“Unreasonable Third Downs”
December 24th, 2016
There’s a bit of a false perception flowing through the Saints locker room, based on what Joe’s been hearing all week via the team’s official website.
The Saints converted just four of 13 third-down attempts against the Bucs defense two weeks ago, and a lot of Saints think it was because the team was too often in a 3rd-and-miserable situation, (aka 3rd-and-Cherilus, if you’re a Bucs fan.)
“That kind of in the first Tampa game was a problem for us, being in unreasonable third downs,” said superstar center Max Unger, who didn’t play against the Bucs but will today. “Just being able to help yourself and not have these ridiculous third downs as I think is really what helped us at [last Sunday at Arizona].”
These claims rang didn’t jibe with Joe’s recollection of the Bucs choking out the Saints, so Joe researched the Saints’ third-down situations. They were as folllows:
3rd-and-7
3rd-and-5
3rd-and-8
3rd-and-10
3rd-and-3
3rd-and-1
3rd-and-goal
3rd-and-13
3rd-and-3
3rd-and-2
3rd-and-1
3rd-and-1
3rd-and-2
3rd-and-5
That’s not so unreasonable at all for the Saints offense. Drew Brees was only in 3rd-and-long four times.
The fact is the Bucs’ coverage was special in that game, and the four-man pass rush did enough. Brent Grimes also picked Brees on 3rd-and-1, which was a gargantuan play.
One of Joe’s biggest concerns today is stuffing the Saints’ running game, which was stout in Arizona and has been solid most of the year. The Bucs are without manbeast run stuffer Will Gholston and Unger returns for the Saints. Bad combination right there.
December 24th, 2016 at 9:15 am
Saints are out of the playoff race, they need to take their foot off the pedal a little bit and give their division friends a chance to smell the playoffs, same goes for Carolina next week.
December 24th, 2016 at 9:19 am
EA, this may be Christmas, but that’s not how things work. The Saints do not like the Bucs and vice versa. If they can ruin the Bucs playoff chances they will give total effort to that. This is a dangerous game for the Bucs. I’ve made my opinion known and got scalded for it. I still believe the Bucs fall today. I hate it, but they are way too thin at RT and Oline to pull off a win. The Dline is weakened with G missing. So, good luck today, Bucs.
December 24th, 2016 at 9:21 am
I’m a BUCS fan!!!!
I’ll take #93 over Unger and day
Time for #57 to show that he should be considered for DROY
My friends keep saying that the ain’ts are gonna score a bunch of points…I call bs THIS is not the BUCS of old.
I seriously doubt anybody drops big points on us for a long time… Between our offense getting right, TOP, to our defense playing stellar… Screw you naysayers
December 24th, 2016 at 9:48 am
Some how Some way we need to be close at the 4th quarter
our offense has to play the best game this season. I would like alot of shep and sims targets today. No more Sims on only 3rd down situations. He needs/MUST have more snaps. short passing attack to put jaboo in rhythm and flow. Jaboo has to be sharp. we need another KC game where the ball was thrown all around and me13 as the decoy.
MVP- Sims
Kobe jinx- Saints win 38-21
Yippy A- 2 misses
December 24th, 2016 at 10:28 am
@Kobe
Go back and look at how many first downs Evans has made, its stellar man.
believe he was leading the league. Its up to Jameis to get him the ball especially in the endzone. I do agree that screens to Sims and dumpoffs to Martin are almost nonexistent.But we had a good one setup last week and two key blocks were whiffed.Oline not blocking well enough so Martin has to stay in and block is part of the problem.
December 24th, 2016 at 10:40 am
booby
agreed. the much needed screens loosen up the 8 man fronts and also loosens the tight coverage to Evans
We need more and more screens to get the defense play against it
Koetters playcalling is making it too easy for the defenses. Koetters playcalling is low probability, too conservative, predictable and clownish.
December 24th, 2016 at 10:47 am
However Jameis goes we go. As simple as that.
Jameis “Butthead” Winston = L
Jameis “Cool as the other side of the pillow!” Winston = W
Winston to receivers is the key to this game.
Go Bucs!!!
December 24th, 2016 at 10:55 am
Great article, Joe. The partying in New Orleans wasn’t to debilitating. Maybe the Big Easy ain’t big, ain’t so easy any more. Here’s the thing too though. The Bucs have not played the Saints with a decent pass rusn except couple of times over the past three years. They won both, including three weeks ago. This is the first time McCoy has been full a go in a long time, and Ayers and N. Spence on each side with Clint open up the gut sounds pretty vicious to me. Definitely expect the Saints to run some more, but the Bucs offense can hopefully fix that one.
December 24th, 2016 at 10:57 am
I got a bad feeling about today. It Christmas and can’t you just feel it? And the Falcons will lose to the Panthers but it won’t matter because we lose too. A chance for the Bucs to gut punch all their fans on Christmas Eve? No way they pass that up. We’ve all been here before and we all know how this bad story ends. And we’ll get the oldest Buc’s motto in our stockings: There’s always next year.
December 24th, 2016 at 11:25 am
I say bucs win!Merry Christmas GO BUCS!!!!!!!🏈🏈🏈
December 24th, 2016 at 11:29 am
Playoffs or not I am proud off this team and we are going in the right direction! 8-8 9-7 10-6 is awesome I never would have thought it when I first saw the schedule!
December 24th, 2016 at 11:32 am
The one thing the NFC South has never been: a cupcake division. These 4 teams go after each other when they play. The best team will win. Bucs can break another losing record by winning today. Fingers and toes are x’ed.
December 24th, 2016 at 11:33 am
Kobe … Coach Monken made a statement the other day that the Bucs need to get the run going to set up play-action passes. Makes good sense to me. If a defense can stop your run with just a handful of defenders, it’ll be pretty hard to open up the outside for Sims or whoever. Bucs have to get the run going against the Saints or well be in deep doo-doo. Of course, that’s easier said than done as we’ve seen lately.
December 24th, 2016 at 11:44 am
Hey guys I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but just saw a puff piece segment on McCoy and his pregame rituals on BSPN. So does this mean he has another invisible game? Always seems to go that way with these things. He should shut up and worry about playing as his pregame ritual.
December 24th, 2016 at 12:31 pm
less worried about McCoy pre game than Jameis’s.No evidence that Jameis getting all worked up helps his game.
December 24th, 2016 at 12:31 pm
defenserules
how many more weeks of “we have to get the run going”?
We have a bad run blocking oline and a bad running back who trips his feet in every play and has vision of a bat. We are playing against 8 man fronts and running straight into them. we are starting every possession with wasted 1st downs.
we need the short passing screens to setup the run. run screens over and over again to make the defenders stop running downhill and stopping martin behind the line
instead of playing behind the line, the linebackers will have to defend laterally against the screen and slants. have sims play 60 snaps and start him at the slot. have the defenders go after martin and throw it past them to sims
the top offensive coordinators know how to get the the defenders from stacking the line..BUT KOETTER doesnt know how. he brings another lineman in to try to break the wall
LOOK at what saints box is compared to what the bucs have. Mike smith cant put 8 man fronts against Brees. he will kill him with the short passing attack. Brees kills it with even a soft zone lol
saints are #1 RAC yardage team. they try to put linebackers and safties pass defending against their quick recievers. tampa bay bucs have the #2 worst total RAC yardage. when was the last time you seen koetter run a crossing route? sims and shep can run those quick routes but koetter wants sims to only play on 3rd down and shep as a gunner on ST.
MIKE EVANS is #115 ranked total yards after catch
#115!!!! He looks like donavan smith when he catches a ball on the LOS
He has the most targets but cant run after catch if his life depended on it
we need a brandon cooks, golen tate, landavis landry, jamison crowder type reciever
December 24th, 2016 at 1:03 pm
Look I when Jameis has a bad game he bounces back look at this remember Denver he looked terrible but he bounced back in Carolina same with the Falcons he was not good in that game but bounced back in that chi now I know u all are saying he looked bad in the 5 game losing streak but know he knows it was him that got them that loss so best believe he’s been working hard for this game
December 24th, 2016 at 2:05 pm
@ kobe
YAC yards starts with Jameis throwing properly placed balls where receivers can run with it.IE overthrow at the end of game to Evans by Jameis.His completion percentage has not been good on this type of pass. Why don’t you look up Jameis ranking on the deep pass.Many of the catches Evans makes
are because he is turned to Jameis to get 50-50 balls.when your in the endzone you get no YAC yards.But 7 points beats 10 YAC yards any day.