Time To Stop Shuffling The Defensive Ends

October 7th, 2009

Joe loves soaking up football knowledge from his friends who really know the game at the NFL level. Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson, linebacker legend Scot Brantley and Jaquez Green come to mind.

Now Joe is pleased to add former Bucs defensive end Steve White to those taking Joe’s football and Bucs knowledge to a higher plane. White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era with the Bucs.

White is a tremendous Xs and Os analyst and an excellent writer. He lets it all hang out on his blog with breakdowns of every Bucs game. And he has authored a youth football coaching book, Passing On The Game, and will be doing some analyst work here at JoeBucsFan.com.

For now, Joe’s going to give you an excerpt of what White offered on his blog about Gaines Adams’ play against Washington.

[Gaines Adams] also made some really nice plays in the run game, in particular a tackle for a loss he had on Clinton Portis after he beat the tight end blocking with with a quick hands move inside. Having said all that I still wish they would keep the guy on the right side. On a day when he actually had his pass rush working he never got to face the guy he got a sack on, Chris Samuels, on any third and long. That to me is just nonesensical and hopefully at some point the Bucs figure that out. I would say why not put Greg White inside like he was as a pass rusher his first year with the Bucs when he first made a splash. Then you allow Jimmy Wilkerson to keep working his guy on the outside as well.

Joe also liked this shot White took at a Jim Bates move that he wrote was more ego that substance.

There were some coaching decisions that were real head scratchers to me. First on two big third downs in the second half Jim Bates decided to go with a three man defensive line. This after the [four-man] line gave the Redskins fits in the first half and harrassed Jason Campbell into several bad throws. The result was that on a 3rd and 11 Jason Campbell scrambled for a first down. And on the other play Clinton Portis barely fell down a yard short of the first down. This seemed to be an obvious example of “guruism” at its worse. Bates decided that it was important to show that he had more calls in his playbook and he put he defense at a disadvantage. Most of the time its best to go with what got you there and hopefully he realizes that going forward.

Take that, Mr. Bates.

2 Responses to “Time To Stop Shuffling The Defensive Ends”

  1. Mr. Lucky Says:

    Wow – someone recognizes bad coaching decisions. I guess Bate’s poor performance in Denver, which by the way cost Mike Shanahan is job, was just a small blip right?

    Fess up Jim Bates and be a man. Your scheme isn’t working with these players and until you get teh right players stop trying to force that square peg into a round hole.

    But I guess Raheem likes this. I mean if Raheem didn’t agree he’s do to Bates what he did to coach Jeff Jagz right?

    Why couldn’t the Glazers have left Raheem as the D-coordinatorer ?

  2. BigMacAttack Says:

    Nice Pick Joe.

    Lucky I don’t think Raheem would be a very good DC either. I hope when the time comes (now) they fire the whole bunch. Still, Bates sucks the worst. Notice how good Denver Defense has become without Bates. 4-0