Secondary Will Stuggle
September 18th, 2016
Joe thought the secondary of the Bucs made light-year improvements in the win over the Dixie Chicks.
Apparently, the secondary hasn’t improved enough.
ESPN correspondent Jenna Laine, who covers the Bucs like a blanket, was asked for her prediction. It came on the four-letter’s website.
Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said it best on Thursday: “Arizona just lost opening day at home, after being in the NFC Championship. Head coaches and GMs don’t typically speak out about the whole team; they talk internally. They spoke out in the media about their team. If you think that arguably the best team in the league is going to go 0-2 at home and go lightly, we’ve got another thing coming.” The Bucs’ secondary might be improved, but it’s still going to struggle contending with Larry Fitzgerald and Michael Floyd. Cardinals 30, Buccaneers 21.
Joe could see that happening. There is no question this will be an uphill battle for the Bucs. Joe read a commenter on this here corner of the interwebs compare this to 1997, when San Francisco came to Tampa Bay and got punked, launching the Bucs into years of winning and success.
Laine’s counterpart at BSPN who covers the Cardinals, Josh Weinfuss, sees a closer game but with the same result. Weinfuss believes America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, will succumb to a wave of blitzes.
September 18th, 2016 at 4:48 am
Man hopefully not. #whynotthebucs #whynotnow
September 18th, 2016 at 4:53 am
We should be fine if we take care of Johnson, which I expect Kwon and David to contain. We can control the clock better than NE did with Duggernaught, Sims and Hump. Plus I see three explosive plays 1 Evans, 2 Vjak and 1 from Brate on the seam route.
I think their back six is weaker than ours, Go Bucs! I say 4+ sacks…. N. Spence gets his first!
Bucs 29 Cards 17
September 18th, 2016 at 5:49 am
@joe
“stuggle”
spell check brother..
and please erase my message after.
im not trying to hate, i love ur site.
just trying to help!
September 18th, 2016 at 6:13 am
So ESPN’s Jenna Laine thinks the Bucs will get spanked 30-21? Touting the Cards as “arguably the best team in the league”? I’m sure Coach Koetter, Jameis and the rest of our Bucs are trembling in their boots because of her prediction right now given her extensive football experience. She almost got the score right though … but it’s the Bucs who’ll win 31-21.
September 18th, 2016 at 6:55 am
ij jameis handles the pressure well and has time to make accurate throws.we have a great chance.the lapses in secondary last week might be a good thing.
we have had a week to work on them.We have to watch Larry fitzgerald,closely. He has the the uncanny ability to almost win a game by himself.
I would be surprised if Patrick Peterson doesn’t get help with Evans during the game.I have seen Evans with multiple defenders around him.
This is big challenge for our team.GO BUCS!
September 18th, 2016 at 6:57 am
EDIT: Evans get open with multiple defenders around him.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:03 am
It’s a beautiful day to be a buccaneer.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:06 am
I was a little skeptical of the hiring of Mike Smith. They gave up a lot against ATL and this will be a good test. Hopefully he proves me wrong. As long as we dont look embarrassing like we have for the last decade I am happy. Heres hoping for a win.
Go bucs!!!
September 18th, 2016 at 7:07 am
The key to this game for us to have a chance is pass rush. I look for coach Smith to let rookie Spence and KA to become a nightmare today in Arizona.
A pick 6 from Grimes will seal the deal.
Go Bucs!!!
September 18th, 2016 at 7:09 am
Latest injury report indicated that Cards’ DT Frostee Rucker is out, and another DT, Robert Nkemdiche, is questionable. Wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Bucs stress our run game more than they did last week to see if they can take advantage. Also wouldn’t be surprised to see VJax and 1-2 of our TEs play bigger roles today if Cards heavily focus on ME13. Stay optimistic Bucs fans … we’ve got a lot of firepower too.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:12 am
I think its going to come down to which team has the best QB because we will shutdown their run game and atleast we can say we have 2 proven corners and actual depth behind them.i predict a big game for sims and our D.4 sacks on palmer with 2,thays right 2 interceptions on him and 1 for a pick 6 fellas!Bucs win 31-28 in the last 3mins.it wil be the game of the week.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:30 am
Koetter seems ok but people here going to see why the people in the know what kind of great offensive mastermind bruce arians is for the last 30 years in the nfl.
Ariams is going to spread out the defense and rip tampas defence into pieces
Tampa is improving because of jaboo but after todays destruction, everyone will realise we are far away from being relavent
We are not in arizonas level
The nfl and naysayers are going to laugh at us today…remain strong we have to take baby steps
September 18th, 2016 at 7:33 am
I have no doubts they will score against us….but “struggle”….I doubt that. But we should be able to score against them our offense has many weapons and I trust Koetter to make the calls.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:41 am
It sure would help if we had Sabby & Mylew back.
September 18th, 2016 at 7:49 am
The question of “struggles” will be in correlation of our pass rush vs their O-line( which is better than Atlanta’s) If they can get some quick pressure, it will help out CB and maybe not expose the Bucs safeties today!!!
September 18th, 2016 at 8:05 am
@kobe…
Screw you n the Cards!!!
THIS IS TAMPA!
September 18th, 2016 at 8:06 am
Jenna Laine is a waste of space. Terrible NFC South coverage. Her knowledge of the Bucs is extremely short, and it show in her writing.
September 18th, 2016 at 8:08 am
*since joining BSPN
September 18th, 2016 at 8:26 am
Joe read a commenter on this here corner of the interwebs compare this to 1997, when San Francisco came to Tampa Bay and got punked, launching the Bucs into years of winning and success.
I was at this game, seems like it was in another life it was so long ago.
September 18th, 2016 at 8:26 am
I am the only one who’s sick of being told to wait our “turn”? I’m not buying the notion that we should be “grateful” for last week and we will not sit down and shut up. We’re punching the NFL in the mouth and doing whatever the f we want!
September 18th, 2016 at 8:30 am
Hope we see guys like Banks playing today. He’s a talented DB Lovie threw in the trash. He is a proven ball hawk, just check out his rookie year. Famous needs to settle down quickly in this one. 2-minute offense? Bucs have always done well with it. Just want to see Tampa Bay continue to improve. Go Mighty Bucs/24K DK Offense in the Desert!! 🙂
***HEY JOE: WHERE’S THE COUNTDOWN CLOCK????***
September 18th, 2016 at 8:58 am
STERLING SHEPARD
today you will witness and see the coming out of the rookie we should have picked instead of Yannick Noah (no where) Spence
with sterling we would easily went into this years playoffs and would have been in the superbowl next year
Sterling shepard right now is better than Landry of mia, tyler of seattle…
He is a shade under antonio brown and Beckham…next year he will be equal
Jaboo and Sterling would have been Magical
“I wanted to be drafted by the Tampa Bay Bucs and play in front of poster Kobe Faker” Sterling Shepard
September 18th, 2016 at 9:10 am
Again IF THEY BLITZ JAMEIS IS GOING TO SHRED THEM!! We will strike fast everytime they blitz.
September 18th, 2016 at 9:20 am
I’m no professional of picking whose going to win todays game but on any given Sunday anything is possible thats why we play the game. So why not the buc’s lets go out to Arizona and shock the world of sports and beat the cardinals who everyone picks us to lose too.
September 18th, 2016 at 9:21 am
I expect a lot of 3 and 5 step drops, quick passes, screens and draws to neutralize the coming blitzes.
I suspect Koetter knows what’s coming. I’ve yet to see a poor offensive game plan from him.
September 18th, 2016 at 9:26 am
@Kobe Faker: Get your head out of your BigHogHaynes!
September 18th, 2016 at 9:36 am
I was the one who compared this game to that wonderful Sunday many years ago when the Bucs beat the 49ers and became revelant. I don’t know if we will win today but with Jameis at the helm anything is possible. If we do wi though I believe we will look back on this day as the week we turned the corner…..again
September 18th, 2016 at 9:46 am
Cards 28
Bucs 23
Defense just isn’t good enough to keep zona out of the endzone
September 18th, 2016 at 9:49 am
Whether the secondary struggles or not is up to coaching. Are we going to have Ayers covering Johnson out of the backfield? Because if the playcalling continues to make bonefield calls like that then it could be a long day. Overall the Falcons didn’t have much going for them. There was a big break down in coverage when Hargreaves bit hard on a play fake. But other than that the secondary did well. We really can’t expect any defense in the NFL to hold QBs to less than 200 yards. It just doesnt happen very often. So to play decent defense and do enough to get the win, that is a great job in my book. If the defense plays up to the level they did last week, we should be ok. Im always going to predict a bucs win. GO BUCS!
September 18th, 2016 at 9:51 am
Am I wrong or does Winston handle blitzes well? Let them do it.
I bet if the Bucs win, the national media will NOT talk about how good the Bucs are…but how bad the Cards have turned out to be.
September 18th, 2016 at 10:01 am
Thanks for the acknowledgement : -p 97…. I was at that game and remember it so well. Now if we can get Kwon to skip to Malue through the Birds warm ups and get D Smaith to give up a Hardy Nickerson pose after he makes a big play!!! Well we would all get what we had hoped for when Lovie came to town….
We will blow these guys out today if you see this on the first drive…
JW ROLLS OUT to the right and drops a bomb to ME for his first pass.
38-17
Ok Guys lets Do This……………
September 18th, 2016 at 10:21 am
If we get carved up with the passing game it won’t be the secondary’s fault.
It will be on the DL!
Carson Palmer was never a very mobile QB and after Pittsburgh destroyed his knee he’s even more of a statue.
Having said that…if you give Palmer time to throw to this talented set of receivers he can carve up ANY secondary…I don’t care if you had Revis and Sherman at the corners.
If Palmer gets a chance to get comfortable in the pocket it will be ugly.
September 18th, 2016 at 11:29 am
The safeties are garbage and fitz deep middle and i think brown? down the seam is gonna kill us, draft and FA NFL safeties licht
September 18th, 2016 at 12:44 pm
We gave up 322 passing yards, and 2 TD’s and no INTS against the Falcons. We have to do a better job in pass defense, if we plan to beat ANYONE. We have won 7 games during the past season and this season opener, and 3 of those 7 wins have come against the Falcons. But we are 4-10 in our other 14 games. The bottom line is we can’t continue to give up 300 plus passing yards a game, go to a dime defense or make other adjustments. Teams will be passing the ball 50 times a game against us until we make some changes to our defense.