Lovie Likes Stats, Sort Of
December 29th, 2015
Lovie likes stats, so long as they don’t paint a negative picture.
Get a chance to ask questions of Bucs coach Lovie Smith, and he will have you know he is a new-age coach. He embraces football analytics.
Of course, only if those stats make him look good.
Yesterday, during in his weekly day-after presser, Lovie was peppered by members of the Tampa Bay pen and mic club for reasons why the Bucs pass defense — Lovie’s pass defense — has become such a matador defense.
Opposing quarterbacks are throwing pitch-and-catch with their receivers, which is really bad (not quite as bad as the sad Saints, but not that far away). Against the Bucs, quarterbacks are connecting on 69.5 percent of their passes, a hair below 70 percent completion percentage, which is borderline unconscionable. The Bucs were worst in the league last year at 68.7 percent.
As soon as this stat was tossed out at Mr. Analytics, Lovie immediately waved off the question and dismissed completion percentage as gobbledygook. Then, he went Sean Hannity citing context.
“First off, the completion rating can be misleading,” Lovie quickly retorted. “You have to look at the context of how it’s happening. I don’t really go by that an awful lot. You can dump the ball off and get a one-yard gain and there’s a completion so I don’t put a lot into that.”
Then Lovie began his almost daily whining about — all together now — takeaways.
Never mind in Lovie’s scheme, his cornerbacks, guys he hand-selected, can’t cover themselves with a blanket on a cold winter night and receivers run through his secondary as if someone hollered “Free liquor and women over here!”
Joe can assure you that if the Bucs somehow led the league in defensive completion percentage, not only would Lovie find that stat relevant, he would crow about it and talk about it almost as much as he does takeaways.
December 29th, 2015 at 6:20 am
As usual, the excuse maker continues to ramble about why his defense sucks so bad. Gutless, disasterous, end to what could have been a great season and I put the blame mainly on Lovie. He did not prepare his team effectively for the last four games and here we are cheering on a high draft pick again. The Tampa market being satisfied with improving from 2 to 6 wins really pisses me off. Mediocrity sucks. We are trending up but I do not applaud an epic collapse to end the season. All momentum and positives we were building on have been destroyed and now we get to start from scratch again and probably without our best coach, Dirk. We need to fire Lovie, promote Dirk, and hire the best defensive cooridinator we can get to come here. Lovie is not the answer folks. Go Bucs! And by the way, Lovie deserves to be fired just for the dozens of stupid penalties his players committed over and over and over. Out
December 29th, 2015 at 6:38 am
Have always thought allowing yards in hopes of a turnover is an asenine philosophy.
December 29th, 2015 at 6:39 am
Loser Lovie is in full spin mode to save his own butt
December 29th, 2015 at 7:09 am
He is sort of a head coach let me know when we get a real one!
December 29th, 2015 at 7:14 am
I still say his obsession with takeaways is hurting this defense. Instead of going for the tackle, or defending the pass, the players gamble to often, or try to take the ball away. Funny how Joe pointed out, Schiano’s D had MORE takeaways.. hmmm ponder that a moment
December 29th, 2015 at 7:26 am
He treats the fans with such contempt and arrogance, and acts like a know it all. You would think getting his ass kicked two straight seasons might bring about some humility, but no, it’s that the completion percentage is fine, its that fans don’t get it. It’s all part of the process, all part of the scheme. With better talent, allowing 70% completion won’t matter…
I assume the only fans that get it are the ones who’ve been on their knees for Lovie and have taken enough of Lovie’s batter that it has fried their brain to agree with his incredibly stupid thoughts.
December 29th, 2015 at 7:45 am
Incompetent
December 29th, 2015 at 8:08 am
Worst Bucs head coach since Leeman F*cking Bennet:
# Name Term[N 2] Regular season Playoffs Achievements Reference
GC W L T Win% GC W L Win%
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1 John McKay* 1976–1984* 133 44 88 1 .333 4 1 3 .250 [7]
2 Leeman Bennett 1985–1986 32 4 28 0 .125 — [8]
3 Ray Perkins 1987–1990 60 19 41 0 .332 — [9]
4 Richard Williamson* 1990–1991* 19 4 15 0 .211 — [10]
5 Sam Wyche 1992–1995 48 23 41 0 .359 — [11]
6 Tony Dungy 1996–2001 96 54 42 0 .563 6 2 4 .333 Maxwell Football Club Coach of the Year (1997)[12] [13]
7 Jon Gruden 2002–2008 112 57 55 0 .509 5 3 2 .600 Super Bowl XXXVII Champion [14]
8 Raheem Morris* 2009–2011* 48 17 31 0 .354 — [15]
9 Greg Schiano* 2012–2013* 32 11 21 0 .344 — [16]
10 Lovie Smith 2014–Present 28 8 20 0 .286 —
December 29th, 2015 at 8:23 am
Joe….don’t you know not to feed the wolves so early in the morning?
December 29th, 2015 at 9:11 am
Feed what wolves? How can anyone defend this statement? It’s funny because unto itself he is sort of right, except the saw this season and the 70% completion had nothing to do with 1 yard passes. It was a hole in the middle so gaping even Jenna Jameson was shocked.
December 29th, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Lovie is shot full of holes like his defense.
December 29th, 2015 at 7:52 pm
“You can dump the ball off and get a one-yard gain and there’s a completion so I don’t put a lot into that.”
If we simply change the “one-yard” to a four-yard gain, 3 x 4 = first down. Again and again and again all the way down the field for a chance to score. We know how skilled we are at getting off the field on third down. For me we need to stop focusing on takeaways and focus on STOPS. Make the other team punt the ball back to us. So that we might use that same formula against our opponents.
Simple as that, right?
December 29th, 2015 at 9:33 pm
Poor tackling and inability to get off the field on third and longs has been the common denominator of Lovies 2 seasons here.
Then there is the inability to make opposing QBs uncomfortable in the pocket. Those passing lanes and ability for second rate QBs to step into their throws and see wide open targets has also been a consistent problem.
Then you add the stupid penalties and you have a great recipe for losing.