Vikings 26, Buccaneers 16
August 15th, 2015
The Bucs lost more than a meaningless preseason game
Well, that sure was a buzz kill. The Bucs’ defense picked up where it left off on its worst days last season. And the first-team offense did not score a touchdown.
Special teams?
That unit didn’t get it done, either. They were weak in punt coverage, and rookie Kaelin Clay’s debut as a returner was a head-scratcher.
America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston? He did about what Joe expected. He flashed brilliance and grit, but made rookie mistakes and was out of sync too often.
Joe would preach patience, but that’s hard when your team has won 30 of its last 100 in the regular season. Regardless, be patient with the offense, which at least had some push on its first-team line. As for the defense, Joe won’t lecture anyone on patience for the “D.” Joe understands the venom.
The real loss tonight was Demar Dotson getting carted off the field. The Bucs absolutely could not afford that.
Quick hat tip to Louis Murphy for looking sharp fresh off an injury, and Joe will give it up to little known defensive end Lawrence Sidbury, Jr., for some strong play, including a forced fumble.
Stick with Joe through the night for so much on this game. Joe is LIVE in Minnesota.
August 15th, 2015 at 11:12 pm
So how many beers JOE?
August 15th, 2015 at 11:17 pm
Well the sky isn’t falling after one preseason game, but to me anyway Jameis does not look ready to be the starter. Seeing as how Glazers want him to start, Licht has a Winston boner, and Lovie is tanking for the #1 pick (hat tip to Realist for the humor) Jameis will start barring injury, so hopefully the young man can learn from his poor decisions and improve. Tick-tock Lovie, the regular season is fast approaching. Get the team prepared!
August 15th, 2015 at 11:18 pm
Demar Dotson out for the season. Next man up.
My evaluation of Winston is this:
I think he was not overly accurate…except in the hurry-up offense (which is Dirks specialty). The things that impressed me were:
He never lost his head.
His sideline behavior. I should probably explain this one. I didn’t expect to see any problems on the sideline with him, but I also didn’t expect to see him doing the positive things. Like encouraging his teammates. Studying the playbook…AND discussing it with Vincent Jackson, Mike Glennon and Bell. This reminded me of Peyton Manning.
Outside of the hurry-up, he wasn’t very good. His passes were mostly off target. The pick was ball placement…just a few inches closer to the WR and it would have been a completion.
The offensive line? I liked Marpet and Smith…I thought the starters did OKAY. The oline sucked until late in the Mike Glennon period. Vikings must have had 6th stringers in.
I honestly did not think Herron would be anything but a bust…but he looked vastly improved. Enough so that I want to see more of him.
I don’t think ANY player should get the game ball.
August 15th, 2015 at 11:20 pm
Wow… That was a giant pile of dog poop…
#1. We probably lost a starting offensive tackle… How long?
#2. Winston looked like a rookie and as bipolar as he looked last year at FSU.
#3. This offensive line is still crap…
#4. Our pass rush is bleak, weak and in need of a freak… Sign Aldon Smith…
#5. Our special teams were bad…
#6. Our pass defense was terrible… Viking receivers running wide open every play…
That’s just the beginning… Unfortunately this game gave no answers only many question marks…
Poor quality showing all the way around… Booooooo….
August 15th, 2015 at 11:21 pm
@ToesOnTheLine!
I view it like this: He should get better from game to game.
The sky isn’t falling yet. I figure that losing preseason games is no big deal. Teams have lost them all and won superbowls. No biggie.
August 15th, 2015 at 11:23 pm
I forgot…Murphy looked good too. He looks like he could thrive in this offense. He caught the ball on the move and got YAC. I think he had the best game of them all.
August 15th, 2015 at 11:25 pm
It was about what i expected. Good showing from Martin before he got sat down. Winston never seemed to find a rhythm until his sciring drive. And as i feared, this Oline would br the snag in Winstons development. Saw the same happy horse shiz last year and it was never resolved.
August 15th, 2015 at 11:29 pm
i think we can all agree that winston isn’t close to being ready.
I know its early but you can’t put him out there.
games are won and loss in the front office.
we had the first chance in the HISTORY of the franchise to get a franchise QB
and what do we do………..pass on him wow
August 15th, 2015 at 11:30 pm
Damn that defense is still awful. I know Winston is gonna have some rough patches but hard to judge when he’s with a diff line and not the starting receivers. But man that d still sucks
August 15th, 2015 at 11:32 pm
Here we had a simple offense against our great starting defense. They were run over like they were not on the field. In a true game it would have been a blow out that fast. Can you imagine if a team had prepared something complicated?
August 15th, 2015 at 11:38 pm
And after all these years can we please find a special teams coach to teach returners not to run backwards!
August 15th, 2015 at 11:42 pm
Jenkins needs to retire now!
August 15th, 2015 at 11:47 pm
Their O Line blew us 5 yards off the ball, when they ran in the first TD.
It was their starters vs our starters too.
I know it is just preseason, but that was an old fashioned ass whipping we let Minnesota put on us tonight.
August 16th, 2015 at 12:00 am
Went about as I expected. The QB is a slow-footed rookie playing behind a bad offensive line. It’s going to be another long season. The QB will be fine, once a real line is put in front of him (don’t try to sell me on JW’s running ability because of the TD run against 3rd teamers in a preseason game). He may be all that’s advertised, but the defenses aren’t even scheming for him yet, and they’re already teeing off like it’s Christmas and they’re a couple sacks shy of hitting their incentives….
Our own defense has some talent, and some depth, but that depth seems to be chock full of “joe’s”…especially at DE.
Yep, lets not get too smug about who ended up with the better QB, nor about which team has a miserable offense…until we have a real offensive line…we’re the one’s they’re laughing at…
August 16th, 2015 at 12:21 am
The Bucs will do good this season, I expect for them to win the division. This was a preseason game, nothing more, nothing less. I’m still on board with the Bucs, and i’m not going to flip over a preseason game. In this game I seen some positive plays and I seen some negative plays, they gotta go to the film room and make adjustments. We didn’t get any type of pressure from our starters, that will change. Joe Cullen have to light a fire under them, our special teams were horrible. But my main concern was the running game and they actually had a good game. So it wasn’t that bad of a game, it’s a start to better things.
August 16th, 2015 at 12:32 am
I watched the NFL Network coverage here in Chicago. The Vikings announcers didn’t have the names for 7/8 of the Bucs team. Bad Movie..!!
Worse than a Kung Fu movie with subtitles blocking all the action on entire screen.
Note to Lovie: No more 1/2 speed practices or walk-throughs. Full speed and full contact. Survivors play the weekend.
Kwon Alexander is the real deal. He was everywhere, all the time and bringing the pain. Unofficial stats: 300 tackles and a fumble recovery in the end zone. “Ha-Ha”
If any of you are old enough to remember Wilber Marshall from the 85′ SB Bears, Kwon must be his son. YUP..!!
Bucs #1 D looked a little…uh…WEAK..!!
Verner came to play.
Melton got lucky (good stunt) and that’s it. McCoy’s technique needs a big coaching kick in the shins.
Quick, other than Kwon, which LB did anything to cover RB’s and TE’s?
OK..OK..LD showed-up..too.
Jameis looked like all the skill is being coached OUT of him.
Just a little too tight, bro….OK?
I’m pretty certain that there are better plays to call early in a preseason game that can BUILD confidence in a ROOKIE QB, Heir Dirk.
If the early results are a product of intense blitz and playbook study and practice, we night get better results if Heir (throw the playbook at him) Dirk just lets him lift weights and work on timing with the WR’s, in Hawaii.
ATC, Jameis should try being LATE to practice and leave EARLY.
OTOH, the entire OL and DL should be shipped to Syria. Whoever comes back in 2 weeks will be named the starters.
Yeah, I know there wasn’t a GAME PLAN, per Heir (blitz him till he gets it) Koetter, for this preseason game. So, why bother calling any plays if there is no strategy to the order of the plays being called? Let Jameis call hjs own plays. Based on the aforementioned Koetter-LOGIC, he might be calling the worst D&D plays possible just to see if Jameis survives.
How about calling plays that might succeed against a jail break, like a slant or a (Non-Mariota) screen?
Glennon, of course, looked good against the 33rd string defense.
Herron has great skills….against 20th string CB’s.
VJ might have scored if he had caught the ball AND maintained his balance.
Murphy, on one leg, was open all night because Godzilla and VJ were getting ghost doubled. Gee, glad the rook noticed…after the 25th snap.
Do we have a #1 TE…who can get open…and catch…???
Memo to ST…ZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz….”WAKE the F@#K UP…!!!”
Please tell me our next preseason game is against Tampa Bay JC.
Memo to @mac: Sign Alden Smith…PLEASE…!!!
August 16th, 2015 at 6:06 am
Yeah so JW looked in the game like he looked in practice. Oh yeah practice isn’t important.
It’s going to be a very long season
August 16th, 2015 at 7:01 am
Patience? When you anoint a kid “America’s qb” before he takes a snap, well…..the rubes will be a little impatient.
August 16th, 2015 at 9:42 am
Why does Lovie insist on deferring to the second half? How did that work out last year? Try setting the tempo rather than playing from behind!
August 16th, 2015 at 9:51 am
Joe – stop with the America’s QB nonsense. Jameis is a rookie with a lot of talent playing on a mediocre team with an OL that looks like swiss cheese. This “America’s QB” talk is much too soon. Maybe in 2-3 years. Give the young man some room to mature to an NFL-ready QB. He will get there.
August 16th, 2015 at 10:41 am
Remember, real football doesn’t really start until November.
August 16th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
The Vikings looked more prepared and experienced than the Steelers in game one and they beat the Steelers. The Vikings were clearly more prepared (start with Bridgewater’s year of experience…it really has shown his first two games this season) and with the game under their belt they pretty much toyed with the Bucs who are just beginning to get things together.
The Bucs are where the Vikings were this time last year. Raw rookie QB…some promise…defense needs to pick it up…The Vikes went 7-7 and lost plenty of close games as well and they did this in a far tougher division. I still say 10-6 baby!!
Plenty of room for improvement but enough flashes to believe we CAN improve.