Repeated Blitz Fails Doomed Bucs
September 25th, 2017
Joe will start this post by saying it’s a given that the Bucs have a poor four-man pass rush. That’s a too-long-established fact.
So, unlike Minnesota, Tampa Bay needed to blitz to generate pressure. The Bucs’ target was future Hall of Fame backup QB Case Keenum.
And so the Bucs blitzed and blitzed, and blitzed some more. But the blitz didn’t get there. Keenum attempted 33 passes and scrambled for gains a good handful of times, and the Bucs couldn’t sack him. They only registered three official QB hits.
The blitzes came from all directions and the fail rate was extraordinary.
A week prior, Tampa Bay only dropped Mike Glennon once in 45 dropbacks.
Joe knows two things: First, the Bucs must keep blitzing. They won’t stop Eli Manning or Tom Brady without some sort of a pass rush. Second, defensive coordinator Mike Smith will see his batting average on the blitzes improve. He’s proven he’s too good not to figure it out.
Keep calm.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:36 am
when you over hype and make excuses year in and year out instead of addressing the DT position which has been maned by fragile average players you can’t expect any push with the front 4. last year we had the fragile 3 now we have the fragile 2 and the I don’t practice guy… which is a decent band name but it hardly addressed the need for a durable player at the dt position. wasting first round pick on a bad, short, slow CB and a second on a kicker set this team back.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:39 am
For as much as some people like to pile on Swaggy, I think his impact on the defensive line was sorely missed.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:40 am
I’ll give Case Keemun credit he was getting rid of the ball quickly. And contrary to popular belief there was pressure on the qb he just beat the pressure by getting rid of the ball.
I wouldn’t beat hg3 up too much, the haters said day one he was too small and he’s a gator so was can you expect?
September 25th, 2017 at 9:43 am
If grimes and Kwon play we might Win This game.
We got beat by cooks and diggs Quan stops cook Grimes stops tricks
and oh by the way cooks fumbled the ball on the first drive
September 25th, 2017 at 9:45 am
OJ Howard easily..equals 2 pass rushers in the draft. Opps..my bad..I’m supporting the coulda/woulda/Shoulda show!! And by the way..Where is our no 1 draft pick? What..has he done. Opps my bad again. This thread is about our lack of a pass rush?
DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS. How Y’all think we got the 1st one??
September 25th, 2017 at 9:45 am
It’s bad enough that football is nothing more than a big business. Now, it has become a stage for political and social causes. My money spent on this sport will not be missed and neither will I. Although I agree with someone’s right to vent, I do not believe this is the correct venue for display.
So I’m gone, no more NFL for me.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:47 am
I think the problem is that as usual we didn’t start the game blitzing though. We rushed 4 and played soft in coverage and allowed Keenum to get comfortable and confident. After that it didn’t matter what we did. The biggest problem I have with the defense is how soft we play in coverage outside. I’m sorry but if you aren’t getting called for holding our PI occasionally you aren’t doing it right. I want to see our corners actually try to challenge someone.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:47 am
DB55
it all boils down to no kwon no defense… yesterday would have been a perfect time for gmc to step up and set the tone early and of course they failed. defenses led by gmc come out soft and without passion far too many times for it to be denied. i can handle a loss but that defense was punked and was once again led by the leader of the losing culture.
did we have sit through gmc’s depressing woe is me press conference how he needed to do more and step up… first time he gets the chance he wilts and slinks off with yet another injury… every year same bs
September 25th, 2017 at 9:48 am
No what doomed the Bucs was lack of talent. Like in no DE’s and no RB’s, which everyone on this board begged us to get yet we ignored. Instead we got a 3rd string safety who doesn’t know the rules and runs out of bounds 30 yards on punt coverage, a DT that doesn’t like to practice and a running back we cut. Decisions made by this front office has left this team with many holes, too many to overcome. Along those same lines we probably should have got Pierre Garcon over DJax as he would not be in Jamies’s ear asking for the ballin week two and he for sure would not let some weak DB cut off his route. We got a premadonna who is worried more about what he is going to do before the game that making plays on it. Another poor choice, when Garcon is tearing it up in SF.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:53 am
Absolutely no way this team can blitz because they have ZERO DBs that can cover, have a bust at CB that licht drafted with a #1 and then have a reach for a guy smith that has no business playing on an NFL field, and grimes is decent but doesnt have much left, so basically no pressure from the front 4 to play zone and can’t cpver man which means you basically cannot blitz….tom brady is going to set an NFL record for TDs against the bucs hopefully the offense shows up that thursday nite
September 25th, 2017 at 9:53 am
Don’t watch… don’t watch please. Don’t need ya. Don’t want ya
September 25th, 2017 at 9:56 am
Koetter got attitude with a reporter last week regarding a question about not signing Calisas Campbell. Koetter said they didn’t have the 17 mil laying around. They should have looked for that 17 mil. a little harder!
September 25th, 2017 at 10:02 am
Not really fair to Smith that Licht has not given him any pass rush talent to work with forcing him to have resort to exotic blitz packages regularly instead of sparingly when they are most effective. This is a pass rush problem. Been saying it all offseason and no one wanted to hear it. Turns out Ayers is just as ineffective on the bench as he is on the field.
This is a complete failure of the GM to acquire pass rush talent.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:15 am
Keenum was able to get the ball off quickly and precisely because of the off coverage. When you play against a backup, you have to disrupt the patterns with a press, as they are mostly used to the soft, scripted practice play. it seems like Mike Smith thought that with Grimes out we should give up a lot of first downs in exchange for some turnovers. Our thin defense would have never overcome that time on the field. Disappointing coaching.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all for it to come out that a lot more of our team was ill yesterday. They won’t say it directly though.
It was a case of way too many factors coming at us at once- Overhyped because of beating a Bears team that bent over, missing our play calling MLB, missing our only playmaking corner, underestimating Keenum again, playing on turf, and playing in a very loud dome.
I’m glad we got punched in the mouth and that some guys will be embarrassed. Hard Knocks is over- this is man time. Minnesota bullied us, let’s be honest. I still believe that our guys ARE a family, and that the adversity will wake them up.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:24 am
start blitzing the loser cornerback vh3 or ryan smith both of them were so useless in the backfield, we will never win a game with those two at cornerback—awful performance for a first round pick. Mike Smith needs to figure out what happened and how to fix with our wounded defense as this game is now the blueprint for every future team playing the Bucs. Vh3 and ryan smith need to explain to what happened from their perspective.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:26 am
The fact that no one taks about our poor tackling yesterday shows how bad we played overall.
And btw, preseason games count.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:33 am
do we need a new scheme or line coach? too many teams develop pass rushers thru the draft
September 25th, 2017 at 10:34 am
Tmax
You already know, I thought it was cute how he tried to finish the game.
And at one point, get this, GMC GOT MAD AND PUSHED A VIKING. I COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EYES. GMC WAS MAD WELL MAYBE ANNOYED. LMAO
A Vikings lineman pushed Saligia and GMC stuck up for his guy and pushed not 1 but 2 Viking lineman. I almost chit my pants. This happened AFTER the whistle.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:37 am
But it is so much fun to say “it’s just preseason” when after virtually every preseason we see the same glaring issues during the regular season. But it’s fun to deride fans anyway I guess
September 25th, 2017 at 10:43 am
But “it’s only one game” crowd is here to call us all chicken littlest blow the smoke
September 25th, 2017 at 10:45 am
The fans was saying that the D-Line was a strength this season…SMH. BTW where is the future Hall of Shamer Chris Baker?
September 25th, 2017 at 10:48 am
@Rads great post man
Totally agree. Keenam was getting rid of the ball quickly because soft coverage was allowing their WRs to get wide the f open immediately.
Yes, the Bucs got handled easily yesterday. Punched in the mouth. The whole team looked like they had the flu. I think they’ll respond well. Returning players will help.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:50 am
Apparently Robert Ayers or Mr Beasting is most effective on the bench berating his teammates. Gotta love it
September 25th, 2017 at 10:58 am
Yeah our front 4 gets no rush when it’s not the starting unit…
If GMC/McDonald/Ayers/Spence are all healthy then we have a 4 man rush that is somewhat effective. I said this before but we were 6-2 in the games in which McCoy/Mcdonald/Ayers were all healthy last year.
The following players were either completely out or hurt in this game at some point:
Brent Grimes
Kwon Alexander
Noah Spence
Gerald McCoy
Robert Ayers
Lavonte David
And VHIII got nicked up at some point too.
Those are literally all our best players on defense lol. That’d be like losing Ali Marpet, Donavon Smith, Mike Evans, Cam Brate, and Jameis Winston and expecting the offense to play as well.
Not to mention all the sick players that played sick.
Winston needed to be lights out due to the situation and he wasn’t. One interception was horrible. The other hit Mike Evans in the hands by the goal line. Don’t care if he’s in traffic he’s a top 3 WR in the league and it hit him in the hands. Other interception was on Djax. So I credit 1 terrible interception to Jameis -but it was a bad one.
The defense sucked but with that many players out wtf should we have realistically expected? Get healthy is all I can say. It kind of matters when you have 6+ core starters out on one side of the field.
September 25th, 2017 at 11:02 am
Its only one game… but half the starting defense is injured… so it very well be more than one game.
September 25th, 2017 at 12:25 pm
If GMC/McDonald/Ayers/Spence are all healthy
the problem is GMC IS NEVER FREAKING HEALTHY!!!!! HE IS A SOFT QUITTER
September 25th, 2017 at 12:52 pm
@tmax.
I’m not even going to go there. But D-line health has been an issue; and they’re all old. We couldn’t get everything in one draft; but this is why I said next year we need a DT and DE drafted in the top 3 rounds. And probably 2 more developmental bodies in the later rounds.
I want to see if Grimes can come back / how VHIII plays this season out before banging the table for CB. It’s still just 2 weeks into this season and our coverage was fine against the Bears.
September 25th, 2017 at 1:48 pm
@REALIST….are we still coaching the lovie out of players?…lol….
sometimes talent and depth are good enough to win a game….sometimes its not….when it isn’t, a coach must figure out a way to get the win…..
yesterday, smitty and dirk both failed as coaches…..GO BUCS!!!!
September 25th, 2017 at 1:53 pm
PENALTIES….MISSED TACKLES….PREDICTABLE PLAY CALLING…NO QB PRESSURE….
AND TO THINK DEMARCUS WALKER WAS THEIR AT #50 IN THE SECOND ROUND…#PROBLEMSOLVED…..GO BUCS!!!!
September 25th, 2017 at 6:05 pm
The Bucs were constantly blitzing from the wrong side – it seemed like the Vikings knew where each blitz was coming from and just rolled away from it. The Bucs had zero pressure yesterday for the most part and any QB in the NFL, ANY QB, will tear apart NFL defenses if they do not get pressure. Just look at Dallas, they took Dak and made him look great, he’s not great, it’s a product of having the best line in football. Keenum had the luxury of getting no pressure AND getting to face the worst DB combo in football of Conte/Ryan Smith.
September 25th, 2017 at 9:48 pm
Shouldn’t blitz when our CBs need all the help they can get. If blitzing results in the same as a four man rush. Play coverage. Can’t get to the QB? Smother his WRs. Couldn’t hurt to try.
September 25th, 2017 at 10:09 pm
Maybe do the opposite. Rush 2 and drop 9 into coverage.
September 26th, 2017 at 7:11 am
What Rads said. Tmax, tell us about how you visit to see McCoy turns out. You call him a quitter. You didn’t see the game…moronic.