Falcons Avoided “Controlling” Antoine Winfield
September 11th, 2025
The Xs and Os review is in.
Todd Bowles, of course, as head coach and defensive coordinator, devours the Bucs’ game film multiple times before he goes to bed following a 1 o’clock game.
A small percentage of fans do the the same thing, and while they saw many glimpses of the All-Pro-caliber version of Antoine Winfield returning at safety. They might have missed the big picture Bowles saw: the Falcons gameplannned away from Winfield.
“They kind of stayed away from him all day wherever he was, they kind of went the other way, but he’s gonna make a play and he is gonna make his presence felt,” Bowles told the Buccaneers Radio Network. “Just having him out there controlling the secondary, like that was big for us.”
Assuming Bowles is accurate, this is exactly what the Bucs want from opponents. If teams avoid a defensive back, that’s something Bowles and his staff can recognize in real-time, and it should make defending overall easier.
September 11th, 2025 at 11:44 am
Yeah without going back over film that was my gut feeling. Seemed like nothing was ever going to winfield’s area of the field. Feel like tykee missed some plays early but was in on some good stuff after that and obviously had a lot of tackles. Hopefully him and Dennis continue to improve
September 11th, 2025 at 11:47 am
This maybe one of those “aha” moments that Bowles was refering to in the off season. Recognizing offense’s tendencies with certain personnel groups on the field
September 11th, 2025 at 11:52 am
Penix is left handed, Winfield lines up to the right of him and our defense kind of works in a way to where it discourages deep passes when we show 2 high pre-snap.
Falcons didn’t run the ball much or well, so the scheme is still making offenses play us 1-dimensionally which is a huge part of the battle and why there’s always a heavy accumulation of passing yards win/lose.
Also doesn’t hurt having an all-pro caliber safety like Tweeze healthy and cruisin the defensive backfield to lay the smack down. Winfield was also in on what I initially thought was a Penix fumble on the GL and I was 100% screaming for him to get to the endzone with the ball-just in case lol
September 11th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
Nothing about playing pass defense on the Bucs is easy, especially when we see 15 yards a play effortlessly from an opposing offense moving into scoring range for the tying / winning score at the ends of games.
We got super lucky the KooKoo shanked the last FG. And thanks to Antoine for saving the game. None of that is necessary if the Bucs actually had a mediocre pass defense, instead of this bottom 5 dumpster fire we’ve seen for 36 games and counting.
September 11th, 2025 at 12:36 pm
Raheem Morris started his pro coaching career as a DB coach so that is no surprise. I was expecting more out of SVD. He has got to deliver Monday Nite. It’s about time Lady Luck smiled on the Bucs with this Atlanta game. The team earned it, too.
September 11th, 2025 at 6:20 pm
Looking forward to your next prediction nostradumba#$ ✌🏼🤣
September 11th, 2025 at 8:04 pm
lolol
September 12th, 2025 at 6:32 am
That’s an excellent point.
One that I never considered as I was watching the game and wondering why I wasn’t seeing AWJ at all. At least until the end of the game…
Hoping that AWJ is 100% healthy and stays that way throughout the season.