Cousins’ Numbers “Misleading”
October 27th, 2015
Moving the goal posts.
Lovie Smith will have you know he’s a big stats guy.
After a while, you learn Lovie only likes the stats that fit a specific narrative.
Earlier this year, when Lovie was served red zone defensive stats that showed the Bucs were the worst in the NFL, Lovie shot back that those numbers were a form of distortion.
Along the same like of thinking, Lovie would have you not believe a box score. Yesterday, in his daily presser, Lovie was asked about Redskins quarterback Kirk Freaking Cousins completing 82.5 percent of his passes Sunday, Lovie stated those facts are twisted.
“Numbers can be misleading a little bit as far as the percentage,” Lovie said.. “You can be 100 percent and not get any yards just checking the ball down behind the line. It’s not necessarily that. It’s the plays that we did give up that I’m more concerned with.
“The percentage sometimes, if it’s third-and-15 and they complete a pass and they get seven yards and you get off the field, that’s a good thing. Third-and-long, you keep them out of field goal range – that’s a good thing. Be careful about the completion percentage a little bit. Touchdown passes, there’s nothing about being careful about that. It is what it is.”
Joe sort of understands. Lovie is not totally wrong, but he sure is moving the goal posts. The thing is, Cousins wasn’t just dinking and dunking and not moving the ball. He was throwing touchdown passes and shaming Lovie’s defense play after ugly play in the second half.
Don’t try to suggest numbers are misleading to hide the fact your defense couldn’t cover a Redskins receiver to save its life. And that is no twist, it’s all on video.
October 27th, 2015 at 5:17 am
Maybe he is twisting a lemon trying to make lemonade… Or maybe we all bought a car from a twisted car salesman and its a lemon… Either way that some twisted shhhh……..
October 27th, 2015 at 6:02 am
Joe said; “Joe sort of understands where Lovie is coming from. He is not totally wrong, but he sure is moving the goal posts. The thing is, Cousins wasn’t just dinking and dunking and not moving the ball. He was throwing touchdown passes and shaming Lovie’s defense play after ugly play.”
Okay but what I do not hear from Lovie is that he acknowledges that this led to the ****ING loss… Christ Almighty: is it not the point of playing the percentages to prevent a play where the opposing team has a decent chance of scoring a winning play????? Lovie gets a major F on that; as soon as the Skins got into scoring range everyone knew that the Skins would win unless they pulled a moronic play to stifle momentum (the Sims 3rd and 1 comes up, was that a Lovie dictate or a Koetter mistake Joe???? We remaining Buc fans would like to know!). Anyhow Lovie admits he made mistakes as did his coaching staff; next question: what will they do????? I guess nothing; why should anything be done to a poor secondary when very little was done after a bye week! And to refresh everyone: the Jags put 31 up on LOVIES D before the bye week… One would expect adjustments, perhaps a poor player benched but we saw NONE of that, in fact one sorry SOB got 3 personal fouls and still took the field, pathetic Lovie, pathetic…..
The Glazers only see dollar signs, so how to tell the Glazers we are sick of Lovie: do not renew season tickets and phone One Buc Place Now! Tell them you will not purchase another ticket at RJS until Lovie is fired!!!!! Let the local TV markets in Tampa. Fort Myers and Orlando quit showing the team and lets see how the Glazers react…. Part of me expects them to be glad as they will ask to move the Bucs to london for 2 games but I also think the morons realize that lovie is killing current sales; be proactive businessmen and fire Love Glazer group!!!!
October 27th, 2015 at 6:11 am
@Joe … “…the fact your defense couldn’t cover a Redskins receiver to save their lives Sunday.”
Not only was it true Sunday Joe, it’s been true all season. Lovie might not be “totally wrong” as you say, but the one stat that does count … Points Allowed … sure is. And that’s the result of our pathetic pass defense.
I’m now a believer that it’s the WHOLE defense. Every position is underwhelming. Rarely does anyone ever seem to ‘make a play’ (Lovie’s favorite phrase?) when it’s really needed. Third-and-long? We’ll find a way to give it up. Need a penalty to keep a drive alive? No problem. Inside the Red Zone? Take your pick,
pass or run. Doesn’t matter to us, we’re pushovers.
Our problem is partially Lovie himself (much too conservative and predictable), but it’s also partly the result of years of poor drafting and letting some decent players leave. Could we use a Michael Bennett or an Aqib Talib right now? Damn straight we could. Draft poorly and you end up bringing in a bunch of free agents whose last team didn’t value them enough to re-sign (Jenkins and Jennings?) or who we have to pay big bucks to and then they underperform (Michael Johnson?).
Right now no one on the defense is playing at an All-Pro level, even GMC and Lavonte. All are playing like a bunch of journeymen, which most in reality are. Even if we focus on defense for the next couple of drafts, odds are that what we’re seeing will continue for several years at least, regardless of who the HC or DC is. At best we’ve just become the Tampa Bay Saints … good offense, little defense.
October 27th, 2015 at 6:29 am
Lovie when he talks “Misleading”!!!!
October 27th, 2015 at 6:42 am
After going 4-18, barely, you have to ask yourself if you reasonably expect Incompetent Lovie Smith to be the leader that can bring a championship to Tampa Bay. If the answer is no then you must start preparing to find a replacement that can.
Incompetent Lovie Smith is not even capable of fielding a respectable product to watch on Sundays much less a championship product. Oh and didn’t he say when he was hired that he was bringing some respectability back to this franchise? What a miserable failure. Sadly, I don’t think the Glazers have the collective stones to dismiss a 4th HC in 7 years. They are in a pickle because you know they no longer believe that incompetent Lovie Smith is bringing a championship caliber product to this town at any point in the future but after all the mistakes they have made in firings and hirings you also know they will have a hard time admitting that the Lovie hire was a mistake too. It’s a pride thing. Hold your breath because the ship is sinking fast and hold your nose because the sht is being shoveled right on fans’ heads.
October 27th, 2015 at 6:43 am
Why does every posted picture of Lovie look like he is taking a dump…
Or is that his game plan face…???? Or afte another loss face ????
October 27th, 2015 at 6:52 am
Does Lovie really think the fans and media are that stupid to buy what hes trying to sell? Lovie’s entire defense from front to back is playing poorly. There is no excuse for it.
October 27th, 2015 at 6:55 am
It was guarantee after we didn’t score to close it out they would march down and scored. Lovie did you not notice they passed at will on us the entire second half. Nothing misleading apparently your philosophy of giving up small short passes ain’t working cause you could not stop it. Maybe you should worry about little plays and big plays cause not many plays for losses by your D. Defense has been figured out since last year check the numbers and numbers don’t lie 2-14.
October 27th, 2015 at 6:59 am
Where is all the derisive “Animosity Amigos” sht talk? Funny how it disappears when incompetent Lovie Smith starts losing football games to bad opponents. In fact, some of those same commenters peddling that “Animosity Amigos” crap are now the ones on here slamming incompetent Lovie Smith and calling for his head.
Sweet irony.
October 27th, 2015 at 7:27 am
I believe we do have talent on this defense. Not at every position but enough for a good coach to work with.
If “every position is underwhenlming” as DefenseRules states, then you have to look at scheme.
I don’t know that the Tampa Two is completely dead but I wonder about Lovies version of it and the way it is being implemented here…
October 27th, 2015 at 7:29 am
I couldn’t even finish reading the quote. What a delusional hack this guy is.
October 27th, 2015 at 7:32 am
Lovie needs to go. Simple as that.
Also, while he is a really good player, GMC can no longer be the leader of this defense. Someone else must step up and assert themselves. This type of losing can not be tolerated any longer. Gerald has been the common denominator in too many defensive implosions. It is quite obvious at this point that he is no more than a very talented complimentary piece, not a cornerstone.
I hope that Lovie is shown the door before I finish typing this. If Leslie Frazier is promoted to HC for the rest of the season I hope that lights a fire under him and he finds someone on this defense with the killer instinct we need. Perhaps Kwon needs to stand up to Gerald and LVD and take control.
October 27th, 2015 at 7:37 am
Did Lovie take his meds?
The double talk from him is just absurd.
October 27th, 2015 at 7:38 am
He just never owns anything. That’s what’s most annoying about him off the field. Just say he tore apart a simple defense with the same 4 routes over and over again.
October 27th, 2015 at 8:01 am
Pete, Kwon was terrible on Sunday.
October 27th, 2015 at 8:24 am
Dude is losing it. What about the 3 TDs and over 300 yards his D gave up? That’s a pretty telling stat. Anyone know how much YAC our D has given up while we run the “Tampa Trail?” Has to be worst in league
October 27th, 2015 at 8:54 am
Prickly Pete was here doing our weekly matchup videos yesterday and I asked him how long does he think Lovie has…”Not very” was his answer.
October 27th, 2015 at 9:29 am
I read this website everyday, but rarely post. I can’t take it anymore. Lovie is just killing my will. I don’t know why it isn’t brought up more, but why did the Bucs only dress 4 wide receivers? I did ask this on an earlier post this week but I never heard Lovie asked the question. With Evans coming off a hammy and VJ’s age and Dye’s inexperience, how do you only dress 4? He should be shuttling WR’s in left and right. He should be dressing 6. He is handcuffing Winston and the kid is playing great anyway. Between bad routes (early) and dropped balls (early), Winston has still played great. Of course, he is going to make bad plays on occasion, anyone watch Flacco and Ryan and Rivers and Brees lately, they all make occasional bad throws. If anyone who has ever watched Winston play football, he just wins, so let him go and win games for us. On the goal line, run pass option all day on 2nd and 3rd down, did he even watch Winston at FSU? No way was that Koetters calls down there. BTW, Doug Martin is our feature back so STOP taking him out on big downs, STOP trying to prove that the guy YOU took in the 3rd round is better than Martin. He’s NOT!! Sims is playing very well this year when he is put in the game in the right situation. We have no tight ends, ASJ is made of glass, yet he trades a super bowl winning hybrid TE for an unproven kicker and leaves us with 3 blocking TE’s should (when) ASJ goes down. Go coach PeeWee football and leave my Bucs alone!!
October 27th, 2015 at 9:34 am
The bucs can maybe get 3 more wins this year.. an imploding colts team, the Bears, but Cutler can throw to a TE and then the last game of the year against the Panthers where they may rest their starters… at most thats 5-11… abysmal and that is not showing improvement… The Bears will be playing for Fox that late December game the bucs will be done.. so realistically the bucs have one more winable game and thats the Colts…. fire Lovie and move on from this disaster
October 27th, 2015 at 9:35 am
Lovie needs an upset of the Falcons to quiet the discord surrounding him.
October 27th, 2015 at 9:47 am
Hey Lovie, here are the important numbers:
31-30
4-18
October 27th, 2015 at 10:07 am
I’d say send him to Plant high, but they would not want him
October 27th, 2015 at 10:21 am
The eye in the sky doesn’t lie, and it shows Kirk Cousins carving up the Bucs like a Thanksgiving turkey. Spin all you want, the Bucs defense is not very good.
October 27th, 2015 at 10:35 am
The bucs giving up 32 throws and 300 yards and 4 total tds and 0 picks to yet another schmuck don’t seem too misleading to me. We stopped the run, and they were just fine with that. So many stinking excuses.
October 27th, 2015 at 11:44 am
It’s sad that he can’t own up to what is SO obvious.
Every pass stat the redskins had was positive for them and not misleading in any way lol. We didn’t get any pressure/sacks and the coverage was f&cking terrible.
There is no way Verner could be as bad as Mike Jenkins. Lovie probably f8cked verner’s potential up by his romance with a horrible corner that shouldn’t even be on the team because of how absolutely pathetic he is.
Jenkins literally gives like 5-7 yard cushions on every play. He is never in position to do sh1t. And it’s not even elite WRs making him look like trash. It is trash redskin 3rd stringers losing him on simple moves
October 27th, 2015 at 11:51 am
“Where is all the derisive “Animosity Amigos” sht talk?”
Hey I am still here my liege. I don’t really take back how I felt about what you guys were saying at the time given all that had happened. The defense DID improve substantially last year. Only ONE time did we give up 30+ points in the final 10 games.
Why the f*ck would you just assume a complete random regression from that?? We were giving up an average of closer to 20 points over the final 10 games. That hard evidence was the basis for my prediction the defense would be average.. because THAT’S WHAT IT WAS AT WORST LAST YEAR.
It boggles my mind man. Congrats on being right on predicting a random defensive regression but that sucks for my team. I’m sad to be wrong but can admit Lovie’s D looks like sh1t now. There was no reason to think it would given his history as a head coach statistically along with the final 2/3 of last season; but congrats on being right and having the instinct to know that things would just be horrible.
October 27th, 2015 at 1:19 pm
I stopped caring about completion % when the NFL started making it to easy for QBs and WRs. I remember when if you were 60% or above you were considered an accurate QB but not if you arent over 65% you are considered inaccurate. However when a team(s) runs the same routes over and over and over again completing them non stop and nothing is done to adjust.. Well that is one the coaches and players.
I think Bridgewater is a good example of a misleading completion %. Last year and so far this year he is around 65% but he is pretty much a dump off QB that only looks good on wide open throws and if someone breaks a dump off / screen pass for big yards. He really struggles with what people call ” NFL throws ” and passes downfield.
October 27th, 2015 at 2:21 pm
I can’t help but feel they might pull it together.