Weak Stats Reference By Lovie Smith
September 8th, 2014
Stats are a funny thing. Some think they’re “for losers,” as Raheem Morris claimed. Others swear by them, and teams even employ “analytics” departments (Bucs included) to spreadsheet every last thing to search for an edge.
But stats are also worthless at times, jibberish junk food for the brain. Lovie Smith evoked one of those yesterday.
Following the loss to Derek Anderson and the overhauled and overturned Panthers offense, with their new receiving corps, new offensive line and new starting quarterback, Lovie offered a take on the Panthers beating the Bucs defense too often on third down.
“It affected us a lot,” Lovie said. “We had a 3rd-and-long situation, and we can’t give up those. You look last year, and I think they were fourth in the league. So they normally stay out of third and long situations. So, they have been – that’s kind of who they are. We had opportunities across the board. I would like to have a lot of the decisions back that I made today. We’ll all get better for next week.”
Hmmm, how exactly did Carolina’s third-down offensive stats last season have anything to do with what happened yesterday? “That’s who they are,” Coach? Really? Again, the Panthers rolled out a new QB, new receivers and a new offensive line.
Joe knows what Lovie would say if asked about last season as it referenced his Buccaneers’ pass rush (or anything else about the Bucs), which pressured the QB yesterday as poorly as it did in 2013. Lovie would say last year is irrelevant, and Joe would agree 90 percent of the time.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:02 am
Instead of weak stats, Lovie should be concerned with a weak secondary….three of his four can’t cover.
In a passing league, what’s the prognosis for a team with one solid player in the secondary?
September 8th, 2014 at 9:05 am
mccown lost us a minimum of 21 point.
I know at least one of his turnovers was turned into 7 points.
and he missed VJ wide open for a TD
and he did not even attempt to throw to the new rookie wideout running free for an easy long TD. in fact he took a sack and had time to throw the ball. yank hin now!
September 8th, 2014 at 9:06 am
Imagine if we had drafted Luke Keuchly, instead of Barron, we’d have won yesterday’s game.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:12 am
Mike Shula schooled lovie
September 8th, 2014 at 9:18 am
Shula schooled no one. It was all vanilla flavor and simple execution.
Our D didn’t come up with any pressure on Anderson, didn’t get the 3rd down stops and badly lost the TOP. Especially in the first half.
Our pass rush was inept as always, the secondary was porous as always.
Biff’s biggest gripe? Poor tackling. Inexcusable.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:21 am
Robert9 – Yeah that sack he took with Evans running wide open deep on the left side was brutal. He was looking toward that side of the field and just kept holding the ball. Was as bad as the picks (cost us 7 points).
He folded under pressure yesterday. Simple as that.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:24 am
Five Observations
1. Josh McCown makes decent throws when he has time, but makes bad decisions under pressure making him easy to game-plan. My guess is he has finished his development at the QB position; what you see is what you get and that is not reassuring.
2. Mike Glennon is not a good QB, and I do not see the potential that many other fans seem to recognize Mike may look good to some because we Bucs fans just don’t have anything to compare him to because we have never had an elite QB.
3. Doug “The Cannonball” Martin can run if he has a hole. Absent a hole, he is subpar; watch the post 2012 games. Bobby Rainey on the other hand seems to be able to make something happen even when there is nothing there. (the strip was unfortunate based on an excellent defensive play)
4. The Tampa-2 is a good defense, but a complicated defensive scheme that will take time to perfect. It will get better as players learn their coverages.
5. It is going to be a long season. Go Bucs
September 8th, 2014 at 9:26 am
L&L……There will be No Honeymon !
September 8th, 2014 at 9:27 am
Johnson is a slow lumbering hulk, He would be much better suited adding some weight and playing nose in a 3-4 somewhere else.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:27 am
I will not waste another Sunday watching my Bucs as long as they trot that sad excuse of an NFL QB onto the field . Sorry coach Smith, I had high hopes but you are what you are, you’ve lost any respect I have for you if you go forward with this fraud of a QB. Fans of Tampa Bay deserve better.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:27 am
Yes… Mike Shula did indeed school Lovie. That is freaking sad.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:28 am
Lovie should change his name to Dovie. The Bucs were just not in sync.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:32 am
I saw Hester had a decent game in the slot. This whole staff is starting to give off a stench.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:33 am
Joe…. if you write an article about Shula beating both Lovie and Leslie… i bet you would get 200 comments.
Wait till things slow down a bit…. 🙂
September 8th, 2014 at 9:33 am
STATS-
Lovie passed on Devin Hester
His stats yesterday were
5 clutch catches for 99 yards
Just a thought.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:35 am
Kevin: Fraud… Good word. One Buc has been spinning this fraud since the FA period.
It’s been a smokescreen to sell tickets and build hype. A dangerous practice that is being uncovered. I feel cheated.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:40 am
glennon reads the defense better pre snap. simple as than. mccown had time to make the throws that would have changed the outcome. fact.
the o line was not great, but they were good enough considering the panthers D line. actually they were better than i expected.
except mankins. you don’t sign a player that does not want to be here…especially a big money one! a blister is reason enough for them to come out when they don’t wanna be there in the 1st place!!!!!!!!!!! he did play well while in there though. at the beginning of the game maccown had all day to throw……but he still sucked
September 8th, 2014 at 9:40 am
CB…. at least in the NFL, they have to prove it by winning… in politics, they can just turn up the propaganda.
So yeah, Pro Sports > Gov Politics… and it is far more real too.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:44 am
Lovie is what he is, just like McCown is what he is…welcome to the world of Chicago Bears fans Welcome to Lovie Ball. Like I’ve said before, I watched him in Chi for 9 seasons and no one said a peep in his defense when he was fired after a 10 win season…
September 8th, 2014 at 9:45 am
@Buc Fan #237
You’ve got that right. At least in football you have the hope you won’t get screwed in the end.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:47 am
@flmike
As desperate as fans are becoming around here, we just want the bleeding to stop. If a guy wins 10 games here, he’s a legend and a hero. For a little while at least.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:48 am
Ya since that automatically means we would have gotten LVD… Just shut up.. Absolutely non-sense… No I’m not defending Barron either.. Just stupid to automatically to think that since we COULD have drafted Kuechly we could still have gotten LVD.. Hell if you want to play that game… We COULD have drafted Tannehill, Stephon Gilmore, Dontari Poe, Bruce Irvin, Michael Floyd, Kendall Wright, Chandler Jones, Andre Branch, Janornis Jenkins, Bobby Wagner, and Alshon Jeffery or, we could have drafted Weeden, Claiborne, AJ Jenkins, David Wilson, and Brian Quick.. Your boy Schiano did a great job again right? Or is this miss purely on Dom?
September 8th, 2014 at 9:50 am
A couple of interesting stats came out of the game:
1 – Turnover ratio (Panthers 3-0 advantage)
2 – Time of possession (Panthers 35-25 advantage)
The only stat that REALLY mattered: Panthers 20, Bucs 14
September 8th, 2014 at 9:54 am
Seemed like Rainey ran w more aggression than Martin.
September 8th, 2014 at 9:58 am
@Joe —
Come on, guy(s), the stats and team histories do tell a story. Carolina has used an option running attack wi play action for several years now. The footage of yesterday’s game is similar to last year’s — just with a less athletic qback. The Steelers have been a power running team for many years. Indeed, I warned that the ground-and-pound approach we were facing played into the Bucs’ weaknesses. (Just didn’t expect them to have so many weaknesses).
The stats did reflect the story. And in spite of everything, the game was up for grabs with 90 seconds to go. The Golson chance was not an easy one, but it was in the hands for an ugly win.
That is how the Bucs have traditionally played.
September 8th, 2014 at 11:16 am
There is reasons why Lovie Smith was fired in Chicago. I do believe we witnessed one of the reasons on Sunday. This team looked poorly coached and unprepared. You can blame any player you want for this loss, but it still goes back to coaching.
September 8th, 2014 at 11:18 am
They lost on all downs not just third. The field was wide open lovie, hopefully after watching the tape he actually just how bad they played. Our defensive backs coach was supposed to be hard tough guy. That was weak cornerback play
September 8th, 2014 at 11:18 am
straight dud, i was bored. My wife thought schiano was still coaching. seriously.
September 8th, 2014 at 11:35 am
I wish Schiano was still coaching. Sure wish Gruden was still here. Well I can dream can’t I.
September 8th, 2014 at 12:18 pm
Man, I thought all the pmsing would be over with by this morning. Sure its ok to get fired up when your team wins and its equally ok to get down right pissed when they lose. But damn, some of you guys just cant get over the fact that this team looked pretty bad yesterday. So what! There are no guarantees in football. And until this team gets serious about finding a quarterback, its gonna stay this way. We need a change at qb, and that change isnt a Buccaneer yet. Sorry, it aint McCown and it aint Concrete Feet Glennon.
September 8th, 2014 at 12:26 pm
Losing is one thing. How the Bucs played in that loss is worth of the scorn and ridicule. It was so bad, even Greg Schiano was wincing. Raheem Morris laughed.
September 8th, 2014 at 12:26 pm
@Lou – you nailed it – Carolina, Seattle, Philly, and a few others – have all deployed some version of a spread offense.
Carolina differs in that it’s Spread-Option read is manned by power backs (our defense is light & fast, wears down against a power running attack = mismatch). Their receivers are BIG and (and our DB’s are tiny = mismatch) – in short, Carolina is our Kryptonite. I don’t think anyone (including Lovie) figured Derek Anderson would have as much success as he did. I think that it was also compounded by the fact that we couldn’t get any DEFENSIVE LINE pressure from the EDGE. As a matter of fact, Anderson looked downright mobile ESPECIALLY on the edge.
We’ll see how well we align with other offensive approaches – but even though the Carolina offense is a bit of an odd duck – we can’t ignore that, except for McCoy, McDonald and David (who had his bell rung a couple times, evidenced by his slowness in getting up off the carpet after a. Purple of 2nd half hits) the defense was thoroughly manhandled – and possibly overrated (by our coaching staff).
Maybe a rougher start than we anticipated.
September 8th, 2014 at 2:38 pm
Time to sign Richie!!!!
September 8th, 2014 at 2:52 pm
What happens if Richie is signed and it doesn’t help?
He’s not any better than what we have.
Leave it be.
September 8th, 2014 at 2:53 pm
Besides, Richie won’t fix the defense.