Not Ready, Not Prepared
October 26th, 2015
Special teams chief Kevin O’Dea has explaining to do
Washington head coach Jay Gruden called a “Code Red” last week, so of course the Bucs were protecting against a second-half onside kick yesterday while leading 24-14, right?
Nope.
The gruesome video evidence is here. Danny Lansanah and Bruce Carter, two veteran linebackers, are caught leaning/sleeping/unprepared.
Heck, Carter didn’t even make a strong break to the ball once he saw it was an onside kick. It almost looks like he wanted no part of the contact. Good thing Lovie Smith handpicked him in March and Jason Licht guaranteed him $4 million+ for this season.
The video also shows the Bucs’ coaching staff was unprepared, only having three guys on that side of the field, and they weren’t aligned in preparation for an onside kick.
The Redskins were the first team to touch the ball, two yards after it crossed the 10-yard threshold.
Former Bucs tight end Anthony Becht said on WDAE-AM 620 this morning that it’s clear the Bucs players were caught leaning for the deep kickoff, and they emphatically should have been told to not move until after the ball is kicked.
Becht acknowledged he doesn’t know what coaches expressed, just that it’s glaring when a whole side of the kick return team gets caught.
October 26th, 2015 at 10:40 am
O’Dea has proven to be even more incompetent than Lovie Smith. If not for Bobby Rainey taking it upon himself to make improvements the ST unit would be the worst in the league in all facets.
October 26th, 2015 at 10:49 am
accountability problems every week, usually closely coupled with Lovie’s hand-picked individuals. i don’t like the coaching carousel any more than others do, but but the lack of on-field progress says the coach-player link is broken in many position groups . the CB’s coached by Lovie’s son and linebackers coached by a former lovie star player are both veteran groups playing below their talent, and lovie’s preached-about special teams has been a circus where his hand-picked key personnel are concerned (returner, kicker, punter, and apparently coaching).
i think licht and the scouting department should stay and work with a coaching staff of his choosing. once lovie is busy during the season, the bucs seem to do a solid job acquiring players, but when lovie is more engaged during offseason and preseason, we seem to make horrible calls. and usually on players with historic links to him.
time to find a proven coordinator who wants to live and breathe X’s and O’s in his early seasons and let the front office & scouting dept do its job of stocking the roster
October 26th, 2015 at 10:51 am
i think licht and the scouting department should stay and work with a coaching staff of his choosing
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Bingo!
October 26th, 2015 at 11:00 am
O’Dea should have been fired after last season; and his retention is a reflection of Lovie and licht and their personnel savvy. Right now i give all 3 of them an epic fail! The glazers need to fire the whole lot of them but they won’t, not until after the season is over and the best candidates are signed by other teams replacing their failures; isn’t that how the glazers usually hire except for the one time they did go out and grab lovie before the Lions got to interview him…. BTW the lions HC may not last as long as Lovie but i still bet detroit could put 40+ up on Lovie’s D right now, the Bucs D is that ****ing bad….
October 26th, 2015 at 11:04 am
I remember Lovie endorsing this coach at a presser…. Another bad pick up! One could argue that Lovie has too much power and can not handle all the duties that come with it. This is a perfect example of a person being way over his head and drowning. Of course at our expense, very few HC’s are Pats successful with that much power. And Lovie is adding to that list! He should at the least be demoted of power today. And stay out of Dirks way (don’t suggest SPIT), and let Leslie do whatever he likes. Give Litche full GM power. Lovie will have more then his hands full with keeping player morale up on the sidelines during games when things go wrong.
October 26th, 2015 at 11:06 am
I had a bad feeling when we got the ball with 1:30 left in the second quarter with 3 timeouts and run the ball twice(then call a timeout!?). But I guess we didn’t need any more points and only something bad could’ve happened by trying. Sheeesh!
October 26th, 2015 at 11:30 am
Out-coached on D, O and special teams.
Good coaches find a way to win, bad ones find a way to lose.
October 26th, 2015 at 11:33 am
Onside kick belly flop, clueless coaching. Call me up in dreamland, radio to me man, get the message to me, anyway you can.
October 26th, 2015 at 11:43 am
The Bucs pulled the chump card. Obama was probably watching and let out a knee slapping shriek while the Bucs snoozed and croaked during the onside kick.
October 26th, 2015 at 12:02 pm
Hey Joe: O’Dea sure looks a lot like that lead singer for Midnight Oil. Right now “Beds Are Burning” kind of describes the state of Buc Nation and I kind of wish Lovie, and this O’Dea character could go down under and coach som Australian rules football and simply let someone more competent steer the Pirate ship for awhile…..
October 26th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
Simply more evidence of how poorly coached this team is.
October 26th, 2015 at 12:54 pm
An onside kick is a trick play. DC is not known for trick plays. We’re only talking about it because it worked. The Colts coach is now portrayed as an idiot because he called a trick play and it didn’t work.
The DC ST formation gave no clue about the onside kick. Great play if it works. Poor decision and play calling if it doesn’t work.
Our short pass defense STINKS and has been the cause of EVERY loss, period. The game was lost because of a combination of small successes by DC adding up to TD’s.
We can dissect every play, ad nausea, and it still adds up to a predictable change of momentum in the 2nd half based on their successful implementation of the short passing game.
Their running game was TOTALLY stuffed in the 1st half and abandoned. Their shift to short passes in the 2nd half was VERY predictable. The defensive adjustments (formations and assignments) were the correct tactical response. The poor individual performance (tackling) by our defense was, as usual, the problem.
A successful onside kick wasn’t the reason for the loss. Not even close.
To “now” say our ST’s are poorly coached is BS and, pardon the pun, Buc passing.
October 26th, 2015 at 1:12 pm
This one stings and hurts real bad fellow BUC fans. It ranks right up there with
our worst losses. You have a 24 pt lead and the other team..walks you down?
We have failed to clean up penalties after 6 weeks of playing. And now lead the league in penalties. Our Defense just goes blank in the 4th. We cannot line up right in the secondary nor cover. Who’s fault is this? It falls on the leader Lovie and his faith in some defensive players who have to go next season. I thought all along Lovie would get 2 seasons to make this thing work. But he might get the axe after this season with more performances like this. We come off of a bye week and make Mr Cousins look like Joe Montana? In the words of Pink Floyd..I..have become…comfortably numb.
October 26th, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Free agents are “hand picked” now? More like hand picked sloppy seconds. Great players, without baggage, don’t make it to free agency.
October 26th, 2015 at 2:47 pm
HUGE Mistake!!!!
The momentum was shifting and everybody could sense that the Redskins were desperate so why would you not guard against the onside kick and give up the “leaning towards blocking for the long return” option?
Blame the coaches
Blame the players
But even us nobodies at home knew that this was going to happen in the second half sooner or later.
October 26th, 2015 at 3:43 pm
@Mo Downs,
The onside kick wasn’t really a trick play. A trick play onsides kick happens at a time when nobody expects it. Still down 10 and time is not on their side, the Skins attempted an onside kick which was not a shock. There is zero excuse not to be ready for it and to bail before you see the ball kicked deep. It was a coaching fail. There’s no way to defend that. The Special Teams has been average at best and Lovie’s defense has been complete crap. We aren’t known for great offense in Tampa but having a cruddy defense is unacceptable. I’m not even going to start talking about Lovie’s secondary. I’m already getting nauseous.
October 26th, 2015 at 3:46 pm
@Mo_Downs,
Part of your assessment was correct, however special teams has been poorly coached since Lovie got here. We have only had 2, maybe 3 games in out of the last 22 where special teams played well.
October 26th, 2015 at 9:43 pm
This clown should’ve been fired weeks ago. Another Lovie fail.
October 27th, 2015 at 4:29 am
I guess Mo Downs would have given O’Dea a pass after that ram fiasco last year…..
One other thing: did O’Dea give the nod for Brindza over Barth or Murphy???? If so that is 2 strikes against him this season when you count yesterday’s gaffe and O’Dea had a big hand in losing 2 winnable games on the road, probably destroying any chance of the Bucs avoiding 10+ losses (more likely finishing better than 4-12). The guy is setting himself up to be a perfect fall guy for Lovie as the excuses start and he pushes accountability onto others, much like Arroyo last season….