Super Bowl-Caliber Surgery?
December 1st, 2015
An Xs and Os look
Who exactly beat the Bucs on Sunday in Indianapolis?
This NFL Network Xs and Os look at the carving of the Bucs by Colts quarterback Matt Hasselbeck has analysts Nate Burleson and Brian Baldinger thinking Hasselbeck looks like a better QB than when he took the Seahawks to the Super Bowl after the 2005 season, one of his three Pro Bowl years.
The video is worthy of a few minutes.
Joe appreciates Hasselbeck’s precision on Sunday, but let’s not get ridiculous. Hasselbeck, and most QBs facing the Bucs, look better than they are because rarely is there a hint of a pass rush in their faces.
December 1st, 2015 at 10:37 am
In Hasselbeck’s first 3 games his avg yards was 236 yards. Against lovie’s passive defense ( according to his 2 starting safties last year) , Hasselbeck threw for 315 yards!!!
Lovie makes the average look great, its as simple as that!!!!
December 1st, 2015 at 10:47 am
Realist
It is talent level not Lovie
December 1st, 2015 at 10:52 am
@Dave
Agreed, Lovie needs overwhelming talent or he will not win!!!
December 1st, 2015 at 10:53 am
Agree Dave we have only drafted on defensive player in two years our backfield is very void of talent. The trollist loves to blame Lovie for everything!
December 1st, 2015 at 10:54 am
^one
December 1st, 2015 at 11:04 am
Hasselbeck toyed with the Bucs defense like any other 40 year old man wonder could pull off.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:10 am
rarely is there a hint of a pass rush in their faces.
This is just revionist history of that game!!! The TV stat line kept showing that Hasselbeck was hurried and hit as often as #3. The only stat I can find googling are the sacks. Hasselbeck was sacked 3X to Fameis 5X…at least two of those were on #3 who has yet to realize when to throw it the eff away.
Hasselbeck has won in the NFL…he was riding a win streak coming into this game…it was 16+ years of experience against 3 months and it showed!!!
Hasselbeck could read the pressure before the snap and he either threw it away or he hit the hot receiver QUICKLY. #3 did not. “Future Fameis” will learn to do this it’s no slam on a kid with 3 MONTHS of experience to get outperformed by a 16 year Vet who has won in this league.
Did you guys not see that incredible third down completion? That was not on the Bucs defense..the receiver was covered like a blanket and Hasselbeck threw a perfect tight spiral where only the receiver could catch it…and give the receiver credit he laid out and made a great catch. It was not the fault of the Buc’s D it was a freaking great pass. Why is it so hard to give the other guys credit.
This was not getting torched by Mariota…that was awful…it was trailing by just six points late into the game on the road against a team with a win streak and a red hot QB.
Speaking of spirals…I been noticing that some QB’s throw perfect beautiful spirals…Aaron Rodgers..awesome…Hasselbeck on Sunday…pretty. I realize you just have to get the ball in the proper spot and they don’t give style points but it sure is fun watching a QB who can spin it!
December 1st, 2015 at 11:20 am
BTW The Loviehaters wish to totally ignore his record in Chicago and concentrate on a year and 3/4 with a franchise that was a steaming hot pile of dooty when he arrived. I’m talking culture and tradition as much as talent level.
Just to give this some perspective. If you’re going to be so selective about which period of a coaches career with the Bucs I’ll play along. Chucky was a losing coach for the Bucs!!!
Toss aside his SB year with Dungy’s players. I give him credit for getting them over the hump. I appreciate what he did that year. Hooray for Chucky.
But let’s see how he did the REMAINDER of his Bucs career. He brought in Bruce Allen to do his bidding and look who he drafted?
But lets just get to facts…opinions are like asswholes everybody has one and you can’t really argue with them. Let’s go with you are what your record says you are.
Chucky was 45-51 in his six years after the Super Bowl. A LOSING record six games under .500!!
But the real lesson for Lovie from Chucky’s tenure is that he got run not because of the losing record and mediocrity including horrible draft picks and bad worn out FA’s…but because he started well that last year winning nine only to lose the final four!!!
Lovie needs to finish with at least a couple wins. Losing streaks at the end of the year are almost worse than overall records.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:27 am
I gotta side with StPeteBucsFan, its not like Hasselbeck is some sort of slug… he’s a proven winner (albeit, in the twilight of his career)
Many of the completions were contested by our defense, and we did get good push by our defensive line.
Hasselbeck simply played a great game.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:28 am
Wow, Stpetebucsfan has gone off the deep end!!! Your just going to ignore the superbowl year??? fuzzy numbers to fit your narrative???
Maybe we don’t care about lovie and the Bears because we are Bucs fans!!! I don’t see the 0-16 Lions on the schedule so I could care less about what he did up in Chicago!!!
December 1st, 2015 at 11:39 am
Hassleback is no scrub but how many QBs have had stand out games against Lovie’s defense?
Mallet, Cousins, Mariota…
December 1st, 2015 at 11:50 am
Nice try Realist but you make up stuff like Lovie’s lost the locker room according to your source. Your posts are full of opinion and rarely use comparable numbers.
You wish to ignore Lovie’s SB appearance and his winning record in the NFL but you’re happy with Grudens six games below .500 in his final six years with the Bucs. You cherry pick your numbers all the time and when someone else returns the favor you chirp.
You never listed a source for the losing the locker room rumors nor have you ID’d where Koetter was Lovie’s 3rd choice. The first is absolute B S the second I open to hearing if you can provide a link or source to confirm it.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:51 am
The buc Realist gets a real rise when we lose.. when we win he is nowhere to be found.. where ya balls at Realist? stop hiding when we win pooosie
December 1st, 2015 at 11:52 am
Hassleback is no scrub but how many QBs have had stand out games against Lovie’s defense?
Mallet, Cousins, Mariota…
Manning? We would have won that game if Evans didn’t grease his hands.
Evans? Oh I know he’s having a rotten year and that’s true.
This team is trying to turn a HUGE corner. It’s not just talent but culture and attitude. Lovie is dragging them along.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:53 am
Oops second Evans should have read Ryan.
December 1st, 2015 at 11:58 am
The upcoming Falcons game is going to be scary, the only hope is Ryan doesn’t go on a tear.
December 1st, 2015 at 12:13 pm
“But the real lesson for Lovie from Chucky’s tenure is that he got run not because of the losing record and mediocrity including horrible draft picks and bad worn out FA’s…but because he started well that last year winning nine only to lose the final four!!!”
The Bucs lost the last four games after starting 9-3 that year because everyone knew that Monte was leaving and going to UT with his son – the defense gave up on him.
No, the real reason was because of the bad drafting and JG’s inability to develop young players that made him dependent on older (possibly over-the-hill) FAs, which resulted in never creating a dominating team (like the SB team) again.
December 1st, 2015 at 12:15 pm
@ac…I agree…realist is never around when we win…he’s a pooosie….GO BUCS!!!
December 1st, 2015 at 12:21 pm
All Super Bowl winning teams have overwhelming talent. This may come as a shock to you but Super Bowl winning teams are typically the most talented team in the NFL or they have enough talent in key areas to balance out the areas where they may be average. These teams don’t magically come together. They are built over a period of time. A period of time that most commenters here are not willing to give Lovie Smith which is absurd.
December 1st, 2015 at 12:32 pm
Realist you’re a straight up joke. Lovie has won as much as he’s lost this year basically and won games with lots of talent missing via injury or just bad players. Were all 5 wins a fluke jackhole? Most of those wind we were heavy favored to lose which by your standard definition = an overachievment.
I’m sure in your dark depressed circle of logical fallacies you have somehow convinced yourself none of that happened
December 1st, 2015 at 12:45 pm
StPete…what is Lovies record with the Bears since he fired his DC Ron Rivera?
December 1st, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Realist was just praying for a loss on Sunday so he could show his ugly face again.
December 1st, 2015 at 1:47 pm
@CC
You can’t pick and choose a small grouping of games like that.
As we saw last year, a coordinator leaving can heavily impact a team. It’s cool if you want Lovie gone (if you do), but you don’t have to manipulate facts to get your point across.
I am 100% in favor of Lovie getting another year. I realize that some fans won’t agree, and that’s their right.
But right now, we are at 250% of the wins of last year, and I believe we will win the next 4 games…putting us at 9-7. If that happens, or even if we go 8-8 or 7-9, he deserves to stay one last year to draft defense.
It takes time to implement a coaches vision. One year should be fair enough and it shows the league Tampa can have a little patience with its coaches…something we’ve been lacking. Fir him this year and only the dregs will want to coach the Bucs.
Have you even noticed the teams that are patient with their coaches for the longest times are the team with the most success?
December 1st, 2015 at 2:04 pm
@Dave is absolutely correct, you’re seeing Lovie/Mrs Frazier play their defensive line in a 4-3 “over” technique – because they DON’T HAVE THE TALENT AT RDE to put pressure on the QB from the edge in their preferreed 4-3 “under” technique.
We’re playing a 4-3 with a 3-4 mentality – because we don’t have a RDE, or edge rusher – if you like Jameis, then you know why we didn’t select a DE… The GM/HC took the franchise QB that was available (rather than taking a chance on another Clemson Defensive End…)
Even though we don’t have an edge rusher, we’re hoping to be able to pressure the POCKET (not so much the QB), but our main focus is to take away the run, the bet was that a 40 year old QB couldn’t beat this defense by himself.
Their offense was better than our defensive line – their defensive line was better than our offensive line.
Regarding Hasselbeck’s ability:
Smart, patient QB’s with good offensive linemen and talented WR’s/TE’s have always picked apart the seams of the zone-cover secondary in a Tampa-2, especially if we don’t generate a consistent pass rush. The classic demonstration of this was the 2003 game against Peyton Manning’s Indianapolis Colts. We shredded his team for the first 3 quarters, score was 24-7. However, just like today, our defense back then was built to pressure the QB with 4 down linemen and play zone coverage with basically 7 DB’s. That team was undersized on the D-Line but were f-a-s-t. Even though our defense manhandled the Colts for 3 quarters, they eventually wore down slamming against those massive Indy O-Linemen – and after being on the field a little too much by the time the 3rd quarter rolled around. That drop-off was all Peyton needed to put on a clinic on how to beat a 4-3 “under” playing cover-two zone – he threw 4 TD’s in the 4th quarter, tied the game…and BEAT our sloppy worn out defensive line in OT.
Did you happen to notice that this same scenario played out in THIS game? Our defense isn’t yet as talented as the one in 2003, but they kept it close until the 3rd quarter – and they wore down against that big O-Line in Indy and that was all Hasselbeck needed was a little more time to get the ball out.
Hasselbeck’s physical skills may be somewhat diminished (i.e., he no longer tries to run), but that’s made him become patient. He HAS to trust his big offensive line and very talented receivers, more – but I think the biggest thing that makes him a better (if not completely different QB than the one that went to a Super Bowl in Seattle) is the amount of time he spent the last few years watching the game instead of PLAYING it – breaking down & dissecting weekly game films then watching from the sidelines seems to have made him deadly in the mental aspect of his game.
He diagnosed each play the minute the ball was snapped, identified the perfect spot to go with the ball, and delivered it FAST, without hesitation. He still has the talent to place the ball so his receivers have the best chance to make a play.
Now, the fact that we didn’t mount much of a pass rush, allowed Hasselbeck to look even better…but again, that’s because we don’t have the proper personnel on defense…so we’re playing a defense that isn’t exactly a Lovie Smith type of 4-3.
…it does however explain why Mrs Frazier is still hanging around.
Look for RDE to be a target in the upcoming draft…between some depth at corner, it’s the last component Lovie needsto play HIS defense.
December 1st, 2015 at 2:20 pm
Bonzai…I hope we win out and go to the playoffs. I have been a die hard fan since the early 80’s. I have seen my fair share of bad football. And its just a fact that since he got rid of Rivera, Lovies record is not good. I’m not saying fire the guy, I am just not impressed with his coaching and player evaluations.
Having said that I do agree that stability is key in coaching.And if Lovie can get us to a consistent winning franchise, he deserves to be here. And if not he will need to go.The guy is getting paid alot of money to produce a winner.The league is set up to generate parody and Lovie is the head coach and has final say in personnel decisions.
December 1st, 2015 at 2:28 pm
Bonzai…by the way its not a small grouping of games. It was 5 years with the Bears without Rivera. He went to the playoffs once.
December 1st, 2015 at 5:46 pm
i haven’t checked the stats in recent weeks, but through the first 20 to 24 weeks of lovie’s tenure, if an opposing QB can’t complete 70 to 80% of passes against this D, they probably don’t belong in the league. it’s been that easy
December 1st, 2015 at 6:32 pm
Nothing like reading a load of flatulent gas bags’ commentary especially if one needs to f##t. StPeteBF–we ever attend the same home game at RayJay, let me know. I would be honored to buy you one. We win Sunday, and I’m going to love coming on here. Screw losers like Realist. Joe wouldn’t have a blog w/out jokers like it on here. Snort!
December 1st, 2015 at 7:59 pm
@D-Rome
All Super Bowl winning teams have overwhelming talent.
Indeed! And we should add an awful lot of luck…especially with injuries…think the Pats held their breath when Gronk went down with Edelman out?
And speaking of the Pats and luck…Seattle gave them the game last year.
I did not disagree with the call to pass it…just a braindead route…they should have rolled Wilson..a talented runner…had a receiver try to get open in the back of the end zone…the defense was loaded up to stop Beast Mode…if neither the run or pass was open then they could have run Lynch on 4th down and taken their chances…but throwing into the teeth of a stacked defense…what an idiot call. The Pats didn’t win the game…the Seahawks lost it.
@White Tiger….great points but you brought up perhaps the most painful game in Bucs history. I know it was Peyton in his prime….but FOUR 4th Q TD’s.
@orlbucs If I get to a game this year I’ll have to look you up. I usually go with a group in a bus and eat the spread across from the stadium. Don’t have to worry about parking or traffic because we just continue to drink on the bus after the game. Traffic? What traffic? LOL
December 1st, 2015 at 9:22 pm
The referees beat the Bucs.
December 2nd, 2015 at 1:05 pm
Matt Hasselbeck tore up the defense with quick release accurate passes. Just look at what Donte Moncrief did? The best game of his career. He caught 8 of 9 for 114 yards. He was simply to fast for Adjei-Barimah. The other player who got burned was Bradley McDougald. He gave up a PI on 3rd down.