(Bad) Turnaround For Offense
December 14th, 2015
America’s Quarterback and the offense struggled Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)
If there was one thing Bucs fans hoped to see as they filed into the Den of Depression Sunday, it was the Tampa Bay offense clicking against an atrocious defense.
After all, it seemed the Bucs finally had an offense the team could rely on.
Not so fast…
Tables were turned. The Bucs’ offense huffed and puffed and didn’t blow down much, whereas the Saints seemed reborn on defense. For a disturbing stat, Joe introduces an item from the Custodian of Canton, eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune.
While Drew Brees was dissecting Tampa Bay’s third-down defense, the Bucs struggled on the money down, converting only four of 11. That’s a marked contrast from Tampa Bay’s previous nine games, when the Bucs clicked on 58 of 117 opportunities, a 49.6 success rate that ranked No. 1 in the NFL in that span.
That is how the Bucs sadly stumbled over themselves yesterday. Joe just cannot figure out how a third-down offense that was playing so well suddenly kept tripping over its own shoelaces against an atrocious defense.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:17 am
They had a bad game. This team is inconsistent, but that should be expected they’re still learning how to win. Moving in the right direction for the most part. They need more talent.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:19 am
They all seemed a step or two slow throughout the game
December 14th, 2015 at 8:23 am
Jameis said it 100 times in his press conference — they struggled on 3rd downs because of penalties.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:25 am
Penalties and a inaccurate QB is a recipe for losing
December 14th, 2015 at 8:27 am
The offensive line had a bad day yesterday, and it impacted everything on that side of the ball.
The defense had a bad game plan. My 8 year old son pointed out that the defensive backs wee lining up “so far off” the receivers. I like the Tampa 2 as a base defensive, but the play calling on that side of the ball was most costly.
Bad game from a young team still trying to figure things out.
My biggest takeaways were that Mike Evan needs to grow the F up, that the time that ASJ missed is KILLING the timing on offense – he’s always a yard or two away from his spot, and that there needs to be an infusion of talent on defense.
All that said, let’s not forget the Bucs were 2-14 last year. It’s a process.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:42 am
So I’ve seen several comments about the inaccuracy of Jameis. Can someone please give examples?
December 14th, 2015 at 8:45 am
So TampaTony you consider a ball going through Humpries, Martin’s and Dye’s hands poor accuracy? All on 3rd down all extremely catchable, but yeah blame the game getting drilled every play and throwing to the right spot with only backup wr’s and a crappy #1wr. You people have no idea what you are watching do you.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:54 am
@ndog … “All on 3rd down all extremely catchable …”.
I love Jameis and what he brings to the table, BUT when he’s off, it’s usually high. Not necessarily bad by the way, because he’s got some tall receivers to work with (VJax, Evans, ASJ). But yesterday he was consistently high and a number of those throws weren’t catchable. Of course, his WRs didn’t help much yesterday (especially Dontae Dye and Mike Evans).
Tampa Tony hit it right on the head: “Penalties and a inaccurate QB is a recipe for losing.” Might also want to add a defense that can’t get off the field and give the ball back to the offense.
December 14th, 2015 at 8:57 am
He missed a wide open HB Sims down the sideline late in the 4th quarter, he had overthrows that almost turned into picks. That’s inaccuracy. His 58% completions are near the bottom of the league.
Mariota who has very little to work with and no run game at all still completes 62%. Imagine if he had Doug Martin what he could do?
Another bad decision in the draft, the legacy continues.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:00 am
Spot on. Jameis didn’t have a good game yesterday. It’s to be expected. I do agree with the other posters that there were some catches that should have been easily made but weren’t.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:02 am
Sorry guys, put away your anger. Jameis was inaccurate yesterday, it’s the truth. He was high on quite a few throws and when you run a run first offense and the QB has limited opportunities you need a accurate QB. He’s a good QB but definitely needs to work on his accuracy this off season.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:08 am
@scot pederson
The last time I checked Mariota got a coach fired. So, yeah…go ahead and play the completion percentage card all you want.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:12 am
Hi Scot Pederson, thanks for being the first to admit you don’t know what you’re talking about. The pass to Sims down the sideline was dead on accurate. The problem was that Sims was bumped off his route which caused him to slow down. Go watch the replay.
The next pass to Dye hit him square in the numbers and of course he drops it. Mike Evan by himself has dropped at least 15 balls that I can think of off the top of my head. If you still think Mariota was the correct choice for this team you simply don’t know football.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:16 am
What logic are you using that Mariota got a coach fired? The Titans have no run game, there defense is horrible, they have veteran WRs who are on a major decline of their career like Harry Douglas. He has a decent TE and a rookie WR just starting to click to work with and nothing else.
Check the schedule. The Bucs have won against all losing teams except the Falcons who now are a losing team and have finally been shown who they really are. This season reminds me of the 2nd year of Raheem where they had a very soft schedule and went 10-6. They got exposed the next season.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:18 am
The Saints are having a historically awful secondary, and the Bucs basically made them look like a top flight unit. Just a very poor performance with a chance to make a playoff run. Evans has probably been the most disappointing Buc this year, he’s just not a good enough all around receiver to be a top guy. The selfishness too isn’t helping.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:24 am
@scot pederson
Your inbred redneck interpritation of the game of football is comical at best. U know what the difference between %58 and %62 is this year? Dropped passes. Say what u want but the only bad pass Jameis threw yesterday was the incompletion to Chuck on the wheel, a low percentage route. Every other pass was catchable! The only reason they look bad is that our receivers make catching a route pass look like it should be an olympic sport
December 14th, 2015 at 9:28 am
@ Jaboo
Seriously, watch the game objectively. He was inaccurate. Not bashing him, he’s still my qb. When he was on target, the receivers let him down. Last week against the Falcons he threw several passes I just knew would be picked but they went over defenders and into tight spaces only our receivers could get to. It was amazing. Yesterday, overthrows, under, behind. Had trouble even throwing screens/swings. After all that we still had a chance to tie if Dye would make the most of his opportunities. JW can’t be the clutch man he is known for if he is the only one being clutch.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:36 am
Our lack of depth at receiver was exposed again yesterday. And Jameis would benefit from some sort of accuracy drill, because his inaccuracy, it hasnt killed the team, but it has been a recurring theme all year. And somehow it seems when Jameis strugles most with his accuracy is when M Evans struggles with his pass catching the most. Idk what that means, just a trend I have noticed.
This defense needs some juice. Its sad to see that a 21 year old rookie brings more juice to the field than guys like Mccoy and David. Especially Mccoy who is the self proclaimed face of the franchise. Come on GMc, the defense may not be why we lost, but if your a leader like you say, the defense cant come out like that with a wild card on the line. Mccoy is not a leader. He is talented. One of the best pass rushing DT’s in the league, but no way is this guy a leader. Yesterday basically showed a 21 year old rookie gets his unit to play better than Mccoy.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:36 am
@Scot
I also completed a high percentage dinking and dunking while tailgating yesterday. My receivers DIDN’T DROP an unusually large percentage of my passes. I guess I’m also better than Jameis, in elite company with Mariota.
I don’t think anyone could say MM single handedly got his coach fired but he sure didn’t help. Winning games is the only stat that truly matters. If it were about completion percentage, we’d still be playing our check down throwing giraffe.
If you wanted MM, get over it. Thou shall not covert thy neighbor’s quarterback. It’s in the bible. He went to another team.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:47 am
As I was reading your notes and remembering the game it dawned on me how / why the opposing teams defenses are doing it. The corners are goading Evans into making penalty after penalty. He has no maturity and discipline and they know it. You can see the jawing on the field. Browner was laughing at Evans, and Evans would come back and get another penalty. This kid needs to stay off South Howard and get coached up. He is becoming a disaster on the field.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:50 am
Notice your opening statement said “filed into teh Den of Depression” not “filled the Den. . .”
Plenty of open seats. they need to field a more consistent team before we can expect to rival any crowd noise records.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:51 am
We left at the end of the 3rd quarter. Beating traffic was more enticing than watching us comeback from down 14 points. I’d rather watch a competitive team that makes the other team fight.
December 14th, 2015 at 9:54 am
Did he say Mariotta, wow, (should get over it and forget the comparisons) but he was awful yesterday. This guy ran a 80+ yard touchdown last week and you barely saw his teammates coming over to congratulate him. He a good player for team, but the Bucs needed an infectious personality and got just what they needed. That being said Jameis as well as the rest of the team was a step behind in every area.
December 14th, 2015 at 10:08 am
A few of Winston’s passes were thrown too hard deflecting off the intended receivers hands over the middle. That action creates pick offs, the ball doesnt need that much heat to be a completion. I still think the wind affected Winston’s throws.
December 14th, 2015 at 10:26 am
Threw too hard? That type of stupidity got Keyshawn benched and eventually released.
December 14th, 2015 at 12:21 pm
Winston was off, no doubt but his corp of practice squad WRs didn’t help. That drop by Dye was atrocious. Evans needed to step up and he didn’t. This offense is totally different without VJax in there, and losing Murphy early in the season was big.
December 14th, 2015 at 12:50 pm
@scot pederson
If the Bucs carried a 3-10 record at this point, I have a feeling we would have started referring to Dirk Koetter as head coach somewhere around Thanksgiving. Yeah, a couple of the losses have been on Jameis, but you know what he HAS done? Lead a team that was supposed to be among the worst in the league this year to a certain level of relevancy. Those same weapons that you speak of were here last year. How’d that work out? Jameis isn’t where he needs to (but will eventually) be right now, but he’s put a lot of good things on tape. And it’s not that Mariotta hasn’t, but results count and he hasn’t been able to produce to many positives when it comes to wins and losses. That’s why coaches get fired when they shouldn’t.
December 14th, 2015 at 12:56 pm
The Saints game plan was easy, and will be the template: slow/stop Martin and pressure Winston.
Winston was throwing off his back foot all game. Hios accuracy was terrible.
December 14th, 2015 at 1:10 pm
Joe, why has no one asked Lovie why Dotson was riding the pine while Cherilus was getting beaten repeatedly throughout the game?
December 14th, 2015 at 2:10 pm
@Frank – Demar Dotson was inactive yesterday, so he was ineligible to come off the bench in relief of Cherilus.
Winston got flustered by the pressure yesterday and it affected his already suspect mechanics. He will learn to handle the pressure and he will get the mechanics corrected. He’s a 21 year old rookie that’s already playing excellent football by any standard. Just wait until the game slows down for him, he will be a force to be reckoned with for the next 15+ seasons.
December 14th, 2015 at 3:12 pm
Who decided not to play our best tackle? Our best Tackle, Dotson, wasn’t in there despite the fact he is the best Tackle on our team and has been for years, and was healthy. He should have been playing left tackle and there would not have been a long pass cancelled for Smith’s holding. I have said from the start that Smith’s best position is at Guard because he is a good run blocker but not good enough at pass blocking as his scores have shown this year by unbiased stat sites. Who ever is responsible (and I suspect WarFLOP) should be held accountable.
December 14th, 2015 at 10:34 pm
@Owlykat Says – “Who decided not to play our best tackle? Our best Tackle, Dotson”? I agree 100%. Joe wrote an article earlier in which he said Dotson is not even an average right tackle, which is delusional and based on his own prejudice against his least favorite statistical reference site. Now if we are just talking pass blocking, the statistical references that are made include sacks, QB hits and QB hurries, which are non-judgemental stats called PBE (pass blocking efficiency). So if Donovan Smith and Gosder Cherilus have a higher PBE right now than Demar Dotson had all of last year, one can conclude Dotson is the superior pass blocker? In addition, when Dotson has a better PBE than every other RT other than two, last year, he is a very talented pass blocker? Why he was made inactive the past game deserves an explanation?