Pass Defense Must Improve Against Vikings
October 24th, 2012
Eric Wright cannot have another upside-down game tomorrow like he had Sunday.
For the Bucs to win against the Vikings tomorrow night, the Bucs defense has to turn the Vikings into a one-dimensional team.
In short, that would be to have Samantha Steele-bedding Christian Ponder beat you.
Ponder, a former Florida State star, is a promising quarterback for the Vikings. But he is not as likely to beat a team as running back Adrian Peterson is.
But for the Bucs to dare Ponder to beat them, there must be a clean-up done in the Bucs pass defense, demands Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald. He points out that last week, in particular, cornerback Eric Wright, had a long afternoon.
As for Dominik, he has a bigger problem justifying why he poured all that money into acquiring cornerback Eric Wright, who has never had good coverage skills.
He was abused Sunday by Brees, who targeted Wright nine times and completed seven passes for 147 yards, including a 47-yard TD to Joe Morgan on a play in which Wright missed a tackle.
Wright looked like a lost shepherd trying to find his flock, falling victim to Brees’ pump fakes on numerous occasions.
While Dell has a valid point about Wright, Joe has to stick up a little but here for Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik.
Dell, a good guy and a helluva columnist, is outraged Dominik would sign Wright for the price he shelled out. Dell believes Dominik woefully overpaid for Wright, and frankly, Joe doesn’t have a problem with that.
Last year the 4-12 Bucs were no less than wretched on defense and there was a void at cornerback the size of a Hernando County sinkhole after Ronde Barber was moved to safety. Something had to be done.
About the only way Dominik was going to plug that hole was to overpay to get a cornerback here. Just what cornerback wanted to come to the Bucs, then a low-rung team with a new coach? The only way Dominik — or any general manager — was going to upgrade a position through free agency on a team like the Bucs was to overpay.
Cornerbacks are so valuable, their pay scale is overpriced to begin with, thanks to the seven-on-seven style football the NFL has morphed into under the watch of NFL warden commissioner Roger Goodell.
As Joe has asked Dell, he asks his readers: Would Myron Lewis have been an upgrade at cornerback after Barber flipped to safety rather than coughing up big bucks for Wright?
Yes, Wright — and everyone in the Bucs secondary — had a rough day last week. That cannot continue tomorrow night if Mr. Steele Ponder is to be shut down.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:38 pm
Corners are valuable but nearly as much as a pass rush. That’s where our real problem lies.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
The problem with the Wright signing is that there were better corners out there, and we needed one badly. They gambled with another year on Talib and lost.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Dominik is more “roadie” than “rockstar”. His drafts and FA have been a miserable FAIL. How many more DT’s and DE’s do you think we’ll need to draft before we can start addressing the MASSIVE hole we have at CB. The “roadie” needs to find a new band to “help”.
October 24th, 2012 at 1:45 pm
Why didn’t we try to sign Cortland Finnegan?
Also, Myron Lewis is garbage, a sincerely wasted draft pick.
I am glad Butch Davis is making the April Decisions. Finally, an eye for NFL talent.
October 24th, 2012 at 2:07 pm
Brees wasnt even knocked down in that game on Sunday. He hardly had to move his feet in the pocket. I dont care if its Deion Sanders and Darrelle Revis out there, he is going to make completions.
The lack of the rush was the major problem. Now I know there were breakdowns in communication on the back end, but in the end it would not have mattered because on some plays Brees could have literally stood there for 10 seconds. You cannot cover for that amount of time. Physically impossible to do it.
October 24th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
Exactly Justin, if you give Drew Brees all day he’s going to find open receivers, period. I actually think Wright has played pretty well.
October 24th, 2012 at 2:32 pm
I don’t believe there is anything wrong with our pass rush. You just don’t have one with 3 guys. Success in the NFL is all about making adjustments and our Staff seem to be having a lot of problems with it. I hope the learning curve is very short.
October 24th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Maybe if Duminik was better at drafting the Bucs wouldn’t have to overpay for CB’s.
October 24th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Wait…..the argument to help Dominik is to mention the terrible option of Myron Lewis?? Who do you think drafted him?
One way or the other, it’s on Dominik.
And, he should have cut ties with Talib. Once again, Dominik depended on the undependable. Fool me once…..how many times has Dominik gotten fooled by Talib?
October 24th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
@stevek
Cortland was going to cost us too much for his level of production. We’ll fix the secondary next year in the draft.
October 24th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
The pass rush must improve…. PERIOD. Then again, that’s why Boy-Band General Manager Mark Dominik spend four top 2 draft picks on D-lineman.
How many of them have played a full season? I’m curious.
October 24th, 2012 at 3:59 pm
This takes me back to the Giants team that won the Super Bowl prior to their last one. That team had a garbage secondary but the front 4 compensated for their deficiencies. McCoy and Bennett were milk box material on Sunday! MISSING!
October 24th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
It’s not Dominik fault that the DL has freak injuries. Yes Dominik drafted the players, but he wasn’t the only one responsible. Crappy scouting departments and a head coach who didn’t know what he was doing kind of helped. This year with a good scouting and a head coach who knows what he wants and the draft improve. Dominik didn’t lose any power, he just trusted the wrong people with the information he was given. It happens.
Oh yeah Wright might have some coverage issues, but when we have a pass rush his coverage drastically improves. All cornerbacks have issues when covering a receiver for 10 seconds. The Giants had a 4th string CB starting one game and teams still couldn’t pass on them.
October 24th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
Wright has been pretty solid all season vs the pass and the run up to this game. Brees does that to guys, hence the 25 mil a year. It was the 3 man rush more than anything, thats the last guy you give a 3 man rush. They should of brought an extra guy more often than one short. This staff will get it sooner or later, they are getting better ,slowly
October 24th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
We will win tomorrow,that’s all I to say!! Wait wait Go Bucs…
October 24th, 2012 at 8:08 pm
I don’t think it’s necessarily fair to blame our corners, Wright in particular, for the poor performance on Sunday. If you give Drew Brees that much time, he will tear up Darelle Revis. He’s the most accurate QB in the game, and the Saints do such a good job of spreading out the field and have so many weapons that they are nearly impossible to defend when he has time to throw. Although we got abused on those pump fakes, we are just one of many teams that he has consistently done that to. However, he shouldn’t even be able to pump fake and throw deep on a 3 step drop. He should be looking up at GMC at that point. If the corners see a 3 step drop, they are going to assume the ball is coming out quick or the pressure is going to get there. That’s what is supposed to happen. They are going to try to make a play on the ball, as that is what they are supposed to do. So while it’s easy to point the finger at the secondary, at least half (although probably much more) of the blame belongs to the D-Line.