Let’s Place Blame Where It Belongs
December 10th, 2012
Partially because of Eric Wright’s selfish actions, the Bucs’ pass defense, and playoff dreams, have been turned upside down.
Kvetch about Josh Freeman doing a Mark Sanchez imitation if you will, pound your office desk over the Bucs defense collapsing (yet again) in the fourth quarter, curse out loud if you must over Greg Schiano not passing on third down (“this Joe” sides with the coach on that call), but before Bucs fans get so wound up this morning, fueled by outrage and caffeine over the memory of a killer, disgusting loss, let’s place blame where it belongs:
On Aqib Talib and Eric Wright.
If not for those two birds’ selfish, illegal acts (in Talib’s case, one of many), not only would the Bucs not be on the outside looking in on a playoff bid, but very likely could be in the wild card lead.
It was those two, both the Bucs starting cornerbacks to open the season, who decided to obtain medicine illegally without a prescription and got busted.
At least Talib was man enough to fess up right away and serve his sentence. If Wright was of the same mind, his suspension would have been over by now and he would have played yesterday. Wright selfishly was defiant to the very end.
But no. Those two decided they were bigger than the team, bigger than their teammates, bigger than the NFL.
So they got popped and were suspended/traded because of their actions. Think those two were crying in their beers last night?
If is because of the irresponsible, selfish, wrongheaded actions of Talib and Wright why the Bucs’ cornerbacks, in such a critical stage of games late in the season, has been manned by rookie free agents and warm bodies off the street.
This is what happens when you have selfish characters who are only concerned about themselves on the roster. It drags the team down.
In the Bucs ‘case, it all but killed any playoff chances for the team.
So before Bucs fans start lobbing arrows this morning in disgust and anger, let’s point those arrows at the real culprits. The two who put the Bucs defense in a no-win situation.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:25 am
We knew after the Giants game (remember that debacle with both of them playing?) that the team would need the offense to score points to win. Hell after the first game when Cam threw for over 300 yards should have been a warning against our oh so great secondary. This secondary was torched from game one!
Even with the problems of the secondary the game was still close. One more completed pass and this game would have had a different outcome. 125 yards rushing so it could not have been the run game, 14 of 34 might have been a problem.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:30 am
At the start of the season…the secondary appeared to be the strongest part of the defense. its amazing how things change so fast. By getting rid of Talib..it told the team: we are not trying to do whatever it takes to win this year. You know some of the players didnt like it. One player tweeted “Wow……….!!!!” right after the trade went down. You know others felt the..same way
December 10th, 2012 at 8:38 am
If you go that route…your “rockstar”GM should be taking the majority of the blame. He signed Wright, knowing the history of drugs and bad decision-making, to a ridiculous contract. He traded Talib when he was most needed. Dominik should take some blame for this disaster of a secondary, actually, should take the majority of blame for this mess.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:38 am
And this was not only predictable, it was easily avoidable. I campaigned for two years that CB was the greatest weakness on this team, and had to be addressed. It was obvious. Talib couldn’t be trusted, and was terrible when he did play. Morris Claiborne was the pick to make. Did anyone notice Mark Barron yesterday? Didn’t think so.
Schiano has done a great job. I am happily surprised as the progress this team has made! But in a league that is dedicated to the passing game- you will not win without CBs. This young team has played well enought to win several other games, only to be betrayed by its secondary. At least now, it will finally be addressed. Thank God the Coach finally rid us of Talib
By the way, what ever happened to that RB out of Alabama, that was going to dominate football as we know it? Lol
December 10th, 2012 at 8:38 am
And this was not only predictable, it was easily avoidable. I campaigned for two years that CB was the greatest weakness on this team, and had to be addressed. It was obvious. Talib couldn’t be trusted, and was terrible when he did play. Morris Claiborne was the pick to make. Did anyone notice Mark Barron yesterday? Didn’t think so.
Schiano has done a great job. I am happily surprised as the progress this team has made! But in a league that is dedicated to the passing game- you will not win without CBs. This young team has played well enought to win several other games, only to be betrayed by its secondary. At least now, it will finally be addressed. Thank God the Coach finally rid us of Talib
By the way, what ever happened to that RB out of Alabama, that was going to dominate football as we know it? Lol
December 10th, 2012 at 8:41 am
And already I see ” the Short sighters”. Still claiming Taliban had talent- even thought we have been repeatedly last in pass defense when he played! Lmao!
December 10th, 2012 at 8:44 am
It’s laughable to try and put blame on two guys that aren’t even on our active roster. Forget those turds. We should have been up by 40 points anyways. The fault is on Josh Freeman playing horribly. Can’t play like friggin Rob Johnson and expect us to win.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:47 am
If, If, If and yada yada yada. It’s way too easy to blame any one individual or in this case any two players who made non-football mistakes. Ultimately all losses are the responsibility of the coach or more broadly the guys who hired Wright or retained Talib.
Better decisions could have been made and Talib didn’t trade himself. And as far as the game itself we wouldn’t be having this conversation if Danny Gorrer, whoever that is, hadn’t dropped an interception.
I’m not blaming anybody. We lost, teams lose, Brees lost, Rothelisberger lost. There are things that need to be fixed top to bottom. I have faith that we will do that and live to win another day!
December 10th, 2012 at 8:51 am
Eight punts and zero points in the first half…..but it’s the secondaries fault we lost? Uh…no.
December 10th, 2012 at 8:57 am
The pass defense was terrible even with Talib. What was our record with Talib again?
December 10th, 2012 at 9:02 am
I havent been on for a week and Capt. Tim comes back?!? Be still my beating heart. Welcome back!
December 10th, 2012 at 9:02 am
Coach Schiano has brought a new attitude and is getting rid of bad attitudes. Hopefully next year we can start clean with the entire team on board.
I dare say that there is no way we would have been competitive (largest margin of loss 8) without Schiano’s leadership.
Don’t get discouraged that we couldn’t get it all done this year.
We have a very bright future….a future without the Winslows, Talibs, Wrights, Prices, Jacksons and Briscos. Let the rest of the NFL have those losers.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:06 am
Should have drafted a CB instead of a S. said it then.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:07 am
@tampabaybucs fan – I hope at least ONE Jackson sticks around!
December 10th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Sorry but not beating the lowly eagles, who everybody was drilling for more than 30 points per game, is a disaster.
Goose egg in first half?
Heck they were lucky the eagles coughed up the punt and missed field goals.
Good young teams and good young coaches win that game. Look what the skins are doing with a slew of rookies and injuries, with dumb ole Bruce in charge.
They were outplayed, out coached, and out hustled.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:12 am
Oh, and welcome back captain!
December 10th, 2012 at 9:19 am
Alot of the blame should go to Dominick. How do you go into a season where your #3 CB is E.J. Biggers and after him your DB’s fall off? It’s hard to win with 7th rounders and undrafted free agents starting at CB. Btw, Before this year, besides Freeman,Mccoy,Foster,Williams,and Clayborn, how have his drafts been? Lol garbage.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:36 am
@ Joe
Agreed 110%
Ps. Maybe we should take a look at how the DB’s are being coached to cover, Barron had another horrible day trying to cover scrub receivers!!
December 10th, 2012 at 9:37 am
Wrong Joe…coach Shiano loss this game….2:55 left in the game 3rd and 7 and you run the ball JUST to set up the vaunted defense. …epic fail ! We have Dallas Clark, Vincent Jackson, Mike Williams,Doug Martin and this OC that everybody is gonna hire away and you can’t call a high percentage pass play…..then your gonna blame it on guys who were not on the field ?????
That’s sad..
December 10th, 2012 at 9:44 am
Sure they’re selfish teammates and a couple of sh-heads but you can’t place the blame on a couple guys who didn’t play the game. Might as well blame Kelly for not coming down for some tighter coverage or Sapp n Rice for not providing a pass rush. Amusing but neither makes sense and shifts from assigning blame to making excuses.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:45 am
I thought the defense did their job for most of the game. The offense should have but 21 on them IN BOTH HALVES. Then we wouldn’t be having this discussion
December 10th, 2012 at 9:45 am
This loss was a disaster. Freeman’s play was horrible. And the cornerback play was horrible. Freeman is the second coming of Vinny Testeverde. All the talent in the world but inconsistent as hell. And the corners just don’t have enough talent to play on any other team in this league. We got beat by a 4th round draft pick that most people have never even heard of. Until Freeman gets better and we replace the corners, this game is what should be expected.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:48 am
I agree with Buccanay.. Mark Dominik should be front and center. He was running around glorifying himself after the win streak. Where is he now? Why is he not out digging up something to try and put final touches on this teams run to to the playoffs. (Too late now). He fails by signing Wright, fails in keeping Talib, fails again by trading Talib in the middle of the season, a position of total weakness and makes us even more weak. He does nothing to improve the pass rush after losing Clayborne. What does this guy do? I know . He hides when were losing and is out front taking all the credit when were winning.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:48 am
You cannot drop an INT and give a team new life. They will kill you. Plus, on the next to last play of the game, Philly has no timeouts. Lay on the guy for one more second and you win the game!
And no Talib is not crying in his beer. Why would he? He’s probably going to the Super Bowl.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:01 am
Wright sucks so bad he received death threats from a previous teams fans and him being missing is one of the reasons we have stumbled?
As far as Talib goes he wasn’t much better except he made a highlight style splash play every couple of games to go along with his many highlights of getting torched.
It doesn’t help that our “all world” rookie safety struggles with coverage so much that he’d have trouble getting the right angle to make a play on a 107 year old man using a zimmer frame.
I did think that maybe if we improved the pass rush it would help them out but nope, we hit Foles all day and he still killed us.
Foles, not Manning, not Brady, not Brees, not even Flacco, FOLES!!!
December 10th, 2012 at 10:06 am
Once again..99% of you knew we werent a playoff team this year…yet ypou are crying because our playoffs dreams were ended yesterday…….newsflash…if we did squeak in at 10-6 who are we beating with this secondary??
December 10th, 2012 at 10:13 am
@ Capt Tim, I stopped reading what you wrote as soon as you referred to Talib as “Taliban”. That is some ignorant bigotry for no reason. BTW, Jerry Jones traded up and took Claiborne so the Bucs had literally had NO chance of getting him.
Put the blame where it really lies, on the Offense (mainly #5). Punt, punt, repeat = Yesterday’s first half. You can’t expect the defense to hold up the entire game when you get ZERO offensive support. I thought the secondary played outstanding compared to their body of work thus far.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:14 am
this was always an interim year and if not for a pretty fortunate 4 game streak (both in terms of who we played and how those teams played vs us) we wouldn’t be under the illusion that the bucs were playoff caliber in 2012. i’m not saying we should tank the season, but as a team that was not talented enough to make noise in the playoffs i’m not sweating the fact that we are creeping up in the draft and showing the strain of a decimated offensive line and an overmatched secondary. for me it was always about 2013 and beyond with this being a learning\developing year for players and coaches
December 10th, 2012 at 10:17 am
This one is on Freeman. He is NO franchise QB.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:17 am
and i have to say, after all the work biggers and leonard johnson and co are getting this year, it will make us a better team against the GBs and NOs of the league who spread offenses out and prey on lack of depth. i’m assuming of course that we grab a CB or 2 high in the draft along with a strong FA pickup to push the current “starters” down to #3, 4, or 5 players
December 10th, 2012 at 10:26 am
Im sure Dominik planned on having his #1 and #2 CBs pop Adderall and get suspended. The CB position was hardly neglected. Joe is right. The blame starts at those two idiots for letting their team down. You cannot survive in todays NFL without your top two corners. Its impossible. Gaitor has been hurt too.
So we’ve basically been playing with Biggers (#3) Johnson (#5), LeQuan Lewis (#6) and Danny Gorrer (#7). They might as well put me out there. Did you see the technique Gorrer was playing on that final drive? He got spun around twice on a skinny post. The guy should never be playing beyond punt return/punt block.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Talib and Wright??? Seriously? The same 2 who got torched by Eli in a 2nd half massacre? And RG3, and Etc. No no, the blame here clearly falls on the GM and the coach. The GM for trying to force everyone to believe that the miserable product he puts on the field year after year is good enough and his flat refusal to address key needs in free agency. Johnson, Gaitor, Biggers and Lewis are NOT starters in an NFL secondary and when Talib was shipped out at the worst time nothing was done to replace him. And then there’s coach and the 3rd and 8 run and the decision to put the game on the last ranked pass defense in the NFL means you get torched by a rookie QB and a gang of back up players. Talib and Wright are laughing uncontrollably right now because the Bucs have failed miserably in leadership and smart decision making
December 10th, 2012 at 10:43 am
This team was NOT making playoffs anyway so yesterday was not the end of the world. Seriously……
December 10th, 2012 at 10:55 am
Capt Tim… welcome back!
December 10th, 2012 at 10:55 am
@KT who hasnt Eli and RG3 torched?
December 10th, 2012 at 10:58 am
Yesterday may not have been the end of the world, but for a team struggling to fill a stadium and avoid the constant black outs, you must put a good product in the field to stir excitement. Losing to a rookie and a terrible eagle team is unacceptable and I am amazed so many people can sweep it under the rug with the renewed optimism that next year will be better when we have heard that year after year. Why should I, a season ticket holder continue to spend hard earned money on poor decision making at every level, and even worse play from millionaires. Yesterday was a shameful indictment of all that has gone wrong in house and the refusal to address and fix it.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:22 am
KT–I dont blame ya. I wanted them to win also, but until we have a healthy secondary, we are gonna get torched sometimes. IF IF IF they made the playoffs and faced a top notch QB in round one and got murdered, would you feel god about that?? I wouldnt. Nice season to build on for next year.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:30 am
I blame me. I should have never gone to the game. They always lose when I attend games. My bad guys. I’m a bad luck charm. I’m the wrong side up penny. I won’t attend another game again.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:41 am
I guess if improvement on the Raheem era and losing close games was the goal, were just fine and dandy.
December 10th, 2012 at 11:44 am
I don’t know why people assume that Claiborne was a better pick. QB has a better completion rate against him than EJ Bigger and LJ look it up. Claiborne has been ok at best this year. Barron is a rookie so I didn’t expect him to be a superstar this year, but I do expect him to be a pro bowl safety down the road. It’s a learning curve so with better technique he will improve. If the Bucs had a more consistent pass rush and better corners the
December 10th, 2012 at 11:53 am
Joe, really?
I can’t believe you just wrote that.
Everybody was happy when we got the 4th rd pick right?
Wright you asked me overpaid.
You can’t win with a secondary that includes: an undrafted rookie, 2 7th rd picks. Blame schiano he didn’t throw on 3rd and 8 – Jackson in the slot would’ve have gotten that. I blame the coach on this one. Not 2 guys that weren’t on the field. By the way I agree with Adam should have drafted CB, I’m not impressed with Barron’s pass coverage skills.
December 10th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Thanks for the welcome back, guys! Man, have I been in the bad lands.
And Nic- I’ll go easy. I can tell by the context and grammar that I should go slow. 1) the Bucs traded down twice in the first round. They let him slip thru their fingers. How’s Barron looking? The keep taking him off the field, and playing Black. 2) bigotry to who? The Selfish player- constantly on suspension and repeatly letting his team down, or the terrorist who killed thousands of innocent Americans at The World center
December 10th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Could not agree more Joe. While neither were budding stars they were talented enough to not got embarrassed routinely by rookie third round picks at quarterback. The situation with the Buccaneers secondary is truly a tragedy that cant be experienced very often in the NFL.
Just think of where we started (which wasnt that great) to where we are now. Seventh rounders and free agents trying to play against the leagues greatest athletes at WR.
I do lay most of the blame on Talib and Wright but at least some of it needs to go to Dominik. Talib has been injury prone most of his career (when was the last time he finished a season?). Wright was a starting corner in a bad Lions secondary before he came here. We should have been better prepared.
Why is Myron Lewis still on this team?
December 10th, 2012 at 1:18 pm
I’ll say it again, if the offense has to score more than 24 points a game, every game, for this team to win, they aren’t going to win many games.
Either the offense needs to be elite, or the defense needs to be decent. Only the offense has shown signs of that part this year and we have won because of it. The defense on the other hand has not stopped an opposing QB in any game this year and we have won in spite of it. The lowest point on the team is the pass coverage by far.
December 10th, 2012 at 1:25 pm
here, here “this joe”. although wright and talib might not be elite, they are miles ahead of what we got stuck with.
also, i, for one, appreciate differentiating your opinion with “this joe”.
December 10th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
No Capt Tim please don’t go easy on me. I would love to see you correct my grammar like an as*hole because that solves everything. Oh yeah, and please enlighten this veteran who exactly attacked my home because I LOVE a good history lesson. Am I calling you a bigot because you likened a black man named Talib who plays a GAME for a living to an oppressive regime with direct ties to international terrorism? No, people make stupid jokes sometimes. Do I have the right to call people out on it? You bet.
December 10th, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I think the whole team lost yesterday…. From coach to 7th round cornerback. If the offense gets one more first down or scores more…. Hell if they run 2 more seconds off the clock they win. If the corner makes that interception we win. If the other corner makes a play on the last play of the game we win….. Lots of blame to go around.
But we are much better than last year, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Some times you have to settle for the small victories. I was mad as hell yesterday, ruined my whole day that we lost like that. (still quite mad actually). But life goes on.
December 10th, 2012 at 5:14 pm
@Capt_Tim…. If you’re going to spread information, please at least make sure it is the correct information.
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1) the Bucs traded down twice in the first round. They let him slip thru their fingers. How’s Barron looking? The keep taking him off the field, and playing Black.
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First and foremost, the Bucs only traded down ONCE in the first round…WHILE Claiborne was still available. They passed on him for a reason, not because they let him “slip through their fingers.”
Secondly, I would say that Barron is looking good. SURE we would all like to see him make some more splash plays, but I think the majority will realize that his IS rookie and will make some mistakes. Given the type of defense that Schiano runs, he needed a hard hitting, form tackling saftey to really put the D together. Based on the stats, it appears that he is that. You can’t always expect a rookie to make the Pro Bowl.
per NFL.com:
Claiborne has 30 solo tackles and 1 INT (including a TD from a fumble recovery) with 5 passes defended.
Barron has 55 solo tackles, a forced fumble and an INT with 8 passes defended.
I would think the coaching staff would be satisfied with that production.
Lastly, I’m not sure what games you’re watching, but I don’t see them taking Barron and replacing him with Black…
…what I DO see is them dropping Rhonde to the slot in dime packages and bringing in Black to take over the [free] saftey spot.
as per: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/six-nfl-quarterbacks-enter-week-11-perfect-playing-201147816–nfl.html
as of week 11, Barron was one of 8 defensive rookies with at least 90% playing time.
Like many of the other fans on here, before the season started, I figured I would just take this season to enjoy watching this team learn to play together. I knew that it might take a whole season for Freeman to get acclimated to Jackson.. for [Teach Me How To] Dougie to learn to better read NFL defenses (with the help of Byner).. for Schiano to learn to coach in an NFL setting. I expected this would be a rough season…
…The issue was how well they played. No one expected us to hang with some of the teams we hung with, ESPECIALLY early in the season. I’ve been harping on the fact that even though I knew we wouldn’t be GREAT this season, some of those early close games raised my expectations on the team.
But I don’t think there is a need for doom and gloom.
We’ve all seen what Freeman can do and I, personally, think he is deserving of a new contract. Lets not forget, he’s won’t be 25 until AFTER the season is completed. He WILL get better and more consistant. I think we’re all looking forward to what this offense can do once Nicks and Joseph are both healthy… With Dotson getting a full offseasons work playing next to them and them learning how to play together.
We’ll have a new set (maybe even a trio) of toys on the defensive side of the ball in the form of DB’s and we’ll be serious next year.
Go Bucs….
[Message to Dominik]: Give Bennett what he wants. He deserves it and he’s earned it.
December 10th, 2012 at 9:53 pm
Hey Joe – Is it too early for you to start putting up player bios for the upcoming draft class?
You might want to start on corner backs.
December 10th, 2012 at 10:35 pm
Im sitting here right now watching talib shut down andre johnson, yesterday we made jason avant look like jerry rice
December 10th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
I’m thinking the same thing Sullivians
December 10th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Im beginning to think the deal for talib was made when the pats came for a visit. Bill was a supporter of schiano remember? Bellicheat told coach “ok let me get your best corner” bill knew aqib would make a instant impact. You can’t have a petsonality in today’$ league they want robots.
December 11th, 2012 at 3:26 am
Welcome back Captain. I completely agree with Celly. Perhaps you haven’t been watching the games. Barron almost never misses a snap, and has played very well minus the last couple games. He’s been talked about all season as being a Pro Bowler. Obviously at this point he doesn’t deserve it. Claiborne has been a disappointment so far, although he’s only a rookie and he may end up being great. Even if Claiborne played like Deion Sanders in his prime, it wouldn’t matter because the other 2 or 3 receivers would be wide open. We need a completely new secondary, and I would be shocked and angered if that’s not exactly what we do this offseason.
December 12th, 2012 at 11:20 am
Nic -oh, it’s the Angry black man act! “Yawn” . How does his being black factor in? The Arab Taliban members aren’t black. His repeated acts of violence and stupidity were the connecting factor. The cabby slapping, teammate hitting, gun firing, granny threatening incidents were the issue! All of which showed total disregard for team or teammates. He would be a violent idiot regardless of color. But you can fume over any pretend black issue you want. Have fun
Hawaiian – thanks. Barron made big hits in the first few games. Yay! But teams are now attacking him constantly in pass coverage- and he can’t hold up. He has been beat down so badly on pass coverage, that he is useless in run defense. Put on any colored glasses you want- Barron has sucked the last three games. He’s a rookie, and will improve. But right now- ugh. Terrible.
Oh, how’s that “greatest Running back in last 20 years” doing? Haven’t heard anything about him. Old you Martin was waaaay better than Richardson. Richardson has been the plodder I predicted so far . . . Lol