Lavonte David: “I Had To Play Things Within The Scheme Of The Defense”
October 17th, 2017
Lavonte David thinks he could have done more against the Cardinals
Guys like Joe who love the Bucs at their core, those who live, breathe and crap Buccaneers football, are always trying to figure out what’s best for the club.
It’s an obsession. These faithful men and women read between the lines and analyze everything they can get their hands on — or they just come here daily to see what Joe finds interesting.
Well, for that obsessed read-between-the-lines crowd, Bucs captain Lavonte David dropped a gem last night on the Buccaneers Radio Network.
David first shared phenomenal news, explaining that his Sunday comeback after missing two games with a hamstring injury, was better than he expected.
Fatigue through the game was expected, David said, but it never came. One of the few bright spots in Arizona, David was surprised and pumped up by his strength and stamina.
“I felt like I picked up where I left off a little bit, you know, even though I’m pretty sure I could have did a lot more but I had to play things within the scheme of the defense,” David said. “But you know, personally, physically, I felt real good.”
Wait a minute. What did David mean by he felt he could have been a bigger factor but the scheme held him back?
This whole trip to Arizona and its aftermath (see previous David and T.J. Ward comments) really has Joe feeling that Bucs fans were just kicked into a twisted Twilight Zone episode.
October 17th, 2017 at 4:34 pm
I do feel like the scheme is holding some players back, like LVD. He should be used how Schiano used him.
October 17th, 2017 at 4:35 pm
Ive been screaming scheme for yeaaaaaaaars. YEARS!!!!!
But no all the zone defense loving clowns think its personel and talent. BULL SHT!!!
Any fool that looks at Mike Smiths past experience and can can convince themselves that the man can coach a defense is just that, a fool.
As long as he is here we will continue to see embarrassing showings like Sunday and wil also continue to see Jameis walk on water knowing damn well his defense is going to hang him….or ANY quarterback for that matter, out to dry.
What makes is even more frustrating than years past is we know the talent is there and nobody is changing. Stop being stubborn and switch the damn defense up please for the love of god this isnt fair to a fan base thats waited long enough for a good product and every year different coaches run the same system. They do realize they dont HAVE to run tampa two because it has the word tampa in it right. ?
October 17th, 2017 at 4:40 pm
Yup.
We have linebacker who are really fk’n good at blitzing. Why don’t we see more of it? VH3 can’t cover either way, what’s the risk?
October 17th, 2017 at 4:45 pm
I’m with you @unbelievable
The Bucs coaches better make some major changes quickly.
October 17th, 2017 at 4:52 pm
OK, so when are people going to start calling Mike Smith “Coach My Scheme”?
October 17th, 2017 at 4:55 pm
Mike Smith held my guys back for years
Arthur Blank
October 17th, 2017 at 4:59 pm
People talk about Tony Dungy, not winning a Super Bowl in Tampa. Mike Smith had twice as much talent in Atlanta than Dungy had in Tampa. And how many Super Bowls did he take the Falcons to?
October 17th, 2017 at 5:05 pm
Yo rocket scientists, defensive schemes are often dictated by what the offense is doing. David could just be saying he could have done more but the Cardinals made that impossible.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:17 pm
He said same thing in Lovie’s first year. Felt he was being held back by the scheme. When Schiano was here he was in the backfield constantly, had his best year ever.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:19 pm
lol here we go
October 17th, 2017 at 5:22 pm
These idiots would have Derrick Thomas and LT in a traditional 4-3 lb mode. LVD, outstanding blitz rusher, we have no pass rush, Schiano was smarter than either of these two, with far,far less talent.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:30 pm
During Mike Smith 7 seasons with the Falcons. They won 1 playoff game, and it came on a last second Matt Bryant 49 Yard FG.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:33 pm
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS!!!!!
not only are the coaches not putting players in position to win, they are forcing a scheme on them…..
LOOKS LIKE COACH MY SCHEME IS STILL IN THE BUILDING!!!!
WHERE YOU AT @REALIST?!!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
October 17th, 2017 at 5:51 pm
Smiley Smith will save the day. Some suggested he was the best free agent signing in the offseason ( actually…generous extension ).
October 17th, 2017 at 5:53 pm
I still have torches, sickles, pitch forks and sticks left over from the PUKANEER days in the event we need to run some of these so called NFL Players, Coaches and GM out of town.
Also note… I believe Licht had his pool drained in the off season and has a couple of bruises from jumping in the empty pool after the 2 WINS.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:54 pm
Ankle injury Joe.
October 17th, 2017 at 5:58 pm
Mike Smith’s scheme is predicated on a strong DL.
Without that—and the Bucs are NOT strong at DL—it becomes problematic.
October 17th, 2017 at 6:02 pm
Lakeland –
You are funny.
Mike smith had twice as much talent as tony dungy.
Wow. Those legendary bucs d’s were mainly Tony’s years and are some of the best defenses oF all time
October 17th, 2017 at 6:08 pm
Bird, the Falcons had Pro Bowl players on Offense, Defense, Special Teams. The team was solid with solid players.The Bucs were lucky to get 13 points a game. That’s why Derrick Brooks gave props to Martin Gramatica leg, during his Hall of Fame speech.
October 17th, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Man, that’s stuff you don’t want to hear. I hear a lot of ME in every defensive guy’s presser. Go listen to leaders speak, you don’t hear a lot of ME you hear a lot of WE. Shows you this defense is filled with a lot of EGO and no grit.
October 17th, 2017 at 6:11 pm
@LakeLand Yerp, Joe was hyped on Smitty but I never got it. I was never WOW’d by Atlanta’s defense I was the opposite. I remember Buchanon getting burned constantly, actually that secondary getting torched constantly back in the day when Smitty was coaching.
Smith had one of the most underrated defenses of this century for years in Jacksonville. In Atlanta, he was more of a CEO-style coach with defensive coordinators having real power, such as Mike Nolan. –Joe
October 17th, 2017 at 6:13 pm
@813bucboi … “not only are the coaches not putting players in position to win, they are forcing a scheme on them.” Forcing a scheme on them? Kind of a DC’s job to game-plan (develop defensive schemes?). Problem is … the ones that are being used aren’t working. Could it be poor design & not capitalizing perfectly on our available talent? Sure could be. Could it be poor execution by the defensive players and/or great execution by the opposing offense? Yup, definite possibility. Could it be that the opposing team is better than our Bucs? Maybe not across the board, player-for-player, but certainly at certain positions & match-ups. Or maybe could it be that the other guys, playing in their house, just flat out wanted it more? Ya, that’s a good one. Personally when you get your butt kicked, it’s probably ‘All of the Above” IMO.
October 17th, 2017 at 6:29 pm
I think he meant he was not sure how his ankle would feel, could he now blitz if ok. maybe not if he was concerned about fatigue. Ha was playing his part.
October 17th, 2017 at 6:52 pm
Hawaiian go look at my post from the practice habits article and tell me it isn’t 199 percent accurate
October 17th, 2017 at 7:11 pm
We hear ya lavonte. Worst coached game Ive ever seen from the bucs. At least the worst I can recall. I hope the “take what ya want” scheme isnt around in buffalo. What a travashamockery. N the “quit when youre down 24” head coach better not show up either. Cuz you cant get down by alot in the nfl and expect to come back, right dirk? Man I doubt Ill ever get over that comment. Lets hope the players will their way to a win in spite of this weeks schemes. Go Bucs
October 17th, 2017 at 8:11 pm
WOW, just wow…first it’s crap practice tempo and a lack of professionalism/urgency; now it’s the scheme not playing to players’ strengths?!?! If that’s really the case, we have big problems here folks. Why is this franchise always a damn dumpster fire? WHYYYYYYYY!?!?!?
October 17th, 2017 at 8:30 pm
Imo Koetter is lacking right now in creativity. Smith is lacking in almost Everything.
Koetter is coaching the Gunslinger out of JW3 And I don’t give a dam what Mike Smith says they are coaching the “ballhawk” out of VH3. Just go watch his college tape. He was in the face of DB’s all the time. Now he is 12 yards off most of the time. BS!!
October 17th, 2017 at 9:21 pm
GLAZERS it’s time to end this sh”t show you created! Bend the knee and hire Jon Gruden after the season. Admit you were wrong and make things right with coach Gruden. He is the true king of the south…
October 17th, 2017 at 9:23 pm
Man if we lose Sunday this team is going to be in a downward spiral that might have us seeing a repeat of the past 15 years. New coach, fail, new coach fail, rinse repeat.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:35 pm
I was getting my pool products today at local pinch a penny. And of course had my bucs shirt on like I wear everyday because I have 30 of them and I love them. And he tells me that hates how the bucs always fool him into thinking there good he said he was expecting a win. He said he hates how are qb McCoy is always good one game but bad for two others. So I could tell he was no die hard or even heard of joe bucs fan. Because he called Winston McCoy. Then I told him i think it is coaching because I think all the new coaches just try to over due it and overthink it. i said it’s like you knowing chlorine will fix the problem but then preceded to tell the customer to also add 5 other different things that will do the same exact thing as just chlorine. That’s the problem to me we have playmakers keep it simple throw to your playmakers. It doesn’t take tom foolery to get Mike Evans or desean open. It doesn’t take tom foolery to line lavonte or spemce up as outside linebackers tell Vernon to walk ten steps up to the receiver play press coverage and force the ball out of the qbs hand before he is ready. And watch his completion percentage drop and int percentage climb. It’s bad when I really feel like I can go and do a better job than an nfl coach. I seriously believe with everything that is me I can do a better job offensively and defensively than our coaches. Teams throw quick slants against us and every year we still give them a 8 yard cushion. And the coach says I wish he would get a little closer but we give are guys the freedom to play with what they feel comfortable. That is the most insane thing I have ever heard. That would be a business owner knowing there employees could get more done in a day but saying I’m just giving them the choice to dictate their production. If they want to chicken peck at there keyboards all day but I know they can type 100 words a minute I would rather them chicken peck if that’s what they feel comfortable doing.
October 17th, 2017 at 9:59 pm
Love all the coach bashing ! When I asked the day lovie was fired why the 2 guys fired from Atlanta we’re going to be our saviors everyone on this site bashed me ….still hope I’m wrong on coaching staff. Honestly we did not draft a single player this pass year to help out most glaring needs. TE / WR first 3 rds may pay off in the future but our lack of a pass rush is the problem. Seems like current staff is drafting best available and not needs… good thing but we are a few more drafts from being contenders….
October 17th, 2017 at 11:09 pm
Am I the only one who sees Lavontes’ quote as an excuse? “I would have played better if it wasn’t for Smiths’ scheme” Bull! He’s throwing the coach under the bus. I just lost a lot of respect for David, no matter what anyone else says. If he didn’t score that touchdown he wouldn’t have said anything. WOW!
October 17th, 2017 at 11:54 pm
sorryitriggeredyou…..Lot’s of me’s on the D…a few on the O.
Not good for the team.
I don’t know. I still say a team has to play together for awhile before they can actually, truly have eachother’s back. Teams around the league can flash one year and suck the next. Even after they add FA’s. Sprinkle in a few BIG personality types on your team through free agency and perhaps the team takes a different attitude. I don’t know. I’m not a shrink. I just saw Jameis as the biggest personality in the last 10 years… come into Tampa Bay out of college talking big for this team. He was/is the mouthpiece. Then they add a few other talkers. Swaggy and DeSean….
I talked about this laid back area being to blame as part of the problem on an earlier thread. I thought Jameis would be above all that. I still actually think that. I still have hope. Jameis Winston is different. He’s not going to be denied a Super Bowl.
Perhaps it does take this much time to work some of the new toys into an offense? The playcalling and some of the throws on passing downs to go with it, have been atrocious. Maybe they start clicking? Soon? I hope.
I have faith. I still have faith.
Go Bucs.
October 18th, 2017 at 8:43 am
At least we got WEAPONSFORWINSTON, D?ck Carriers, we got fooled again, I swear the Buc front office are always reactive instead of pro active, they concentrate on what was broken the previous year, instead of planning for future problems always ruining the current season, top 10 pick here we come
October 18th, 2017 at 9:04 am
You know not one of you was saying a peep when Smitty was running a dominant D with the same scheme, top 3, during the second half of the year in 2016.
October 18th, 2017 at 10:01 am
Just think if we would have hired Schwartz. We had to hire Smitty who Dirk was familiar with. I don’t remember Atlanta defense being dominate during his tenure, is why I wanted Schwartz. It’s not about what you did in the past, it’s what have you done lately.
October 18th, 2017 at 10:27 am
@PRBuc- That’s not true. A lot of people were quick to pull the trigger on his contract extension in fear that he would get a HC job. My contention at that time was, “based on what?” For the first 5-7 games (sound familiar?) our defense was gawd awful. So we reward a coach who did a half-a$$ job?!
I’m still waiting on all the creativity this coaching staff was supposed to bring. We all expected to see the same or better defense from the end of last year. It looks like the same turd from last years opening salvo of games and we supposedly “upgraded”!
October 18th, 2017 at 10:43 am
Under Schiano LD was a defensive player of the year candidate. Under everyone else hes nothing but average…
The skill is there. The dude is a monster. Let him out of his cage.
I just dont understand how such a lousy coach as Schiano was can figure out hes got a special talent in David but no other coach has figured that out yet…. The dude should be blitzing the QB 15 times per game. He could literally be a 15 sack per year player.
October 18th, 2017 at 6:53 pm
Oh forgive me MOST of you
And get out of here with that nonsense lol
Out any DC behind the crap efforts our defense is giving and the misse assignments and they are all doomed.