Ready Or Not?
December 22nd, 2020
Shocking Bucs stats.
This is terribly embarrassing.
Joe thinks we can all agree the Jets are a lousy team with a lousy coach who will be unemployed in two weeks. A team so dysfunctional, they can’t even tank for one of the best quarterbacks to enter the draft this century, a guy in Trevor Lawrence who would lead the Jets franchise for the next 15 years.
Joe is shocked a Jersey capo type hasn’t taken out Jets punter Brandon Mann, who saved a game-losing punt return for a touchdown to help the Jets blow their chances at Lawrence in their first win of the season Sunday.
As awful as the Jets are, the Bucs make Jets offensive mastermind Adam Gase look like Bill Walsh in his ability to have his 1-13 team ready to play each Sunday.
Consider: Since the calendar turned to November, the Jets have scored first (all in the first quarter) in every game. And three of those scores were touchdowns.
The Bucs since the beginning of November? Only once in seven games (at the Giants) have the Bucs scored first (a field goal) and in only one of those seven games have the Bucs scored a touchdown in the first quarter, though it wasn’t the first score of the game.
Now think about that. The Bucs are 9-5. They have a virtual all-star team on offense. And the Bucs rarely in the second half of the season are able to score points in the first quarter.
Yet the red-headed NFL stepchild, with starters you’d be lucky to pick out of a lineup (though the Jets have a starting receiver the Bucs didn’t want, Breshad Perriman), have scored first in six of their last seven games.
That is flat out embarrassing.
Joe has almost succumbed to the fact this is who the Bucs are for 2020, for better or worse. It is unreasonable that the Bucs’ biggest and brightest coaching staff can be expected to repair this in two weeks if they’ve yet to find an elixir.
Joe has no earthly idea what the issue is. Awful gameplans? No urgency? Or it simply takes park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking Bucs quarterback Tom Brady and his 43-year old bones that long to warm up.
The Bucs may get away with this against a four-win team like the Dixie Chicks. Not sure that will cut it against playoff teams that play defense in the second halves of games.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:06 am
This team is NEVER prepared.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:10 am
Ryan Clarke said it best. It’s BA’s offense in the second half, and Brady’s offense in the second. BA needs to let Brady do what he’s always done. Brady throwing 40+ times a game is not sustainable. Run the dang ball.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:11 am
*first half
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:11 am
This is such a Bucs team. Even when they’re great they’re a maddening roller coaster.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:26 am
Awful coaching, no sense of urgency and uncreative and predictable play calling. Nuff said
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:26 am
One & done?
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:33 am
That’s Entertainment!
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:34 am
I wonder if BA and BL script the first half and then in the second half TB12 has more latitude to freelance. Just a guess.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:37 am
one of the best quarterbacks to enter the draft this century
That’s not something we read every year…
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:41 am
OMG he used to be good!! Lol. Trubisky would put up better numbers in this offense.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:42 am
Its not hard to identify…..Leftwich isn’t good. Winston had slow starts as well….now Brady. The Cardinals offense was a joke and ruined any shot Rosen had out there. The common denominator is Leftwich. Anyone that thinks Leftwich is a great HC candidate is going to be grossly disappointed. He’s a poor man’s Adam Gase…with the only feather in his cap was a 5000 yd season where we went 7-9, his QB threw for 30 interceptions and now is a 3rd string back up. His other prodigy is on our practice squad. Now we have Tom Brady who was notorious for opening drive scores that cant get it going until halftime. Leftwich is garbage.
December 22nd, 2020 at 8:44 am
#BucsLife…no?
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:02 am
Here’s an observation, Brady has won with less but not without coaching, especially the OC. Weiss, O’Brien & McDaniel. What has BL done?
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:20 am
Go back and look:
Falcons, 2 sacks on 3rd down, one 3rd down was 3rd and 18
Vikings, 2 3rd downs, Brady missed wide-open receivers
Chiefs, 3 3rd downs, Brady missed on 3 short passes
Rams, missed on 3rd and 7. Then scored TD’s on next two possessions
Panthers, a fumble on first possession, then scored on next 3 possessions
Some of the problems are the D giving up long drives which limited our possessions (Vikings), some are the D getting burned (Chiefs). The two common elements are a very ineffective running game early and bad 3rd down performance.
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:21 am
Not how you start but how you finish
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:30 am
I think the Bucs need to come out in spread formation and run hurry up offense right off the bat. Get some sense of urgency going. Get the defense on their toes right away. Then spread in some draws and screens and high percentage plays. Let Brady audible as well. Forget about these scripted plays at the beginning of games.
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:40 am
I was thinking the same thing, PTWalk. The Bucs are 9-5 and the Jets are 1-13. Which would you rather be? I agree that the slow starts can’t continue if the Bucs are to win (a) playoff game/games.
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:43 am
JOE’S Insight> The JETS are better than the BUCS. Because they score more in the first quarter????
NEWS FLASH JOE no game is won or lost in first Quarter THIS IS what the 2020 BUCS / TOM BRADY have shown us !!! It’s the the SCORE BOARD AT THE END OF THE GAME JOE!!
What a crying ARSE NANCY> JOE
December 22nd, 2020 at 9:51 am
no rojo really impacted the game…
didnt BA say brady calls the plays?….lol…
folks looking for a scape goat when they need to focus on THE GOAT, who continues to miss open WRs early in the game….
slow start cant continue on offense and the defense needs to wake up….bowles has every QB looking like a HOFer in the 1st half….
GO BUCS!!!!!
December 22nd, 2020 at 10:11 am
I think a shakey OLine and unreliable checkdown option has TB12 trying to make hurried/longer throws early on. Not having that safety blanket is enough to throw TB off his game until the run game is ‘established.’
Both sides of the ball always seem to be surprised by whatever the opponent is trying to do early on. It’s as if the film machine is broke or they’re not coached up.
December 22nd, 2020 at 10:31 am
Etzel: Trubisky is 28-20 as a starter. He’d have to go 200-49 and win 80% of the rest of his games to match Brady. Good luck with that.
December 22nd, 2020 at 10:38 am
We couldn’t afford him and we already have a slew of receiver’s. There was no room for him on this squad starting Evans and Godwin. I agree those are great stats but also between Miller and a cheap deal for one of the best WR of all time, there just wasn’t room. Any other situation, and of course I’d wanna re-sign after the end of last year.
December 22nd, 2020 at 10:38 am
Again, lots of talk about the lack of consistency. I think they’ve been very consistent. They suck in the first half.
December 22nd, 2020 at 10:43 am
I’d hate to be an elitist here, but Trevor Lawrence playing for the gawd dam Jaguars couldn’t be any more boring. This guy is a bigger, stronger, faster version of Justin Herbert, the most coveted player since Elway, looks like Jesus Christ himself and going to DUVALL F’ing County – what a disaster for the league. The jets did their job, I’d be more pissed at the disgraceful Rams for losing
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:01 am
Trick plays … the first drive should be all trick plays. That way the rest of BL’s totally predictable plays will be unpredictable.
You’re welcome.
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:10 am
Some good comments here. Agree with Joe that it is perplexing. So large a difference that the “start issue” is clearly real. Got to try to fix it even (as Joe hints) the ability of these coaches to do so is quite suspect. But try please against the Lions. A good game for such.
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:16 am
I just read where Lions have 3 Covid 19 cases and anyone exposed to them would need ti be quarantined. What if this game is canceled and Buc’s lose in week 17. would they lose there #6 rank in the playoffs and possibly a Wild Card spot?
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:25 am
I’ll take slow starts and 9-5 all day every day over scoring a TD in the first quarter and a 1-13 record. Comparing the spitty azz Jets and the Bucs takes the daily hand ringing on this site to all new imbecilic heights.
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:38 am
Lets blame everyone but the quarterback, who manage the game, is the head coach and the G.M.
December 22nd, 2020 at 11:55 am
These articles only exist when there’s nothing else to write.
December 22nd, 2020 at 12:08 pm
Ah, but you read it anyway, Jerrah.
December 22nd, 2020 at 12:21 pm
I get more & more convinced that our slow starts from an offensive perspective are about 75% on coaching & 25% on meh play execution. Looks to me like it’s almost the reverse from a defensive perspective … 75% poor execution (coverage, tackling, etc) versus 25% defensive posture call.
If you subtract the 2 kneeldowns we had (count as runs for some reason), we ran the ball 16 times & had 48 passing attempts (included 3 sacks). That’s a 25% run-pass ratio … very low obviously. Of course, our rushes were highly ineffective for the most part when we did call them (usually on 1st down when no one in the stadium knew they were coming?). As in 3-for-5 in the 1st half and 8-for-11 in the 2nd half were 1st down runs.
Brady did great Sunday on hitting the deep passes in the 2nd half (4-of-5 deep for 120 yds) but not so good in the 1st half (0-of-2 deep). Most importantly, 1 of the deep bombs scored a TD and 2 other deep bombs resulted in TDs after 1 rush (both within 4 yds of goal line). His short passing was effective (27-of-38 short for 71% and 245 yds). He was also quite consistent (10-of-14 short in 1st half and 17-of-24 short in 2nd half … 71% in both halfs).
However, it looks like his 3rd down passing attempts were pretty bad. In the 1st half, he attempted to pass on 3rd down 4 times … resulted in Zero 1st downs. In the 2nd half he attempted to pass on 3rd down 4 times … resulted in 2 first downs. So overall he was 2-for-8 making 1st downs when attempting to pass on 3rd down … not very effective. In all fairness though, 2 of the 3 sacks that he took came on 3rd down. That’s on the OLine IMO.
December 22nd, 2020 at 12:30 pm
14 games into season obviously isn’t long enough for new QB & company to click every series every down, otherwise we wouldn’t start so slow week after week! In order to make any chance in the playoffs- besides 1 & done we need a full game 60-mins both side of ball with no stupid penalties with our playmakers making plays period.. Time for TB12, Gronk, ME, Godwin, Miller, AB, White, JPP, David and Barrett to show up entire game from start to damn finish.
#GoBucs
December 22nd, 2020 at 12:35 pm
Who has the report that the Bucs aren’t game planning weekly? I remember a few weeks ago some outlet reported that the Bucs are going in to each game more or less blind and trying to adjust as they go.
This would certainly explain the slow starts. Beyond that, there really is no excuse given this roster. You have to be an absolute arrogant idiot to think that you can just walk onto the field week in and week out in the NFL and impose your will on the opponent, but I could definitely see Arians being that guy. His remark that they can do what ever they want offensively at any time would lend some validity to this report.
In any case, this way of starting games will see you get beat wild card weekend.
December 22nd, 2020 at 1:05 pm
On a side note…Who is worse out of Vernon Hargreaves III and Sean Murphy-Bunting? Look at these stats:
VH3: 14 games, 60 tackles, 6 passes defensed, 1 interception
SMB: 14 games, 62 tackles, 2 passes defensed, 1 interception
Wow.
December 22nd, 2020 at 1:21 pm
The slow starts are puzzling. I can’t blame Leftwich 100%. The D is bad early, Brady misses wide open receivers, and the run/pass blocking is not very good. After the first half the Bucs go to the locker room and all take a magic potion that only lasts two halves of football. They have a limited supply I guess.
December 22nd, 2020 at 2:02 pm
Wow Joe your a genius and very astute in your observations and telling of this teams season.
December 22nd, 2020 at 3:04 pm
We know the Bucs have no urgency to get a game started. I think starting with some short passing game, almost a west coast game, will allow for a better start.
Then the team could progress to longer passes, as play action and such causes the opposing defense to change their plans.
However, it is not the beginning of the race that matters, it is the end. The Bucs are 9-5 and on the edge of that mystical thing called the playoffs. We need them to get there, it has been so long.
December 22nd, 2020 at 3:16 pm
So what? Jets finally won one. Methusaleh needs to wake up in the first quarter and realize he has several actual receivers to throw to. Mebbe that will happen Saturday. Hopefully.
December 22nd, 2020 at 4:04 pm
Leftwich doesnt watch film on opposing defenses to prepare his offensive gameplan each week. Words from his own mouth.The guy is an idiot being propped up by uncle Bruce.
This is such an easy fix that will bever take place…
December 22nd, 2020 at 4:05 pm
Maybe Brady finds having to correct Jensens protections distracting
December 22nd, 2020 at 4:58 pm
Defense, great analysis. I differ in the percentage in one respect: the execution errors (missed throws, dropped swing passes, missed tackles, etc) drive the next play call more than it seems, IMO(IMO). That then restricts the call sheet on offense. On defense, it does the same thing (often leaving us in base vice nickel, for instance. Those early execution errors may happen 25% of the time but the negative impact/effect is probably closer to 75%. But I also must add, I’m glad we are the playoff hunt and don’t think the coaches should be fired for their part. Go Bucs!
December 22nd, 2020 at 5:28 pm
SOS lately on JBF.
Fans complaining about their 9-5 team.
SMDH. It’s why I rarely read the comments section anymore.
December 22nd, 2020 at 5:55 pm
FYI…Josh Rosen got signed by the 49ers, Justin Evans got cut because of failed physical.
December 22nd, 2020 at 7:07 pm
87
We haven’t played a decent game , other than the Panthers, since before the Giants.
Hard to get up when it looks like we are stumbling into the playoffs.
But you probably won’t read this any way😂
December 24th, 2020 at 8:49 am
I read it. Easier for me to get up when those games still lead to wins. Somehow we know how to win. Isn’t that reason for some level of joy (hope, thanks, pride). Some level? Alternative is we didn’t score 14 a quarter, dominate every possession, and win easily, so damn the coaches, players, owners, and anyone else who had a hand in not giving us that. I choose the former. Go Bucs!