Lavonte David: Bucs Fixed Slant Pass Woes
November 10th, 2015
The days of the Bucs giving up the booty left and right on slant passes should be over.
Lavonte David says the scouting report on the Tampa Bay defense should be changed.
Speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network last night, David said all the work on fixing the Bucs’ shabby coverage on slant routes paid off against the Giants.
Ironically, the Giants, like any sane team, came out throwing a slant on the Bucs from the opening snap. The result was David getting “in the window of the pass,” he said, followed by an off-target throw by Eli Manning, and Sterling Moore picked off the tipped pass. Here’s the video.
“For the most, I think [Sunday] we did a great job taking away the short throws. I don’t think there was a slant caught on us,” David said. “You know, the quick out route was two, three, four yard gains. I think we progressed at it. We worked on it a lot in practice, the way we switched things up coming up into this game. I think it will help us in the long run.”
Joe hasn’t watched the Giants-Bucs game a second time yet, but it’ll be interesting to see if the Bucs did, in fact, stymie all slant passes.
Regardless, the defense played well enough to win Sunday. Not great. Not quite good. But good enough, if the Bucs were able to catch the football.
November 10th, 2015 at 11:45 am
Yep. For the first time this season our linebackers were actually dropping into there coverage responsibilities. We keep throwing the CBs under the bus but in almost any zone coverage scheme the CB is responsible for the outside and the linebakers, LVD and Lansana are responsible for the inside. If we played man its on the CB, but ee don’t play much man cocerage with our sorry CBs. If you watch the tape most of the Touchdown slants were thrown on LVD. He’s a heck of a player but he has been trying to do more than his role all season and has looked like a shadow of who he has been. Do you job, and just your job.
November 10th, 2015 at 11:58 am
If the CB can stay closer to their man then the defense might be able to pull their own weight
November 10th, 2015 at 12:00 pm
@Destro44
Our LB play in coverage is improving but it has a long way to go. When we are in C2 n C3 stopping the slant is the OLB’s responsibility. They have been doing a pisspoor job. On the 4th defensive play of the game, it was 3rd and long, Alexander jumped slant route that was covered by Verner. As a result he left his zone and Eli hit a big seem route right where Alexander vacated. This is textbook, for not doing your job. Furthermore David got a PI penalty and was beat in coverage in the first quarter.
I only looked at the tape from the first quarter. These players need to be held accountable as well as the coaches. David and his mates are not commented to coverage all they do is run downhill and get faked out of their boots. However, IMO, the coverage was better yesterday.
November 10th, 2015 at 12:05 pm
@SadBuc
Also in 3rd in short we have been playing more press man coverage. In the first quarter, we were in cover 3 as a base cover 2 on second/third and long, and we blitz about 3 times for what I could tell. In our blitzes Eli just side step, and there was not pressure from the inside.
November 10th, 2015 at 12:20 pm
While it may be true that the slant has been fixed (won’t argue that point yet), the intermediate in/seam/post is still a liability. OBJ was wide open at that spot multiple times during the game (which, of course i benched him in fantasy).
I too, would like to see more press on the WR. Is there not a such thing as press zone? Can’t you press the receiver than then move back to your area of the field? Its so rare that you see the redirect of a WR.
I’m wondering if the front office is going to go with the Peyton Manning route with Jameis when it comes to the draft…an offensive player in the first round. I would almost say at this point, DB (specifically Safety) is more important than DE…although more important is very relative in this situation. almost like a 1 and 1a ranking.
November 10th, 2015 at 12:52 pm
What took so long? For two months every QB has carved us up on quick slants, especially on 3rd down. What are they not seeing in the film room that they saw this week?
November 10th, 2015 at 12:57 pm
Why does this happen in week 9? Even average fans can see this has been a problem all year.
November 10th, 2015 at 1:10 pm
now if we can fix mike evans hands we will be in good shape…GO BUCS!!!
November 10th, 2015 at 1:33 pm
The Buc defenders rarely break up a pass….either it is completed….dropped or off-target.
We play too far behind the receivers and don’t jam them on the line. Our safeties play too deep and don’t respond quick enough while our LBs bite too hard, too often on play-action…..other than all that, our pass coverage is good.
November 10th, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Wow. Game 8 we fixed a problem we saw in Game 1.
November 10th, 2015 at 2:40 pm
Tampabaybucfan … You hit the nail squarely on the head. But in addition, the DEs are getting ridden out of each play … they’re non-factors. They have to be the ones to get the QB to move, and they’re not doing that hardly at all.
November 10th, 2015 at 2:48 pm
@ Defense Rules
Oh….I completely agree with the pass rush woes…..it starts there….it can make a good secondary look mediocre and a mediocre one (ours)….look very bad.
That extra 2-3 seconds makes a world of a differnce and gets WRs open.
I will say this…..with the two step slants…..we could have a pair of Pro Bowl DEs and they wouldn’t make a difference.
We absolutely positively must start jamming….or at least playing much tighter off the line….if we get beat…OK….but at least we give ourselves a chance. We seem to be allowing receivers to catch the ball with whatever yardage they need to get the first down.
Notice how few illegal contact penalties we have…..that’s because we are making no contact at all…..and we have many penalties of all sorts….but
not those.
November 10th, 2015 at 3:50 pm
@tampabaybucsfan
I wish we would start jamming and challenging receivers. I don’t see us getting beat over the top ever, but everything else is wide open. News flash those deep throws are more difficult o complete. Look at how bad Glennon was at them. Lets make people complete the tougher plays for a change.
November 10th, 2015 at 4:03 pm
IMO these are our problems: we don’t have enough d-line pressure to play zone, we don’t have enough d-line pressure when blitzing to stop the QB’s from side stepping, and we don’t have the corners to send the house. This issue has been plaguing this team for several years. McCoy has been around for 3 coaches, and the problem still exist.
November 10th, 2015 at 6:32 pm
..rock
November 10th, 2015 at 7:34 pm
When I was watching the Panthers play the Packers and their CB would play in/seem/dart/slant routes, they run parallel to the inside of the receiver so when the pass is thrown they pretty much are in the path of it, making it very difficult to complete. Granted the speed of the receiver has everything to do with the coverage. It just appears like the Bucs don’t do much about it? LVD gets burned time and time again. If you watch the replay key on LVD. He waits for the play to unfold before going into his coverage. There was one play were the receiver caught the ball and there were three Buccaneers all around him, all a step late. It is frustrating to watch.
November 10th, 2015 at 8:03 pm
@Tampabaybucfan … Interesting point about the lack of illegal contact penalties. And you’re exactly right. Hard to get called for illegal contact if you’re no place near the receiver. What’s frustrating is that Lovie and Leslie aren’t dummies; they know this defensive scheme as well as anyone. And yet even together they can’t make it work. I keep thinking that it has to be the personnel that they’re trying to make it work with.
I’m pretty much convinced that GMC is playing hurt, probably more hurt than any of us know. Lack of tackles leads me to believe that his shoulder is hurting. He was on the field for 85% of the snaps in the Giants game … far more than any other lineman (and way too many for a DT, especially a hurt DT). Having McDonald go on IR really hurt our DLine big time. McDaniel is stepping up, and I’m not sure that Melton is either. Spence is coming along, but he’s only got a couple of games under his belt now.
Our DEs obviously aren’t getting the job done. Having 2 on IR doesn’t help, and a couple others are banged up. But still, they need to show up better.
Our LBs baffle me. LVD looks lost on some plays; always a step or two behind, and his tackling this year is terrible. He’s much better than what we’ve seen this year. Kwon is a great find, but he’s really not very good yet at dropping back in the middle (same hit on Mason Foster?). Danny Lansanah has been invisible this year far as I’m concerned.
The CBs and Safeties often leave me shaking my head. I can’t figure out if they’re being told to play off as far as they are, or if they just don’t have the speed to keep up with the receivers. I know that Banks, Verner and Moore especially are a LOT better than what we’re seeing. Conte’s OK at safety, but sometimes he really leaves me shaking my head too (good tackler though). McDougald has shown me nothing this year.
Overall, poor talent level. Very little chemistry also … they’ve been terrible at backing each other up; too many incredible coverage breakdowns. I think it’ll get somewhat better this year, but not by a huge amount. The talent just isn’t there to run Lovie’s type of defense. Or any defense for that matter.
November 10th, 2015 at 8:10 pm
A season and a half too late to make this simple adjustment.
November 10th, 2015 at 8:49 pm
My question is how did it stay so bad, so long on D? I have to question if the problem isn’t largely Lovie Smith having both his sons coaching on the Bucs D at QC and at Safety. That can’t be healthy and I wonder if that is hampering info flow and how fast the Bucs address problems such as defending the slant and defending the zones in general. Sorry, but with one of worst pass Ds in the NFL and dad as HC having two sons back there, makes me wonder if there is any hope at all to an objective look at the problems.
November 11th, 2015 at 8:23 am
@ soft as tissue.those three coaches are responsible the lack of talent on this
team.Lovie came from Chicago with a poor record against above .500 teams
and has added poor record against bad teams to his resume.awful defensive end free agent DE signings.We need DE capable of taking inside route to QB
to hemn him in. A DE running in the passing lane even if he only bats the ball will help prevent short passing game.Why did players have more success with the questionable coaching of Raheem and schiano than lovie. his defense
needs players like Sapp,Simeon,lynch,brooks,and rhonde and the rest of defense did their job.