Offense Is No Surprise
September 13th, 2016
Offensive firepower did not surprise Bucs defenders. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com)
It was cool to watch in person.
The Bucs came out to start the second half and torched the Dixie Chicks with two quick touchdowns, both on bombs, one to Austin Seferian-Jenkins and the other to Mike Evans.
For the defense watching from the sidelines, this was nothing new.
“Nobody was surprised, nobody was surprised,” Bucs corner Vernon Hargreaves said after the game of the reaction, or non-reaction, to his defensive brothers in arms when they saw America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, put on a show.
“We know what kind of player Jameis is; we practice against him every day. We know what to expect.”
When Joe posed the same question to defensive end Robert Ayers, he sort of shrugged his shoulders.
“That’s what good offenses do,” Ayers said. “They were No. 5 in the league last year.”
Joe had shake his head like a Looney Tunes cartoon character. “Good offense” and the Bucs together? Joe has been so conditioned over the years to ghastly offenses. Even though Ayers’ statement is accurate, it still freaks Joe out. In a good way.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:21 am
I think that we should also give credit to Atlanta, They focused on the run game and for the most part did a great job of defending it! Kudos to the Bucs making Adjustments ( another thing we are not used to!!!!!) to a consistent check-down and short pass offense to open up the deep plays!!!!!!
There are many that need to purge of what they remember of the ole Bucs!!! and get ready for Disciplined, adjustments, good game planning , and great schemes!!!!!!
GO Bucs!!!!!!!!!!
September 13th, 2016 at 7:22 am
Jameis got the ball to his receivers and Simms at critical times.Simms,ASJ,
Evans, and Humphries all made great plays.
Simms had a highlight reel catch.He needs more touches.
ASJ made a catch reminiscent of some of the better wide recievers in the league.thought Koetter could reach ASJ and get the most out him and he has so far.
Evans made two nice adjustments on long passes from Jameis.
Humphries continues to surprise and make big plays.Gotta say I misjudged him ,thought he was a dependable 10 yard receiver,but he has shown he is more than than that.He is fun to watch in space.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:36 am
OMG two days later and no one complaining abput WR dept. Maybe the fact that Famous threw touchdown passes to 3 different positions has help some overcome they’re fears.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:49 am
Two weeks ago I stated in my personal opinion the NFL is somewhat watered down so I’m not buying the whole “we have a tough schedule” thing. After one week of football one thing is evident to me,my assertion is correct. O line play down all over this league,elite QB play down all over this league. The margin between who ever you feel are good teams and who ever you feel are so so teams is not that great. The Pack barely got of Jville wit a win and Rodgers didn’t even throw at a rookie corner back once. Mia almost beat the NFL’s #1 power ranked team seattle at they’re place. Five new o linemen resulted in a bad wheel for Russel Wilson. Raiders gave up 500 yards to the saints. Rams goose egg opening night. Cards lose to a back up and depleted Pats roster at home. From where I’m lookin the Buccs are one the Baddest teams in the whole d@$! league.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:00 am
@Nos-Bos
Now that the Bucs beat a sub-.500 team. It will come apparent Due to facing better defenses, VJ’s age, and overall lack of Talent, that WR will be #1 on Free-agency and #1 area of the draft for the Bucs for the 2017 offseason!!!!!
September 13th, 2016 at 8:17 am
Realist!!! save that noise you talking. Vjax not the man anymore and everyone knows it. Vjax will make timely catches all season when needed. Coach K will not be building a gameplan which involves Vjax being the main guy at any point this season. You folks keep looking reasons why we won’t succeed instead of believing. Feel what you will, my money says ain’t nobody f’ing wit us. I have a “Fanous” on my roster.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:20 am
Overall lack of talent- what Buccs team are you watching. Did you not see Famous,ASJ,ME,Kwon to mention a few over the weekend??? So let me get this str8, everytime we win this season y’all will come here and say the other team was sub 500 or they didn’t show up and take us serious??? Stop wit that nonesince man.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:29 am
Give me a preview of your excuse as to why we went to zona and beat them.. I wanna hear it now. Cause we about to hop a red eye and go get on they @$$.
September 13th, 2016 at 8:48 am
No doubt! The offense looks formidable!
And hold the phone!!! I’m about to agree with Realist! The in-game adjustments were obvious and glaring by comparison to last year.
Who’s next?!
September 13th, 2016 at 9:09 am
Not to get too negative after a big win in week 1 and a lot of positives but besides the lack of a running game which Realist mentioned in an earlier post Doug Martin has to do a better job of making guys miss in space. There were a few times that Jameis checked down to him and he had 1 guy to beat to pick up decent yardage and he pretty much let the guy make the tackle. Moving forward teams are going to start playing more zone defense and giving up the underneath routes and in those situations it’s critical that guys can catch in space and make the first guy miss. Not a major issue at this point but something to keep an eye on and maybe a situation where Sims might start taking on a larger role.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:19 am
We’ve got weapons……I hope Koetter learned his lesson with the three straight three and outs. We need to keep doing what got us the big lead in the first place. We will win with our passing game….especially to our backs late in the game.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:20 am
Waterboy
Respectfully disagree…that is too negative. 🙂
Doug ran 18 times..62 yards…3.4 average including that one run which he did break for 17 yards…and what impressed me most about that run was at the end when they stood him up and stopped him and started ripping at the ball Doug held on! I thought that was a fumble waiting to happen but Doug held on.
I would refer you to the first post from Realist who as usual gets it right…they were not going to let Martin and the running game beat them. They forced #3 to do that and in the first quarter it seemed as if Quinn had the correct strategy.
Stop the run and watch #3 over throw two open receivers. But as Realist said Coach K made some adjustments and #3 settled down. They took away the run but #3 made them pay big time. That’s what good teams with great QB’s do!
September 13th, 2016 at 9:26 am
Great rebuttal St.Pete. Total agreement.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:28 am
NOSBOS
I’m with you brother. I’m tired of all the strength of schedule talk. This is discussed every year and I agree with your fundamental point. It’s the freaking NFL…both teams get paid…both teams are loaded with talent…and the differences are frequently not that great.
The major advantage any team can have is at QB. Jax would have whipped the pack except for Rodgers.
Instead of looking at games through a point spread perspective I prefer to think in terms of %’s. We will be the underdog next week in AZ but the point spread is irrelevant to me unless I was planning a wager.
In reality a win is a won and a loss a loss and the point spread is meaningless except for gamblers. I prefer to think if we play that game 10X the Cards probably win 7 or 8 out of ten. We simply have to go in there and play our best and grab one of those 3 out of ten chances.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:30 am
BTW…speaking of the importance of QB’s and Rodgers leading the Pack to the road win…does anybody here believe any Buc QB of the recent past would have won that game Sunday. Of course not!!! For one season JFro might have gotten hot and pulled it out but he was not consistent and totally undependable.
As 87 and Joe have been screaming for two years…#3 is our ticket out of the wilderness.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:35 am
Amen St.Pete. Amen.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:40 am
@StPeteBucsFan
I wouldn’t say negative but constructive criticism. 🙂
My comment wasn’t about the running game but around several passing plays where Winston made the right read and checked it down based on the defense they were playing and Atlanta allowed him to make those throws knowing that they could bring the ball carrier down for minimal gain. I probably shouldn’t have specifically called out Martin because I don’t think it was just him (I’ll re-watch the game later this week to see) but he popped into mind because of a 3rd down play where they had something like 3rd and 2 and Winston dumped off to him in the flats and he had 1 guy to beat to get the 1st down and got stopped. I think there was at least 2 more similar situations but I’ll have to give you the specifics later. But again I’m happy with the win but see an area for improvement.
September 13th, 2016 at 9:48 am
Waterboy
Certainly accept your point. Perhaps Sims should have been in the game since making guys miss in space is his specialty…sometimes three at a time!!!
I am glad however that Doug can catch the ball out of the backfield. He has decent hands but he’s certainly no Sims after he catches it.
We have such a great backfield of two complimentary backs right now. Coach K must salivate putting game plans together which such an assortment of weapons.
September 13th, 2016 at 10:01 am
NoSBoS and Stpete: Realist sounds more like Negativist on these comment threads. Wonder how old his BucFan chops are? Famous is not Michael Vick; he would never electrocute a wounded dog. You’re also correct: Seattle and the Pack barely escaped with wins. Jags are a better team than folks think. Not sure about the Fins. 🙂 I will say Bucs are the best FL NFL team this season. Fer Sure!! :-)My focus is the Bucs Offense which is slowly developing into a 24K unit. WE HAVE NEVER HAD ONE!! My only concern tho is still DL depth. But our Offense…..sky is the limit!!!
September 13th, 2016 at 10:04 am
I agree on all points! They have a great 1-2 punch in the backfield. I like Doug as a solid between the tackles runner but think we’ll see more plays using Sims skills in space as the season goes on and teams start focusing more on taking away the big plays down the field and allowing the underneath routes.
September 13th, 2016 at 11:39 am
while win- losses don’t necessarily repeat.The defenses remain similar unless free agency guts a team.This is really the challenge Jameis will face. Far better defenses on horizon.This is an area jameis will have to show more growth.good defenses did slow Jameis last year.Especially concerned with the
headhunters from Denver.ARizona and seattle have good defenses also.The little I saw of 49 ers,their defense looked stout.
September 13th, 2016 at 11:56 am
After one week, the biggest difference I see in Jameis is decisiveness. He is seeing everything pre-snap. On play action he’s turning and gunning. The X’s and O’s are like Childs play to him now. This is why we kept Koetter. The two of them will be toying with defenses by mid season.
September 13th, 2016 at 1:32 pm
@ NOS-BOS
Fvk it lets go for it this year!
Josh Gordon is out of Goodells basement after the 4th week
Clev is going tank mode, give them a 3rd and 4th pick
even a top 5 wr pick doesnt mean he will make it in the NFL
Gordon is only 23 years old
ME on 1 side and Ganja on the other with Jaboo the trigger man…
5 superbowls in Tampa
September 13th, 2016 at 3:31 pm
have to give jameis big credit for standing in and completing checkdowns to
Martin for positive plays.On one play,he was getting tackled and somehow
got it off. Once Jameis gets it going he is as seasoned as almost anybody in the league.