Passive Lovie Smith
April 15th, 2015
FootballOutsiders.com reveals some surprising and not so surprising data on Bucs coach Lovie Smith.
What is the antonym for aggressive? Passive.
And if Aaron Schatz, the headmaster of FootballOutsiders.com, is to be believed, Bucs coach Lovie Smith is just that. Passive.
Schatz makes a living toying with numbers, and he documented every snap from scrimmage in the NFL and charted what coach went for what on what part of the field. Lovie is among the coaches who would rather punt then try to keep a drive going.
It what Joe found a little bit surprising, Lovie was more likely to try to make a first down in short yardage than playoff coaches and a coach with a ring. Joe thought Lovie would be found hesitant because he had to rely on turnover-prone Josh McCown and inconsistent running backs. However, Lovie went for first downs in short yardage situations more than Chuck Pagano (with Andrew Luck, Bruce Arians and Tom Coughlin (Eli Manning).
The answer to this riddle is that the aforementioned coaches had running games worse than Tampa Bay’s.
The real shocker is Lovie was more aggressive, per Schatz’s index, than Chip Kelly. Yes, really.
Lovie ranked No. 23 in overall aggressiveness.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:07 am
wow a ranking for aggressiveness so exciting….did you see who are quarterback was, how bad the team was overall. I wouldn’t have been very aggressive either to be honest. we all noticed lovie just trying to get to halftime without the score getting any more out of control that it usually was
April 15th, 2015 at 8:23 am
Their construct for aggressiveness is dumb. Lovie cost us numerous games by squatting on small leads running the ball on 1st & 2nd down setting up long 3rd downs, and then leaving the defense in predictable zone coverage allowing the other team to advance the ball with small chunks. Also no coach falls in love with field goal attempts more than Lovie, even though TDs win games.
THAT is passivity, not punting on the occasional 4th down. Everyone knows Lovie is one of the few remaining coaches in the NFL who’s so stubborn and traditional that he coaches not to lose.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:24 am
until lovie learns how to coach to win versus coaching not to lose the passive label will be valid. I am done with this joker. Just hoping that he does not do any more long term damage to the team. the glazer boys need to admit their mistake and move forward.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:26 am
if you had a team like the bucs last year you would coach not to lose also, the line sucked, the quarterbacks sucked, the running backs sucked, the quarterbacks also didn’t have time to throw, you have a college quarterbacks coach running your offense so my question would be what would you try that never worked anyway
April 15th, 2015 at 8:29 am
I don’t think last year’s stats are gonna be valid for Lovie in regards to going for it on 4th down. When your record is 1-6 or 2-11, even a “conservative” coach is a lot more likely to “go for it” than if you are 9-4 trying to protect your playoff spot.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:32 am
bucs4lyfe
This comment block on this blog is not long enough to point out all the coaching mistakes and personnel mistakes that Legend Lovie made last year. He took a bad team and made it worse. simple as that. He is making this team worse this year already. NO clear upgrades to any position. Signing nothing but injury prone prove deals… There is not a single fan that should be excited about the free agent signings this year. Not one is a difference maker and not one is a clear upgrade. 10 years of lovie is enough get his sorry arse out of the league.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:42 am
@tmaxcon
OK nfl guru I wont argue with you just agree to disagree because you seem to think that having no offensive coordinator, offensive line or decent quarterback leaves you with a lot of options to score points. in case you didn’t watch the games last year the defense played more than the offense, it’s called 3 and outs. not saying lovie did a great job but no worse than the last 2 coaches. it really sounds stupid to say someone took a bad team and made it worse….he took bad players and tried to teach them a system that they were slow learning (bad players) and…whatever dude if you think they should have won more than 2 games with marcus arroyo glennon and mccown then you play video games too much. cant judge a coach based on one year unless your Cleveland browns
April 15th, 2015 at 8:51 am
I wont argue with you just agree to disagree because you seem to think that having no offensive coordinator, offensive line or decent quarterback leaves you with a lot of options to score points.
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It’s lovie’s responsibility to filed a winning team. he is paid to win. he took a bad team and made it worse. it’s called responsibility. If a player plays bad or makes mistakes they get roasted on these pages and some pummeled, yet your Lovie makes huge mistakes and you make excuses for him. He was responsible for the team. He made the roster worse and implemented systems that are passive and out dated.
It was Lovie’s responsibility to ensure Arroyo had help and support and Lovie failed.
April 15th, 2015 at 8:58 am
true he did make the offensive line worse it’s true it’s his responsibility and listen im not here saying the guy did a great job last year. he made calls that you’d never make if you have a decent offense I mean come on calling run play after run play even on third and short when you cant run the ball….this team has lost no confidence in the coach unlike schiano and year 2 is when it will come together. last year was bad this is 20015
April 15th, 2015 at 10:06 am
@bucs4lyfe Says:
“…you seem to think that having no offensive coordinator, offensive line or decent quarterback leaves you with a lot of options to score points.”
I am confused how you can use those failings as an excuse for Lovie’s p!ss poor job performance last season. Those were all the direct responsibility of Lovie, not just because he is commander, but that he personally chose McCown, he personally blew up the Oline and it was totally Lovie’s responsibility to have the HC intelligence to know the Bucs needed a OC “advisor” brought in to help out versus leaving that to someone with NO NFL COACHING EXPERIENCE. What crazy person does that?
There were so many glaring idiotic decisions made by Lovie, and solely by Lovie (and I admit to being so freaking excited at him being hired), it made me think “I” was the crazy one. Blowing up the Oline, giving away Zuttah, the ridiculous trade for Mankins (a deal we had to do bc Lovie made such horrific personall decisions), drafting a RB in the 3rd rd when we clearly were disparate for Oline help, etc. and so many more… You can’t possibly be reasonable in defending Lovie, especially using his own bad decisions as an excuse for his POOR performance.
April 15th, 2015 at 10:28 am
Sure Lovie had Mccown as his quarterback. Even Chucky would struggle with that. But remember, Lovie wanted to bring Mccown here in the first place. So yes thats his fault. He never should gave gone in with Mccown. And im sure Lovie was pretty mad that Mccown made a fool of his program out there and ultimately cut him.
Lets look at the o line. Other than trading Zuttah the o line was overpaid and not performing. Sure Penn was motivated once he got cut but I doubt another year in Tampa would’ve had him playing his best football. He got burned constantly from ’11-’13 and he got cut. Davin Joseph gave us some great years but was older and injured and just never looked like he did from ’06-’10. He needed to go. Ted Larsen is a starter. No more. No less. Could’ve used him I guess but oh well. So at the time it was all necessary and still is. Lovie gets alot of flak for the o line but other than Zuttah I cant blame him. We all knew this year would be rough on the oline bringing in a bunch of guys who never played together. But if we draft a tackle and a guard or two, we will have a good mix of young talent and wise veterans instead of going too far in one direction. You didnt think Lovie would have this whole thing solved in one season did you?
April 15th, 2015 at 11:10 am
I still wish we would get rid of Lovie. This will be a better team without him.
April 15th, 2015 at 3:33 pm
Quit bitching about last year.
Pretty obvious we weren’t a playoff team- so they got rid of who needed to go, then tanked for the best QB prospect since Andrew Luck.
Jameis Winston is a dyed in the wool phenom. A protege .
A once in a decade talent. And we got him.
He’s ours.
Thanks to lovies bad season
Tanking last year was the smartest move this franchise ever made.
And some of you think Lovie did a bad job
Lmao. Yeah, just got us a franchise QB- that Wil lead us for 12-15 years.
Ought to give Lovie a medal
April 15th, 2015 at 3:49 pm
that is why lovie needs to draft an aggressive pass rusher like
Dante Fowler Jr of the florida gators. mike mayock of nfl network has him rated as the #1 pure edge rusher in this draft.