Opening Drive Touchdowns On Defense Irks Todd Bowles
September 18th, 2025
Game prep.
Yes, the Bucs are 2-0. Yes, the Bucs are clutch. So what is the opposite of clutch?
Maybe when your defense gives up touchdowns on both of your opponents’ opening drives?
That is what has happened to the Bucs in the first two weeks of the season. Both Atlanta and Houston scored touchdowns the first time they touched the ball.
And as one can imagine, Bowles being a defensive guy, that doesn’t sit well with him.
“Well, they can’t happen,” Bowles said. “I mean, it’s going to happen in this league. The biggest thing is we’ve got to get better each week.
“Obviously, at the start of the year, when you don’t have all the windows tight and the doors closed tightly, some things are going to happen. We’ve just got to keep working on that to make sure they disappear and kind of go from there.
“We’ve just got to play a full solid game without giving up three or four plays.”
Joe typed the following when Raheem Morris was Bucs head coach so to be consistent, Joe has to repeat it. Morris did a great job of adjusting. Before the adjustments, sadly, the Bucs had already given up 10 or 14 points. It was almost a weekly thing that the Bucs would have to climb out of a hole they dug early.
It was almost like the Bucs defense didn’t prepare properly.
If the Jets on Sunday are able to score on their first possession, that would be a trend. And if that does happen, Bowles is going to have to look in the mirror and see if he is preparing his defense appropriately.
September 18th, 2025 at 3:51 am
with the creamsicle party rockin’ at ray jay on sunday, we should scoot past these jets…something like 27-13 or 27-16
September 18th, 2025 at 6:05 am
Irks Bowles ??? Yea I would hope so and will he change it being the guru Defensive Coach he is?
No worries Glazers you have an out Another OL down so you can blame any loses on that (to include in playoffs)
September 18th, 2025 at 6:35 am
The biggest mistakes in all of those drives were on Dennis. If you look at both Houston, and Atlanta’s scores, Dennis had a hand in it. He doesn’t seem up to the task. Now he has Hall to cover in the flat. Good luck.
September 18th, 2025 at 6:42 am
Sorry Adam but I can’t see us ‘scooting past the Jets’ this Sunday. Can see a dogfight though, with the Jets having some pretty good-sized dogs to play with. Our offense will only have Barton & Bredeson left from our original OLine, and both of them have been playing out of position. Our best chance to win AND keep Baker from getting killed is to (1) run the ball then run it some more; and (2) complement our run game with real quick, short passes to keep the Jets’ defense somewhat spread out.
September 18th, 2025 at 6:51 am
Hodad … Bowles had Deion Jones in there 3 def snaps against Atlanta (while he probably chewed on SVD for a bit), but he had Jones in there for 6 plays against Houston.
Interestingly Deion had 2 solo tackles against the Texans in 6 snaps, while SVD registered 4 solo tackles (plus 1 TFL & 1 QB Hit) in 42 def snaps. MAYBE Todd will play them both more situationally against the Jets?
September 18th, 2025 at 7:02 am
Jones had that sack in crunch time. Splash play. Maybe they should start Deion, and work Dennis in?
September 18th, 2025 at 7:02 am
Although we may have the league’s best WR group when everyone is healthy, it won’t matter. This makeshift o-line has taken away any deep threats we may have had. We’re going to be back to our dink and dunk offense, which seemed to work ok when Canales was here, but it has to be paired with a solid running game. Pass protection this week will tell us what kind of magic JL and Bowles can bring to the team.
September 18th, 2025 at 7:05 am
I agree with Defense. I think we are going to struggle big time Sunday. Too many injuries. LOOK ahead to Eagles. Bowles vs backup qbs. Throwback uniforms. All signs point to Jets this week. I just hope and pray no more injuries Sunday. Just can’t afford any more with the stretch of games that are upcoming.
September 18th, 2025 at 7:15 am
If there’s a big pass play for the other team I usually see the name Dennis flash on the screen. He really needs to improve. The Jets aren’t a pushover so hopefully the Bucs can run the ball to take pressure off the O-line and Baker.
September 18th, 2025 at 7:15 am
Allowing big plays/scores on opening drives is a lack of preparation or lack of playing good football to start a game?
The two aren’t one and the same.
I worry less about the coaching preparing players, as I’m always more inclined to believe bad reps/series to be about players not doing what they’re prepared for.
It’s that simple to me.
The preparation:
“here’s what we’re going to do to limit their effectivity and ability to score”
The execution:
Sirvocea Dennis taking a bad angle and freezing up against Bijan Robinson in the open field for half of his recieving yardage in 1 play.
That sounds like an execution problem, not a “is the team being prepared
properly” problem.
That’s like blaming missed kicks on the special teams coach, oh wait…
September 18th, 2025 at 7:32 am
So far it seems it takes a while for the defense to warm up. I bet their fourth quarter stats vs their first quarter stats are extremely different. Haven’t looked it up though, just seems obvious.
September 18th, 2025 at 7:52 am
normal start for bucs
d has to figure out what they are doing and then shut them down
September 18th, 2025 at 8:07 am
Any given Sunday. That’s true. DR is right it’s gonna be a dogfight. But I’ll go with my gut over my head. This team has been working on getting better for years now. No shortcuts, plenty of setbacks. Alot of lessons learned. Our defense only gave up 13 points last week, I knew we let them score that last possession. The defense is carrying us so far and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hold the Jets to under 20 points. And even with the problems on our OLine this week we still have the weapons to be a stunning offense. Even if Egbuka is out we are an offense that can break out at any moment. Rode my Harley to Kansas yesterday and reinvested the previous weeks wins on a parlay. -7 and over 43.5 points. If we win 27-17, I’ll have alot to put on Philly next week. The wild card here is, yes, Baker Mayfield. He dislikes excuses. Look for him to lead us to 30 plus points. He may need to get me to 37 because the defense may only give the Jets 7. We’re gonna find out this week what I already know. We ain’t seen nothing yet. My gut.
September 18th, 2025 at 8:07 am
STOP deferring the kickoff! Start with your strength and set the tone for the game. Of course, the offense WAS the strength before all the injuries that have occured.
September 18th, 2025 at 8:16 am
KABucs
Total points allowed by quarter through 2 games:
1st-17 points
2nd-3 points
3rd-3 points
4th-16 points
Total: 39 points/2 games
We’re sitting on a 19.5 ppg average through 2 games which ranks 13th. Small sample size, but if I’m not mistaken 19.5 ppg is what we finished allowing on average defensively in ‘23.
In 2024 we finished allowing 22.7 which ranked 17th leaguwide, but we also finished the season only allowing a combined 6 points in the second halves of our last 6 games and finished 5-1 in those games.
September 18th, 2025 at 9:35 am
I’m wondering if the green dot is forcing Dennis to think…too much. Mayhaps he’d be more effective without all those thoughts flying around in his head?
Give the dot back back to David as we KNOW he can handle it and still play well. Maybe there’s a reason Bowles needs Dennis to make the defensive calls in the huddle and while lining up?