Lavonte David Talks 2017 “Situations”
July 22nd, 2018
Perhaps the biggest hurdle the Bucs must overcome is their collective mental weakness.
It’s been a trademark of the Lovie Smith/Dirk Koetter eras.
Here are the Bucs’ records in the first-halves of the past four seasons — in order from the kickoff of the Josh McCown era through the arrival of Koetter and America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston: 1-7, 3-5, 3-5 and 2-6 last year.
In three of those seasons, the Bucs were a better team in the second half of the campaign. In 2015, they equaled their 3-5 mark in the second half, which including losing their final four games.
Those are signs of a team with chronic mental issues. And you can bet its why general manager Jason Licht, in his fifth season building the roster, put in extra effort this offseason to bring in lunch-pail-type workers that didn’t grow up with the” five-star virus.”
Many of the 2018 additions are supposed to be the kinds of tough guys that will grind the same way whether the team is 1-3 or 3-1.
Joe hates associating the Bucs’ mental weakness with Lavonte David, but he brought it on himself. Consider what David said about the first defensive snap of the “Tennessee Ready” game to open the 2015 season. It’s still one of the most stunning quotes in Buccaneers history.
“We played a little passive after that first play,” David said. “I think after that penalty, kinda like killed our momentum. Because we wanted to come out and be physical, and that was the statement of the game there.
“Major [Wright] coming out being physical. After that happened he got the flag, ‘We were like, oh, man. We can’t, you know, come out and do what we wanted to do.’
“We kind of let that get to us a little bit. We can’t let that affect us, you know. Every time we’re on the field, we gotta be the most dominating, be the most physical. Obviously, that wasn’t the case.”
Last week, Buccaneers.com did a Q&A feature with David and he touched on many topics. One was the closeness of this year’s defense and how its trying to build good accountability habits after clear failures last season.
David referenced “situations” that weren’t addressed properly.
It seems like your entire unit is pretty close.
LAVONTE DAVID: Oh yeah. It feels like college. The whole defense is real tight. Everybody hangs out with each other. There’s no bad blood between anybody but it’s a good thing, though. It transfers to the football field. Say I know you’re not doing something right. I can tell you about it and you won’t get insulted by it. It comes from love, it’s constructive criticism. That’s a good thing. That’s the main thing we wanted to harp on this year because last year we had situations where people weren’t doing what they were supposed to do and we weren’t really getting on them about it. We would tell them but we weren’t getting them like we should. This year, we are all close enough. We’re all trying to go to the same place. I’m not going to tell you anything that’s going to mess you up. Kwon reached out to me saying I need you to get on me more, let me know if I’m doing something that I can do better, just let me know. I said I need you to do the same thing for me. …
Joe could spray a lot of blame around for the “situations” David referenced, but ultimately they all fall on the head coach.
This team just has to get tougher from top to bottom, and it seems they all know it.
Joe sure hopes every power player associated with the Bucs learned from the multitude of lessons that last season served up.
July 22nd, 2018 at 4:11 pm
Sticking with my 9 and 7 prediction even with JW out the first three.
July 22nd, 2018 at 4:39 pm
Sometimes ,it a good idea not to take things said after the game too seriously.
As an example Joe said in print after David’s comment:
“Joe is in dire need of mental health after hearing that last night.
Might agree, Bob. But David said this on a radio show long after sleeping on the loss and assessing it. –Joe
July 22nd, 2018 at 4:47 pm
Bob in Valrico … Great touch; I couldn’t stop laughing. Sometimes the printed word can come back to bite ya in the butt. (I’ll stop typing now).
July 22nd, 2018 at 4:52 pm
Accountability is a good thing but the fact that someone has to ask for feedback when things aren’t being done right is a lack of leadership.
Yesterday I was watching nfln 30 min show on the Bucs 2017 season and they showed gmc giving Godwin a pep talk. I was really sweet he was very supportive and ultimately it looks like it worked for Godwin.
In the same token you need at least 2 alphas out there getting in peoples arses. Fear is the best motivator.
Losers always whine about their “best” Winners go home and f**k the prom queen. – Sean Connery The Rock
July 22nd, 2018 at 5:45 pm
Lvd never interviews well. Might be the worse at it.
July 22nd, 2018 at 6:28 pm
1-7, 3-5, 3-5 and 2-6 are not good starts at all. I hope they can do better than that this year. But prospects are not looking good with the schedule.
Shado31
July 22nd, 2018 at 6:34 pm
I’ve watched Lvd54 work hard at his craft and be a solid player for us…. You say he does not interview well and that is true and that is a trait of someone who is not a leader IMHO. And that’s OK.. I just want him to chase ball carriers and run sideline to sideline with wreckless abandon. If our dline holds up and frees up our linebackers Lvd will be just fine this year.. Him and kwon must work well together and like Lvd said no more mental breakdowns.. There should be no mental breakdown from those 2 esp. Lvd, the man has been in this league long enough not to have any..our crap DC coach needs to put these guys in game changing situation in game with adjustments and trickery here and there.. Or we just have to have the no d set that our guys are good enough to win without having to out trick ourselves
July 22nd, 2018 at 7:23 pm
Was Swaggy one of those “situations”? It had to be!
July 22nd, 2018 at 8:26 pm
You want a tough no BS coach #JIMSCHWARTZ2019
July 22nd, 2018 at 9:13 pm
DB55
“I married her”
Nick Cage 😂😂😂
July 22nd, 2018 at 9:16 pm
Another year. More excuses. More hype.
Same result.
July 22nd, 2018 at 10:34 pm
When a team has mentally weak leaders such as McCoy and Jaboo, it is natural for it to affect the entire team. Part of it stems from a very weak ownership group that really has no skin in the game and never truly worked a day in their lives.
July 22nd, 2018 at 11:07 pm
Last year i had little faith.We WILL win our first 3 games this year.When Winston comes back,Cowherd will eat his words.
July 23rd, 2018 at 1:24 am
The indoor practice facility is gonna change all that. At least it evens out the playing field. Should be no more exhausted slow starts where the other teams always seem to look fresher than us to start the season. Practicing in that heat does not benefit us otherwise our starting records would reflect that. Take notice of why we always seem to start playing better later in the season? It’s when the weather begins to cool down. ..coincidence?
July 23rd, 2018 at 6:19 am
Lavonte David will be a surprise cap casualty when the Bucs sign a new deal with Jameis. The writing is on the wall. As good as our LBs are, Licht drafts one every year. He’s trying to fill the hole that will be created when Beckwith takes David’s spot.
July 23rd, 2018 at 6:21 am
Trench War nailed it.
July 23rd, 2018 at 6:30 am
Here’s my outlook:
The first game is very winnable. With the improved defense, the Saints will be ill prepared for what they face.
After that, the secret will be out and they have a hard time in game two, and then a harder time in game three. I accept that. So I ask myself, given the circumstances, is starting off 1-2 good enough in a pinch?
Yes.
So, if we lose two in a row before Winston returns, I will be a little down, but I know it is coming, so I won’t be all doom and gloom. Knowing this fanbase, including the Stick Carriers if last year is any indication, after losing games 2 and 3, most of them will want to lose out just to replace Winston, even though he will not have taken the field.
July 23rd, 2018 at 6:30 am
Here’s my outlook:
The first game is very winnable. With the improved defense, the Saints will be ill prepared for what they face.
After that, the secret will be out and they have a hard time in game two, and then a harder time in game three. I accept that. So I ask myself, given the circumstances, is starting off 1-2 good enough in a pinch?
Yes.
So, if we lose two in a row before Winston returns, I will be a little down, but I know it is coming, so I won’t be all doom and gloom. Knowing this fanbase, including the Stick Carriers if last year is any indication, after losing games 2 and 3, most of them will want to lose out just to replace Winston, even though he will not have taken the field.
July 23rd, 2018 at 6:33 am
But if the Bucs win two or all of the first three, I’ll be extremely happy.
So the only stress will come from the whining fans who will want to blow up the team after going 1-2.
July 23rd, 2018 at 7:31 am
Mike Smith and Dirk Koetter were fired from Atlanta because their teams weren’t tough enough.
Familiar pattern over the past two years.
July 23rd, 2018 at 7:56 am
I, for one, am tired of all the talk. We KNOW what happened last year. We KNOW that this team was mentally and physically weak.
Enough talking about it! FIX IT!
There are no excuses.
July 23rd, 2018 at 8:59 am
BigMac
Well played sir. Sorry DB55…Big Mac for the win!
I watched that movie just last week for about the tenth time. I love “The Rock”.
Great cast!
What I took from that movie is not all the Alpha bs…they actually lose in the end…but certainly Cage needed Connery’s help. The movie illustrates that indeed life is a team sport…yeah you need some “alphas” but you also need some really smart “betas” to figure things out and lead the Cro Magnon’s in the right direction.
July 23rd, 2018 at 3:15 pm
Say I know you’re not doing something right. I can tell you about it and you won’t get insulted by it. It comes from love, it’s constructive criticism. That’s a good thing. That’s the main thing we wanted to harp on this year because last year we had situations where people weren’t doing what they were supposed to do and we weren’t really getting on them about it.
Where in the hell is the HC or the DC in this situation?
They are outta here after or during this season..what a freaking joke those two are. Please D R don’t tell me how great Smitty has been. Cuz I’m gonna tell you that you are correct…a HAS BEEN.
Wish I hadn’t read this article..it just makes things so much worse. I hate when our D comes off looking weak and ignorant.