Nine Carries For Two Yards
August 28th, 2011
Like countless others, Joe was looking to see if the Bucs could answer the bell and stop the run against Miami and prevent another Jim Bates era jailbreak.
Mission accomplished for the Bucs!
Sure, Miami only had nine carries in the first half — two by Chad Henne — but the Fins only had two yards on those nine carres. TWO yards! Joe was hoping for baby steps, but this certainly was a huge leap, even if it is preseason. Miami ran the ball very well in its last preseason game.
Joe caught up with defensive line coach Keith Millard to get his take. And the fired up Millard praised the entire line and singled out Frank Okam.
“Frank’s a big presence there obviously in the run game,” Millard said. So he’s always going to give us some of what we need to stop the run. Frank, he’s a space-eater. I mean he made some huge plays for us [against Miami] and those are the things we need him for. He made that big play on short yardage. He had a huge play on the goal line. I mean, the guy, he’s a blessing really, because he knows both positions, nose and 3-technique, and he’s had a really good camp for us.
“We take a lot of pride in stopping the run. … It’s a point of emphasis every single day. Always. With the D-line, we always tell them, ‘You can’t rush the passer unless you stop the run. You gotta earn the right to do it.’
Millard went on to say the Bucs stuck to their gameplan tonight and didn’t add any wrinkles this week to shore up their run defense. What a great thing to watch.
Joe suspects remote controls were spared across the Bay area and filthy language was kept to a minimum.
August 28th, 2011 at 5:50 am
Okam’s presence was particularly felt when the Bucs held in the 1st and goal from the 2 yard line series. The D-Line shut down Reggie Bush very nicely. With 5 sacks they were impressive.
August 28th, 2011 at 8:01 am
When a defensive lineman (Okam) can reach around the offensive lineman blocking him and slam everyone to the ground; that’s one bad mama jama.
August 28th, 2011 at 9:13 am
Watching the game, I will admit that Okam, looked very big, I wonder how often during the regular season will we see him on a regular basis, but with only nine carries, Miami really never tried to establish the run, and when they did it got stuffed so i was impressed, but it was Miami a 7-9 from last year that has a Quarterback that would be third on our depth chart, so i dont know what we learned.
August 28th, 2011 at 9:33 am
“defensive lineman (Okam) can reach around the offensive lineman”
That kind of imagery and language has no place on a football website! Blech!
Okam is bound to get many snaps for us this season. I wouldn’t be surprised given Miller’s injury, that Miller becomes the odd man out and the team employs a 3 man rotation with McCoy, Okam, and Price. I noticed Al Woods out there near the end of the game along with the 3rd stringers. I still think he makes the team, but that is not a good sign for him.
August 28th, 2011 at 11:44 am
Okam needs to be the starting nose, rotate Price in on passing downs. This is going to be a very active D-line, lots of rotations, especially with Watson looking so good as a rush end on 3rd down.
August 28th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
What was mccoy’s stat line?
August 29th, 2011 at 7:47 am
Okam looked great once again. To be honest he looks like an upgrade over Miller even if you look how Miller played when he was healthy.