10 Wins Despite Ugly Defense?
November 14th, 2010
Joe admits his head is spinning right now with the Bucs at 6-3, so it’s hard for Joe to collect his thoughts about Tampa Bay’s defense.
However, Joe knows it stinks and it’s probably not going to improve by leaps and bounds over the last seven games. Joe held out feint hope that the Bucs’ D would clamp down and squeeze the undermanned Panthers at home, but that fantasy didn’t exactly play out.
Yet the total package of this year’s Bucs is surely good enough to beat Seattle and Detroit at home, as well as San Francisco on the road.
Plus maybe steal a win in Washington or against division rivals Atlanta or New Orleans.
10-6?
What a wacky season that could even turn into a playoff berth, and maybe even a winnable playoff game at the house of the NFC West winner. Long way to go, of course, and Joe isn’t counting chickens.
The Bucs aren’t good on third down, and have a bunch of no-name, no-experience guys lining up. And Joe expects offenses to continue playing away from the strengths of their opportunistic secondary.
Stopping the run against a good team seems about as likely as Joe shaving the Bucs cheerleaders before a big game.
Winning this season really is going to be all about No. 5 and the Bucs’ offense.
Sure, the defense will have its moments. Hopefully, they come at just the right times.
November 14th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
‘faint’ not ‘feint’
November 14th, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Joe it’s a good thing that you’re ON the blackout tour – letting someone else drive since it’s obvious you’ve been drinking.
I know that a win in the NFL is good but 10-6? Let’s look shall we?
@San Francisco – the Bucs don’t play well on the west coast – PERIOD
@Baltimore – Joe Flacco is having dreams about carving up the Bucs and Rice is gonna have a 150+ day
Atlanta – Dixie chicks will be gunning for the division championship
@Washington – which McNabb will show up; good vs. INT prone
Detroit – these guys find new and innovative ways to lose
Seattle – West coast teams have problems on the East Coast and the weather should group the Seahawks
@New Orleans – This could be a playoff implication game – meaning will the Saints or Falcons win the NFC South.
November 14th, 2010 at 9:54 pm
Hey everybody! Look ! Mr. Sucky is making predictions again! Same guy who predicted we’d win 2 games this season! And, as is always the case with this loser, he’s wrong again! Lmao at Mr.Sucky! SILENCE town fool. We have no need for your foolish antics now! Back to your place with the swine. We will summon you if we need to be amused by your foolish antics!
November 14th, 2010 at 10:20 pm
3rd down defense really has been lacking. Elbert Mack was abused in the first half. I hope Lewis gets healthy in a hurry, Mack really can’t cover because he isn’t overly fast and not very big to jam receivers.
November 14th, 2010 at 10:54 pm
Funny how this Buc win today actually pisses off so called Buc fans today. Man why won’t they just lose? Why is Rah doing such a great Job coaching with the youngest team in the league? LOL!
November 14th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
I think we have been very fortunate to play some very bad taems this year. It has aloud our offense to grow and the entire team of youngins’ gain some comfidents as well as learn how it feels to be winners in the NFL.
All that said, I think our defense is just horrible for the offense to overcome. I think we finish with 9 wins, maybe 10, but because we’ve beat so many teams with losing records, I’m better there will be other 10 win teams that earn the wildcard spots over us. The Eagles, the Bears or Packers, and the Saints will all be competeing for the same two wild card spots, and they all beat us in a tie because the teams they’ve played have better records.
Today’s score looks like a blow out, but it was alot closer than the final looks. We started strong and finished strong, but everything in between looked pretty bad. Our special teams and defense were killing us and the O-line is worse with Faine back. The offense sure looks promising though. Blount is such a beast.
November 15th, 2010 at 12:41 am
J-Double, a couple things…
First, if we split with the Saints and tie with their record, we probably win the tie break, as they’ve lost to Cleveland and Arizona. It’ll depend on division record at that point, but I’d bet we would be tied there as well. I don’t think strength of schedule is the first tie break regardless of who we’re tied with.
Second, don’t discount the fact that the D was playing on a short field most of the day and still only gave up field goals for the most part. The Panthers had great field position most of the day. Panthers first field goal, they started at our 42. Panthers TD started at our 46. Panthers first possession of the 2nd half started at their 48 after a fumble, was a 3 and out, punt. They had 1 drive started at their own 21 that they got a FG out of. Their last FG came after a big punt return to the Tampa 33. It was another 3 and out FG.
That’s huge play by the defense. They had 4 drives that started near mid-field or in our territory and they got 1 TD and 2 FGs out of it. Only once did they drive the field and got a FG. Compare that to three of our drives being 75, 65 and 66 yards. We also had one short drive for a TD and a long drive for a FG. I’d say pretty good on both offense and defense.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:13 am
I realize special teams put our defense in bad scenerios all day today, but we still let the worse team in the league rack up alot of yardage and control TOP most of the game. We let the Cardinals put up 35 on us as well. I’m not just basing my opinion off of today’s game. I’ve watched and rewatched every game this year and our defense is just bad. Plain and simple.
I was surprised we kept the Falcons held to 27, but other than that, this defense has been horrible againts the two good teams we played (Steelers, Saints) and only slightly better than horrible against the rest of the bad teams we’ve played. Anyone who thinks our defense isn’t one of the worst in the league is fooling themselves.
The only question is can our surprisenly good offense continue to score 25-30 points a game? Because that is the only way we have a chance at a wildcard spot. If they continue to impress, stay healthy, and are firing on all cylinders come week 17…then the Saints game could be huge. It’s just my opinion that even if we do sneak into the playoffs, we don’t stand a chance of going anywhere in the post season with this defense. It would be a nice moral victory for this young team to make the playoffs though.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:53 am
I’m not saying the D is good, I’m saying they’re improving. A few weeks ago, giving the ball away in our own territory 3 times would have led to 3 TDs. I also watch each game twice (or more). I have seen improvements in the defense for the last several weeks. I have also seen them (the defense) help us win games. The Cincy game with a pick 6 and INT late. The Cards game with 4 INTs. Today’s game with a short field.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Your right BamBam. Best four quarters the Bucs D has put together since the first first Carolina game. When is the last time a team scored 3 field goals against the Bucs? Its been a WHILE since the Bucs D managed to limit a team to field goals instead of TD’s in those types of situations. And the drive at the end of the game for Carolina was total garbage time. Up by two scores with that little time left all the Bucs cared about was that Carolina didn’t score to fast. It was total prevent D and the kitties still didn’t score.
November 15th, 2010 at 2:41 am
I figured the D would be better than the offense going into the season. Now that the running game has gotten going, the offense is rolling along. Rah of course should be applauded for the play of the entire team. He should though be taken to task for the abysmal play of the D. It may be a good idea for him to find a DC next season.
10 wins can be done with this schedule. It truly is amazing how much this schedule has favored the Bucs. I knew going in that the schedule would be easy. But this is easier than I thought. Good teams though beat the teams they are supposed to beat. So far that is what the Bucs have done. It would be nice to get a signature win. There are still 3 opportunities for that-Falcons, Saints, Ravens.
I don’t see the common game tie breaker coming into play. The Bucs have to be looking at the Falcons and Saints in their division and the Eagles and Giants. Those are the teams the Bucs will fight with for the division and WC. If they want to pass the Saints for the WC, they need the Saints to lose to both the Bucs and the Falcons later in the season. If the Saints win either of those, the Bucs won’t pass them. So common games won’t come into play. Right now the common games records are Bucs 6-3 and Saints 5-3. The two teams that the Saints don’t play are the Lions and Redskins. For the Bucs it is the Vikings and Dallas. The Bucs common games advantage could suddenly disappear if they lose to SF. It will something to look at after the Dec 12 games. NO could easily be tied with TB in that department. But as I said, TB needs NO to lose to both Atl and TB and TB would then have the div lead as long as TB beats Atl at home. So it might really come down to TB with Philly or the NYG.
November 15th, 2010 at 9:05 am
Eric S- Raheem should be “taken to task for terrible Defense”? . Hmm, he said in the preseason that this defense would be bad statistically this year. Said we were a year away from a good defense, and this would be a “bend, don’t break” deal. Looks exactly right to me! Said this team would be good offensively, and was on a”race to ten wins!”. Everyone laughed at him! Again, looks like a prophet to me! Taken to task? No, he should be taken to the dog track, and we should bet his every pick, as the man is some kinda Psychic! Only he could see a good team outta all these babies!
November 15th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Coaches of a 6-3 team don’t get” taken to task”. They get taken to dinner. I’d like to take the man to Bern’s myself! I’ve never seen any coach get this level of production out of a bunch of rookies and first year players. It’s unheard of, and will change the wsy teams are built forever. The man has completely rebuilt a bad team into a winning team in less than 2 yrs., without any High dollar free agents, and without a single allPro on the team he took over. Did it all thru the draft and rookie Fa’s. You guys are witnessing history, and a change in how teams will be rebuilt from now on. Nobody ever dreamed of starting a 1st yr QB, 2 rookie running backs, and two rookie Wrs together and winning. Yet that is EXACTLY what is happening here! It’s amazing.
November 15th, 2010 at 11:40 am
capt.Tim, kinda remind you of jimmy johnson and them cowboys from early on.
November 15th, 2010 at 7:37 pm
@mike56-exactly!