Mac Jones Doesn’t Handle The Blitz Well
October 12th, 2025
Devious blitzes coming?
It seems like Mac Jones may be walking into a minefield.
With Brock Purdy out for today’s 49ers-Bucs game, San Francisco turns to Mac Jones. The former Belicheats first-round pick looked really good against the Rams in Week 5, despite getting beat to hell.
But it seems, per the stats dug up by Rich Hribar of Sharp Football Analysis, Jones seems to wilt under a blitz.
And guess who likes to blitz?
[W]hen Jones has been blitzed, he has completed only 54.2 percent of his passes (28th) for 5.1 yards per pass attempt (29th) and 9.5 yards per completion (30th).
When pressured, Jones has thrown for 5.1 yards per attempt, 25th in the league.
On the flip side is the mad blitzer, Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
The Buccaneers are blitzing 34 percent of the time (6th in the league).
When the Bucs do blitz, they have a 53.1 percent pressure rate on blitzes, third in the league.
So the way Jones was pounded by the Rams 10 days ago and twice needed help getting off the field, is Jones going to be gun-shy when he sees a blitz?
We’ll find out in a 4:25 p.m..
Joe asked Jamel Dean this week about Jones, who the Bucs faced in 2021 when he played for New England. Tom Brady beat Jones and the Belicheats.
Dean said it doesn’t make much of a difference playing Purdy or Jones. Why? 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan will run the same offense, Dean said.
And Dean added, Jones was a first-round pick for a reason: He’s talented.
October 12th, 2025 at 12:12 am
And of course our defense will make him look like a hall of famer.
October 12th, 2025 at 12:36 am
Sounds like an Bowles Empathy defensive plan today
October 12th, 2025 at 12:51 am
Jones will resemble Joe Montana against Bucs Zero Cover Zone. Going to be another shoot out unless Bucs can grind out a lot of long drives by keeping the ball moving on the ground. The Bucs pass defense inspires little confidence unless you are an opponent in which case it is pure inspiration.
October 12th, 2025 at 1:25 am
Let’s see. When Todd blitzes, his dudes are as surprised as the QB, so they telegraph it. It’s easily picked up and even if it’s not, someone will be wide open within 7 yards of the QB with another 7 yards of YAC coming. I love seeing our 14 million dollar man selling beers in the end zone bleachers.
McCaffery will be wide open within 7 yards of the LOS all game. He could wind up with 200 + yards receiving.
Baker 40 Burgers or Bust.
October 12th, 2025 at 1:49 am
Bourne is not getting 140 again. Bucs secondary is better than Rams due to Winfield and Smith. Jennings may play but he is also beat beat. Would be nice if Reddick can get to QB.
I think Anthony Nelson will make a play, he hasn’t made a splash play all season.
October 12th, 2025 at 1:51 am
No no no… this is what they’d expect Todd to do – and that’s why he’s going to outsmart them by sitting back in the super soft zone we saw last week that let Darnold look like an ALL-PRO (until the Bucs did blitz at the end, where Darnold then turned into a pumpkin).
We shall see, I’m not actually down on Bowles, but man, we’ve seen this script over and over and over again. You got someone who is either a rookie, or a backup, who struggles vs the blitz, and that’s when Todd decides to play the softest zone possible and gives the QB all day to sit back and pick his defense apart and they have a career day.
In fairness to Bowles, when faced with this situation vs the Jets, for once Bowles did blitz, and it was mostly effective until the defense got tired out at the end.
Hopefully we get the new and improved aggressive Todd, and not the passive Bowles of the past.
October 12th, 2025 at 2:10 am
Joe’s, just gotta say…..
HILARIOUS photo of Bowles to match the article headline 🤣!!
Bowles looks like he’s foaming at the mouth rubbing his hands together and can’t wait to unleash the blitzes knowing this….
Let’s just hope they get to Mac Jones before he finds targets.
If we succeed, then I think we’ll be 5-1 !!
LFG!!
October 12th, 2025 at 5:06 am
Agree with Rod.
Looking at these stats we will probably sit in soft passive zone and we will let Jones have like an 80 percent completion.
Or even when Bowles call a blitz our DBs will sit 10 yds off the receivers and give up an easy 7 yds completion instead of taking away the quick throws.
I will not be very confident in this team until we start playing a little more aggressive and physical on Defense.
Too soft, too passive and just waiting to make a play or two.
October 12th, 2025 at 5:15 am
It seems that every time Todd Bowles’s D is matched up against a backup QB, the backup puts up career high numbers as Bowles is so stubborn with playing these soft zones in which the QB can “nickel and dime” his way down the field as Bowles is afraid of the big play. Additionally, the Bucs have SVD who is a liability week in and week out and usually allows the big plays Todd so desperately wants to avoid. The Bucs get Dean back, but like clockwork, McCollum is out with a bad thumb. Since McCollum cannot pull down picks anyhow, why is a thumb injury causing him to be out? Just curious as to how severe the injury is as some players would just wrap their hand up and numb it with pain killers, gutting it out for their team…….
October 12th, 2025 at 5:48 am
Both Mac and Purdy have injuries. For all we know, we could see Purdy come back in. Either way, our defense needs to get to both of them before they throw the ball and intercept. The Bucs can win this.
October 12th, 2025 at 6:30 am
Agreed. Darnold, well known for not doing well against the blitz, gets blitzed very little.
While the rest of the league is playing checkers… Todd is playing tiddly winks.
October 12th, 2025 at 6:50 am
Joe if Mac Jones throws 500 yards on us like captain Kirk did, I think its time to move on…don’t you? At least force him to hire a competent DC and he can just stick to HC duties
October 12th, 2025 at 6:57 am
Hoping that having Dean back will help this defense perform more like they did in the first 3 games of the season rather than in the last 2. Assuming that Izien’s also back, wouldn’t be surprised to see Parrish take McCollum’s spot & Izien play at Nickel.
Ours is still a young, somewhat inexperienced defense with a number of new moving parts, and it’ll take them awhile IMO to get their act together. The 2 things that seem to guarantee a short career with the Bucs though are poor tackling & being out of position to make plays. Bowles’ defense obviously isn’t easy to learn, which is problematic IMO. It seems to require some substantial ‘modifications’ when starters go out (injuries) & subs come in.
Last week our defensive starters got way too much game-time & it bit us in the butt. Seattle scored 1 TD in the 1st half, but 4 TDs in the 2nd half. In that game Vea logged 84% of the def snaps, Hall 69% & Gaines 44%. Roberts & Simmons each got 20%. Vea got no stats for the game (no sacks, no pressures, no tackles). Neither did Gaines. Hall got 4 tackle assists & 1 pressure. That was our DLine for majority of the game.
Meanwhile Sam Darnold completed well over 80% of his passes, while our defense logged a total of 0 sacks & only 6 pressures in the whole game. Of course, completing 80% of your passes is a lot easier when there’s no pass rush, little blitzing (only 9 the whole game) & your receivers are finding giant gaps in the pass coverage. Some ineffective ‘modifications’ last game. Can’t let that happen again.
October 12th, 2025 at 7:11 am
THEY PAY THE OTHER GUYS TOO!!!
Everybody here is obviously too young to remember Aretha’s R E S P E C T.
Darnold is a top ten NFL QB!!! He’s currently sitting in 7th statistically.
He and the Seahawks came into the Bucs game riding a 3 game win streak with Darnold AVERAGING 32.6 points per game! Yeah 44 against the stinkin’ Saints pumped it up a BIT, but 31 against the Steelers in Pittsburgh isn’t shabby.
Darnold is coming off a GREAT SEASON with Minnesota. The game simply devolved into a shootout with BOTH QB’s playing lights out!!!
BOTH the Bucs ranked at 11th and the Seahawks are ranked 16th defensively even after that high scoring game have decent defenses! Explanation for those slow on the uptake. 32 teams! 11th and 16th are in the TOP HALF!!! And yet guys here say that sucks? Life is graded on the curve! Top half is not considered sucking!!!
The Bucs are currently having a GREAT season. Effing enjoy it. It’s one big hit on Baker from going away. The team is very good and getting BETTER despite the doom and gloom here!
October 12th, 2025 at 7:15 am
If we have enough secondary starters to play more man and less zone, we seem to do ok
October 12th, 2025 at 7:18 am
Dennis covering CMC. Not good. Fool them, start Jones.
October 12th, 2025 at 8:52 am
Love it, St Pete!! I’m predicting a breakout 1.5 sack game for Haason and our first non last minute win of the season. 27-23 Bucs
October 12th, 2025 at 9:25 am
Rasheed White versus Christian McCafferty. Up to Grizz on that one. White is a better blocker. I hope Izien plays. Bucs have got to watch out for the refs. The OLine is the healthiest it’s been so far this season so that’s a plus in our favor. Grizz has got to open up the playbook more and get all our receivers involved. I’m hoping big things for Tez. Otton is ready. Double E, too, but you can bet he’s going to be covered like a blanket. I think we’ll see some sacks. @stpete: I have Aretha Franklin’s RESPECT on a vinyl 45 on my cabinet shelf. Guess what’s on the other side? THINK as in T-H-I-N-K. Hope Bucs out-think 49ers. 5-1!!
October 12th, 2025 at 9:32 am
Living in NE and seeing what I saw out of Mac Jones, he does have talent and can be chippy, but he’s a punk and a cry baby. A couple of years ago he twisted his ankle and came out of the game. On the sideline, he kept it together but once he was being helped down the tunnel to the locker room (2 staffers holding him up as he hobbled) cameras showed him screaming and crying like a baby… for a twisted ankle. Chris Godwin he ain’t.
Put some heat on Jones and he’ll fold like Travis “Lawn Chair” Kelce being tapped by a little CB. I was surprised he didn’t pull himself from the Rams game because he had a boo-boo.
Go Bucs!
October 12th, 2025 at 9:41 am
Jones was getting beat up the Rams but still managed a W! That can’t happen today. This is such a big game! The Buc’s need the W!! Get it done!!
October 12th, 2025 at 9:46 am
You cant blitz all day as,droids,get tired. Pick your spits,and play hurry up offense in non traditional spots to tire their defense in the heat. The other Bay area is cold compared to this Bay area.
October 12th, 2025 at 10:36 am
Jmark, what are you talking about? They literally said that Darnold was one of the top QB’s in the league against the blitz before the game last week
October 12th, 2025 at 12:15 pm
Darnold hates blitz too, so if anything this means we won’t blitz much haha
October 12th, 2025 at 12:17 pm
sheen heard it from their own peeps on their site, were really worried about his handling of blitz. cud be he’s starting to figure it out a little. career stats might be less relevant than anyone thinks in Darnold’s sitch.
October 12th, 2025 at 12:21 pm
he was best against blitz in 2024, i dunno when the lions seahawks game was this year but that was the game that was so worrisome. mixed up looks up front AND blitzed.
October 12th, 2025 at 12:52 pm
Coach Bowles is gonna bring the heat today, but it will be disguised as usual. Hopefully Jones is caught off guard by the Bucs D, and our O plays with intensity and scores 40 or more !!
Go Bucs !!
October 12th, 2025 at 2:33 pm
You know and I know this defense will be the downfall of this team. 0 sacks and 6 pressures last week. Whats a worse word than abysmal? That’s the Bucs defense.