“Ass-Kicked Isn’t Cohesion”
August 11th, 2014
A former Bucs offensive lineman is appalled
A big voice on local sports radio is former Bucs guard Ian Beckles (1990-1996), who co-hosts the Ron and Ian show heard weekdays on WDAE-AM 620. And one might have guessed Beckles would have a harsh word or two for the Bucs’ offensive line performance on Friday in Jacksonville.
And Beckles did.
He took to the airwaves this morning and cautioned fans not to read much into any preseason opener, but that came with a giant “but,” as it related to the O-line debacle.
“Getting your ass kicked isn’t cohesion,” Beckles said, explaining that the Bucs’ issues weren’t about a new line jelling.
On ousted Friday starting guard Jamon Meredith, Beckles was appalled.
“Every time he gets put in there. It’s evident that his feet are too slow. He’s very sloth-like, ok. And he’s too old to be making the mistakes he was making,” Beckles said of Meredith. “I played the sport for a while. I played the exact same position as Meredith. On a three-step drop you’re going to let somebody beat you on the inside and smash your quarterback in the face? Since high school they say on a three-step drop make somebody beat you outside.”
Oneil Cousins, the guard on the other side who remains a starer, he was making repeated rookie mistakes, Beckles said.
“I don’t want to say it was poor coaching, but he looked poorly coached. He looked like he didn’t know what he was doing,” Beckles said. “When a guy lined up wide on his shoulder, really wide, instead of setting out to him like every high school guard does, he stepped inside and just turned his shoulders and let somebody run straight up the field and kill our quarterback.”
Beckles went on to say he’s scared that Cousins and Meredith were deemed staters up until Friday’s game, and he said current Rams guard and former Bucs captain Davin Joseph playing hurt is “substantially better” than Meredith or Cousins.
August 11th, 2014 at 9:41 am
Beckles is emphatically stating that the sky is blue. We know. Nice to feel validated in our paranoia that Warhop is being blackmailed by Cousins to keep him in the lineup. I mean, he was his coach last year when Cousins graded as the worst lineman in the NFL – and he WANTED him in Tampa. Something isn’t right there.
August 11th, 2014 at 9:47 am
Speaking of which – why did we hire the coach of the worst NFL lineman in the league last year? I realize nothing will be done about it – but was the 3rd or 4th worst lineman coach not available? Or was he already on the Bucs staff?
August 11th, 2014 at 9:57 am
Beckles is right. Lovie can sugarcoat all he wants but fact is there are no answers. Lovie & his lapdog Licht are solely responsible. The “don’t panic” reaction is exactly what you say when you know you screwed the pooch and are panicking!
August 11th, 2014 at 10:06 am
I’m wondering why they yanked Meredith out of the starting lineup and not Cousins…at least Meredith has played well at some point in his career. Cousins has nothing but awful tape.
August 11th, 2014 at 10:07 am
Just wait till our qb gets a concusiion in a preseason game…
August 11th, 2014 at 10:08 am
Oline can also be indicated as 0line, as in zeroline, as in noline.
August 11th, 2014 at 10:08 am
Brian- does it matter? We are talking about a couple of the worst guards in all the nfl. Embarrassing
August 11th, 2014 at 10:11 am
Bring on Kenyatta!!!
August 11th, 2014 at 10:56 am
Every season we Bucs fans are told “don’t worry it’s just preseason” and every year the offense starts out like dog crap. This o-line isn’t any better than the 2013 O-line. I’ll bet mike Glennon is thinking that he’ll be the starter by week 4 after McCown gets pummeled Hi
August 11th, 2014 at 11:25 am
If this O-my-god-we’re-f**cked-line keeps playing the way it did we all need to start watching Mike Kafka play a little more. McCown and Glennon won’t last through the season. That’s not sarcasm or a joke.
August 11th, 2014 at 11:43 am
Ian Beckles is a racist jerk, and I refuse to read any article quoting him.
August 11th, 2014 at 11:44 am
unless this problem is fixed ASAP, ill just be looking forward 2 player development and system familiarity. Even if our guard situation was ok, I’m still in tha mindframe of next year will be our year with another wave of drafting and free agency. Fire Tha F*ckin Cannons
August 11th, 2014 at 11:45 am
Bonzai, it’s not racism if you hate everyone equally. 🙂
August 11th, 2014 at 11:48 am
I love Ian
August 11th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
Kind of makes you wonder what they were thinking when they got rid of Penn, Joseph, & Zuttah.
August 11th, 2014 at 1:17 pm
@Phil
They weren’t thinking when they threw out the baby with the bath water
August 11th, 2014 at 1:44 pm
it boggles my mind, with all the meticulous attention to player evaluation and roster building, that the bucs actively disposed of 3 viable options (penn allowing collins to move inside, zuttah, or joseph) to have a better chance of a successful combo on the interior OL, or at least coverage in case of injury. i understand that in some areas the team was talent-poor, but why dump 3 guys who have done their job at a high level in this league only to replace them with less ability and experience and no safety net for injury or poor performace?
August 11th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
i wasnt so upset about letting Penn go this year but I was very skeptical about the release of both Zuttah and Joseph. I may have understood if one or the other was released but to let both of them go and not have addressed the gaping hole at both of the guard positions was a mistake. Joseph did not look very well last year but he was coming back off an injury the year before but he was definitely better than the crap we saw on Friday night. Zuttah wasnt great but he wasnt awful either and his versatility helped with depth. This is going to be another long, ugly, disappointing, season if the issues with the O-line are not corrected ASAP.
August 11th, 2014 at 4:45 pm
Couple things:
1) As great as Lovie & Licht did this off-season, the Zuttah trade is the one glaring blemish that stands out now. Would’ve been very helpful to have him around.
2) Is there ANY truth to the Boone-to-TB rumors out there? Might be a very good pick up right now…