“We Saw Something We Could Take Advantage Of”
October 29th, 2026
Bucs safety Tykee Smith.
Sunday delivered a stunning Buccaneers blowout of Carolina that included Tampa Bay’s first blocked extra point in nine years.
The Bucs play a lot of starters on their block team and safety Tykee Smith got inside and delivered the block. Cornerback Zyon McCollum heard the double thud (foot and block) and hunted the ball successfully and took it to the house. Two points secured by the defense; one point missed by the offense.
The play crushed any momentum the Panthers got from their first touchdown of the game.
“We saw something we could take advantage of [on film] and Tykee did a great job with it and took advantage of a situation,” special teams coordinator Danny Smith told The Coaches’ Room show (Joe listens on the SiriusXM Buccaneers channel). “You know, the control of the tip and the bounce and all that kind of stuff we have no control over. It couldn’t have been a better situation. … We did have something that we thought we could have taken advantage of. And it’s fun when you prepare like that and then you see a player do it. You see a player take advantage of it. And he did.”
Danny Smith is a film junkie to the extreme, as Joe shared yesterday.
He went on to say there’s always a crack to find in an opponent. The challenge is identifying it.
“You could find it if you search,” Danny Smith said. “There’s that old saying, the eye in the sky don’t lie. And if you study tape and you study people and you study mannerisms and you study footwork and you study hand placement and you study pad level and you study those things, you can find it.
“I take great pleasure in preparing a player. There’s nothing again that they’re not prepared for. We just went through [Sunday’s] tape and I said, ‘Here’s what we worked. Here’s what we did. That’s why I said this to you on Wednesday. This is why this was on Thursday. This is why.’ Those kind of things. That’s my contribution to them — because this is a player’s league without a doubt. And my job is to prepare them.”
Again, it had been nine years since the Bucs blocked an extra point, and that was by the long arm of Will Gholston. Well done, special teams!
It might take another Danny Smith intelligence gem to beat the Falcons on Sunday.
October 29th, 2026 at 10:49 am
Other than an untimely punt return for a TD, the Special Teams play has been outstanding.
That just goes to show what can happen with good coaching.
October 29th, 2026 at 11:04 am
“Those kind of things. That’s my contribution to them — because this is a player’s league without a doubt. And my job is to prepare them.”
The player-coach dynamic that flies over the head of most fans
October 29th, 2026 at 11:09 am
Pennis, like most QB’s, get rattled when the get hit. Young is ususlly cool and calm but like Mike said, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. Let’s hope we can punch Pennis in the face early and often. I have a feeling the offense is going to open up this week. The Falcons will definitely load up the box on us.
Last week I kept expecting play action passes but we kept pounding the rock. I expect to see us utilize more play action this week. Perhaps EE will start catching more that 50% of his targets.
October 29th, 2026 at 11:16 am
Fun game
October 29th, 2026 at 11:16 am
Geeze, all these coaches on this site need to tell all the Bucs coaches how to coach. Most of these guys have forgot more that what some of you guys profess to know.
October 29th, 2026 at 11:19 am
Had to be demoralizing for the Panthers Offense. Score a TD and then…Dang! Great Job Coach Smith and and Player Smith too.
Go Bucs!
October 29th, 2026 at 11:28 am
Danny Smith is good, but credit goes to Todd Bowles for having Smith ready to detect things from the film. And McGaughey was really good last year, he was just unlucky.
October 29th, 2026 at 11:56 am
ModHairKen – couldn’t agree more about the coaching!
October 29th, 2026 at 12:12 pm
2 N’s in Pennis…..Lucky him…
October 29th, 2026 at 12:32 pm
Look at the difference in ST this year with a different coach. Almost like coaching matters🤔
HC sitting at 22 games underb500 for his career. Last week was awesome cool now string them together n maybe bowels has a leg to stand on until then. It’s time to go