Execution On Greg Olsen
October 6th, 2015
Perhaps the only thing keeping Joe from the mental meltdown being suffered by legions of Bucs fans is the fact the Tampa Bay defense, specifically Lovie Smith, finally executed a plan to stop Panthers tight end Greg Olsen.
Lovie and Leslie Frazier couldn’t figure that out last year. Olsen torched them in consecutive games with backup Derek Anderson throwing him the ball.
Sunday was a different story. Well done, Coach.
Lovie ordered safety Bradley McDougald to shadow Olsen, who finished the game with just two catches for 28 yards on six targets. Damn good stuff against a Pro Bowl tight end, and a guy entering Tampa coming off a 134-yard, two-touchdown game.
“That’s tough duty having to, you know, spend the majority of your day trying to guard Greg Olsen,” Lovie said of McDougald, via the Buccaneers Radio Network.
“Going into the game we wanted to play a lot of man coverage and matchup Bradley McDougald on Greg. I thought he did a good job throughout the day. I think Greg had a couple of catches, but pretty good coverage when he was matched up with him most of the day.”
McDougald was sketchy at times, but he certainly got the job done.
It was something former safety Mark Barron never seemed to be able to do, when he was tasked to shut down the great basketball-like tight ends of the NFC South. Olsen, Jimmy Graham and Tony Gonzalez.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Celebrating the fact in this post is like coming back from a party and celebrating the fact that the bitter, lousy-tasting punch didn’t have a turd floating in it.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:17 am
Lol I’ll celebrate this little turd nugget of success
October 6th, 2015 at 11:20 am
This is total bs, sorry. Olsen was wide open on several plays, cam just missed him by a half an inch. His first catch was a screen pass in the first series. And his second was down the seem.
Mcdougle didn’t do jack squat, cam simply missed Olsen for some huge gains. And I bet if we didn’t gift them a lead he would have put up probowl numbers as usual vs this soft passive zone. Look at what Ginn did to Jenkins. Gimme a break!!!
Sorry but NOPE!!!
October 6th, 2015 at 11:20 am
Yup, moral victories are what we’re seeking 20 games into a new regime. Wasn’t close to this bad under Raheem.
October 6th, 2015 at 11:25 am
BREAKING: Lip stick placed on pig — still a pig
October 6th, 2015 at 12:59 pm
Gotta admit he did shut him down. Kudos to Mcdougle. Hope he Keeps this kind of play going.
October 6th, 2015 at 3:29 pm
Agreed DB55!
We got extremely lucky on at least 2 of those targets. I’ll give McDougald credit for 1 pass break up and 1 good defensive coverage on another.
October 6th, 2015 at 6:22 pm
I’m glad, but it cost me a lot of fantasy points.