Cousins Love Comes From Unlikely Place
November 5th, 2014
Cousins’ harshest critic weighs in
The Bucs’ offensive line had an OK day running the football in Cleveland, averaging 4.3 yards per carry, and its pass blocking was more than good enough to win the game.
Improvement was obvious, and the big difference was backup Oneil Cousins stepping in for inconsistent and injured starting left tackle Anthony Collins.
Cousins’ preseason struggles at guard were well documented. No need to go there. Some Bucs fans have only just recovered the mental health counseling they sought in August.
And nobody took down Cousins harder in preseason than former Bucs defensive end Steve White. The man who played in Tampa for every season of the Father Dungy era even claimed, “I’m turning the TV off” if Cousins sees the field.
Well, White didn’t go that far. And he certainly watched the Bucs-Browns game. In fact, White did what he usually does, which is dive into the coach’s tape and break down the game on Twitter or via various media outlets.
This Twittering yesterday brought a smile to Joe’s face.
After watching the first three quarters on all22 I have to say, and it feels weird saying this, O’neil Cousins played…pretty good.
— Stephen White (@sgw94) November 4, 2014
Yes, Cousins was pretty good, not great, but very solid despite a penalty and a loss at the line of scrimmage in the fourth quarter.
Cousins had a lot of angry dog in the running game, and Joe can’t imagine any Bucs fans missed Collins.
So will Cousins get the start Sunday? Will he be rewarded for good play that impressed his toughest critic? Joe is darn curious.
November 5th, 2014 at 1:40 pm
I’m still scared to put him on the field, he has been trash pretty much his whole career I’m not ready to crown him a competent player after one good game.
Then again, I’m scared to put Collins on the field too. So I guess it’s a lose-lose.
November 5th, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Some credit to the much maligned Cousins. We did have the running game going in the first half….. then it disappeared.
(Still SMFH at the 2nd and 1.)
November 5th, 2014 at 2:18 pm
Collins is the LovieDovie’s guy that he paid all that money to so benching Collins in favor of the scrub that outplayed him would be tantamount to admitting Collins sucks and we all know that Lovie can do no wrong!
November 5th, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Perhaps he’s just better suited to play on the outside as opposed to the interior of the line….SURE looked that way last sunday…Looked like a completely different player.
November 5th, 2014 at 2:50 pm
He was horrific at guard, during the preseason. One of the worst reforms cues I’d ever seen
Looked good a Left tackle Sunday. A much more difficult position to play.
He earned another start
Still greatly miss Donald Penn. he is playing at Probowl level in Oakland.
November 5th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
The whole line played pretty well really. Cousins was not a glaring weakness. The only time they didn’t look well was blocking for FGs. The reason the running game dried up in the 2nd half was not because of the line. It was because Lovie mysteriously stopped running Rainey and decided to throw with Glennon and run with Mike James. Rainey was on fire in the first half, then barely touched the ball in the second. I don’t care who it is that blocks on the line as long as they are doing what they are supposed to. If the 1st 3 weeks of the season are any indication of how McClown is gonna play Sunday, those boys up front better be ready to block for a long time. Remember, McClown was holding on to the ball in the pocket longer than Glennon has been doing.
November 5th, 2014 at 3:21 pm
Now that a more mobile QB will be starting Sunday, I sure hope we starting seeing some naked bootlegs off of play action and more of an overall variety of play calling.
November 5th, 2014 at 4:08 pm
Chris Wesseling today, in an article on free agent flops (listing five Bucs) on the NFL.com website, included this: “The Bucs dug deep in their pockets for a slew of veterans and came up with a handful of lint.”
November 6th, 2014 at 10:54 am
Tackles need to be more athletic and rangy, guards need to be tougher and stronger…that much is always a given… but what is never discussed is that guards have to react quicker as their player is often very very close to them and they are right at the line of scrimmage while tackles have DEs that play outside their shoulders and the tackles themselves are lined up almost a yard further off the line of scrimmage than the guards… maybe he’s got slow reactions?