Lovie Feeling Schiano Pain
October 15th, 2015
A ex-Buccaneer explains the troubles facing defensive coordinator/ head coach Lovie Smith
Greg Schiano made it very clear why his Bucs defensive line was almost always dancing in line stunts, blitzes were commonplace, and Darrelle Revis, Johnthan Banks and Hawk Goldson were snagged in the same offseason.
Schiano had zero faith in his four-man pass rush and was determined to compensate for it.
Enter Lovie Smith. After a disastrous defensive season, Lovie is blitzing more and subsequently playing more man-to-man defense.
Why? Because he’s only got one strong pass rusher.
This is not just Joe spouting off.
Former Bucs defensive end Steve White, a true Xs and Os guru, has been studying Bucs film and shared takes on WDAE-AM 620 today.
White was down on the defensive ends and the poor discipline shown up and down the defense.
“You gotta get the defensive ends rushing. Period. Jacquies Smith has got to find a counter move to his speed rush,” White said. “His speed rush is pretty good. He almost got a sack on Sunday, as a matter of fact, Blake Bortles is just kind of big and was able to run out of his tackle. But he runs around [wide] way too much as a left defensive end. So he’s letting quarterbacks, drift out that way.
“He’s pretty much our best pass rusher at defensive end by far, and even he’s flawed. So we’ve got to find a way to get our defensive ends going. Period. Point blank. So we’re not putting our corners on this island all the time blitzing so much.
” We gotta get our linebackers to drop back when it’s pass, even when it’s play action. We gotta get everybody to be more disciplined, when you’re talking about in coverage and your gaps against the run. Those are mental things. These aren’t really physical things. I’m not really telling you any of these guys can’t do what they need to do. I’m just telling you that they aren’t.”
Harsh stuff there from White, who doesn’t pull punches. So refreshing and not always common from former Buccaneers.
White also explained that Lovie is in what Joe calls the Schiano pickle.
“With our defense and with our corners, somebody is always pretty much open when we play man-to-man. So it’s a double-edged sword,” White said. “Do you hope that our pass rush comes around? Or hope that Gerald McCoy just gets a 1-on-1 and win, like he normally does, without the defensive ends getting in the way? Or do you take a chance and blitz? It’s kind of hard to get things going when you’re put in that situation as a defensive coordinator.”
Yes, the Bucs are a little talent-challenged on defense, but the talent they have is not being maximized and/or isn’t performing.
The excuses have to end. Second-rate offenses like the Jags’ and Panthers’ won’t be in their faces all season.
October 15th, 2015 at 11:26 am
Funny how Coach Schiano knew right away, and it took Lovie over a year to realize this. A couple more good draft and Lovie can have this team at 7-9 or 8-8!! Overwhelming talent and Underwhelming coaching!!!!
October 15th, 2015 at 11:39 am
Off topic:
Mark Barron has taken out Carson Palmer and Ben Rothlisberger. But most impressive he broke Aaron Rodgers “No Int at home” streak that he’s had for years now.
October 15th, 2015 at 11:43 am
“Yeah, it is passive,” Barron said of Smith’s Cover 2 defense, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “That’s kind of the only thing I didn’t like about it a lot of times. I had to sit back and I couldn’t really be as aggressive as I wanted to in that system. So yeah, I would most definitely say that.”
October 15th, 2015 at 11:50 am
@DB55,
Settle down there cowboy. He never laid a finger on Palmer. Palmer tore his ACL sidestepping Barron. He fell when trying to sack Big Ben, and crawled to him like a 2 year old. Both were fluke injuries. Him tipping an Aaron Rodgers pass doesn’t exactly make him Ed Reed. He still sucks.
October 15th, 2015 at 11:58 am
The Buc Realist Says:
October 15th, 2015 at 11:26 am
Funny how Coach Schiano knew right away, and it took Lovie over a year to realize this. A couple more good draft and Lovie can have this team at 7-9 or 8-8!! Overwhelming talent and Underwhelming coaching!!!
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Lovie probably was more hands off with the defense last year and left more of those decisions up to his defensive coordinator since he was forced to spend more time with the offense in the absence of having an offensive coordinator. BTW did you see the AFC player of the week this week? Imagine what last season could’ve been if the team had an OC.
October 15th, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Realist and DB you are right on, how can schiano realize lack of talent and then adjust his system immediately and it takes slow lovie 2 years, glazers better wake up and see that sean paytons are liayng around waiting to be the bucs coach…go get payton this is his last year in NO…..heck trade Lovie straight up for payton and throw in a 2nd rounder
Barron is a beast and licht and lovie again were fleeced, rams defense is one of the best in the NFL and baron is a big reason
October 15th, 2015 at 12:23 pm
Lovie’s had 2 years to add fa’s and draft picks to our defense and were still giving up 31 pts to the jags and 40 to the texans. He also hand picked the d coordinator who now has been shut down. So maybe he can turn it around but up to now he’s disappointed for being a said defensive guru. Those types are supposed to upgrade the unit he hasn’t done that yet.
October 15th, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Meh Schiano’s stupid stunts never produced sacks or good defense whatsoever. All it did was stuff the run game because we’d just hold the line basically without caring about pressure on the QB.
Right now the Bucs have 15 sacks through 5 games and are tied for 6th in the NFL. So at least we are getting sacks.. on pace for close to 50 for the year
In 2012 Schiano’s stunts produced 27 total sacks on the year; 3rd worst in the league.
In 2013, Schiano’s Bucs stunts had 35 sacks on the year; 4 better than Jacksonville’s 31 which was last in the league.
We only had 36 last year; but like 27 of them came over the final 10 games; which was a 43+ sack season pace.
Just keeping it “real”
Schiano also never had a 10 game stretch like we did last year on defense in any year and neither did Raheem. Our defenses were bottom of the league in most categories with those guys basically and on their last years were getting blown out 2nd half of the season.
The only positive thing during those coaches tenure was the Josh Freeman lead offenses doing well in stretches. And I attribute that to good QB play more than either coach.
October 15th, 2015 at 12:37 pm
Well it’s good to see Realist back again…
It must have taken you a couple of days to get over that win on Sunday.
October 15th, 2015 at 12:38 pm
You know, there could be an article about how the Bucs cheerleaders all had a synchronized wardrobe malfunction and some commenters would get right back to the “Lovie sucks” routine. Followed by Revis laments.
October 15th, 2015 at 12:45 pm
“Barron is a beast and licht and lovie again were fleeced, rams defense is one of the best in the NFL and baron is a big reason”
lol wtf. 10 solo tackles in 5 games.. Just checked my fantasy defensive player points which take into account tackles/ interceptions / forced fumbles / etc on the year and he’s like in the 150-200 rankings and no where near any decent safeties / corners in terms of impact plays. Also don’t see any recent positive articles about him when you google his name. Not sure if you’re just talking out your as5 or what.
“were still giving up 31 pts to the jags and 40 to the Texans”
Um we gave up 19 to the Texans. Carolina scored a lot on us but 27 of their points were off offensive turnovers. They literally only had 1 TD scoring drive the whole game basically and it was a freak fumble they recovered for a TD.
But nope it’s the end of the world for these Bucs with Lovie and Schiano; one of the worst HCs ever; is somehow a genius in bizaro world today
October 15th, 2015 at 12:52 pm
@ Lord Cornelius, Uh my bad meant titans not texans. You still remember that game right. Our defense for points allowed is ranked at the bottom level of the league..
October 15th, 2015 at 1:26 pm
Lovie is an idiot, idk who respects him as a defensive coach but nobody should respect him as a head coach. He is incompetent and stubborn
October 15th, 2015 at 1:29 pm
“@ Lord Cornelius, Uh my bad meant titans not texans. You still remember that game right. Our defense for points allowed is ranked at the bottom level of the league..”
Yeah that game was f*cking horrible and I blame Lovie for it. 42 points definitely does not help your average points per game given up in a 5 game sample.
But Lovie isn’t at fault for how we lost our other 2 games. Fact is the D has played well enough to win 4 games if you look at the performance objectively and can understand how many points came from the offense turning the ball over. We can just quickly look:
vs Titans – 14 points off interceptions (one a pick 6)
@ Saints – 7 points off fumble in own territory
@ Houston – 7 points off interception
vs Carolina – 27 points off turnovers & short fields; including a pick 6
That’s 55 points lmao. Take those out and the d is giving up 18.6 points per game which would put them at 7th overall. Now I don’t think we’re playing near that level whatsoever but I think we are somewhere in between these extremes… we’re in the bottom 3 in giveaways on offense and that has to be taken into consideration if you’re trying to be objective; and a lot of them have put the other team in FG position right off the bat.
I get people love bashing Lovie but if you think he’s the reason we lost against Houston & Carolina then I duno what game you were watching.
pick 6 to Titans; and a later interception for Td to TItan = 14 points
Kind of explains why we’re 8th in yards given up but bad in points given up.
October 15th, 2015 at 1:46 pm
Good points lord Cornelius but I’d still say I’m a little disappointed with Lovie’s defense up to this point. It’s still early on Lovie. Unless their a disaster, I’m generally into giving a coach at least 3 years. When you factor in all the personnel decisions and continuity it makes sense to give coaches a long leash.
October 15th, 2015 at 2:06 pm
We can B and moan all we want. it ain’t going to change. Lovie will still be saying and doing the same thing for the remaining 4 years he is here. The Glazers will conduct the same “intensive search for a coach (cough)” after they fire lovie.
We will talk about the building of a new system after the hire and how much time the team has to get it right.
This only stops when they hire someone like Dungy to be team president and build a proper system from the ground up.
October 15th, 2015 at 2:09 pm
“Good points lord Cornelius but I’d still say I’m a little disappointed with Lovie’s defense up to this point. It’s still early on Lovie. Unless their a disaster, I’m generally into giving a coach at least 3 years. When you factor in all the personnel decisions and continuity it makes sense to give coaches a long leash.”
Agree. Sorry if I came off angry or antagonistic I just feel the need to defend people a little if I can for whatever reason lol.
I was really disappointed week 1. To the point that I would have fired Lovie myself lol. But the D plyed great against the Saints and forced Houston to punt a lot. Other than one blown coverage TD they had to earn their first downs allay with tough window caches. Against Carolina they held a lot of turnovers by the offense to FGs and really never gave up any normal sort of TD drive and forced punts and gave the offense enough chances to win the game.
Coverage was terrible vs Jaguars. Here would be my weekly assessment:
Week 1 – total failure & bad preparation. D was as bad as it gets.
Week 2 – great defensive performance getting pressure on Brees all day. Winston plays composed and made enough big plays to win.
Week 3 – defense forced plenty of punts and only had the one bad TD given up. Kicker had horrific performance and kept us from taking the lead multiple times in a game we could have won. Winston probably played his best game but had 8 dropped passes. Should have been a 300 yard multi TD day.
Week 4 – Winston total collapse. 27 points given up by offense. Defense held multiple turnovers to FGs but offense couldn’t stop turning the ball over.
Week 5 – Worst defensive performance since week 1 but good enough to win; with a fumble TD and some key sacks. Biggest problem were our corners being beat every play.
The D needs to play at the level it did in weeks 2-4 for us to be a great team. But at least we’re seeing flashes of progress in my opinion; between the O-line; Winston; and various defensive players (J Smith / Kwon / Gholson / L David finally looking good last week).
October 15th, 2015 at 2:27 pm
Steve white zzzzzzzzzzzz Smith is best pass rusher still flawed in yr 2? White, has as many sacks as you in your 7 yr career. With less talent around him. Just saying.
Joe will never understand why fans blast commentators based on their playing accomplishments. It makes no sense. Are we to think every coach is worthless if he wasn’t a Pro Bowler? If Mike Glennon plays 10 years as a backup and then does analyst work, is he immediately a no-nothing boob because he criticizes a current starting QB? Shaun King was an extraordinary college QB and played six or seven NFL seasons, yet some idiots think he’s a buffoon because he wasn’t a stud player. –Joe
October 15th, 2015 at 2:38 pm
Simple as that! Jack smith > Steve white
October 15th, 2015 at 2:59 pm
@Lord Cornelius
PREACH BOY!!!
Let’s not also forget that Gerald McCoy is leading all DT’s in sacks so far! AND COUNTING BOYS!! WOOOOOO!!
“It’s as simple as that” – Lovie Smith aka “Mr. Competent”
“Lovie Smith is a Great Coach!” – Kwon Alexander
October 15th, 2015 at 3:26 pm
@LaMarcus,
How many sacks did you have on your NFL career?
October 15th, 2015 at 4:08 pm
You know who’d be great at fixing the pickle as a lock-down corner, which in turn would help the pass rush, Darrelle Revis….oh wait, we didn’t need him. We needed The ghost Johnson, and Anthony Collins instead….that worked out well.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:21 pm
Jacques Smith does need another counter move to his speed rush. So does George Johnson, William Gholston and TJ Fatinkun. Both Smith and Johnson have tendencies to run way too wide, not only letting quarterbacks drift out but allowing RB to get to the outside to easily. Johnson and Smith showed improvement against the Jags. It just was like they were all in to stop the run as opposed to speed/bull rushing trying to get the sack. Joe Cullen needs to add moves to their repertoire. Until they pick up another DE in the draft, there going to have to keep on blitzing. Question is.. do you go CB, DE or Safety in the first round?
October 15th, 2015 at 5:32 pm
I get people love bashing Lovie but if you think he’s the reason we lost against Houston & Carolina then I duno what game you were watching.
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Whos responcible for the team as a whole? That would be Lovie. You want to blame a rookie QB for throwing picks. Well who’s decision was it to start a rookie QB over a more experienced QB who has shown he wont lose games with silly Ints, without even allowing a competition? You got it. That would be Lovie.
I know Glennon haters wont want to hear this but I said at the beginning Glennon could very well give us a better chance to win early and it was a mistake not to atleast allow a competition, but imcompetent Lovie did what he does best and screwed that all up. YES Lovie is to blame for the turnovers. I havent given up on Winston. I still think he will be very good in time. Glennon though should of been allowed to compete for starting job though.
October 15th, 2015 at 5:36 pm
Lou., we can only hope for a reason for such an article to be written!!
October 15th, 2015 at 5:39 pm
Lamarcus, Steve White wasn’t great, but Id take him over J Smith. More size and could set the edge in the run game. He could apply pressure too.
October 15th, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Hawaii
No sacks for me no thanks
Buc Eric
I’ll take J smith over White any day as player. Simple as that.
I’m not to fond of Lovie as any one but nobody here can do his job or even to critize it. We r just fans. That’s reality owners and coaches don’t care what we think. That’s why no matter what tips or opinions we give…. they r not listening. White opinions about would of, should of, could of is irrelevant!!!!
October 15th, 2015 at 6:55 pm
@Lemarcus
If they’re irrelevant why are you commenting about them? 🙂
October 15th, 2015 at 8:04 pm
Well, its worth noting that when it comes to teams with players in the top 10 for sacks, theres only 2 teams with 2 players. Cinci and the Bucs. GMC tied for 3rd and J. Smith tied for 8th.
Now, Im trying to keep it in perspective and recognize that was against crap O lines in the Saints and Jags, but it is worth noting that little stat.