Going Turtle Explained
October 5th, 2015
Mike Evans explains why the Bucs didn’t try for a touchdown late in the first half.
Late in the first half, America’s Quarterback, Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston, marched the Bucs down the field into the Panthers’ red zone.
The clock was ticking. Surely, with a No. 1 overall draft pick and a pair of twin towers at wide receiver, the Bucs would start taking shots in the end zone to tie the game at 17-17.
But no. The Bucs went turtle, dinking and dunking the ball with shorts passes over the middle that ate up costly time before the Bucs set up for a field goal from a guy likely to be working at Subway later this week.
The results were predictable. The kicker, who has all the aim of Mr. Magoo, missed the field goal.
Mother…
Joe just couldn’t understand why, with two receivers that are 6-5, the Bucs wouldn’t try a couple jump balls. Hell, a reason the Bucs have Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson is their ability to go up and fight for the ball in traffic.
So Joe asked Evans why go turtle and he explained. In short, to use a basketball term, Evans said the Stinking Panthers were packing in it.
“They were all back in the end zone so we were just taking what they gave us, and it worked out,” Evans said.
“Worked out.” meaning it seemed the offense was content with a field goal. If that is the case, yeah, they got what they wanted, a field goal attempt. Problem is, they got what they should have expected: a missed field goal.
So Carolina flooded the end zone. How many guys are as tall or taller than Evans or Jackson? You still couldn’t try a jump ball in the corner of the end zone? Sad.
October 5th, 2015 at 8:14 am
Joe I think you underestimate the leaping ability of some of these corners. I agree that they should have at least given these guys a chance to score. And I don’t even want to talk about that kicker. He wouldn’t make it at subway, might miss placing the vegetables on the bread.
October 5th, 2015 at 8:23 am
I’m not sold on Koetter’s play calling. His last 2 years in ATL were really bad. They have essentially the same players on offense this year and are tearing up defenses.
October 5th, 2015 at 8:26 am
Lets not forget, it was Lovie who said so eloquently last year, we did not want to score any more points before the half.
Go Bucs!
October 5th, 2015 at 8:26 am
Exactly!! Every other team will throw a 40-50-60 yard bomb. Not us. We never do. Every other team will throw a 15-20 yard pass and get some YAC yards. Not us. We always throw curl routes and get tackled immediately 5 yards before the first down marker. Every other team will throw a toss up into the back corner of the endzone. Not us. We never do.
We are no fun to watch. We have no fire. We have no passion. We have no will to win. We have become France during the World Wars!! And by the looks of it, the powers that be are completely fine with that.
October 5th, 2015 at 8:31 am
“Right before the half, I didn’t want to put more points on the board. I didn’t feel like we could, only thing that could happen was something bad then.”
Lovie Smith on 9/14/2014
October 5th, 2015 at 8:32 am
Koetters play calling is fine, trying not to put to much on he rookies shoulders. When they do you see what could happen, i.e., 4 interceptions. It is a fine line with a rookie qb, great one day, not so great the next.
October 5th, 2015 at 9:11 am
Just throw an accurate pass. Just need a few inches of separation with those. Long arms of Evans and Jackson. Where is that baseball accuracy. It’s like hitting the corner with your fastball
October 5th, 2015 at 9:15 am
Joe, you do realize they were getting safety help over the top? Everybody in the stadium knows you want to throw the ball to those two guys. So they take it away and make you throw underneath. Not having ASJ is a big problem in the red zone. He makes a safety commit leaving one of the others 1:1. None of the other TE’s scare anyone.
October 5th, 2015 at 9:16 am
Reality is the 14 the Bucs lost by were a tipped ball and a freak fumble recovery. Winston is going to make mistakes, he’s a rookie and it’s expected, getting baited into throwing into masked coverages is part of the learning process, he’ll lrn from those mistakes. The huge issue that faced the Bucs in the first 3 weeks didn’t even get mentioned because we didn’t see it this week, which was the penalties, which was a nice surprise. LV is not making plays because this season instead of just flying to the ball he is now into the intellectual part of the T2 which is the how and why of where he should be and it’s slowing him down, once he’s got the hows and whys down, his game will speed up again. Than Panthers are a weak 4-0 and once they start facing strong competition they’ll start to faulted, they were ripe for the taking but we just couldn’t put it together. I more than anyone has been saying get rid of Lovie from day one, I still feel that way, it’s not the talent it’s the coaching.
October 5th, 2015 at 9:18 am
Had it been Glennon out there this is never written. Joe wants to make sure everyone knows someone else is making the play calls into the helmet. Last year when it was Dink and Dunk Glennon made all those calls .
October 5th, 2015 at 9:20 am
We literally gave them 14 points. Pick by Jameis and 7 missed points by the PK. I am huge supporter of Jameis and think he will be a star in this league. However, I hope he learned yesterday that in this league you simply can’t make that throw.
October 5th, 2015 at 9:39 am
The problem is that he’s made that throw already! How many times will he make it before he learns he can’t?
October 5th, 2015 at 10:44 am
Espo is right!!! The same mistakes he keeps Makin over and over and over and over and over and u get the point. Wats the definition of insanity???
October 5th, 2015 at 10:54 am
Lovies mindset is the Bucs should win the games 9-7.
October 5th, 2015 at 11:07 am
He threw two pics that were similar. His first pic in game 1 and the 1st pic yesterday. Both were shallow outs although I would argue the 1st pic from game one was a bad route by Humphries. Not sure what the other mistakes you are referring to that he has made over and over.
Ultimately, rookie QB’s are going to learn by trial and error. He has had exactly 4 games and roughly 4 months to learn an entirely new system with new players and coaches. You can tell he is thinking out there rather than reacting. This is typical and expected. Again, see Manning, Elway, Luck, etc… He has been up and down as they were. I believe he has shown glimpses of a very bright future. Simply look at the 8 for 8 scoring drive from yesterday. I believe he will get better and is the least of our problems.
October 5th, 2015 at 11:17 am
FUK that! I was FUKN yelling at (the TV of course) for them to heave it up to Savage Mike. He was on an island by himself on that drive with their #2 CB. They had their #1 CB on VJ and they were rolling coverage to his side. FUK! Give the big man a chance to do what he does best. Scary MF! I have been a bug supporter of Lovie. I have even gone on record saying that I think he will turn it around. That was before the season began though. Now that I’m seeing the product I’m beginning to think he’s outdated too.
October 5th, 2015 at 11:46 am
3ovie must’ve thought that his team had scored enough points before halftime. and Joe: WHY is Brindza still a Buc; I thought you’d be reporting his cutting by 6AM this morning, about the same time that Tomlin and Company parted ways with their pathetic kicker who cost the Steelers a game Thursday night…. Is Lovie going to use the kicker as a shield to take criticism as he misses 2 FGs and an extra point or 2 a game?????
October 5th, 2015 at 9:34 pm
The Bucs have no coaches. They have idiots. The best thing Buc fans can do is camp out at One Buc Place and lay siege until Lovie and his crew are fired.
October 5th, 2015 at 9:35 pm
We totally Debacled the end of the first half….
October 5th, 2015 at 11:44 pm
The Bucs need to go after the best available WR in FA next year. They need another threat other than ME and VJAX. I just watched Tim Wright catch a pass for Detroit. Man.. could this team use him now. Myers frigin stinks. To think we traded Tim Wright for Kyle Brindza.. I can’tza makza extza pointza. Just another brilliant move by Lovie Dovie & Bud Licht.
October 6th, 2015 at 9:33 am
I sure am glad Joe is not coaching. You want to throw 40 yards into the endzone with a rookie QB down 17-10 before half time? Only in hindsight do we know the kicker stinks. Common sense says take what the defense gives you, kick the FG and let your defense do it’s job. Odds are more likely that 40 yard bomb is picked off than scores.