Offensive Offensive Line
August 23rd, 2019
Joe has more often than not somewhat defended the offensive line because people holler and scream and stomp their feet about it out of reflexive habit, not substance.
Tonight, the offensive line was indefensible.
If America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, didn’t try to punch Alex Cappa at halftime, then Joe has lost respect for the Bucs franchise quarterback.
The way the Bucs’ front line was turnstiled in the first half was flat sickening. The right side of the line, in particular, got worked over. Joe has seen tackling dummies put up more of a fight than Cappa and Demar Dotson did against Olivier Vernon.
Whenever Jameis went back to pass, it was an absolute jaibreak.
Three things that stood out watching that debacle.
* Cappa is way over his head and should not be starting in the NFL. Yes, Vernon stole his lunch money but Cappa will get him back in the parking lot after the game. Because Cappa is nasty, if you haven’t heard. If calling a guy “nasty” is the best thing you can say about an offensive lineman, then it is time to find a new offensive lineman. He’s nasty? What’s that mean? He purposely shorts customers on change working the bar? He doesn’t use underarm deodorant? He clips his toenails in public? He picks lint out of his belly button in front of chicks? What? Joe would much rather have a guy who can block than a guy with foul grooming habits.
* Demar Dotson isn’t quick enough to stop a speed rush. He struggled early on.
* Ryan Jensen, good guy that he is, is overpaid. Joe’s not sure he is a top-20 center the way he played tonight.
Oh to be fair there were a few holes in the running game. Damn few. And Ronald Jones exposed those cracks when they did show up.
NFL folks watched this nationally-televised train wreck and sounded off, such as NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci.
“There was no place to run, there was no protection in the passing game,” Mariucci said. “I felt bad for Jameis Winston.”
Five freaking sacks in the first half. FIVE!
The first two preseason games Joe thought the first-team line blocked as well as they have in years, including at Pittsburgh against no slouch of a defense. But Friday night against the Browns, dear God they are going to get Jameis maimed.
And then there is the #buccaneers OL… pic.twitter.com/88v9QKjdCD
— Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) August 24, 2019
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:00 pm
Even with no offensive line, Winston doubled Mayfields QB rating.
Also I didn’t notice Dotson except for one play, but Cappa was worst than I could imagine.
BUT, they did improve as the first half went along, so not sure if they changed some things up or the play got better.
Finally, outside of Cappa, we know the offensive line is good enough. The Browns blitzed quite a bit and the Bucs didn’t look like they gameplanned at all, so perhaps that is what was going on. Hopefully Cappa figures it out super fast, because he was the Ryan Smith of the offense tonight, and that’s a huge huge insult.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:00 pm
Where were our short passes & dump offs to backs….screens…..on most passing plays Jameis had to look for receivers downfield and he simply didn’t have time to do that.
The Oline was terrible….the playcalling suspect.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:00 pm
I’ve been wanting Dotson gone for two years.
Cappa will get it. He’s young and needs a little time.
Make Griffin #2.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:01 pm
Just cut Dotson now please and try Cappa at RT and see what Benenoch can really get us on a trade….JPP is probably done too, so theres some cash to use for O line. And who backs up Jensen? Start him final preseason game the whole game to see what we have and maybe replace Jensen with him….more $$ to go shopping with.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:01 pm
This oline is just disgusting. Is this team even going to be ready?
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:05 pm
Maybe put Ali back at RG….seems that position hasnt been the same since his rookie year…..go find a LG and place Ali back at RG or C.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:06 pm
Cappa is straight trash needs to be a 3rd backup if that’s possible.
Wow but we won’t remember any of this cuz it’s a meaningless game, remember?
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:06 pm
Cappa (is not a G) he should be replacing Dotson at RT while the Earl of Watford mans the guard spot for now while we surf the poor man’s menu line.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:06 pm
Duh. They have neglected the OL for years and stunted JW growth.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:07 pm
People are panicking but the Bucs are 2-1.
Cheer up.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:07 pm
Agree with madmax
But you really can’t cuz Marpet needs to help the left side cuz Dsmith is trash.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:08 pm
I would not want to be in the OL room next meeting.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:09 pm
Dodson kept tipping off every pass play by rocking back before the snap. I thought the 1st OL improved in the 2nd quarter. Playing DL like Cleveland we just got to get the ball out quicker.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:10 pm
I wouldn’t get rid of Jensen…and really, it’s too late to move Cappa over with the start of the season so close.
Cappa will get better at guard as the season progresses.
I think we need to start fishing for a new RT though. Trade Lavante David for one. JPP won’t count against the cap, so we already have his cap money freed up.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:14 pm
Stanglassman
Excellent observation on Dotson.
He also looks offsides on half his snaps too.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:19 pm
Our offensive line earned the new unit name: The garbage men
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:22 pm
I Dare u make Ogunbowale ur fourth string rb. This guy has good instincts n visibility vs RoJo who is a clone of former Bucs Charles “two step”Sims. Our OL is our Achilles heal. DDotson has lead in his feet n Cappa got Capitalized tonite. DSmith again struggles with speed rushers. Our OL seriously need help. Our defense has improved tremendously. RoJo has no business being on kickoff return. SMiller was deer in the headlight on punt return. The player that can contribute on punt return n on offense is Jordan Whitehead. He is a pure athlete n game changer if given the opportunity. He would be the difference maker wherever he’s playing. Whitehead is a baller.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:26 pm
The starting 5 all looked terrible. Smith and Dotson getting rope-a-doped; Jensen and Marpet getting pushed around and out nasty’d; and Kappa not even able to get out of his stance. Not just for a few bad plays here/there. Nope. For the entire first half! Embarrassing stuff. Jameis took an absolute beating. It didn’t help that our boy genius OC was compelled to run Dirk’s 7 step drop back and wait for a week until the route develops scheme tonight. At one point he showed enough self awareness to call plays to get the ball out of Jameis’ hands quickly- and it worked- at least until the missed FG. Then he reverted back to the ‘long routes’ portion of this nightmare. Don’t get me wrong, Jameis isn’t blame free here. He continues to press the ball instead of taking what the D will give him. Don’t get me started on his deep-ball accuracy, or lack thereof…
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:37 pm
First sack Demar got knocked over by the wind of the guy blowing right by him on the exact same play where d Smith made it look like a guy teleported to the quarterback right in front of him. This o line with that quarterback deep ball makes this team like like nfl ranked up proper at #29. I laughed at people thinking wr should have starting quality depth at ever o line position but the starters look horrid. Waiver wire ain’t gonna save us BA make licht go trade for trent williams or someone competent or this will get ugly Dirk Dirk koetter style meaning by week 3
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:42 pm
I can already hear John McKay saying a sarcastic quote to describe our Offensive Line. He’d probably be in favor of their execution.
August 23rd, 2019 at 11:45 pm
Trent. Williams.
I know we signed Smith this offseason, but maybe Cameron Jordan is right! This line looks like a serious liability and Winston is out of excuses going into this crucial season!
August 24th, 2019 at 12:10 am
The offensive line was so embarrassing that the whole city of Tampa should be embarrassed. Total negligence not to have corrected this already. We better make some bridge gap moves after cuts are made and draft OL heavy next draft. May even call for a trade if possible. We can’t win with this OL! No way!
August 24th, 2019 at 12:27 am
No money…no upgrade….THIS is what we get folks.
August 24th, 2019 at 1:05 am
Are you surprised? When licht doesn’t use premium draft picks on the trenches, these types of things happen. I saw this coming from a mile away!
August 24th, 2019 at 3:01 am
Now that the offensive line got its collective butts handed to them how is BA going to handle them?
Keep in mind that once Arians and his coaching staff were in place they reviewed all of the tape on every player on the roster last year. Then they consulted with Licht, Quarles and the personnel staff. Then the Buccaneers chose not draft any offensive linemen this year.
So after Arians gets in their face the next time they meet, what is he going to do about the situation now?
Come on all you football geniuses here at JoeBucsFan. Let’s hear from you!
August 24th, 2019 at 3:39 am
Jimbo,
And to think , Arians believed the o line was ready and didn’t need to play but a series or two. It was the oline themselves that requested a half of playing time.
August 24th, 2019 at 5:26 am
Told you guys. Check thevarchives.
I have been calling for 2 OG/C picks for the past 3 years.
Good thing Licht used all those extra 2nd and 3rd picks on backup DB’s.
August 24th, 2019 at 6:20 am
Preseason is practice. They played specific plays to create situations to evaluate. They did not game plan to out-coach. Vanilla.
Now go review your work, own your mistakes and make improvement.
In BA I Trust!
August 24th, 2019 at 6:35 am
Look, I get the freak out, but MOST preseason games are defensively won.
They simply blitzed a lot and you can’t blame play calling on the O Line every play.
We have gotten way better at RB screens and would see more in a real game.
This is the team a lot of people expect to go to the Super Bowl and our defense made Baker look like a Moron. How you think the Browns fans are feeling LMAO
August 24th, 2019 at 7:01 am
@Rod Munch … “Even with no offensive line, Winston doubled Mayfields QB rating.”
And why exactly are we supposed to be impressed at that? The score was 9-0 at the end of the half with the (supposedly) first team in there.
@Rod Munch … “People are panicking but the Bucs are 2-1. Cheer up.”
So if we go 5-11 yet again are you gonna retort with “Yes, but the saving grace is that we went 2-1 in the meaningless preseason”?
Frank Pillow … Excellent analysis (11:26 PM). EVERYONE shares in the ‘blame’ for offensive performances like that. My HOPE right now is that Bucs can add at least 1 starting-caliber Guard before Game 1. Doesn’t matter if he’s a LG or RG (would rather see Marpet back at RG anyways). And Bonzai, Cappa is BAD. Moving him to RT won’t solve the problem that he NEEDS at least another year of development prior to becoming starter-caliber material. my other HOPE is that Bucs add a starting-caliber Tackle before Game 1. I’d add a 3rd & 4th HOPE that we also sign a starting-caliber LT and Center, but that’d just be getting greedy.
August 24th, 2019 at 7:38 am
What was funny (not for Jameis though), was watching the offensive lineman look for somebody to block after the defensive lineman had already blown by them. The guy you were supposed to block is behind you, sacking the quarterback.
Talking bout play calling..
Tried a screen pass – JW threw it in the ground because it was covered
Tried a handoff delay – hard to do when the defense is already there
From top or bottom, we need to be worried, however, I do believe the o line will be inconsistently decent, do just enough to win some games (Go get Zeke)
August 24th, 2019 at 7:54 am
I’m glglad you guys are now noticing the OL. OL played terrible against the dolphins. And yall think they played good against Pitt is comical. What did the rn game produce? Nothing again? Dotson has been liability against speed his whole career. But power rushers also man handle Dotson. Hes bad. But fans defend him. Dont know why. Hes much worse than DSmith. And DSmith gets destroyed by anyone with a decent move. The interior is not much better. Pressure from the middle is the worst. GMAC is gonna destroy the Bucs twice this year
August 24th, 2019 at 8:28 am
Over/under: 4 1/2
August 24th, 2019 at 8:45 am
LMAO Here. As usual Buc fans miss the point. What is the point? Them Browns got a bad a** Defensive line. I thought after our dismal season last year, we were going to try to have a D line like that. I was wrong. BucLife baby!
August 24th, 2019 at 11:31 am
We’ve literally been trying to tell you this for years Joe.
The o-line is not good. Seems their pass protection has even gotten worse. Hooray.
August 24th, 2019 at 12:14 pm
Not watching the game and reading the comments one would think the Bucs were blown out on the scoreboard.
August 24th, 2019 at 12:45 pm
“Not watching the game and reading the comments one would think the Bucs were blown out on the scoreboard.”
In my mind, that’s a credit to the defense… There are still problems there, particularly up front, but it was great to see DB’s flying around and in the same zip code as WR’s. Also when catches were made, WR’s got hit pretty quickly…a 1000% improvement over last year.
Granted they weren’t covering Landry, OBJ, Julio, Sanu etc…
August 24th, 2019 at 1:19 pm
Never bashed this joke of an O line without being able to back it up with substance. Having said that, and the sucked last night, that’s probably the best D line they will face all year. They didn’t game plan for it with many plays being off the table. They didn’t max protect and BA threw them to the wolves, which they needed. The only problem is that Jameis pays the price instead of the big slow lardasses in front of him. Defense tho, secondary tho, d line tho, run stops tho, tackling was good but linemen have to wrap up. Todd Bowles is a great coach and we are lucky he’s here. It was great seeing Tom Moore on the sidelines coaching up Griffin, who had an excellent game. Hate to see Blaine get hurt but he wasn’t the best choice for a backup.
August 24th, 2019 at 5:14 pm
With all the commentary about the starting OL, imagine what kind of mess we’d be in if one or two suffered long-term injuries. Depressing.
August 25th, 2019 at 5:18 am
Alex Crappa and Caleb Cannotblock are not NFL caliber players.