Choking Defense
December 31st, 2014
No defense yacked up fourth quarter leads this season like the Bucs.
Someone over the weekend tried to start a Twitter fight with Joe. The guy claimed the Bucs had a good defense this year. Joe just couldn’t go there.
Yes, no question the defense improved since the bye week. How could it not after getting chain-whipped like it did by the Dixie Chicks and the Crows? That defense had nowhere to go but up.
Joe just cannot envision a good defense on the worst team in the NFL. If the Bucs really did have a good defense, they wouldn’t be picking first overall in the April draft. In fact, the Bucs were great at coughing up fourth quarter leads, as Scott Kacsmar of FootballOutsiders.com points out.
Tampa Bay, which holds the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft, had two horrific losses against Atlanta and Baltimore, but otherwise played teams much closer than they were given credit for. Not many teams can say (nor would they want to) that they blew six fourth-quarter leads in a season. The Titans, picking second, are the only 2014 team not to register a 4QC or GWD. Detroit had the most with five.
Sorry, but good defenses don’t gag like choking dogs like that. They slam the door shut on opponents.
Does it give Bucs fans some hope? Sure. But as the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. The improved Bucs defense needs more improvement to qualify as “good.”
December 31st, 2014 at 11:12 am
With the 1st (or 2nd traded with the Titans since they’re going QB) pick of the 2015 NFL draft, the Buccaneers select Leonard Williams! Happy New Years Leonard…..Congrats!
December 31st, 2014 at 11:19 am
just got off the phone this AM with an old buddy that lives in Tallahassee. he is a die hard FSU fan. he told me many stores in town are selling jameis Winston bucs jerseys and shirts.
maybe they know something we don’t? LOL 🙂
December 31st, 2014 at 11:20 am
A “true football fan” will recognize the Bucs are “on the verge”.
December 31st, 2014 at 11:24 am
Joe, be careful speaking the truth here. The Kool-Aid drinking mob will get a bit restless. Like Scott Brantley once said, you can’t polish a turd. No matter how hard they try to polish it, 2014 was one smelly mess.
December 31st, 2014 at 11:25 am
Not defending defense , but the ten point leads were basically sat on by the offense and lovie. Mentality is weak
December 31st, 2014 at 11:25 am
Wait. So if the supposedly “good” D holds those 4th quarter leads, we’re talking about hosting the Cardinals this weekend?
December 31st, 2014 at 11:31 am
Awesome picture choice
December 31st, 2014 at 11:31 am
When your coach doesn’t believe in scoring points on offense, those kinds of things will happen
December 31st, 2014 at 11:40 am
We have the nucleus of a good defense, we need some players and some improved coaching and schemes but playing the ghost is an impossible dream.
December 31st, 2014 at 11:46 am
The 4th Quarter lead stat is obviously damning!
The Bucs also sucked at getting off the field on 3rd and long. I’m not talking 3 and 8 or 9, I remember one game where twice they had a team 3rd and 20 and gave up first downs. There was no third down long enough to guarantee the Bucs could get off the field. It was a HUGE part of their problem.
December 31st, 2014 at 11:53 am
The Defense was better than it looked considering all the poor field position and 3 & outs from the offense….also the offense couldn’t control the clock late in games….sure, it has much room for improvement….but it was good….not great!!!
December 31st, 2014 at 11:58 am
To many would be interceptions dropped at critical times in the games surely did not help..
December 31st, 2014 at 12:07 pm
The defense was bad by any measure. It did improve over the year, but it improved from by far the worst defense in the league to simply bad. A lot of work to go before it’s considering anywhere close to good. I mean two of their last three games involved allowing the Derek Anderson led Panthers to finish every single offensive drive in Tampa territory (???) and a 60% Packers team put up a 300 yard passer, two 100 yard receivers and a near 100 yard rusher.
December 31st, 2014 at 12:37 pm
You won’t see anything that’s legitimately good in Tampa again for another – 5/6 years.
December 31st, 2014 at 1:10 pm
Way to go defense. Yay. Our secondary has always been suspect. We have no rush. Our defense is awful, but you all try to spin it to make it sound good. Get outta here.
December 31st, 2014 at 1:23 pm
MadMax, The Titans are all in on Mettenberger. No way we pass up on Mariota for a second rate pass rusher.
December 31st, 2014 at 2:42 pm
Awesome picture choice
Thank you. 🙂
December 31st, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Well when your defense is passive and let’s you move the ball on them with ease of course this is going to happen. I just hope we don’t ruin whatever qb we draft. Lovie should be fired yesterday.
December 31st, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Joe said:
” But as the old saying goes, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.”
And drive-in movies.
December 31st, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Tampa-2 was always best against the run, while safeguarding the big play. The weakness is when teams go no-huddle catch-up mode throwing the 10-15 yarders at crunch time.
T-2 will keep your team in the game up until the end. But at that point when they go all out pass, you HAVE to have a pass rush, and you have to get turnovers off that pressure.
This Bucs D didn’t have the pass rush at crunch time and didn’t take the ball away enough for it to be considered “good”. The coughing up of leads is a reflection of that.
December 31st, 2014 at 5:59 pm
@ Zam
Not so fast. The Tampa-2 was terrible against big, bruising RBs. The defense was built for speed, so they were ‘lighter’ than average, and therefore got dragged down the field by the ‘big’ guys. Many a big back made the Buc defense look like warm butter. But you are absolutely right when talking about little ‘speedsters’ and passes in the creases.
Coughing up the lead could also be a reflection of lack of depth.
January 1st, 2015 at 10:47 am
that had more to do with bucs offense doing nothing in the second half and the defense being on the field too much…how long can you make offenses punt the ball if your giving to your offense and they consistently go 3 and out to give it right back
January 1st, 2015 at 11:57 am
I’m kind of getting sick and tired of you people that act like you’re a “true football” fan thus the only true opinion of this steaming bucket of weak sauce….get a freaking life
January 1st, 2015 at 12:45 pm
how can a defense survive 4 quarters when the offense has 6 yards going into halftime. C’mon Joe pull your hungover head out of your arse.
January 7th, 2015 at 9:00 am
[…] does not equate “good” and good defenses don’t hack up six fourth-quarter leads). After that, this team was unequaled […]