Moore: Must “Get That Extra Possession”
September 19th, 2016
If Lovie Smith wanted to leave a curse on the Bucs franchise, then one affliction would top his priority list.
Lovie would curse the Bucs with no takeaways — because Lovie believed takeaways were always the key to victory.
Takeaways, takeaways, takeaways, that was Lovie. It seems the Bucs are still tuning him out.
So far in 2016, the Bucs don’t have a takeaway through eight quarters. They haven’t even forced a fumble.
Cornerback Brent Grimes dropped a ball he got two hands on in the end zone yesterday. So that was a quality “almost.”
During Dirk Koetter’s postgame news conference in Arizona, he noted the Bucs’ -6 turnover ration for the season is bad news. Koetter called that stat the greatest barometer of a team’s won-loss record over time.
Dave Moore, the former Bucs tight end and current game analyst for the Buccaneers Radio Network, noted the lack of turnovers this morning on WDAE-AM 620.
No matter how the takeaway comes, Moore said, it’s critical to victory because you “must get that extra possession in the NFL.”
Joe agrees, though takeaways can’t become an obsession, as they were under Lovie. There’s a big luck element involved. See the fumble caused by Charles Sims being too close to America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, yesterday, and the Sims dropped pass that turned into a tipped-pass catch for Arizona.
You can’t plan on luck. However, pressure on a quarterback, something the Bucs are sorely lacking, is often the catalyst for turnovers. And Joe’s all in favor of the Bucs’ doing everything possible to breathe on quarterbacks.
We all saw what happened last year when the immortal Case Keenum got time to throw against the Bucs on national television.
September 19th, 2016 at 12:54 pm
Instead of worrying about forcing turn overs, how about forcing a 3 and out once in a while? Its just as important that you dont let the other teams offense run the ball down your throats.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:03 pm
This week it’s going to be time for Jay Hayes to earn his money and back up his accolades. Let’s see if he can get some pressure on the QB.
And Smitty needs to help as well. If the front four ain’t hacking it means we need some creative blitzing. We have two LB’s that can help and I’m thinking Hargreaves can help as well, just like Ronde did in the old days.
I’ve seen two plays this year where Hargreaves defeated a block and dropped the runner for no gain. Against the Cards it was very impressive because Fitzgerald had just used him and even blocked him but on another play Hargreaves got the better of Fitzgerald and made the play. Hargreaves is the kind of player who will not miss the tackle if we get him to the QB.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Lovie don’t wear off that easily. Hey it’s football season, you can’t beat that. Optimism is all that counts.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:13 pm
The penalties sure looked better, even though they were in tough positions!!! Waiting patiently to hear about Ayers injury!! Look for the serious Bucs to get back to work and prepare for a tough game with the Rams!!! Hopefully we will see more pressure as not to expose the safeties!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!
September 19th, 2016 at 1:24 pm
We need JW to take better care of the football, simple as that. You can overcome a turnover here or there, but you can’t keep giving the other team points every week since games are usually so close. Having 5 turnovers is unacceptable in this league and should ONLY happen when a QB is being pressured ALL day. Franchise QB’s take better care of the football than that. I was starting to drink the Kool-Aid too, there are SO many of you praising JW on here that it is hard NOT to believe. Jameis’ stats are worse than Glennon’s after 18 games and we got MG8 in the 3rd round. Glennon NEVER had an OC like Koetter either, he had 2 different QB coaches calling plays. MG8 NEVER had a 4 INT game and JW3 has 2 of them already. Hope he can bounce back and beat the Rams next week but I am starting to doubt we’ll win.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:34 pm
Now this is a measuring stick game for our defense lol. The Rams have yet to score a TD this year. I can accept giving the Rams first TD because it’s bound to happen. But I expect our Defense to make Case Keenum look like Case Keenum and not whatever retired qb Joe like to use in these situations.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:36 pm
Seattle gose to L.A. and can only muster a measley 3 points to the Rams.. C’mon man. They bank on you never questioning anything, that’s how they successfully continue pushing this bulls@$! product down our throats year after year.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:39 pm
And ummm why couldn’t Buccaneers get any 1:00 home games vs west coast teams this year @NFL?
September 19th, 2016 at 1:41 pm
If you thought Seattle was going to score a TD yesterday you must be outside your mind
September 19th, 2016 at 1:48 pm
@NOSBOS
Love ya bro but the conspiracy theories are a little bit out there.
All the league wants is ratings. They will do what they can to insure that. I do not believe however they are fixing games.
I will concede to you though I doubt they would have put one of the glamour teams in our situation….3 of the first 5 games on the road…including games against both SB teams and the 3rd or 4th place team from last year.
The front end of our schedule is brutal!!! That which does not kill you makes you stronger. If we can beat LA we’re OK. We’ll hit the bye with a chance to heal and a young team that has five games experience including games against the three best teams in the league last year.
It’s painful right now but long term I’m not sure we can’t use this to our advantage. That depends on two things in my mind. First the mental toughness of this team…second injuries. At least we’ll have time to heal with that bye.
September 19th, 2016 at 1:55 pm
Same old story…SMH
September 19th, 2016 at 2:12 pm
Go home Nole guy you are drunk!! Games aren’t fixed no more than Winston is a franchise QB
September 19th, 2016 at 2:18 pm
No running game, no pass rush = NO CHANCE. That was Yucs football at its best. let’s hope that is the only blowout of the year. On to the Rams and a home opening victory!
September 19th, 2016 at 2:55 pm
@stpetebucsfan…I agree with you regarding VHG…he is our best defensive back….I agree with you regarding smitty as well but you lost me with hayes….he has his top 2 pass rushers out and the depth behind them isn’t great…
its the job of smitty to create/generate pressure if the front 4 isn’t getting the job done….the discipline that he has instilled in the defense is great..no more penalties but the lack of qb pressure and turnovers are concerning….
its the job of the coaches to put us in a position to be successful and I feel dirk and smitty came up short in that category….dirk abandoned the run game as soon they opened up a 10 point lead and smitty did nothing to generate pressure….with LVD not making any tackles he should’ve just blitzed him…that may have gotten him into the flow of the game…..
the team as a whole seemed to be sleep walking including our leaders….people killed lovie for his team being unprepared and not focused but I saw the same thing yesterday….but today no one is blaming dirk…many are saying, ” well zona is a superbowl contender we’re not there yet”….BS….we got blown out…we traded away 2 picks for a kicker that is still missing kicks when we could’ve added a de & safety…or de & wr…or wr & safety….licht is looker like a goat right now….GO BUCS!!!!
September 19th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Sign Hardy and Ray Rice!
Its a dog eat dog league bruh.
Mobbin!
September 19th, 2016 at 3:59 pm
Love Dave Moore, but our Bucs team will most likely end up with a negative turnover ratio on the year. On the offense side, Jameis will most likely throw his share of INTs, and we can expect a few fumbles to be added in here & there. On the defense side, Bucs aren’t built to play smash-mouth football like some teams are (Panthers for instance?). LVD & Kwon are both small LBs by NFL standards, and aren’t going to create huge numbers of turnovers. Our CBs & safeties are also small by NFL standards. None of those guys are going to create huge numbers of fumbles. We don’t seem to be doing much blitzing, so getting to the QB or RBs that way just won’t occur that much. Our DLine isn’t pressuring the QB consistently (and hasn’t for the past few years), so it’s hard to expect fumbles there or many INTs even. Give any NFL QB long enough and he’ll find open receivers. If the Bucs are going to win consistently with our current players, we need to put points on the board, and probably lots of them. I’m convinced we can do that, but not with game plans like we used against Arizona and certainly not with a 0-5 turnover ratio.
September 19th, 2016 at 4:59 pm
@teacherman….I hear you….lol….I would be down…GO BUCS!!!!
September 19th, 2016 at 6:59 pm
teacherman777 Says:
September 19th, 2016 at 3:17 pm
Sign Hardy and Ray Rice!
Its a dog eat dog league bruh.
Mobbin!
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This TB media (present company excluded of course) is so soft they’d walk into the press conference clutching their pocketbooks. Wouldn’t want one of them hoodlums to steal their purse. And I ain’t talking about Jenna or Casey, you heard.
September 19th, 2016 at 7:06 pm
I said it pn the game thread and i’ll say it here…this secondary can not handle any type of zone coverage. You need at least one above average safety in terms of coverage to run, say, cover three.Chris Contee can not handle being isolated on the deep third of the field.
Of course, the fact that we could not breathe on Carson Palmer did not help. If your secondary is vulnerable and your pass rush is MIA, well we saw what happened.
Of course, we could blitz more. Let our corners take a man and keep Conte out of 1 on 1 matchups. I’m far from an expert but through two games, the defense looks mostly confused. I expect lots of man against the Rams. If our corners can’t handle being matched up against that sorry group of receivers, then this team is alot further than I thought.
September 19th, 2016 at 9:25 pm
Ohio State turned the ball over NUMEROUS times against Oregon in the NCAA champ game, but dominated them anyway. That’s all about DEFENSE. If you have a rock solid defense you can overcome turnovers (that example is not an outlier either)
Arizona was driving the field over and over and over again. No pressure, no turnovers forced, no tackling, no coverage. Our “defense” iright now s a far cry below anything Lovie produced. That’s just the bottom line and for Mike Smith to do LESS with MORE than what Lovie has is a terrifying sign.
The only thing worse is for Koetter to put ALL the blame on turnovers, because that alone doesn’t come close to explaining a SLAUGHTER like that.