The Morning After
October 11th, 2021
Mike Evans scores his second touchdown Sunday.
Good morning on this wonderful Victory Monday. Grab a cup of java. Let’s get rolling.
Toying With A Lesser Team
Yesterday may have been one of the best offensive games Joe has ever seen from the Bucs. They were like a big cat effing with a trapped mouse. And when it reached a time the cat got bored with the mouse, the Bucs just devoured it.
The Bucs absolutely exploded in the early minutes of the fourth quarter. And to think the Bucs were doing this without foot-rubbing, car-littering, film guru Rob Gronkowski, who is Tom Brady’s favorite target not named “Antonio Brown.”
What would the offense have done with Gronk? Wow.
Brady, at 44, defies logic. Yeah, Joe understands fans get tired of the constant references to Brady’s age, but it’s pretty damn significant. A human being has never done what we are witnessing. Sure, on occasion, there has been an athlete at 44 who played well, but none (with the possible exception of Gordie Howe) at the level of Brady.
Think about it: You could argue Brady is the best quarterback in the NFL and no one would accuse you of being drunk. You could say Brady is in the running for league MVP and no one would say you are stoned out of your mind.
And for a guy to be doing this at 44 is just unreal. Even better, Brady is breaking records with the Bucs. Franchise records. At 44.
Joe thinks it is fair to say we may never see something like this again.
Spreading The Wealth
How good was salad-bar-hating, park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring, down-forgetting, handshake-stiffing, jet-ski-losing, biscuit-baking, tequila-shooting, smartphone-phobic, waffle-grilling, trophy-throwing, roller-coaster-scared, numbers-rules-peeved, helmet-tossing, football-punting Bucs-Super-Bowl-winning quarterback Tom Brady yesterday?
A big issue for most teams with a lot of weapons is feeding the egos of so many stars? Well, Brady yesterday found a way to let everyone wet his beak.
Brady connected with nine different receivers yesterday. That’s crazy.
This is the beauty of the Bucs’ passing game. How the hell are defenses supposed to cover everyone? They can’t! And this was without Gronk.
Defensive coordinators have to be losing sleep.
Todd Bowles Earns Street Cred For Patience
Look, Joe is as disturbed as the next Bucs fan about the Bucs’ pass defense. It is appalling.
But Joe isn’t on the ledge as many fans are based on how Joe was bombed on Twitter and text yesterday. Basically, the Twitters/texts went like this, “How can the Bucs be this horrible in pass defense? How can they not cover people? Someone needs to be castrated for allowing this.”
To quote drama queen Aaron Rodgers: Calm down.
Joe doesn’t get why people are appalled. The Bucs couldn’t defend passes in Week 1 with starting corners. Now down their three best corners (Jamel Dean sure didn’t seem 100 percent yesterday), the Bucs are pulling guys off the street to start. So they are supposed to be better? Really?
And why exactly would anyone expect dudes unemployed in late September to be able to stop starting NFL receivers? Corners are hard to come by, so anyone capable would not be walking the streets looking for work.
It’s unreasonable and unrealistic to expect unemployed cats to come in and cover like starters after only a few practices, and be better than the Bucs’ top three corners.
Why isn’t Joe freaking out? Well, the past two years with Todd Bowles running the defense the secondary improved as the season went on. The Bucs haven’t even reached the bye week yet. Joe has all the confidence in the world Bowles will get the pass defense on track.
Winning a Super Bowl in Joe’s eyes buys street cred and patience.
Bulled Dodged With Lavonte David
When Lavonte David went down, it looked really ugly. He got rolled up in the heat of battle by Ndamukong Suh. Most of the time that’s an ugly knee injury.
Joe long ago learned guys walking off the field under their own power means nothing. Too often those same guys have knee injuries.
So when Joe learned the initial diagnosis David’s injury was not a knee but a high ankle sprain, Joe breathed a sigh of relief.
Yes, Joe is aware a high ankle sprain is a bad injury. Joe got mocked on Twitter about this. David will likely miss a month.
But for the people attacking Joe for dismissing the significance of a high ankle sprain, let Joe ask what is worse: an ugly knee injury where David won’t play until next season or a high ankle sprain that sees David return before Thanksgiving?
Which injury would you rather have?
The high ankle sprain is bad but it’s a helluva lot better than a blown ACL.
So both the Bucs and David lucked out. It could have been much worse.
Still, Joe couldn’t fully enjoy the blowout win feeling so hollow while thinking of David.
Tom Brady And Antonio Brown Give Joe Flashbacks
Joe swears seeing this like thirty-some years ago.
Bill Walsh and the 49ers used to kill opponents by scheming short passes into long gains. That’s what Brady did with furniture-tossing, bicycle-throwing Antonio Brown yesterday.
Jerry Rice used his quick burst to catch short passes from Joe Montana to get past the second level and split defensive backs and fly to the house.
That’s what Brady’s short pass on a crossing route to Brown looked like yesterday. Where Rice would take a slant pass inside and bust loose, Brown caught a Brady pass on a crossing pattern and fired the booster rockets, losing the Miami secondary.
It is debatable who is the best Bucs receiver of 2021, Mike Evans or Brown. (Chris Godwin is good, yes, but he’s not having his normal consistency.)
Brady and Brown are doing something quite right if they are giving Joe flashbacks to Montana and Rice.
October 11th, 2021 at 2:27 am
That crossing route to AB is a staple of the West Coast Offense that Montana/Rice used non stop. And thank GOD Lavonte David has cankles or it might’ve snapped.
October 11th, 2021 at 3:10 am
Glad you included that piece about Todd Bowles earning some street cred & that he’ll eventually right this ship defensively. The way these injuries keep piling up though makes it seem like that’ll be a daunting task.
I’m hoping that we didn’t rush guys like JPP & Dean back into the lineup too quickly. Losing LVD for any period of time really sucks, but it looked like Kevin Minter did a good job filling in. With 2 rookies behind him, I’m glad we re-signed him.
October 11th, 2021 at 3:25 am
We are in for another satisfying season! Go BUCS!
October 11th, 2021 at 5:09 am
It was good to see a clean game played by the offense.
Hey DR, the Bucs running game you keep talking about helping out the Defense was clicking with Fournette running hard. It was there for all to see.
BTW l love seeing Fournette truck the defender, that was pretty cool to see.
It was good to see stretches of time, the Defense was able to just chill on the sideline.
Also the Back to back 3 and outs was nice by the defense.
Overall the defense had a decent day, even though watching Brissett beat up somehow keep standing and hitting many passes was not fun lol
Overall it was a very enjoyable game by the good guys.
GO BUCS!!!!
October 11th, 2021 at 5:54 am
Credit Brissett for standing tough in the pocket too. I counted a half dozen potential sacks that led to completions. You can’t cover that. I don’t care how good your DBs are.
“Good news” on LVD.
When this offense is humming, it is virtually unstoppable. Look at how the run game complemented the pass. It was nasty!
October 11th, 2021 at 6:40 am
Happy for ME… he has been a great example sharing the touches
October 11th, 2021 at 7:34 am
Lost in this is how good Tyler Johnson looked yesterday……I think we have a winner going forward.
Minter is no LVD but he;s a good player.
Odd how the injuries are mostly hitting our defense, With only Gronk & Scotty out on offense, we are hardly feeling it & Gronk should be back soon.
October 11th, 2021 at 7:57 am
Kind of lost in here is that Fournette had a really good game also. Caught the ball well and was averaging over 6 yrds a carry late in the game. He ran better than ever yesterday.
October 11th, 2021 at 8:51 am
It’s been a long time since I’ve commented on our Bucs. But I have to opine as to the 2021 Defense, or lack thereof. 1st, I have to ask where has the 2020 defense disappeared to? After all, we re-signed all of them for the 2021 season. Is it the individual players? I think not! Or is it Coaching? But how could that be you ask? After all Todd Bowles defense won the Superbowl all by themselves according to the press. And this was after playing lights out all last year. And I know we have the #1 run defense again. How about, with the same defense that was a wrecking crew last year, we have 3 sacks in three games this year, not to mention the very successful, record breaking pass attack by every team we’ve played. But our corners are injured you say! Were they injured against Dallas? After watching JPP, who is coming off an injury, being assigned to cover Miami’s fastest receiver, in a play which JPP had no chance of covering, It proves that our defensive problems Lay on the door step of Todd Bowles, or Bruce Arians, Whom has put up with the Lack of the Adjustment our defense for not just adjusting for a problem at half time by Bowles, but every one of our “5” games. You can’t lay this problem on just the Secondary because our defensive line couldn’t disrupt a high school team. It isn’t the players fellow fans, it’s the coaches scheme, or lack thereof.
October 11th, 2021 at 9:13 am
What happened in the 4th quarter is what happens when you have this kind of depth at reciever. It’s just too long of a game for opposing defensive backs to run with this many guys. Eventually the wheels fall off and the offense will have their way.
October 11th, 2021 at 9:27 am
Well for starters Joe you used to get all excited over yards with the previous quarterback so it’s not surprising many of your readers have been freaking out with all the yards the Bucs defense is giving up. I argued then, just as I argue now, yards != points. To that end I am not freaking out over the Bucs defense. Two of the five teams they’ve played are what I consider high powered offenses. The numbers are going to be skewed a little bit.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:04 am
Props to Brown. Leonard Fournette had a whale of a game. He reminded me of why the Jags drafted him. Brady threw passes to 9 different receivers? Unreal, Joes. This offense is the very best one the Bucs have ever had. The Oline is right up there with the great ones of the past like the Hogs of Washington Football Team fame.
October 11th, 2021 at 10:08 am
I know the defense is a work in progress but what really disturbed me were two big plays by Miami who let there running back run a wheel route against first Joe Tryon and then JPP. I know those guys are great athletes but they can’t expect to cover running backs 20 yards down field all alone. There was no deep help and my grandma could have completed that pass. It looked like a high school defense. That means someone blew a coverage twice or Bowles actually called that play and expected his d-ends/olb to cover on that play. Either way it was disturbing to see.
October 11th, 2021 at 5:39 pm
I agree with gotbbucs Says.
October 11th, 2021 at 6:23 pm
@ Formally Tampa 2 – First of all , the defense of 2020 is just that , THE DEFENSE OF 2020 !! Also , the”DEFENSE OF 2020″ had it’s fair share of getting beat in the pass game. Other teams are adjusting to this , it’s up to our D.C. to adjust to the problem ! If the Bucs can’t cover a receiver long enough for the pass rush to get to the QB , then teams will continue to take 3 step drops and pick apart the secondary !! I agree with what Joe said about getting a Corner Back off the street , but I also think 🤔 it’s time to start looking at the rosters of the losing teams and find a TRADE for a good CB ! Even if we have to give up high draft picks !! Who cares about 2 years from now when we have Tom Brady right NOW !! NOW IS THE TIME TO GO FOR IT ALL AGAIN !! AM I WRONG , OR IS THAT NOT THE REASON FOR BRINGING ALL 22 STARTERS BACK ?? Now that our BUCS just pounded the Dolphins , who are ALWAYS willing to get draft picks, we should look into X. Howard !! He’s a great CB . Can’t hurt to look into
October 11th, 2021 at 6:29 pm
@Lakeland Steve – AGREED !! Also , is it just me or is Joe Tryon “TRYING” too hard ? He could of had 4 sacks yesterday if he doesn’t over run on most of his rushes !! Speed can kill for sure , but it goes both ways.. GO BUCS