Shameful First Half Secondary
December 13th, 2015
An example of Lovie Smith’s Cover-Nobody secondary today.
Well, Lovie Smith’s famed defense returned in the first half today. It’s his version of the Cover-2. It’s called the “Cover-Nobody.”
It is the same defense that made Marcus Mariota famous. It is the same defense that made Ryan Mallet look like Tom Brady. It is the same defense that made 40-year old Matt Hasselbeck a Pro Bowler.
It’s Lovie’s defense.
Nope, this s(p)it for a secondary sure couldn’t use Darrelle Revis. Even a concussed, beat up Revis is light years better than what the Bucs trot out.
In the locker room after the game, Hey Jude, for the longest time, sat at his locker wearing only a towel, head buried in his hands. At first, Joe’s initial thought was: Good! You ought to be ashamed to show your face.
Then again, only the Bucs would rely on a rookie scrub from the Ohio Valley Conference to shut down Drew Brees. Hey Jude is just in an impossible situation. Can’t really blame him.
Speaking of Brees, he missed on only three passes in the first half. THREE! Any NFL coach would ordinarily lock out his secondary coaches from One Buc Palace after a performance like that, which cost them a shot at the playoffs. But one of those coaches is Lovie’s son, so that’s not going to happen.
The Bucs’ secondary was a complete and total embarrassment today. Shameful.
Coal in your stockings (replete with lighter fluid)!
December 13th, 2015 at 5:35 pm
But he does have his 6 wins! So he is locked in!
December 13th, 2015 at 5:44 pm
Chris Conte Sucks…he is only slighly better than Sabby th Goat…Guy cant cover his shadow…
December 13th, 2015 at 5:48 pm
but everyone who doesn’t believe in Lovie ie is an idiot? Naaah Lovey is a terrible defensive coach. He needs a real defensive coordinator. but the world has passed him bye. It isn’t 1992 anymore.
December 13th, 2015 at 5:49 pm
They are all garbage. We basically need 3-4 new corners and 2 new safeties. And a whole new DLine besides McOverrated. Christ that defense sucks, not even Jameis alone can save us.
December 13th, 2015 at 5:49 pm
Time to put on some stone sour or maybe some hellyeah 🙁
December 13th, 2015 at 5:52 pm
What if we still had Revis, Barron, and the Hawk? Would our secondary be better?
December 13th, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Can we trade Geraldine McCoy please. Like yesterday.
December 13th, 2015 at 5:55 pm
You might need to listen to hell yea’s Alcohol and Ass to get over this loss.
December 13th, 2015 at 5:57 pm
The Bucs pass D looks like they are barely moving around until the ball is caught, time and time again. I agree Revis would top these spaced out defenders.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:01 pm
@supersam
Yup maybe l8 2nite lol.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:04 pm
Joe’s almost sound like they’re getting ready to jump off the Lovie bandwagon.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:06 pm
He stays. But at the end of the day, it his Lovie’s defense that blew chunks today. Just because he earned a return doesn’t mean he gets a pass.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Lack of discipline has been our calling card since Lovie got here. First penalty on the very first play from scrimmage set the tone and cost us points. 11 carries for Doug Martin? 12 of 17 on third downs may be the worst effort I can remember, and this against a team that came in on a long losing streak. We had no energy today and that is really hard to understand considering how long it has been since we played a meaningful game in December. Very disappointed in the effort put forth today. This defense is soft.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:14 pm
until the team has a genuine speed rusher. I will reserve judgement on the secondary. Listen to what Lovie has said about missing pieces. Look at the free agents the organization has tried to lure to Tampa. The whole team will continue to suffer at the hands of patient opposing QB’s until we have the right athlete to press the issue. This is why I never took the playoff talk seriously, and why I shake my head when I hear ppl talking about us drafting OL or WR
December 13th, 2015 at 6:32 pm
Sure the defense didn’t do well….but lets face it….it was a pretty average day at the office for Drew Brees.
If there was ever a game where we needed our offense to step up, it was this one…..17 points against the league’s worst defense….at home…..pitiful.
We were totally out of sync. Dropped & off target passes, receivers not getting open….play-calling wasn’t as good. When Sims is your leading receiver…you know something is wrong.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:33 pm
THANK YOU for blaming Lovie, Joe. Write about that 4th quarter punt with 4 minutes left next, will you? That was the most gutless call I’ve ever seen.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:33 pm
When we get beat deep it always seems to be cover 2. Where the cb lets the wr run right by him and the safety is no where to be seen. We need to learn some cover 3. Where our best coverage players (CBs) actually cover the wrs. Safeties are safeties because they arent good enough to be corners. Why do we trust the safeties to cover wrs? It’s a mismatch first of all, and it is impossible to cover 4 deep wrs in a cover 2. Impossible. And if your safeties suck in coverage, cover 2 just further exposes them. Mcdougald is decent in coverage, the others not so much.
December 13th, 2015 at 6:35 pm
Our secondary is pretty awful. Guys just wide open everywhere. But when you have a pass rush as bad as ours. Where a QB can sit back there all day then im not sure if i can put all the blame on them. Gotta get a little rush to help them out
December 13th, 2015 at 7:00 pm
@JerseyBuc … “Very disappointed in the effort put forth today. This defense is soft.”
I think everyone at the stadium was stunned today because they all expected the Bucs to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the Saints. Instead Drew Brees just had them for lunch.
I’d be easy to blame Lovie, but I think the reality is that he’s worked wonders with a less-than-mediocre cast of players. Hey Jude was lost out there on a number of plays; and so was McDougald … they looked really bad on some plays. Even Conte, Verner and Moore looked like average players at best, certainly not CBs and Safeties contending for a playoff spot. Our DLine did a decent job of stopping the run I thought, but Brees had more than enough time on most plays to find an open receiver … relatively little pressure. LVD played lights out I thought, and Bruce Carter did a decent job at MLB. Problem was that our defense couldn’t get off the field … and it was their own fault. Saints had the ball for over 37 mins time-of-possession. Give Drew Brees that much time with the ball and he’ll kill you every time.
The Bucs offense didn’t help much for sure, because they couldn’t sustain drives. But they never had decent field position to start drives, and their WRs hurt their cause all day long. Dontae Dye and Mike Evans especially (wish VJax hadn’t had to leave the game in the first half … we needed him desperately).
December 13th, 2015 at 8:08 pm
No Offense in the world can save you when your Defense sucks like ours..period. We are up and down..all yr. Now watch, Our Defense will play great on Thurs night after being embarrassed. Then, lay an egg the next game.
We are not ready yet for any playoff game. Cheer up though Buc fans…8-8 is within our reach.
December 13th, 2015 at 8:21 pm
OMG.. Everyone was ready to take Lovie’s load last week. Sterling Moore and Jude were the 2nd coming.. now all of the sudden everyone sucks again… We are what our record say we are… Did everyone think we were winning the Super Bowl this year because we were 6-6. GMC needs to get off the filed when he has an injury because he is a liability when not 100%.
December 13th, 2015 at 9:08 pm
Reality is a clearer picture, the Bucs are a work in progress. This was a minor setback in the big picture.
December 13th, 2015 at 9:47 pm
Lovie will forever be known for his innovation’s to the game of pro football, such as the Cover-Nobody defense.
December 13th, 2015 at 9:56 pm
Hypothetical question here: if the Bucs could trade McCoy for a low 1st round pick to take a dynamic DB like Jalen Ramsey, would you do it?
December 13th, 2015 at 11:26 pm
What were some of those third down conversions? 3rd and 21, 3rd and 13, 3rd and 15?
Thats as much on the D line as it is on the soft secondary. And for all you that mysteriousy man crush on Conte – he should be a back up – so stop it.
December 14th, 2015 at 7:54 am
Screaming at my TV the whole game…..you CANNOT play your corners ten yards off the line of scrimmage with a QB like Brees !!! Especially when your corners are mediocre at best….
December 14th, 2015 at 9:48 am
Lovie Smith and a lot of Bucs fans have failed to see what I saw from our defense in training camp. We have 3 good, no great corners on our team, followed by a mess of hot garbage that shouldn’t be in the NFL. Moore, Verner and Banks in that order, are our only serviceable corners. Why the freak have we not played one single full game with those three guys on the field? Lovie Smith is like a 5 year old playing Madden for the first time who stumbled on the depth chart and f-ed everything up
December 14th, 2015 at 9:51 am
Why is Jude still on our team? He should have been benched firmly after the Colts game and now he should be cut
December 14th, 2015 at 11:00 am
@defenserules…i agree…the whole team came out flat…it was a total team lost…lovie has worked wonders with the talent he has which is below average nfl talent…lovie has squeezed 6wins out of a team that has no pass rush no secondary no depth at wr and nothing special on special teams…I think all the playoff talk got to the players…you can see lovie trying to fire up the troops but they were looking like they were giving all they had…even the dline coach was getting after McCoy for his lackluster play regardless if he was hurt…it was easy to see the coaches wanted and expected more from their players but the players they have just aren’t good enough…GO BUCS!!!