There Is More To Football Than Takeaways
February 1st, 2026
Takeaways didn’t help much.
Joe is an old-school football guy in one respect: Joe believes if you do not play fundamentally sound football, your team has a ceiling.
The best, most recent example is the college national champions, Indiana. Over and over and over Joe heard about how the Hoosiers didn’t play flashy football. They may not have many stars (yes, Joe would consider Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza a star) but the team plays smart and plays fundamentally sound.
Joe brings this up because the Bucs reached one one team goal this season. Bucs coach Todd Bowles stressed, significantly so, the defense had to get more takeaways.
And that the Bucs did.
The Bucs finished sixth overall in the NFL in turnover margin at +7. Great, right? Well… The Bucs had the 19th overall ranked defense, fifth-best against the run and yet again, a terrible pass defense, 27th. The Bucs ended up 20th in points allowed.
Along the way of stressing about takeaways more than mom hounded you to do your homework, the Bucs forgot how to tackle, how to wrap up, how to cover people and blatantly irresponsibly yet again dismissing the importance of an edge rush.
The focus on takeaways in Joe’s mind is putting the cart before the horse. Whatever happened to focusing on playing good defense first?
Remember when Chucky first came to the Bucs? The Bucs’ defense was already established as perhaps the NFL’s best. Chucky came in and challenged the defense to score more points (off takeaways, naturally). And look what happened. That defense became legendary and won a Super Bowl.
But the defense was already established when Chucky dared them to score more via takeaways.
Yes, boys and girls, a punt is a turnover, too.
February 1st, 2026 at 8:49 am
I get it. Stats can be fun and maybe help you predict how to set your fantasy line up. But really, W’s and L’s are the only stats that really count. For instance would you rather have six sacks, three interceptions and a loss or none of the above and a win?
February 1st, 2026 at 9:01 am
“And that the Bucs did. The Bucs finished sixth overall in the NFL in turnover margin at +7. Great, right? Well…”
“Chucky came in and challenged the defense to score more points (off of takeaways, naturally). And look what happened: That defense became legendary and won a Super Bowl.“
We scored 46 points of 23 takeaways, which ranked 17th most in the league. Jags scored the most points off turnovers with 96, they also had 14 takeaways in the first 5 games of the season.
Our defense scored 2 of our 23 takeaways and are on the hook for 14 of those 46 points.
So that would be 32 points off 21 takeaways generated by our offense.
So say, we scored a FG or TD for every single one of those remaining takeaways
The point range would be 63-147 points. Obviously, asking to hit on every single on is a pretty big ask, but 32/21 shakes out to 1.5 points per takeaway off that remaining 21.
Takeaways are a prime example of complimentary football, if a defense takes it away it’s the offenses job to cash it in. Works the other way, your offense turns the ball over, you want the defense to mitigate that error by not allowing points.
Wasn’t always the case for us, and you look at points for/against you’d see we were miserable doing both. What’s a head scratcher to me, is that it’s really hard to find the data already put together. As if points scored off/allowed on takeaways aren’t huge game changers, those are free turns on offense.
February 1st, 2026 at 9:04 am
The pass defense has got to be fixed before the Bucs can even think about getting to the SB again.
February 1st, 2026 at 9:09 am
After the bye the problem was Baker’s give aways. Most happening at the worst time.
February 1st, 2026 at 10:04 am
You can only fix the defense with defensive players
Players who can actually play football
We don’t have Sapp, Brooks, Barber, Lynch, Rice , Kelly, Quarles etc any longer
We have Diaby, Winfield, McCollum, Vea, Dennis, Kancey, Dean etc
That’s like comparing malt liquor beer to some 100 year old cognac
You can challenge these players all you want
And get the same results, because they’re not quality football players
There’s only one solution to this problem
Get some QUALITY football players for this defense!!
February 1st, 2026 at 10:11 am
The D was terrible ,, the special teams was worse than the D (impossible to believe) and the O was hurt , (wirfs, Ben b, godeke, Jordan , haggard, otten, Big Mike, JMac, Godwin, EE, Bucky and Bake),,
Let’s get healthy and w our new OC we should be scoring some points ,, new ST coordinator should fix that,,, now it’s just the D , Todd probably get fired during the year of his D doesn’t improve drastically .
What will be fun this year is when we play Atlanta , offensive guru Stefanski against defensive guru Bowles , both are media darling gurus whos other side of the ball always outperforms their side
February 1st, 2026 at 10:32 am
It’s the players..blah blah fing blah.
No its the damn HC/DC.
February 1st, 2026 at 10:38 am
What are the defensive players doing after they leave Tampa?
How many pro bowls have ex Bucs defensive players made?
I guess it’s every NFL team system that hold them back
February 1st, 2026 at 10:39 am
Left eye in pic.
February 1st, 2026 at 10:48 am
Warren Sapp left Tampa
Got 10 sacks in a season with the Raiders
John Lynch left Tampa
Made multiple Pro Bowls with Denver
Darrelle Revis left Tampa
Made multiple Pro Bowls, won Super Bowl
Aqib Talib left Tampa
Made multiple Pro Bowls, won Super Bowls
These are just a few
What happened to these ex Bucs defenders that was drafted in the last 10 years?
How many of them have made pro bowls?
Some like Carlton Davis, Mike Edwards have made it to the Super Bowl
But they were nowhere near Pro Bowl material
February 1st, 2026 at 10:49 am
Joe, this is truly a brilliant spot on of the Bucs defense. 27th in pass defense, but moderately better at 20th in points scored. That was the benefit of +7 in turnovers. Cause and effect has been identified.
February 1st, 2026 at 10:58 am
Lakeland, you just named three Hall of Famers and an All Pro,………..Apples and Apricots, don’t ya think?
February 1st, 2026 at 11:01 am
@ Lakeland I think Your point should be, thank God we have a GM now that isn’t stupid enough to cut three Hall of Famers and an All Pro,…….don’t Ya think?
February 1st, 2026 at 11:05 am
Anthony,
You’re right, Hall of Famers that will excel in any system
But do you think guys like Braswell, McCollum, Dennis, Winfield etc .Or any of these current defensive players will excel in any system?
LVD played in multiple defensive systems with the Bucs over the years
Schiano system
Lovie system
Mike Smith system
Bowles system
And he was excellent in all of these systems
He has loss a step now, but he’s still playing better than others
February 1st, 2026 at 11:07 am
Anhony,
I agree with you
February 1st, 2026 at 11:20 am
Pro Bowl is like a high school popularity contest with a free trip to hawaii as the prize.