Geno Hayes had some rough moments against the Saints

Former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a JoeBucsFan.com analyst, is not one for sound bites and sweeping generalizations.

He’s an Xs and Os guy, which meands he studies great plays and blown plays in full detail before assigning blame and heaping praise.

On his personal blog, White takes a deep look inside six Saints running plays that racked up 104 yards and a touchdown against the Bucs. If you crave Xs and Os, you’re going to love it. 

Here’s a snippet from a Saints third-quarter run:

Defensively our defensive line was in a strong right call which meant that our right end, Crowder, was in a head up position initially on the tight end. The right defensive tackle, Chris Hovan, was in the B gap outside of the left guard, the weak tackle, Ryan Sims was head up on the right guard, and Jimmy Wilkerson was lined up outside of the right tackle. The defensive call told both Crowder and Hovan to slant inside. We were in nickel defense with Ronde Barber on the inside receiver on the defensive right side of the formation and Torrie Cox lined up at corner to that side. And we were in some form of cover 2 with both safeties deep.

On the snap of the football the receivers on the right side of the formation both blocked the Cox and Barber. The tight end blocked down on the slanting Crowder. The left tackle pulled outside of the tight end. The left guard and center double teamed the slanting Hovan, the right guard blocked inside on Sims and the right tackle went up to the safety.

Now on this play when the tackle pulls Barrett Ruud has to spill that block which he did a good job of. But then Geno Hayes has to be fast over the top of that block in order to make the tackle. He took a bad angle and missed the tackle so instead of holding the running back, Pierre Thomas to about a 3 or 4 yard gain it ended up being an 18-yard gain.

Culprit: Geno Hayes

Fans can enjoy White’s weekly Bull Rush column, a breakdown of all things defensive line, tonight or tomorrow right here at JoeBucsFan.com.