Top 10 Defense?
September 2nd, 2015
A massive turnaround for Lovie’s defense this fall?
Even though the Bucs got pounced on by the Brownies last weekend, it’s easy to forget the Bucs had five 3-and-outs on defense. Not too shabby.
Last year, the defense started horribly. It did improve, but to be honest, it had nowhere to go but up.
In this TBO.com video with Olivia Stacey and Woody Cummings of The Tampa Tribune, Cummings makes a bold statement about the Bucs defense, as well as discussing the ever-popular offensive line issues and the bum wheel of America’s Quarterback, Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston, that the O-line helped cause.
September 2nd, 2015 at 8:37 am
Yeah Baby!!! Top Ten Defense!
Koetter will do his magic with the O-Line like he did with Atlanta’s.
Winston will grow and rally our offense!
8-8 Baby!
In Lovie and Licht I TRUST!!!
September 2nd, 2015 at 8:54 am
I expect the defense to keep the Bucs in some games against the less talented teams. There are your half a dozen wins.
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:02 am
They. Couldn’t. Stop. Josh. MCCOWN.
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:06 am
If you can’t keep McClown and Teddy Checkdown out of the end zone you have a long way to go. I’d say if all goes well they could be in the 15-20 range but not too 10
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:26 am
based on what i have seen last year and in preseason, i am supremely confident that the bucs are capable of being a top 10 Defense. In the NFC. South.
beyond that, i am hopeful but won’t believe it til i see it.
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:34 am
Pick6 – good one! Right now we really only have 2 extremes to go on. The Bengals game and the Browns game. The fact that the same team produced both those results makes me want to stock up on Rolaids and Scotch…
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:45 am
Anyone else notice what made the difference between the team we saw on D we saw on Saturday compared to the D we saw last Monday???? No? They started Melton at DT and Larry English at End, Leaving Clinton McDonald on the bench. I hope to god! That Lovie comes to his senses and realizes the most productive line up we’ll have this season, outside of any additions, will be McCoy and McDonald on the inside with Melton at LE and Jacquis/George rotating at RE. But please Lovie, please Jason, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY… GO AFTER ALDON SMITH!!!!!
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:48 am
The whole team – all 3 phases – will be a work in progress this year. All should improve as the season unfolds and we (as well as the Glazers) expect to see “improvement” this year. That may only mean 5 or 6 wins as most “experts” are predicting – but with good play and some luck it could also mean 8, 9 or 10 wins as well in a weak division with a 4th place in division schedule.
Defense is likely to be the farthest ahead of the learning curve – and if a proven defensive minded head coach like Lovie and his better than average D coaching staff can have this Defense playing at a solid or better level to start the season – then the Bucs should be competitive and in position to win a few games early in the year. A decent running attack and reasonable production from Winston and the talented skill players on offense combined with what I expect to be a top 15 Defense should win the Bucs at least 6-8 games this year IMO.
OLine is the wildcard – and its development and production will likely determine whether this team wins only 5 games or closer to 10.
If the OLine “Gels” sooner than later and is able to achieve at least top 20 blocking stats – then Winston should be able to utilize his budding NFL talent and weapons to lead us to meaningful games in November and December.
I’m hoping for more as we all are – but these seem like reasonable and achievable goals. This team is not realistically ready to compete for Super Bowls yet and we all know it – but we have quite a few talented players on both sides of the ball now (Winston, Evans, Vjax, Martin – GMC, LVD, Kwon, Verner, Banks) and should be able to at least compete well as the talented young players grow and develop.
2 more good drafts and this team will be ready to take on the best the NFL has to offer AND be built to last. Lovie & Licht have done a good job so far IMO of getting this pirate ship headed in the right direction considering the joke of a team that they inherited.
If this team can avoid a double digit loss total in 2015 – then I think expectations will have been met. Anything more than 7 wins is gravy and would likely have the entire Bay area in LOVE with its football franchise again.
Thursday’s game is truly meaningless – 97% of all player evaluations are already made and decided. Aside from perhaps a half dozen bottom of the roster decisions that still have to be made – the focus is already on the Titans almost exclusively.
Go Bucs!! Get-er-Done in week One – and lets get this season started on a positive note.
September 2nd, 2015 at 9:49 am
Please Joe, ask lovie and jason about this young man. The man has 44 sacks, 44! in his first for years, with limited playing time! It would be a god send.
September 2nd, 2015 at 10:06 am
it’s easy to forget the Bucs had five 3-and-outs on defense. Not too shabby.
Not if you’re surrounded by Bucs fans!!! We only see the bad and totally ignore the good. Another forgotten series. Quick punt return TD…McClown plays out his arse…his BEST game in years…diving head first for first downs in the PS!!!
Now we’re down 14 and reeling and Fameis throws his WORST int of the PS.
And so then our defense folds and gives up another TD and we’re down 21-0…ohhh but that’s not what happened is it? The freaking held the Browns to the FG. We can take something from that as well. Sorry to whiz on your morning breakfast with something positive.
I don’t think I’ve EVER seen SO MUCH importance placed on ONE PS game. It’s really getting amazing here!!!
And many of your opinions run complelely OPPOSITE of what the rest of the NFL believes. You are right and the REST of the league is wrong.
Teddy checkdown? I quit following the Vikes after our game but he got rave reviews from everybody…except Buc fans after those first two games where he put it on Pittsburgh and beat us. Why do we have so much trouble acknowledging that there are other good players in this league. TB is playing just fine for a 2nd year QB in fact best in his class although I saw Bortles have at least one good game.
You guys are half arsed when it comes to this team. Yes we need to clean up mistakes and ALL the thousands of negatives you all point out everyday. But to improve in life people also need to learn to build on the positives!!! We have plenty of negatives and I get that, but we also have some positives to build on and many of them are on defense right now.
I’m very happy with the “direction” our defense is headed. McClown had a career half in the freaking pre season. Keep some perspective please.
September 2nd, 2015 at 10:21 am
@Pickgrin
Excellent post with well thought out points. And I agree.
Watch out though or you’ll get blasted for two mistakes. Number one you actually made points and didn’t simply blast the Bucs. #2 When you write cogent well thought out posts some of the twitter generation here freaks because they can’t read beyond the 150 words or whatever the “Twitter” limits.
I used to believe those Twitter limits were for technological reasons..data usage and all of that, now I’m beginning to believe Twitter has realized a few lines is all that an average American can comprehend in one bite.
September 2nd, 2015 at 11:35 am
I’d rate them between 17-22. Hope I’m wrong by end of season.
September 2nd, 2015 at 12:47 pm
Cummings needs to lay off the crack. A top 10 defense? Lol please Roy.
September 2nd, 2015 at 4:22 pm
We should at least a top 10 defense, we had a 9th ranked defense in 2010 when Rah was the man. This team has better players than we had back then, and the NFC South were a whole lot tougher back then. We may have a top 5 defense, if we field the right players. A top 10 defense should be in the bag, I wanna see a top 5 defense.
September 2nd, 2015 at 6:16 pm
Who is “this young man?”