The QB Blast: Bucs Look Very Dungyesque
October 1st, 2011
Ex-Bucs QB Jeff Carlson
Former Bucs quarterback Jeff Carlson (1990 & 1991) writes The QB Blast column here at JoeBucsFan.com. Joe is ecstatic to have him firing away. Carlson is often seen as a color analyst on Bright House Sports Network, and he trains quarterbacks of all ages locally via his company, America’s Best Quarterback. Plus, he’s a really cool dude.
By JEFF CARLSON
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
They won’t be wearing throwback uniforms on Monday Night, but a few things will feel like the “good ol’ days” of the Buccaneers.
Jon Gruden will be in the broadcast booth remembering his time leading the Bucs to division championships and a Super Bowl, while the play on the field will look eerily similar to the Dungy-led, mid 90’s version of Buc Ball.
I fully expect specific references to Sapp, Alstott, Derrick Brooks, Simeon Rice, Ronde Barber and an early self-deprecating point about the last time these two teams got together at RJS. Taking a swig every time Gruden references his era in some way would probably be a fun drinking game, but that may lead to an epidemic of absenteeism the following day across America.
This year’s version of defense hasn’t grown into the elite unit that Dungy and Kiffin built by the end of the 90’s, but they are a “youngry” group, and by the looks against the Falcons, they may be getting that swagger back pretty soon.
On the offensive side of the ball, I keep getting reminded of Mike Shula’s days calling plays (and that is not an insult). They are regularly running out of a standard Pro-I set, with the big back LeGarrette Blount deep at tailback, ala Mike Alstott. Alstott used to drop his shoulders and run over people, Blount literally runs over people, also by hurdling them with regularity.
Shula’s (and Dungy’s) offenses scored 20.3, 19.6 and 17.75 points from 97-99 respectively. They were 11-5 in 1997 and again in ’99 when they scored their fewest.
The 2010 Bucs scored 21.3 per game while going 10-6, but a smaller scoring differential than their predecessors. In the three games this year they are at exactly 20 points per game.
The scoring differential was higher in ’97 than in ’99 or 2010, while this year they have scored 60 and given up 60. So the run, play-action game that the Bucs are currently winning with is a trip back to the future of teams Dungy built almost 15 years ago that started a string of sellouts and waiting lists for season tickets, a good sign for all of us, especially those that will be watching our big-screens Monday night.
The offensive results haven’t changed much over the years regardless whether Shula, Gruden or Olson is designing and calling the plays, but the big difference between then and now is that the face of the Bucs was its defense (and Mike Alstott) and now it is its quarterback.
That was not the case for Dungy (Trent Dilfer) or Gruden (Brad Johnson), and I can’t wait to hear the accolades that Gruden has stored up for “No. 5” and how he might not be in the “FFCA” (Fired Football Coaches Association) if he had a guy like that.
October 1st, 2011 at 12:13 pm
If the Bucs look Dungyesque”, does this mean we won’t win a Superbowl until Raheem goes to the Colts and we hire Hue Jackson?
October 1st, 2011 at 12:21 pm
By this time last year the Bucs scored an average of 16.6. We are doing much better so far compared to last year, at least statistically.
October 1st, 2011 at 1:26 pm
Of course there will be referneces to ronde barber he still is playing for us
October 1st, 2011 at 2:07 pm
Could somebody explain to me why EJ Biggers has gotten a free pass all week?
I know he was going up against two pretty good WR’s…….but you had two guys go for over 100 yards and I can pretty much guarantee that 90% of those yards were when EJ was covering them.
October 1st, 2011 at 2:18 pm
@CreamsicleBananaHammock did either one score a TD on him?
October 1st, 2011 at 2:34 pm
@flmike
I know JJ didn’t have a TD….not 100% sure who was on Roddy when he scored his…….
….but if you watched that game it was clear that EJ was being picked on, and it worked to the tune of over 200 passing yards. Every team the Bucs play the rest of this yr will be licking their chops after watching that tape
October 1st, 2011 at 3:28 pm
@CBH Biggers allowed 122 yards on 8 receptions. Sean Jones allowed 49(One blown coverage on Jones) and Barber allowed 37 on 3. Biggers got the handled and was clearly picked on.
October 1st, 2011 at 3:32 pm
And I wish people would stop acting like the 122 yards Biggers allowed wasn’t the main factor for the Falcons getting in range to score two field goals. He may not have allowed a TD, but he gave Falcons the field to kick 3s. He needs to tighten up. Do not let him slide for that.
October 1st, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Fans have no authority to not let a player “slide”. You guys are ridiculous.
October 1st, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Shula couldn’t carry Greg Olson’s jock
October 1st, 2011 at 4:38 pm
Creamsicle – Roddy White did NOT score a TD, that was Tony Gonzalez between Jones/Lynch/Foster. Triple covered and Gonzo still caught the pass.
Muaha – FGs were not enough for the Falcons to win the game. And he did “tighten up” in the red zone where he prevented the winning TD to Roddy White by tipping it away when Safety help was late getting over. He also tipped away the pass in the first half that Ronde picked off. Two key pass defenses against Roddy by Biggers. Both prevented possible scores that could have changed the outcome of the game.
And that’s why he “gets a pass” in my book. He did not give up “90% of the 200 yards allowed”. But more importantly, he did not allow a TD while playing an All Pro WR all day. They could have had him on Julio Jones instead of White, and I’m pretty sure Biggers numbers would have looked better, as Julio is not an All Pro WR yet, but the team chose to put Aqib Talib (our supposed All Pro CB) on Julio instead.
Of course the Falcons picked on that matchup. It was the best matchup for them to pick on. And it worked, kind of. They gained some yardage, but they couldn’t punch it in. Who would you pick on if you had Mike Williams on a 7 round draft choice or Arrelious Benn on a “All Pro” or Top 10 CB in the league? Yeah, I’d throw Mike’s way too.
October 1st, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I give him a little bit of a pass because he covered an All-Pro receiver on a pass-happy team trailing the entire game. 122 yards is not good, but White has had a few games in the 100s. It’s kind of like guarding Kobe Bryant to 25 points – he’s a good player that’s going to get his points, you just have to keep him from getting 40. Biggers had a number of pass break-ups, including the most important one when he broke up a TD in the end zone. I don’t really like the fact that our nickel corner was lined up on a premier receiver, but that’s another issue. We won the game and held them to 13 points – I’ll take that any day.
October 1st, 2011 at 6:07 pm
Damn guys. Give biggers some slack. He held Roddy White in check for all of the game except for about one drive in the 4th. Not bad from 7th rounder playing nickelback.
October 1st, 2011 at 6:11 pm
BTW guys- It’s called playing off. All defenses do it with a lead in the 4th and thats why E.J. started getting smoked. Biggs has done all I expect from a 7th rounder and more. Its time for Myron Lewis to step up and justify his 3rd round status. He should be the CB on the hot seat right now. He’s got Talib like physical measurables. Let’s see him use them.
October 1st, 2011 at 6:19 pm
I see it as this, until some one starts drafting 6’4″ cover corners guys like White, Megatron, Jackson etc are going to get their catches, it’s up to the corner to not allow any YAC when they do make the catch, and its up to the defense to not allow them in the endzone.
October 1st, 2011 at 7:56 pm
flmike- How many 6’4″ cover corners are out there dude? Obviously your being a little sarcastic. Your right. Point is all you can do is stop those guys from singlehandedly destroying you. They cant be completely stopped all the time. Biggers does a good job of not allowing competing recievers to catch a bunch of TD’s on him per game. Even if he gives up some bend but dont break yardage.
October 1st, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Ultimately we have gotten WAY MORE than our moneys worth out of Biggers already. I dont want him to be Barbers replacement when he retires. I also haven’t seen enough out of Lewis to believe he is the guy. I would like to see us draft CB in somewhere in the first 2 rounds next year.
October 1st, 2011 at 7:59 pm
I say first two rounds cuz I would love to see us draft an impact o-lineman in round 1 if one falls to us.
October 1st, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Biggers is a great nickelback and if we can find another elite starting corner I would be perfectly happy with Biggers playing the nickel for years to come.
October 2nd, 2011 at 2:14 am
It’s that whole bend not break method Raheem always preaches. Any word on Myron Lewis and his injury or how he is looking in practice yet?
October 2nd, 2011 at 2:17 am
One thing i noticed about Biggers. He is not a ballhawk, but he is normally in position to intercept at least 80% of the passes thrown his way. He has a certain knack for getting his hand in the receivers way to knock the ball down. He covers pretty well. How many passes defended did he get?
October 2nd, 2011 at 2:24 am
Actually the Bucs were 10-6 in 1997, 11-6 counting playoffs.
October 2nd, 2011 at 6:57 am
Right Angelo, I was wondering if any of these other football-geniuses on this board would catch it… but only you.
As for Biggers, the same geniuses want to slam him but fail to realize that Roddy White had 17 targets in that game. Considering Ryan only completed 9 passes, threw one INT (regards of a Biggers deflection to Barber), and NO TDs when throwing towards White, the Bucs and Biggers did a fantastic job in regards to their coverage of White. Ryan’s QB rating when throwing to White (who was covered man-to-man by Biggers for the majority of the day) was a paltry 51.6.
Also, don’t forget, Biggers had two INTs of his own… yes both were out of bounds, but he was in good position had the ball been thrown in bounds.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:06 am
Mauha Deeb:
My numbers were off on White, I guess it was Jones that had 122, White had 140… but still, 9 catches for 140 yards and NO TDs and 1 INT on 17 targets is still doing a fantastic job on an all-pro WR. Ryan’s QB rating was 56.0 when throwing to White last week. If anybody thinks that a pretty good QB posting a 56.0 rating when throwing to an all-pro WR isn’t good for a player that was covering him man-to-man all day, then their opinion is completely invalid and they need to quit watching football. Normally, you seem pretty smart, look at the numbers again and tell me Biggers didn’t do a pretty damn good job.
October 2nd, 2011 at 9:20 am
Wow, maybe we should enshrine Biggers into the Ring of Honor now and just get it over with…..
This reminds me of the Sabby talk…..before he actually got on the field and showed us what he actually was
I’m not saying Biggers is the new Sabby…..I’m not even saying Biggers shouldn’t be on the field…….what I am saying is he had a bad game last week….he was picked on and it worked. Give me a break with that passer rating nonsense or “at least he didn’t give up a TD.” If he keeps playing the way he did last Sunday it’s only a matter of time before he has a Tim Wansley type of night……..
To crown this kid our nickel back for the next 10 years when we’ve barely seen him play……just ridiculous
October 2nd, 2011 at 9:39 pm
@Creamsicle,
Nobody is putting him in the ring of honor. That’s a huge exaggeration. However, he is a nickel back covering a top 10 WR in the league. So yes, it is good to hold him to no TD’s, no matter what. It’s not like they weren’t throwing at him once they got in the red zone. They did, and he defended it. I don’t really understand why a nickel back is covering an all-pro receiver, but he was. I’m sure White was probably thinking the same thing. So no, Biggers did not have a bad game, at least not relative to his position and who he was covering.