Burn The Floppy Hat
August 18th, 2014
Lovie Smith changed his tone on Alterraun Verner this afternoon
Bucs fans feeling the urgency of opening day in just 20 days – 20 days — will like the message from Lovie Smith today.
The head coach says he needs bodies on the field against Buffalo on Saturday otherwise the team will have a setback.
Lovie is especially hungry for the debut of Alterraun Verner, who has done little over the past three weeks and missed nearly all of training camp with a bad hamstring.
“If they’re going to play against Carolina, we need to see’em right now,” Lovie said about his roster.”And if they’re not out there, we’re in the hole a little bit. So for Alterraun Verner it’s important that he get out there and start, you know, playing our defense, seeing his role, you know, getting comfortable, just here. And that’s why we’re excited about him being on the football field. But not just him, we have some players, too, we need to get out there.”
Joe’s very excited to see Verner in action, even more so if Verner is lined up against former blade-in-the-thigh, mattress-in-the-yard Bucs receiver Mike Williams. There’s a lot of potential fun there.
The more that is seen of this Bucs defense, the more it’s clear the potential is there for it to dominate, not just be a top-10 unit, but really dominate and win games outright. A healthy Verner should be a big part of that puzzle. But as Joe’s written previously, Verner has said he also has a real learning curve after what he was — and wasn’t — asked to do with the Titans over the past four years.
August 18th, 2014 at 4:44 pm
not to be a debbie downer, but GMC has the potential to dominate. the secondary was playing 10 yard deep of the WR and getting picked apart by both Miami qb’s. it was a scary feeling like us playing the colts. I just don’t see how that unit is going to gel and learn cover two that quickly. I expected more from our DE’s which would help.
August 18th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
@robert9 Says:
“…not to be a debbie downer, but GMC has the potential to dominate. the secondary was playing 10 yard deep of the WR and getting picked apart by both Miami qb’s…”
Welcome to the “Tampa 2”. It reminds me of watching Father Dungy’s D. There were times you just wanted to pull your hair out, like you pointed out, when the other team is just picking you apart. But I also remember, when the other team got into the red zone, it was a very tough defense to score against in a small area like that.
August 18th, 2014 at 5:15 pm
Harry Says:
August 18th, 2014 at 4:54 pm
@robert9 Says:
“…not to be a debbie downer, but GMC has the potential to dominate. the secondary was playing 10 yard deep of the WR and getting picked apart by both Miami qb’s…”
Welcome to the “Tampa 2″. It reminds me of watching Father Dungy’s D. There were times you just wanted to pull your hair out, like you pointed out, when the other team is just picking you apart. But I also remember, when the other team got into the red zone, it was a very tough defense to score against in a small area like that.
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I think it is more important to point out all the consecutive 10+ seasons as a top 10 NFL unit. ALL defenses are susceptible to one thing or another, but to have a run of success like the Bucs had between 1997 and 2008 is unprecedented.
August 18th, 2014 at 5:23 pm
What you have to remember is that this is 2014 and the rules have changed DRAMATICALLY since 97-08.
New rules makes it nearly impossible to dominate an offense because you cannot touch the WRs, the NFL wanted offense so it made sure of that with these rules changes.
August 18th, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Tom, try telling that BS to Seattle….
August 18th, 2014 at 6:04 pm
And they are going to call a lot more defensive holding and interference calls because of all the contact that the Seattle defensive backs were doing too. I don’t think Seattle’s defense will be as good without all that contact down the field. They played a lot of cover 3, which is what Lovie and Marinelli played a lot in Chicago too.
August 18th, 2014 at 6:24 pm
If our front four creates havoc, new rules or not our defense is in the advantage.
August 18th, 2014 at 6:25 pm
Exactly, The refs just seemed to have Seattle’s back last season. I’m not going to say that’s why they won the superbowl, but it certainly helped.
August 18th, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Good thing is it looks like they don’t have their backs anymore.
August 18th, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Sorry to be a downer. But I want to see them stop those throws over the middle lobbed over the heads of the LBs or to the right or left….
August 18th, 2014 at 6:29 pm
And turnovers will come.
Our kicker will be busy kicking field goals in Sept. & Oct. Wins will be easier starting in Oct. until then breathe and enjoy the good…
August 18th, 2014 at 6:54 pm
Hope he can play a full season. Our guys were dropping like flies last week
August 18th, 2014 at 8:35 pm
@Joe did you notice in Lovies most recent press conference he said “we are still waiting for both of our starting cornerbacks to come back” Do you think there is any real chance that Mike Jenkins starts over Banks. It says that is how it is on the depth chart too.
August 18th, 2014 at 8:42 pm
I think we will see a lot of passing when we face the Bills. It seemed like in the last game it was mainly all running backs. Short passing to Martin and to Rainy seemed like it was constant till we saw James get hurt. So it seemed to me Lovie wanted to see where the running game was at. Louis Murphy didnt get the ball once. Evans maybe got the ball twice and Jackson got the ball maybe only two times as well. So i think we will see a lot more passing from Josh.
August 18th, 2014 at 9:02 pm
Johnny Manziel looks awful tonight.
Sure glad TB didn’t draft that clown.
August 18th, 2014 at 9:56 pm
Some good points here in the comments. The Tampa 2 can be infuriating to watch until we get the ball back in a short field. Funny how we don’t remember that aspect of our “stifling” defense of yore.
Also, I believe this is going to be the most infuriating year league-wide for those who enjoy defensive football, or a flag not being thrown every few minutes. I’m getting less and less interested in the game as it is.
August 18th, 2014 at 10:19 pm
It never ceases to amaze me that after two inept years of Shiano certain posters act surprised when when others start to to use sarcasm and criticism to express frustration and discust by putting such a horrible product out there for the past 5 years that were not supposed to be skeptical but good little idiots and except mediocrity.
August 18th, 2014 at 11:32 pm
Hard to believe Jenkins would start over Banks given that he has missed just about all of training camp and Banks is playing very well. Of course, if Verner can’t go Jenkins likely would be starting in his spot.
August 19th, 2014 at 1:52 am
Ghost you get it! There is no way I will accept mediocrity. Lovie is a defensive genius, but he is deferring too much to Licht and missed out on getting what he should have out of this draft. We could have a first round QB playing like Bortles as our second QB, and not albatross Glennon who is just as miserable as last year when put behind our first string OL against Miami. We passed on quality Guards we could have gotten with our third pick and the pick we could have gotten for Glennon. We could have also gotten Max, the Urlacher Clone, at 6’3″ at MLB and the smarts and speed to cover deep down the middle, where Miami picked us apart. Yes. Licht picked some good players but ignored filling our needs. You know I pointed out before the draft what they needed to get. There is a reason Licht has not stuck with all the NFL teams he passed through like a nomad. As a result Atlanta and our other competitors did much better than we did!
August 19th, 2014 at 9:38 am
For all of those that think this T2 scheme is going to dominate, I’d advise you start pounding the foamies straight after church on Sunday morning.
It’s weaknesses are so well understood that it is antiquated.
In the olden days you could “dissuade” WR’s from crossing through the seam. It’s a playground now.
August 19th, 2014 at 10:18 am
Lovie had the fifth ranked defense in the league in 2012.
August 19th, 2014 at 11:12 am
^^^
And his defense played worse in their second half 3-5 slide that helped get Lovie canned. I know you’re a big Lovie fan, but so far he’s just an 0-2 coach with a good track record on D and S/T and a horrible track record on O, kind pretty much what we’ve seen in the first two preseason games with the 1st team starters in.