Raw Disappointment From Lovie Smith
December 16th, 2015
Your beloved Buccaneers are the very best in the NFL at not allowing pass plays of 40 yards or more. They’ve allowed only three bombs in 13 games.
Also, your Bucs have allowed just 37 passes of more than 20-plus yards. That’s the third-best defensive mark in the league.
That’s impressive stuff from a secondary not overflowing with talent.
It shows the Bucs are being very well schooled to keep everything in front of them, which is one reason quarterbacks are completing a whopping 68.7 percent against the Bucs.
Joe brings up this legitimate and telling data because if speaks to the raw emotion in Lovie’s voice on the Buccaneers Radio Network following the brutal loss to the Saints.
The Bucs allowed three passes of 20-plus yards on Sunday, including a 41-yarder from Drew Brees to the immortal Willie Snead. That doesn’t happen to the Bucs often. And Lovie can’t tolerate it.
“I mean, [Drew Brees] is one of the all-time greats. The week before, he put up quite a few against [the Panthers]. And He’s going to get his, and that’s why he’s a good quarterback in the league for so long,” Lovie said. “But some of the things we did, though, even with all of that, though, we can’t give up a 41-yard throw. I mean we have to make him earn it the hard way with some of the shorter [throws]. We gave up a 41. We gave up a 26. We gave up a 20. One thing we’ve done is kept the ball in front of us.”
Joe can’t emphasize enough how much disgust was in Lovie’s voice when he said, “We can’t give up a 41-yard throw.” (Here’s video of the connection to Snead.)
Again the Bucs have done a great job in this aspect of the game. Joe doesn’t expect those breakdowns to continue.
December 16th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
It must hurt lovie to the core. I mean, his whole defense is basically a “prevent-lite” !!!!
December 16th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
If you keep allowing completions of 8 – 14 yards on every 3rd down, you will still lose the game. Almost. Every. Time.
December 16th, 2015 at 12:31 pm
^^^Exactly. When you can pick up 1st downs every play, you dont need to throw 20 or 40 yards downfield.
December 16th, 2015 at 12:42 pm
Bradley Mcdougald needs to go! expect us to adress CB, DE, and FS in draft
December 16th, 2015 at 12:44 pm
This is the perfect example of the bend but don’t break, though at times we seem to break more often then bend! Our secondary should be deemed Swiss Cheese because there allure wholes everywhere!
December 16th, 2015 at 12:49 pm
“That’s impressive stuff from a secondary not overflowing with talent.”
INDEED!! Lovie deserves coach of the year on THIS ALONE!
“It’s as simple as that” – Lovie Smith
December 16th, 2015 at 12:56 pm
I just want to see the CB’s jam the WR’s at the line and not give them a free run down the field with no pass rush, even when our CB’s come up to the line in tight coverage they don’t press them they still give them free run. Jam the WR’s a lil bit to help out the D-Line and to disrupt their route and timing thats all i want to see but it never happens.
December 16th, 2015 at 1:05 pm
^^^for the love of pearl, yes!
I was screaming at the TV. PRESS someone
December 16th, 2015 at 1:08 pm
Can anyone cover a stick route in Bucs secondary? Saints run 2-3 yards past the sticks on 3rd down and get the completion for a first down every time. Mike Evans runs his stick route 2-3 yards short of the sticks… Anyway, who cares what the pass defense ranks in regards to long passes. The percent of long pass completions are low, and not attempted as many times as short to intermediate routes, which we cannot cover. Also, while in cover 2, if the safety is too deep, which is often the case, there is an open space for a picnic between him and the corner. Can’t play not to get beat downfield all the time, and expect good coverage underneath. At the end of the day the Bucs just do not have good defensive backs, regardless.
December 16th, 2015 at 1:27 pm
FIRE, FIRE , FIRE , FIRE, FIRE ,FIRE, FIRE LOVIE SMITH, IT WILL BE THE SAME NEXT YEAR IF HE’S HERE …….
December 16th, 2015 at 2:05 pm
the fire lovie, promote koetter scenario earlier in the year was the way to go….now, we are stuck with lovie and koetter might go…It’s still “a bucs life”…ugh
December 16th, 2015 at 2:17 pm
This is a great day for the hater sheep. Lots of fap material for them.
Realist has yet to ever suggest ANYTHING that he thinks would be good for this team. EVER. He is a sackless p*ssy troll who is the biggest sheep of them all.
It’s so easy to sit there and just criticize. It’s literally like the most mindless easy to do thing with football analysis. It takes absolutely no football knowledge or integrity.
By definition you are much more of a mindless retarded sheep than any single poster on here.
You call people “Lovie Sheep” who admittedly aren’t even his biggest fans. It’s like you don’t even read a single word by any of these commenters. Even I have said I’m not in love with the guy. Like seriously do you f*cking read anyone’s posts?
25 points or less given up the last 5 games with an undrafted rookie CB & typical slot corner with barely any experience starting at the outside, and guys like Howard Jones starting at DE. Not that bad if you’re being honest about the personnel we have. Or keeping it “real”. Someone mentioned the Pats as if their defensive personnel was bad but that’s a load of sh1t. I could easily go down their roster explaining how it is deeper & better than ours. Oh and Tom Brady and 10+ years of continuity probably help.
You can’t fix everything in 1 or 2 off-seasons. You don’t just take a defense that has been one of the worst for years and make it elite through FA signings while not adding any talent in the draft. 1/2 of FA signings typically don’t work out (for all teams not just the Bucs).
What Lovie HAS done; is made this defense middle of the pact this year. THAT is what I predicted last offseason while Realist was predicting 3-4 wins and a bottom NFL defense.
The Bucs do have a top offense though with a ton of upside. We’re in better position there than we have probably ever been as a franchise.
So once again just go F*ck yourself dude.
December 16th, 2015 at 2:27 pm
Tampa D is:
11th in yards given up per game (20th in passing, 8th in rushing)
21st in points per game given up (24.8)
Tampa is 4th in points given up off turnovers by the offense which does not help a D’s stats at all. We have given up 81 points off turnovers when the league average is about 50. If you adjust our total points given up by using the league average for points off offensive turnovers; the D is giving up 22.4 points per game which would put them at 14th in the league. That # is much more of an accurate representation than just looking at the points given up and not taking into account pick 6 / fumble 6 / turnovers in red zone / etc.
Oh wow so the defense has performed pretty much EXACTLY as I predicted; and been middle of the pact or around a top 16ish unit.
I guess I’m just some dumb F*cking sheep who knows nothing.
December 16th, 2015 at 2:33 pm
this defense is pretty decimated. i think we will see more big plays and more guys banged up as less and less experienced & talented players are forced to take more and more snaps. there are alot of positives to take away from this year, but i think the lack of depth will really start to show itself on defense as we finish out the season
December 16th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
Top 16 or not, we completely $hit the bed on defense because we lack talent and discipline.
December 16th, 2015 at 2:45 pm
So we don’t give up the deep balls, but every team that prepares for us knows exactly where to go to move the chains. No real attempt to disrupt a wideout getting off the line of scrimmage so it is Slant city, and if you have a TE worth a damn target him a dozen times too. 6-10 yard throws between the hash marks as our safeties cover space deep. We are like a boxer who covers his face and takes a pounding to his midsection cuz he doesn’t want to get knocked out. Too predictable. I think the players see this too, maybe that is why they are not getting his message any more.
Gotta mix it up once in a while Lovie.
December 16th, 2015 at 2:47 pm
Joe,
Is there some place we could find stats that would show how ofter or how many times we made a stop on 3rd down to get off the field, but a penalty gave the offense another first down? Because if so, that stat would be the one that irks me the most. That vicious sack on Brees Sunday is a great example. It was a great play and should have given us the ball back, but instead all we got was some laundry and Drew got a fresh set of downs. I’d bet we would be a league leader in that stat.
December 16th, 2015 at 3:15 pm
Playoff wins are the best barometer. Everything else amounts to dogsqueeze. Yeah, we held teams to minimal gains, but yet no playoff’s or wins in the playoff’s again!!! Whoo hooooo! Going on 14 years now since a playoff win.
December 16th, 2015 at 6:44 pm
You don’t have to throw over 20 yards to pick them apart and beat them, their weakness is the quick slant.
December 16th, 2015 at 7:17 pm
Ive been asking for EVER!!!! Why in the hell do our corners never jam the receivers at the snap on the line. It makes zero sense to not take advantage of the five yards given to defenders to throw the route off and give an extra half a second to the d line to create pressure. I can understand its not an every down must but on obvious passing situations play some football and quit lining up ten yards back.
December 16th, 2015 at 7:38 pm
You can’t rank a defense based on passing yards allowed and number of big plays given up. It makes no sense. A good example is Mariota, who only threw for 209 but completed all but two of his passes for 4 TD’s. Eli only three for 213, but the Giants moved the ball with ease and his 2 TD’s were more than enough. Other situations arose where teams just stopped throwing the ball.
December 16th, 2015 at 7:43 pm
BY FAR, the most important measures of passing defense are 3rd down % (Bucs are dead last), TD’s allowed (Bucs are tied for 25th with the Browns) and my favorite, passer rating because it includes many important variables (Bucs are 25th). We are NO better than the 25th ranked pass defense. Probably bottom 3.
December 16th, 2015 at 7:51 pm
BucClueless it hurts us to our core that we lose hundreds of millions of brain cells everytime we have to read the diatribe coming from you. Just put down the keyboard and pick up your knitting needles old lady.
December 16th, 2015 at 8:24 pm
OGKevin
IMO Our corners never jam because they wouldn’t be able to recover if the receiver out physicalled them. Thats the only thing that makes sence to me. They are scarred of getting beat big so they give the small yards away for free. That could be a big part on why we don’t give up a lot of deep passes.