Tackling Issues At Safety; Stevens On The Outs?

November 12th, 2009

There are few things Joe loves more than talking Xs and Os with former Bucs defensive end Steve White, author of the popular Bull Rush column on JoeBucsFan.com.

White’s film breakdowns are always a fun read on his blog. And Joe’s sharing a couple of these nuggets today.

Missed Tackles. All of a sudden we are back to missing tackles in the run game. Quite a few of those missed tackles came from the safety position when either Jackson or Sabby Piscitelli and even Will Allen started off disguising their role as the 8th man in the box and then took off running at the snap and either ran pretty much by the ball carrier or just didn’t wrap him up. Now maybe they should come in a little more under control so they have a better shot at getting the runner down. Or maybe its just that there is still some confusion as to which gaps they fit into on run downs.

Whatever the reason we need to get that fixed this week before we go down to Miami.

Among other observations, White praises Kellen Winslow for his growth and commitment in the run game and notes that against Greeen Bay John Gilmore replaced Jerramy Stevens as the second tight end on running plays.

In a private chat with Joe, White also noted that Stevens has caught just one ball in the past five games after being a “matchup nightmare” last year.

Joe can’t help but wonder whether Stevens is in Raheem The Dream’s dog house for his repeated shoddy blocking earlier in the season.

4 Responses to “Tackling Issues At Safety; Stevens On The Outs?”

  1. The_BucRealist Says:

    Joe, the reason Stevens is seeing less playing time is that you cannot have 2 Tight Ends that do not block at all on the field. This was why the Eagles blitz every down. I also believe that this is why we have had no long running plays this year. We need tight ends that put hats on defenders. We have a receiver that can block but can’t catch. and 2 tightends that catch but can’t block. We have to shuffle people for our offensive plays. and we tip our plays when we exchange players. The more plays that we can run out of a base formation and use the same players, the easier it will be to catch defenses out of position.

  2. Petethehat Says:

    Stevens is a waste! Is that simple enough? He doesn’t block, he doesn’t do anything constructive but catch a wide open pass once in a blue moon. He looks like he’s giving about 20% ALL THE TIME. Give me a little bit lesser Tight End that gives 100% all the time and we have a winner.(also like Realist said you can’t have 2 tight ends that don’t block…yeah we mean YOU, Winslow) Sorry but to me Jeremy Stevens is a piece of sh– , waste of a football player (And although I don’t know him, but from what I’ve read human being too) and I don’t care how big he is I’ll say it to his face because I can’t stand people with all that talent and opportunity that don’t use it or have the will to. Get rid of him and bring in someone who cares.

  3. Eric S Says:

    I pray to God that we get rid of Stevens. The guy is a rapist, pure and simple. He is a piece of human garbage.

  4. leningan Says:

    Flush the King of Turds down the toilet!