“We Will Start Dominating Soon”
October 17th, 2021
Confidence.
The Bucs defense — beat to a pulp already in the middle of October — hasn’t yet turned the corner and had a dominant effort like we began to grow familiar with last year.
Or has it?
On Thursday night the Bucs held the Eagles to a season-low 213 offensive yards, a sign the Bucs defense is starting to turn the corner?
Bucs inside linebacker Devin White appeared on the NFL Network on-field set after the win over the Eagles and confessed the defense has not been playing up to expectations. But the season is long.
(Hey, Roger Goodell, Joe thought players weren’t allowed to do one-on-one interviews this year and had to be 10 feet from media types? Or is it now OK for them to do four-on-ones two feet from “reporters?” )
Michael Irvin: Have you heard the rumblings? You know, people talk about, ‘Well, the Buccaneers defense aren’t playing like they are playing last year.’ Have you heard those rumblings? What are the conversations in the locker room?
Steve Smith (points to Devin White): You know, he is part of some of those rumblings.
Colleen Wolfe and Michael Irvin (in unison): Ooohhh!
Devin White: It’s all good, it’s all good. We know we are not playing to the best of our standard right now. We have a long way to go but it’s a long season. It’s 17 games for a reason. At the end, we will all get better. And we will start dominating soon.
Joe has maintained for a while that the biggest problem with the Bucs defense is the secondary. Even in Week 1 before all the injuries the secondary was getting sliced and diced.
Then you add all the injuries, yikes.
But in each season Todd Bowles has been running the defense, he had the secondary playing much better towards the end of the season when it counts most.
So Joe has no reason not to expect that pattern to continue.
If the Bucs have, say, one loss heading into December, then look the f’ out NFL.
October 17th, 2021 at 1:19 pm
Well they will have to keep winning games because these other teams don’t drop games in the nfc. Dallas and Green Bay just keeps rolling. Defense will have to keep stepping up.
October 17th, 2021 at 1:38 pm
Waiting to see if we can get healthy from the practice squad secondary.
October 17th, 2021 at 1:51 pm
It’s bothersome when folks single out one position group (the Secondary in this case) as being the cause of ‘the problem’. And just as bad when folks start making excuses for poor performances (‘Oh, we’ve had so many injuries’).
This is a marathon, not a sprint. The guys who are hurting on defense right now (Davis, SMB, Winfield, LVD, and yes JPP still) will eventually make it back, take several games to get back up to speed, and help us later in the season.
In the meantime, guys like Edwards, Cockrell, Delaney, even JTS are getting more snaps than they’d normally be getting. Their performance on the field is improving & their confidence is building. That will undoubtedly help us even more as the season rolls on.
But the most significant improvement I’m seeing since the Rams loss is in our offense. Not in terms of points, but in terms of BALANCE. It’s doing a much better job of contributing to the COMPLEMENTARY FOOTBALL we need to be playing to succeed this season. Bucs as a team have gone from keeping possession of the ball for only 27 minutes per game in the first 3 games to a dominating time of possession of 37 minutes in these last 3 games. We’ve become a team that can beat you with the pass OR the run … or BOTH. We’ve come a long, long ways from the Bucs’ team that only ran 13 times for 35 yards against the Rams. And lost in the process.
So to Devin White who says ‘We’ll start dominating soon’ I’d say “We already are dominating Devin, but we’re doing it as a TEAM’. And that’s the best way to dominate.
October 17th, 2021 at 2:04 pm
Mahomies becoming as whiny as Rodgers…
October 17th, 2021 at 2:15 pm
Defense Rules
It’s bothersome when folks single out one position group (the Secondary in this case) as being the cause of ‘the problem’
Sherman jumping in as starting CB after 3 days on the team to go down two weeks later means there’s a big problem with injured starters in the secondary. Pass rush has gotten better than the beginning of the season.
October 17th, 2021 at 2:18 pm
I agree Joe’s, Bowles will get this defense to a respectable level by the end of the year.
October 17th, 2021 at 2:20 pm
I love ya’ 45, but stop with the lip-flapping and just show us.
CB’s Law of Rhetorical Economics: “The reason ‘talk is cheap’ is because the supply exceeds the demand.”
October 17th, 2021 at 2:22 pm
Fat cats??,
Someone needs to Q up eye of the tiger ?
October 17th, 2021 at 3:06 pm
this dude got to learn FAST to keep his mouth shut, and play ball.to much of a joker. the other night after Phillie game in locker room, he pour a bottle of water in TV 🤡 head. i don’t like it.
he talks to much for being a rookie.
October 17th, 2021 at 3:11 pm
I’m a HUGE fan of White. Since we drafted him I thought he was a great pick and has everything needed to be one of the best ever in the NFL. Saying that, I agree with @Cobraboy above, quit talking and go show it. A big part of Whites game and motivation is the talking, but him and the “grave diggers” need to step up the game and show it. After 6 games they all should be back in football shape and ready to go after all the time off in the preseason. Let’s quit talking and start becoming the All Pro you are.
October 17th, 2021 at 3:27 pm
They dominated last year when Bowles had two weeks to prepare. Not so much other times. Devin White loves the microphone. Mic him up in game maybe he’ll make more plays.
October 17th, 2021 at 3:45 pm
I don’t want to hear that
October 17th, 2021 at 3:59 pm
If they can’t whip a bad Bears offence next, I’ll start to worry. No way the Bears can out score us next week at home. So we’re going 6-1, I’ll call it now.
October 17th, 2021 at 4:49 pm
SOEbuc … I agree that injuries in our Secondary have really impacted their performance. If the backups were THAT good, they would’ve been starting from the git-go. But hey, bad sh1t happens, to every team.
In my simple world the TEAM perspective is key, and not just within the defense in this case. First 3 games our pass rush was almost non-existent. We were blitzing far too much (100 blitzes in 2 games), and because the pass rush wasn’t getting there and LVD & White were being used to blitz so much, the quick short passes were eating us alive. Bowles compensated beautifully by Game 3 IMO, and we did a better job of dealing with the short passes (yet lost to a more physical, better balanced team).
By Game 4, 5 & 6 BA et al had figured out that the offense needed to do a better job of helping the defense. Their game plans called for much better run-pass balance it looks like, and the Bucs did a much better job of controlling those games. And on defense the pass rush came alive, we didn’t have to blitz as much to create pressure, our pass defense improved … and we’ve now won 3 in a row. Personally I expect to see that formula play out for the rest of this season, and through the playoffs. I think our defense will continue to improve regardless of who’s at corner & safety because the Front-7 is really starting to click.
October 17th, 2021 at 4:56 pm
Very impressed with the cardinals right now. This Bucs defense has to get better to make a run right now.
October 17th, 2021 at 5:53 pm
It is called a team sport for a reason. It will take the whole team to be dominant.
The rush defense has to continue stopping everyone’s rushing game. The pass rush has to give consistent pressure. That will force teams to play a short and lateral pass game, hoping for long runs after catch.
The DBs need to learn to put doubt into the opposing QB. Line up like man coverage, then drop into zone. That will cause a lot of first reads to get bypassed. Then they can stop first down runs.
First we need some warm bodies on the field, lately they have just been corpses.
October 17th, 2021 at 6:45 pm
Arizona would destroy this defense right now.
October 17th, 2021 at 6:55 pm
All this complaining about the defense. We’re 5 and 1 folks. That’s pretty good on the NFL. I think we’ll be just fine.
October 17th, 2021 at 7:28 pm
And the Buccaneers offense would destroy the Arizona defense, AKA a good game to watch.
October 17th, 2021 at 8:40 pm
At what point do we hold Licht accountable? I mean he gets understandable and deserved praise for talent acquisition (which he must share with Brady), but the end of the day hasn’t he just overloaded an nfl team at wr, te and rb and ignored an obviously deficient defensive backfield? Thats not smart in a legue where all of the rules favor passing the ball. We have to package some these guys and trade for a veteran high end corner before November. This should have already been done in the offseason.
October 17th, 2021 at 8:42 pm
If I saw devin white looking at me like that I’d crap my pants lol
October 17th, 2021 at 9:43 pm
In mid-point 2019 we CUT Vernon Hargreaves, and the secondary got better every game thereafter.
I fully expected that to continue in 2020.
NOPE, they sucked for half the season, THEN they caught on.
I fully expected that to continue in 2021.
NOPE, they sucked for half the season…..?
October 18th, 2021 at 8:00 am
When everyone gets healthy we will dominate. Now our reserves have the experience for the long haul. Back to back baby!
October 18th, 2021 at 9:09 am
Wow, 5-1, so what if Bucs lost to the Rams, the Rams wanted it more and were more prepared. Everyone thought Bucs were slipping because of Patriots tight win. The same Patriots that took Dallas to OT last night. Philly was a joke, coaches and players got complacent and let them back in but that was a smoke show. If Bucs play Cardinals Bucs are a bad match up for them, quick linebackers and powerful Dline. Bucs are fine and will continue to win, no need to worry until it’s time to worry.
October 18th, 2021 at 10:27 am
DR making a whole lot of sense, per usual.
The secondary was getting torched because the pass rush was largely MiA those first few weeks. But they’ve been coming in stronger in recent weeks. Particularly Shaq and JTS. JPP still looks slow and not healthy yet.
October 18th, 2021 at 4:58 pm
I agree with Suomosam. We’re 5-1 folks! Be happy enjoy the ride. There’s nothing really broken except too many injuries. But none of them are season ending. See you in February. GO BUCS!
October 19th, 2021 at 11:08 am
We have a few players on injured reserve also some defense players are not 100 percent and still playing. After the bye week watch out everyone… You got Arizona, Dallas,and Green Bay Packers which I think are not a dangerous team . Dallas and Arizona is only teams bucs gotta be ready for. As far as the offense we should be blowing teams out instead of running the clock out at the 1 like we did 3 times or more and I just don’t get it first couple series Brady is on fire I wanna know what happens after that?? I think it’s the play calling. Have a OC like Dallas, Arizona, Rams,etc with player’s we have we should score 60 plus every game even if our defense is mediocre…
October 20th, 2021 at 5:29 am
Goin 4✌BayBeeeeeee