Opponents Have Given Up Running On Bucs
November 30th, 2012
The way Lavonte David and the Bucs play the run, and play ole defense against the pass, no wonder teams are giving up on the run playing the Bucs.
Like Joe learned in high school, just about anyone can reinforce a premise with a statistic, twisted or otherwise.
Yes, the Bucs are tough against the run. Tops in the NFL in rushing defense in fact. But Jeff Legwold of the Denver Post believes this statistic to be misleading.
He cites (yes, more stats) to show that teams having given up knocking themselves out trying to run on the Bucs, and instead have gone after the Bucs’ glaring weakness: stopping the pass.
The Buccaneers have the No. 1 run defense in the NFL. They have held opponents to less than 100 yards rushing in eight games, and less than 40 yards rushing in three games.
So in response, their opponents have moved on from the run game quickly.
What it leads to is this: Only four teams have faced fewer rushing attempts than the Buccaneers this season.
The four teams Legwold documents that have faced fewer runs are Washington, Houston, Chicago and Seattle.
This makes a great deal of sense: Why keep running into a brick wall when you can throw over the wall and accomplish your goal? This is why Joe would be shocked if the Broncos run the ball 20 times Sunday.
Why would you run when you have Peyton Manning against the likes that make up the Bucs secondary.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:15 am
What will the Bucs defensive game plan be? Rush one and drop 10 into coverage. That would be a true dime package!
November 30th, 2012 at 10:20 am
I guess that’s why the Falcons ran the ball 24 times compared to 32 passes in our last game.
Panthers 34 attempts
Chargers 26 times
That’s a lot of attempts considering teams have given up on the run.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:24 am
81% completion rate will make teams abandon the run.
November 30th, 2012 at 10:30 am
With a QB like manning I suspect the Bronco’s will put the ball in his hands . Bucs have to hit him hard and often . With Mcgahee out look for 50 attempts from manning . Let’s take one from the broncos on Sunday .
November 30th, 2012 at 10:56 am
We need to zone blitzes and all out blitzes on every down. The only thing that can save us is continuous pressure.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:05 am
Shocker…we dont have any talent in teh secondary outside of our two safeties. we lost our two starting CB’s which werrent that great to begin with. At least we know what we need in the draft.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:16 am
True, it is misleading because teams pass since the pass defense has been HORRENDOUS, but let’s not take anything away from the run defense.
They started the season great against the run and have continued. They did a complete 180 from the last couple of years in run defense.
I attribute it to McCoy, Foster, David, Bennett, and even Miller. Mostly, however, it is philosophy and their mindset which all comes from COACHING.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:18 am
Bucs have one chance Sunday – take advantage of every single mistake the Broncos make to create turnovers AND they must run the ball at the Broncos…ALOT…. like 35 times in the game. I would like to see Martin touch it 20+ times and Blount touch it 10+ times
November 30th, 2012 at 11:20 am
Greig
You missed the piont: only 4teams have been run on less. Takes nothing away from their run defense
November 30th, 2012 at 11:21 am
Blitzes don’t matter if the QB is doing a 3 step drop and every WR is wide open from the snap.
As for our run defense, I don’t see this as a misleading stat. Our run defense is tremendous, and our pass defense is terrible. Of course teams are going to exploit our corners. We’ve still done what we need to do – make the other team one dimensional. We just don’t have the talent in the secondary to exploit that. Moving forward, we’ll be in great shape if we can get our DEs healthy and get some decent corners in the offseason.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:25 am
yes, we have to find a way to get pressure, deflections, INTs.
doesnt it seem like ahmad black is better than most of our corners? i’d rather see 3 safeties out there…not sure if we do that.
(that penalty on him last week was total horse S)
November 30th, 2012 at 11:33 am
I call BS.
Tampa Bay is first in the league as a defense in terms of giving up yards per rushing attempt at a paltry 3.4 yards per carry.
It’s not even close. Denver and San Fran are next at 3.6.
That said I hope blitzing Bill gets creative because if Peyton sees him coming he might set a record this week for passing yards.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:42 am
Wonder if we can bring in Monte kiffin as a scout or coordinator.
November 30th, 2012 at 11:54 am
Oregon put up 63 points on Kwitter Kiffin.
November 30th, 2012 at 12:05 pm
El Raton
Now I understand why ducks go quack quack!
Please go find an Oregon Duck blog to spew that Chip Kelly love!
November 30th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
@mikeck
I would argue that that Leonard Johnson definetely has some talent, and its not even on full display yet since he is a rookie. Gaitor and Wright can also be somewhat talented cornerbacks when they can stay healthy
November 30th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Ouch.
November 30th, 2012 at 2:54 pm
you know last game we played the most zone coverage’s I have seen us play all year and without any pressure coming from the front 4 it was horrendous. Matt Ryan was having a field day. Now I see why we call alot of man blitzes otherwise we would be dead last against the run and pass. I looked up the stat of OVERALL defense and we are 30th. so having the number 1 rushing defense can be very deceiving.
November 30th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Bringing Monte back as defensive coordinator would be awesome. His pass defenses combined with Schianos run defense would make our defense great. They run basically the same type of swarming defense. Why not give it a shot and it might bring more fans back to the stadium too. Btw Miguel your comparing a college spread offense against a college defense to the Nfl. I like how you only comment when the bucs lose, douche.
November 30th, 2012 at 8:51 pm
Kiffin is not coming back. This team is moving in another direction on defense. They are one off season away from being a MAJOR CONTENDER.
A healthy Clayborn with an emerging Bowers and/or another DE in the mix and a couple new CBs.
Can be done this draft and free agent period.