Satisfied With Big Bucs Win
December 4th, 2021
Impressed.
Former Bucs guard Ian Beckles was largely a happy camper watching the Bucs rally to beat the Colts last Sunday in their crib. And for Beckles, that was one of the most impressive wins this season.
“If you go to Indianapolis and beat a team that is the best running the football, in their house, that’s a good win regardless who you are and how you got it done,” Beckles said.
Naturally, speaking on his podcast “In the Trenches” Beckles had a lot more to say about last week’s game, both good and bad.
On Sean Murphy-Bunting:
“Seems to be a step and a half behind often. What happens is if you sit on your couch for a long time getting over injuries, you are working out but you are not in football shape. He’s clearly not in football shape, right now. He will get better.”
On the Bucs’ pass rush:
“Our pass rush still concerns me. It still does. Shaq Barrett I thought played a great game. Just everywhere all the time. You just gotta like Shaq Barrett as a football player.”
Beckles also gave props to Ndamukong Suh and raved about Will Gholston.
“William Gholston was bending people backward. He was mean all game long. He’s one of those guys who doesn’t have a lot of statistics, but William Gholston plays his @ss off. And I personally like to see that.
On Scotty Miller:
“The interception that Tom Brady threw to Scotty Miller early on I thought was a terrible route by Scotty Miller. You can’t let a DB cut off your route mid-flow. Great ones don’t. They will run through it and figure out a way to get to the ball. You’ve got to run a better route than that Scotty Miller.”
Beckles is beginning to think Jason Pierre-Paul, who is clearly struggling with his torn rotator cuff, may be becoming a liability.
“JPP isn’t what he used to be. He isn’t what he was last year. But you know who else isn’t? Joe Tryon. The second Tryon grows into his shoes, [the Bucs will start dialing back JPP]. He ain’t there yet. Tryon is just kind of like this athletic player who is kind of running with his head cut off. He doesn’t know what he is doing yet. Every once in a while you will see a flash of something. But most of it is not aggression, unfortunately. Even though JPP is not at his best, JPP is usually in the right position. He’s not out of position. He’s not going to be a reason for those big plays. “
Outside of Tom Brady, Beckles believes there is no more important skill position player than foot-rubbing, car-littering film guru tight end Rob Gronkowski.
“Having Gronk back, to me, is even more important than having [Antonio Brown]. If you look at the games that Tom Brady has not played well this year, it is games that Gronk has not been there. Gronk is his guy, OK. Gronk is his guy. When times are tough, find Gronk. If the ball hits Gronk’s hands, Tom Brady knows Gronk is coming down with that ball. Playoff Lenny is becoming [Brady’s] outlet. You talk about a game without Lenny and without Gronk, and that is when Brady is kind of out of sorts. … I almost want to put Gronk in a plastic bubble until the playoffs.”
Beckles believes Brady is more concerned about completions than where he is throwing the ball.
“I don’t think he wants to depend on his wide receivers. He wants to get the ball out of his hand.
Beckles believes a hidden element of the solid Bucs run game is the wide receivers’ physical play.
“Watch our wide receivers blocking. I see Mike Evans out there blocking. I see Chris Godwin out there blocking. That’s big for me.”
Simply put, Beckles considers Antoine Winfield a straight baller.
“I’m a big fan of Michael Pittman, Jr. Great player. But that play that Antoine Winfield, Jr. made on him, out in the open almost like he’s a receiver, man! Those are the kind of plays that get you to a Pro Bowl. And Antoine Winfield, Jr. was tacking his @ss off. He’s one of the better tacklers I have seen in a long, long, long time.”
December 4th, 2021 at 6:26 am
This is one time that I agree with Beckles on pretty much everything.
Glad to see Gholston getting some notice for the play and effort that he exhibits.
He will never be a sack specialist but I am pretty sure he unnerved more than a few QB’s when they see Gholston bearing down on them.
Good point about Godwin and Evans blocking. Gronk is also known for his excellent blocking. OJ is a more complete tight end because of the emphasis
on protecting Brady. I believe he is underutilized in the passing game. Brate has also improved in this area, IMO.
December 4th, 2021 at 6:52 am
Beckles … ‘I don’t think he wants to depend on his wide receivers. He wants to get the ball out of his hand.’
Wow! I’m not at all sure what that says about ME13 & Godwin. You & Ira might want to unwrap that one for us Joe.
December 4th, 2021 at 6:57 am
I watched the colts game for a third time last night …
There were many great plays and performances
Dont disagree on how awesome gronk and lenny have been playing
But the play that won the game was clearly Shaq’s strip sack and recovery. Colts were up 10 or 14 . I forget and going into score again to put the game away. We could not stop their offense at this point. And colts were in bucs territory too. I wanna say red zone or close to it.
What a play.
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My concerns for offense: Something is off. Cant figure it out. And i know its #1 offense. But something is off. Play calling or brady. Not sure. But you cant allow teams to play 2 high safeties on godwin and evans and not be able to change up plays to get both involved. Seems like teams know what we are running on pass downs. Good thing we can run again. 😂 But with brady. Watch his face when playing lately. It almost seems like he has something on his mind. Its weird but almost looks like he is not having same fun out there. Even after a td – not same energy. Maybe something in personal life. Someone made comment other game open thread that giselle was threatening divorce. Sounded like rumor and most likely is rumor. But just something is off and hope he gets that fire back.
My concerns On defense …its simple. Its injuries. Secondary depleted. And i agree. You could always count on jpp opposite shaq. That dynamic duo is not there right now. His leadership is but not his play and teams can double or chip shaq.
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Anyway …that was a huge win you did not expect to turn out the way it did. Bucs were looking at potential blowout loss until shaq changed momentum
December 4th, 2021 at 7:36 am
I think he wants to get it out if his hands in hopes his WR’s run the right routes, their looking for the ball and don’t fumble it once they catch it. I’ve watched Brady through his entire NFL career, Bucs don’t have that Edleman, Welker, Amendola quick slot receiver that run precise routes. I rewatched the Indy game and keyed on Evan’s and Godwin they were not open. I agree with Beckles on the WR blocking, they are all good at it. If it weren’t for Capa & Godwin blocking Lenny doesn’t score that last Td.
December 4th, 2021 at 7:45 am
DR, I will preface this by saying I witnessed Brady absorbing some very punishing hits from The Denver defense in their AFC playoff matchup. at the end of
the game he was still as determined enough TO still try to make an to be competitive.
That patience in the pocket is missing sometimes and he seems to be throwing more short checkdowns well short of the sticks on the third and long with little chance of getting a first down. whether its playcalling or decision making we are in too
many third and long situations in the first half and not sustaining longer drives. We should make playoffs ,but I don’t expect us to go far if we don’t get a few more
chunk plays from Godwin and Evans a Game. We have a three game stretch ,
where I believe we need to get Both Evans and Godwin more involved in the
offense.
December 4th, 2021 at 8:03 am
The comment Beckles made about Brady wanting completions is interesting…..he wants to get the ball out quickly….sometimes doesn’t go through his progressions and finds the easiest open receiver which is usually a back or a TE……I’d like to see more balls to Mike Evans & Chris Godwin…..this may be the week that Evans gets over 100 yards.
December 4th, 2021 at 8:13 am
Good win…next up is Atlanta. If we get to Ryan like we did with Wentz, should be smooth sailing.
December 4th, 2021 at 8:32 am
Good comment TBBF,
With the exception of the two deep attempts, most of the passes were to the
left flat or the middle of the field. At some point we are going to get some big plays from open receivers and or tight ends. Double coverage is used to
prevent receivers from completing the designed route and may require a bit more time in the pockets and adjustments from both receivers and QB, IMO.
December 4th, 2021 at 9:14 am
Teams are specifically playing us with deep safeties to take away the big down field plays its happened all year. This has forced Brady to throw underneath. Smart QB play if you ask me! Plus sme pretty good coaching.
December 4th, 2021 at 9:35 am
Bob in Valrico … Still not sure what this is all telling me about TB12. He’s ‘The GOAT’ for a very good reason. IMO he’s the best QB decision-maker of all time. Over the years he’s also been very patient & intentional.
I’m a big believer that there’s ALWAYS more to the story than what meets the eye. These last 3 games he’s been throwing a LOT more checkdowns than he normally throws. Against Washington he targeted Lenny 9 times (8 catches) & Gio 3 times (1 catch). Against the Giants he targeted Lenny 6 times (6 catches) & Gio 1 time (1 catch). And against the Colts he targeted Lenny 8 times (7 catches). Just about all of those looked to be checkdowns from what I could see. That’s 23 targets (21 catches) for Lenny and 4 targets (2 catches) for Gio.
During those 3 games he targeted his WRs & TEs a bunch also, so they had to be getting somewhat open. And only 3 of those 23 checkdowns to Fournette were on 3rd down (13 on 1st down & 7 on 2nd down). It’s almost like they weren’t checkdowns at all, but rather quite intentional (14 left, 4 middle, 5 right). Still, many seemed delayed, like he was looking deep but not seeing any open receivers, so he dumped it off. Pure speculation of course; I’m admittedly bewildered.
December 4th, 2021 at 10:51 am
TO further speculate during the last game the camera panned on both ROJO and
OJ on different plays so open in the left flat 7 or 8 yards downfield it looked they
could have walked to the first down marker. I do find it a bit interesting that neither of these two were targeted at all in your above mentioned stats. With an 83% completion rate to two of his backs there does appear to be some truth to what Beckles is saying. Coupled with the penalties and turnovers and other miscues its resulted in
more punts in the first half recently.
December 4th, 2021 at 2:18 pm
I like it when Joe listens to the In the Trenches podcast then types out what Ian said word for word and considers it an article.
That’s some mighty fine reporting there Joe.
December 4th, 2021 at 2:39 pm
When we played the Colts. Winfield Jr. Made a lot of open field tackles on Taylor. Had he missed any of them it would have been a house call.
December 4th, 2021 at 2:41 pm
Bucsministerfuller
What difference does it make whether its a podcast, an interview or something that was said on TV? Joe is relaying the information to us. Do you know of a better way to do it?
December 4th, 2021 at 4:20 pm
Bucsministerfuller Says:
That’s some mighty fine reporting there Joe.”
.
.
Joe researches news from all over so that I don’t have to, which is why I come here. Think Drudge Report, but with added personal commentary.
December 4th, 2021 at 5:14 pm
Bucsministerfullofit is thinking of cancelling his subscription. 🙄
December 4th, 2021 at 7:19 pm
A guy balling out that you won’t hear much about is Alex Cappa. Do you remember hearing his name much over the whole season? No? Me neither. Exactly. Because he is freight training D linemen. Love this whole O line but he deserves some kudos.