7 Things To Watch Tonight Against The Browns
August 26th, 2016
1) Jameis Winston: Will America’s Quarterback get knocked around tonight?
Look for Evan Smith to start at right guard for injured Ali Marpet. Smith doesn’t have a ton of experience there, and certainly not against the Browns’ 3-4 look. Starter Kevin Pamphile (one career start at left guard) has little guard experience against the 3-4, either. Center Joe Hawley hasn’t looked great in pass blocking this summer. The Bucs allowed six sacks during last year’s Preseason Game 3 against Cleveland, and Jameis was limping around the field.
2) Roberto Aguayo and Bucs fans: The Bucs’ rookie kicker has run out of rope with many fans, and it will be damn ugly at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway tonight if Aguayo misses anything under 45 yards. Joe’s got fingers and toes crossed for the kid.
3) Cameron Brate: After having his brain belted in Jacksonville, he needs a couple of those “chemistry” connections with Jameis tonight to solidify is role as No. 2 tight end behind Luke Stocker.
4) Pass Rush: It was there in a big way in Philadelphia. It was absent in Jacksonville. The Browns’ Joe Thomas won’t play, and the rest of their O-line isn’t special. Plus, RGIII and Josh McCown are known for taking too many sacks and poor decisions. If the Bucs’ pass rush is weak tonight, look for Joe to do Kamikaze shots after the game.
5) Fast Start: Last week, Jameis opened 0-for-6, and the Bucs committed three stupid penalties (false start, block in the back, personal foul) in the first seven minutes. As Joe has written all week, poor starts have plagued the starts for more than a year. Last year in Tampa, against the Browns in preseason, the Bucs trailed 17-0.
6) Gerald McCoy: Does he play? If he plays, then he should dominate the shaky Browns front Joe wrote about above. And if McCoy is dominant early, then please, please, please take him out.
7) Noah Spence: The rookie got pushed around a bit in the run game last week. He’s the polar opposite of Will Gholston in that department. Joe’s curious to see how the undersize Spence fares when there’s no QB to hunt.
August 26th, 2016 at 9:51 am
The fans in the stadium wouldn’t dare boo the kicker for a missed FG would they? In a presason game! Shame on the fans for booing our fresh new kicker if he misses.
August 26th, 2016 at 9:52 am
I’ll be watching the secondary closely…..so far, I think we have improved there greatly….
August 26th, 2016 at 9:58 am
Unfortunately Buccfan37, I believe this will happen…and it saddens men…
August 26th, 2016 at 10:01 am
Hell ya I’d boo his ass n I will
August 26th, 2016 at 10:11 am
Go Aguayo! In fantasy, with my LAST pick, got him. We are going to rule the roost. GO BUCS!
August 26th, 2016 at 10:15 am
How crazy is it that we’ll be basically on the edge of our seats biting our fingernails for each and every preseason kick this kid takes… Then into the season!!! Might be into the knuckles by week 2. Let’s see 100% and all calm down. Please!
August 26th, 2016 at 10:40 am
When you said the name “Luke Stocker” it took a second to register….I was like “who?” He has been the definition of “invisible” this preseason. I literally can’t remember reading anything positive, negative, or neutral about him. The guy’s like wallpaper.
Oh… and Dominik traded UP to get him.
August 26th, 2016 at 10:40 am
If he’s missing kicks in practice…..
Well….
Crossing my fingers too!
August 26th, 2016 at 10:40 am
Translations
1) Only 3 0f 5 starters will play tonight on the offensive line. Sweezy and Marpet are out. So in the game thread, when everyone is complaining about how bad our offensive line will be this year, STFU.
2) Roberto Aguayo is here to stay. Another kicker will not be brought in. So, “fans”, STFU.
3) Cameron Brate looked good on a few plays last year. He still has to prove he can do it long term and remain consistent. Until then, he gets no props, just opportunities.
4) Pass rush may or may not be great tonight, and fans might start to freak out if it isn’t…even though its vanilla defense and is not a real example of the upcoming season.
5) Fast Starts are nice to see, and the Bucs might get lucky and show us one, but I wouldn’t count on it on offense. Defense maybe. As good as Jameis has been, he just isn’t there yet. And neither is the offense. Also, Koetter is a smart man. He doesn’t want to risk injury in a preseason game, and he doesn’t want to show Atlanta anything we might do. This game will be all about defense…not winning.
6) Honestly, this one completely nailed it.
7) Noah Spence is still a rookie, but the Browns are a good offense to test his meddle on.
8) Fans in the game day threat will be a bunch of no-hope-losers for the most part, complaining the entire time, even on good plays.
August 26th, 2016 at 10:52 am
Oh Buccaneer BrownEye….that’s about enough of the tough talk. Stick to your expertise…writing elf erotica and violating the Travelocity trademark on the Roaming Gnome. Shall I STFU too?
August 26th, 2016 at 10:57 am
^^^ Well said Bonazai!!
August 26th, 2016 at 10:59 am
Kids, behave now.
August 26th, 2016 at 10:59 am
The pass rush was absent against Jax because GMC wasn’t playing.
The DT with the MOST sacks since 2013 at 26.5
The same one several of you dolts call soft.
August 26th, 2016 at 11:17 am
I really want to see how our secondary performs against a very potent receiving corps of Corey Coleman, Josh Gordon, Terrell Pryor and Gary barnaige. They really have A LOT of offensive potential and it should be a good test for grimes, hargreaves, Verner, Jude.
August 26th, 2016 at 11:18 am
For people going to the game, I think we should start doing the ‘War Chant’ EVERY SINGLE TIME AGUAYO COMES ONTO THE FIELD TO KICK A FIELD GOAL.
In practice the other day, the only kicks he made were when a War chant started up in the stands.
That could be our new thing. Let’s do it, guys!!!
August 26th, 2016 at 11:31 am
The fact that we were down 17-0 in 3rd preseason last year vs Browns is a good reminder of preseason not correlating to the regular season at all; considering the Bucs went 6-10 and should have been in the playoff hunt if not for terrible D and 4 game losing streak at the end; while the Browns ended up getting the 2nd pick in the draft and were probably the worst team in the NFL last year.
August 26th, 2016 at 11:32 am
Eric I like the war chant idea.
I was confused by Joe assuming the war chant was done in mockery of Aguayo? Were those UF fans doing that or something? If it were FSU fans they may have been doing it to show support of Aguayo. I can’t remember the chant EVER being used against an FSU player in a bad way; it has always been positive support unless they changed the words to say something bad
August 26th, 2016 at 11:53 am
A REAL BUCCANEER FAN would never boo our new kicker for a missed field goal in the preseason!!
August 26th, 2016 at 11:55 am
If we are truly married to this kid for at least 2016, let’s (the fans) truly try to will him to success.
Doing the war chant every single field goal could seriously improve our record this year.
I’m not even a Seminole fan. (I’m a Buckeye, please don’t hate me Lol).
We seriously need to do this.
August 26th, 2016 at 12:34 pm
right I’ll boo him if he misses a very makable kick. He’s being paid big bucks to just make kicks. thats all he has to do.
August 26th, 2016 at 12:38 pm
Don’t know about you guys but I seen Luke Stocker put one hell of a block on one of the Jaguars dude did a front flip
August 26th, 2016 at 12:49 pm
Yeah, which is one of the reasons why the Bucs had such a solid running game. Brate can’t block. Neither can ASJ. But Bucs fans want to run off Stocker because… um… well… eeerrr…. Mark Dominik drafted him! smh
August 26th, 2016 at 1:20 pm
Warchant… please no! I’d mute the TV. This ain’t FSU Buccanoles south. It will never happen.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Bonzai makes a good point about overreacting but this will be the 1st time that many of the starters will play together for any length of time. I’d like to see more cohesion all the way across the board.
Aguayo’s not going anywhere, true. The kid better get his act together though. We NEED a kicker. Tighten up!
A lot of people are down on Stocker. Why? The guy’s been solid in his role.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:48 pm
“2) Roberto Aguayo is here to stay. Another kicker will not be brought in. So, “fans”, STFU.”
@Bonzai…Will you STFU mid-season if he’s still missing them? Cause I want you on record now before it starts.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:50 pm
Joe Bucs fans want both in a TE. Or are they too hard too find? Catch and block.
August 26th, 2016 at 1:57 pm
@87- Stocker was supposed to be that guy. I remember when we drafted him out of Tennessee.
I think he CAN catch, but they use him primarily as a blocker.
We need a Gronk-like TE.
August 26th, 2016 at 2:00 pm
I just remember him being injured all the damn time.
August 26th, 2016 at 2:04 pm
Yea me too. One of those “potential” guys. He’s been steady for the last couple of years though, nothing exciting.
August 26th, 2016 at 2:26 pm
65th draft pick- Carl Nassib
59th draft pick- Roberto “Yippee Kai” Aguayo
August 26th, 2016 at 3:10 pm
Stocker lol
August 26th, 2016 at 3:37 pm
why do we need to be afraid? I want the guys to get reps. You can get hurt at practice….the teams that are most successful early in the season usually have the most reps it seems.
August 26th, 2016 at 3:43 pm
Bonzai…I agree with #8 though so there’s that.
August 26th, 2016 at 4:02 pm
we are not winning a superbowl this year, and the team invested important draft picks in aguayo. there’s no reason to not let him attempt to kick through his troubles. best case scenario he becomes what licht projected him to be. worst case scenario we lose a couple winnable games in what was always going to be a “growing up” year for this squad and have a legitimate competition for the kicker job next offseason
August 26th, 2016 at 5:15 pm
Hey I’m going to be honest it all I want is for everyone to be healthy and just have fun it’s preseason this is the time to learn
August 26th, 2016 at 5:39 pm
Man the most obvious thing over the last week is Joe really do not like ASJ maybe he turned down an interview request or something who knows but everytime some says something positive about ASJ joe counterpoint SMDH, if Brate was truly better then ASJ there is absolutely nothing ASJ could do to start cutting into 1st team reps point
No matter what any DT do in practice Gerald McCoy is going to eat
same for LaVonte, Mike Evans, etc. So the fact that ASJ is creeping back into that possible starter role tells me everything I need to know.
PS who ever said they wanted Luke out of here we just want players put into their proper role
August 26th, 2016 at 6:48 pm
Lawdy, it’s the 3rd preseason game for petessake! Cuts are coming up. I’ve going to watch for shots of the new score and video boards. Six of them made by Daktronics–informed sources say their tech stuff is for real quality-wise. 🙂 I’ll be watching the secondary and rooting for Banks. Family member who is FSU alum says Aguayo is the real deal. Hopefully, he’ll get over rookie nerves. Luke Stocker can block. IF Brate improves and ASJ shows up, Koetter will be grinning from Hillsborough to Brevard counties-it will be that big. Anyway, Go Tampa Bay!!
August 26th, 2016 at 7:50 pm
Agree with Bonzai
But for #3
I will be watching to see ASJ continues to earn his way back into Koetter’s
good graces,which he has been doing for the last several weeks.