, stronger, and in better game condition. Most of these are not freak injuries. Our players are simply weaker, especially on defense.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:31 pm
Sucks but guys like Goldson, Foster, and Clayborn won’t be on the team next year anyway so start finding their replacements while they’re out.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:32 pm
frack the bucs’ players…
the bucs’ fanbase has been beat up for years!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:32 pm
This is ALL Schiano’s fault.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:32 pm
Any word on Evans?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:33 pm
If I recall all the Schiano hatered, injuries are a lame excuse, right?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:33 pm
Sheep: “Its only ONE game”! Quit be a bunch of whiners!
Reality: “We are who we thought we are” sadly (we all wanted to trust the Kool Aid)
September 14th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
@realitycheck exactly! Lovie preaches he wants a smaller leaner football team and weight is the most overrated thing in football! This exactly what he gets for being stuck in his ways
September 14th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
What excuse? Are you saying this injuries are some kind of conspiracy hatched by Lovie to fake out the Dixie Chicks? Are you suggesting Leslie Frazier took a baseball bat to GMC’s wrist in some weird method to f’ with other teams?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:35 pm
Doesn’t matter who they put in there if they continue to be conservative in the red zone. Why the hell did we draft Evans if he’s not gonna be used in the freaking end zone!!! Throw the damn ball up to him in the end zone!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:36 pm
Likely tomorrow. Joe was on the field and Evans got lit up pretty good.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:39 pm
Last year we were told injuries happen to all teams.
This year we’re being told injuries are part of the reason we SUCK!
Chicago Bears JV Squad (Lovie and McCown) aren’t cutting it – period!
September 14th, 2014 at 9:39 pm
Anyone selling those floppy hats yet?
September 14th, 2014 at 9:42 pm
@Joe
Out of all the players lovie smith brought in this off-season name 1 player that is worth a damn. At least schiano got rid of players cuz dey wouldn’t buy in to him. Lovieshipped ppl out just cause sSmh and now they are flourishing
September 14th, 2014 at 9:44 pm
@ iamkingsu – yep! A team wide weight cut to get guys at some arbitrarily determined level of body fat is retarded junk science. I’ve been lifting for a well over a decade. It’s pretty hard if not impossible to maintain your full strength while on a cutting diet. And for what? A slight increase in speed that maybe translates to the field? I’ll take the extra 20lbs of mass and the added force that comes with it.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:46 pm
I guess the cool thing about a floppy hat @ the game is you Yack into it akin to a barf bag on a plane.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:48 pm
Joe needs to start posting articles about 2015 draft scenarios… Like it or not folks, we’re still in ‘rebuild’ mode.
It wouldnt have been as bad if L&L didn’t try and sell it like we were gonna turn it around now… Like KC… At least be honest with us… Tell us you need a few years to re-adjust, and most of us would understand…
…Just don’t tell us you have G’s, holding a Benjamin wrapped around a bunch of ones.
September 14th, 2014 at 9:52 pm
It’s takes one tough S.O.B.
Not mentally weak and a glutton for punishment.
Yup it takes one tough S.O.B. to be a Bucs fan.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:06 pm
@’87,
so I expect you’ll be there again on the corner of Dale Mabry with your sign up…. like you did last year???
September 14th, 2014 at 10:07 pm
The defense wasn’t playing well before all the injuries. They might as well unleash whatever mystery offense Tedford supposedly has up his sleeve. If the defense can’t stop two backup QBs, at home no less, at least the offense can actually be used to score points. It would be a foreign concept to Lovie, but it might be the only chance to win games.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:11 pm
Nice Simpsons reference.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:13 pm
Again, this is a good thing for this team. We as fans and the coaches im sure are taking this time to see who can play and what they need going forward. The offense is good just need to draft winston in the first. The defense is good at both tackle positions and verner as the starting corner plus david and lansanah at linebacker (run on sentence). Need DE, MLB, RG, and another CB plus safety. Not that far from being a great team
September 14th, 2014 at 10:19 pm
Not that far from being a great team
_______________
Nope, not at all. I expect by 2025 we will be on the right track.
September 14th, 2014 at 10:32 pm
Maybe Lovie should have run the “gauntlet/torture tests” that some whined were responsible for injuries a couple years ago? 🙂
September 14th, 2014 at 10:37 pm
@Harry, Nobody wines more than you do!
September 14th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Ice the beer? Joe, we are gonna need everclear for the rest ofthe year
September 15th, 2014 at 10:03 am
I am a depressed fan right now when the heck is our bye week?