Punishing Opening Drive; Red Zone Fail
August 11th, 2017
Couldn’t finish
What an appetizer served up by the Buccaneers’ offense tonight in Cincinnati.
Their first course was nearly perfect except for the last two bites.
The Bucs got the ball to start the preseason and powered 92 yards to the Bengals’ 2 yard line. It was an impressive blend of hard but average running beautifully complemented by completions of 11, 29, 19 and 12 yards.
Super Bowl dreams were dancing through Bucs fans heads.
Then at second down on the 2 yard line, the Bucs got what they crave: 1-on-1 coverage on Mike Evans at the line of scrimmage — and all the way to the left corner.
Of course, America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, recognized the coverage and went to Evans, but the throw was off. On third down, the Bengals gave the Bucs the exact same look. And Winston had another bad throw, this time too low when Evans had a significant height advantage on the cornerback.
Hey, that’s what practice and preseason is for. But it was still ugly.
Good teams have to punch in those kinds of chances. Jameis and Evans should connect on that at least 75 percent of the time.
Hopefully, it was a good learning experience for Jameis.
August 11th, 2017 at 9:58 pm
Good for you joe!
August 11th, 2017 at 10:04 pm
Also disappointing was that it looks like ME13 will be crying for PI flags again this year. When is he gunna grow out of this?
August 11th, 2017 at 10:05 pm
Should have brought in O.J. Howard!
August 11th, 2017 at 10:10 pm
Whose calling the plays? Red zone was horrible! Where were the playmakers? Coach gotta take some of this heat.
August 11th, 2017 at 10:11 pm
Koetter not going to show all his cards
August 11th, 2017 at 10:13 pm
Heat? Who gives a sh!t? It’s preseason and they took it to them
August 11th, 2017 at 10:15 pm
mike evans single coverage on PAC man jones who is not even 5 10. I would call that play (jump ball) 1st 2nd 3rd and 4th down. Mike Evans is the best player on the field. For either team!
August 11th, 2017 at 10:15 pm
Dirk needs to find us a way to attack the endzone from the opponents 30-40 yardline. Good chance that he is already on top of it just waiting for the Real games to unleash.
Great job on that 3rd and 1 on the first drive.
Doug Martin looked pathetic and got yanked from that 1st drive appropriately.
VHIii with the play of the game IMO.
Solid effort and nice 93 yard drove to start the official/unofficial season. GOO BUCS!!!!!!!
August 11th, 2017 at 10:15 pm
Haven’t watched yet. But if it’s true that he is back to his whiney PI ways I will be calling him out on every drive killing momentum stealing one.
August 11th, 2017 at 10:20 pm
Winston gave Evans 2 50/50 balls. If the Bucs wanna dominate he has to complete at least 1 of those. Other than that Mike Evans look absolutely beastly tonight. once he makes that touchdown he then looks savage
August 11th, 2017 at 10:33 pm
yes they need to punch it in for the touchdown, but it was the first drive of preseason, not ready to start complaining yet. thought they looked good moving the ball overall with the first teamers. im more concerned with the first team defense letting them march downfield, turnover or not, but again, first drive of preseason for them. new pieces all over the place, let them gel. id like to see the o line with all the starters too, as well as grimes being in on defense before i start calling them out. definitely not impressed with 3rd string. but i never am.
August 11th, 2017 at 10:39 pm
Wahhhh wahhhh wahhh. It’s the first preseason game one drive and u guys are already crying about Mike Evans one of the best wr in the game. I honestly have never seen it from any other fan base except ours. They marched down the field with ease and probably kept a vanilla offense in red zone. If not o well we moved the ball without even getting djax or Howard involved and that makes me happy with the things to possibly come
August 11th, 2017 at 10:43 pm
He has a history of losing us games over those mental mistakes. It’s worth looking out for them to come back.
August 11th, 2017 at 10:54 pm
2 TE set, OJ stays for blocking and check down, Brate on one side to cross the middle, Djax the other side to cross the middle, Evans running the outside, and Simms running to the edge. How does one of those guys not get open in a 3 second window and you just find him. He was keyed in on Evans.
August 11th, 2017 at 10:56 pm
thats what I wouldve called, but im on here just saying how I wouldve done it.
August 11th, 2017 at 11:07 pm
Everyone, as Arron Rodgers would say ” RELAX ” It’s preseason. Just saying.
August 11th, 2017 at 11:23 pm
First quarter, first preseason game. Once the regular season begins, all the starters are going to begin to be targeted in the red zone, not just Mike. I’m looking forward to another huge season by Cam Brate who had some nice catches tonight.
August 11th, 2017 at 11:24 pm
i love that our fans are calling out the play calling in the 1st preseason game.
August 11th, 2017 at 11:30 pm
Seems like everyone thought we were gonna win the Super Bowl tonight. Its pre season. 3 & 13 wont lose any sleep over it. We shouldnt either, because its pre season.
August 12th, 2017 at 1:56 am
I’m gonna go ahead and get this out of the way cuz I’ll be thinking it “AGAIN” all season.. NIKE & the NFL has completely “FKED” our look up. I had a hard time adjusting to the new colors as it was but since changing to the new look, it has gone down hill with every change they have made. Too bad the original owner didn’t live longer, it would have maybe preserved our original look longer and at the very least, if changes to our look were gonna be made at least they could have stayed closer to the original look. I mean we had the color NO team had with our creamsicle Orange just as the Dolphins had an Aqua NO other team had. Now if the concept was to come up with a color NO other team had{OR WANTED} well they damn sure succeeded in coming up with what they call “PEWTER” & it ain’t even “PEWTER”. This uni’S NOW LOOK LIKE SOMETHING THAT CANADA or ARENA Football has.NIKE has tried to do way too much within the parameters of a Jersey. If you go back & look at our original Jerseys while they were plain in today’s look, they too had a lot going on with the CREAMSICLE, RED & WHITE & compared to this look, looking back it was genius. I’ve heard that we may be going back to our original look not for just a throw back game here & there but for our main concept again. I am an original Buc, was born in Bartow, went to school in Mulberry & was the very 1st little league football team I played for-The MULBERRY BUCS-We used to go to games all the time & while back then it took a minute for us to get going but just think of what John McKay did. Back then an expansion team didn’t get all the perks like The JAGS-Panthers-Ravens got-Tampa and Seattle had to start with rejects from all other teams & hope like hell you knew how to draft. Well, McKay proved he could & while the 1st 2 seasons were rough to say it lightly in 79 we were 1 game away from the Super Bowl. If you think about that with the 1st season being in 76, that’s pretty damn amazing. McKay got a bad rap but like I said”He knew how to draft with our very 1st pick being Leroy Selmon who was a God for us back then & went on to build a Defense that featured-Leroy his brother Dewey-Richard Batman Woods-Hugh Green- Cotman & on Offense there were players who also made names. And while Doug Williams really was not that good of a QB all the stars aligned just right for him to become the 1st black QB to win a Super Bowl. Unfortunately, it was Washington Redskins but he did enough to get us within 1 game from the SuperBowl in 79 which if we beat the Rams in the NFC Playoff game, we would have faced probably 1 of the best NFL Teams of all time in The Pittsburgh Steelers who had HOF’s at every position on the field at that time. And in “81” Doug & Ricky Bell, our Defense and the Funniest HC in the League John McKay drove the ship into the playoffs for the 2nd time but we fell flat. And after that that’s when the misery set in for a long time. But even through all those bad seasons, The Bucs with the old colors still had the coolest gear you could buy. Just the colors alone made our shirts-Hats & Jackets stand out against any other team in the League. You could put the very same jacket hat or whatever against any team you wanted to pick & our colors would make that same gear put the others to shame. I bought so much stuff over the years with the Bucs Old colors no telling how much I spent but I can almost pin point on how much I’ve spent on this new garbage. Even with today’s inflated prices I still spent 10x the money on the Bucs Old gear. So Tampa GM & NFL- If you read this yall need to make that rumor come to life & ditch this BS we wear for the original look & guarantee ya you will see a spike in sales that would rival the stock markets of today. Sorry to yall but I just had to vent on this guys & gals. I have tried my best to like the new stuff and when we 1st changed that was bearable but the more they have tried to do with this color combination the worse it has gotten & not by just a little bit either.But on the game tonight…
Winston does what he does. Will look good driving the ball but just like on that 1st drive blew 2 throws that should have been easy TD’s. When he played for FSU man I never seen so much lucky stuff him and that team would do and I was hoping all that luck was gonna follow him to Tampa but as of Today it’s-He will look damn good at times can look as good as anyone but when it’s on the line he will find away to blow it. Don’t know if our Defense as a whole is Super Bowl Caliber but saying this, we should snap the 9 year drought of making the play offs. Another that needs to get fixed is Arguyeo-he’s another that when he played for FSU didn’t miss nothing but tonight he stunk up the joint. I’ll be in the weeds rooting for my Bucs but until they go back to the old uni’s they will get no support from me as far as buying the gear. I have actually just about lost all desire for NFL FB & after that spectacle last year from Kappernik well let’s just put it this way-he damn sure didn’t inspire me in any way & I didn’t watch 1 NFL Game last year. Now with him not getting hired I did watch my beloved Bucs with hope & just like so many years they dissapointed again. But good luck TAMPA & GIV’EM HELL!!! Please bring back the old UNI’s NFL!
August 12th, 2017 at 8:40 am
I was extremely disappointed with the bucks play calls on the first drive. The Bucs needed to make a statement when it was second and goal on the 2 yard line. If aa team thinks they are a potential play off team then they needed to make a statement that something has changed in the in their mindset. I blame the coach for this. RATHER THAN STROKE WINSTONS EGO WITH TWO FAILED PASS PLAYS IN A ROW. THE COACH DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH CONFIDENCE IN HIS OFFENSIVE LINE TO BE ABLE TO PUNCH IT IN FROM THE TWO WITH TWO SHOTS AT IT AND MAKE A TOUGHNESS STATEMENT, THEN WE ARE ON TROUBLE!
August 12th, 2017 at 8:59 am
CANE/BUC ,
I’m pretty sure Ron Wolf put those teams together, who Hugh Clverhouse ran off shortly after he got there. Imo, the greatest personnel man of all time if you look at his track record with the Raiders before and after the Bucs and what he did in Green Bay.
August 12th, 2017 at 9:57 am
Guys…guys…guys….as others have said and will continue to say..it was the FIRST GAME of the PRESEASON.
How anybody is criticizing DK’s play calling just makes me laugh out loud.
Does anybody really believe we’re seeing DK’s regular season offense. Does anybody believe his play calling had anything to do with trying to actually WIN the game…or to discover strengths and weaknesses on our team.
Criticizing playcalling in a preseason game is almost as dumb as betting money on one!!!
August 12th, 2017 at 10:17 am
Not more need be said..RED ZONE Epic FAIL. NEXT!!!!!!
August 12th, 2017 at 11:50 am
I loved the back-to-back jump ball call for the 1st preseason game. It’s something the Bucs may one day do again, but it is far more likely based on Koetter’s history that he has much more diabolical endzone plays–revealing those (as many of our low information fans are clamoring for) would’ve been idiotic.
Also, that was blatant PI on Evans.