“Big Step Forward In That Area”
September 18th, 2017
Dirk Koetter spoke today about the Bucs’ new cleanup job.
It didn’t take long in Dirk Koetter’s news conference today for the head coach to highlight a huge positive out of yesterday’s game.
It was something the Bucs were miserable at in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and only marginally better in 2016.
“Only one penalty on offense,” Koetter noted, “big step forward in that area.”
Amen.
The Bucs finished with four penalties for just 34 yards lost. Joe has heard Koetter say previously that the goal for each game is no more than six penalties. So mission accomplished.
That’s pretty damn impressive, especially for a team coming off a long layoff and battling fatigue. Back in 2015, the Bucs flirted with the NFL record for penalties in a season and finished with nearly nine per game.
September 18th, 2017 at 2:50 pm
Outstanding effort on penalties by the Bucs. Clean football. Imagine! I could barely shake the horror of the Lovie days out of my head. Stupid, sloppy football.
When Chicago’s D was melting down with the holding calls yesterday it was like “Hey, they look like we used too”!
September 18th, 2017 at 3:32 pm
Biff
Yeah man. Alot easier to get first downs too. N its not like the refs werent callin them. For a while I wasnt sure Brate would ever get to run a route. Da bears just wanted to hold him. I hope they asked him if it was ok first. Great game Bucs!!
September 18th, 2017 at 3:51 pm
Probably showed em the USF Illini game tape.
September 18th, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Looking back at the game recap Bucs 4 penalties really didn’t hurt us, whereas many of the Bears 8 penalties cost them dearly (especially their defensive penalties). Very much unlike past years where our penalties were drive-killers. Great job obviously!
Another great job that jumped out was Mike Smith’s impressive management of the snap counts. Excellent rotation of DLine guys in particular to keep them fresh in the heat & humidity. It paid off obviously.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:01 pm
Technically the formation penalty on the field goal was ST…..so yes….just one holding penalty…..but that one hurt us.
Nevertheless…..much, much better. I can’t believe Dotson didn’t have his usual false start…..let’s hope he doesn’t double up at Minn.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:19 pm
I’m proud of my Bucs, I just wish we had more of a killer instinct. 26-0 @ halftime? But could only muster 3 points in 2nd half. Would’ve liked to see at least 1 more touchdown.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:35 pm
I’m sure if you do your own research David you’ll come away realizing big first half leads tend to taper off in the second bro. Point being teams that put 25 in the first don’t normally match that with 25 in the second half. That just doesn’t happen often bro.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:37 pm
“But could only muster 3 points in 2nd half.”
They weren’t aggressively trying to score points in the 2nd half as much as they were just grinding out the Bears and controlling the time of possession.
This was the entire 3rd quarter:
Bears 3 and out
Bucs 6 minute drive into red zone – Sims fumble
Bears 3 and out
Bucs 8 minute drive into the 4th quarter – Field Goal
At that point the game was basically over and Winston only played one more possession before we pulled him. If not for the Sims fumble we likely score a TD that drive or at least a FG. Either way we did exactly what was needed to close the game out and not give the Bears any chances at all to get into the game. I would change nothing about what they did.
The only negatives I can think of in the entire game were a couple missed Winston bombs which were really close outside of the Sims play. It seemed like one to Djax in the end zone was catchable but Djax approach was off. We all saw them connecting throughout TC and OTAs so there’s reason to believe that’s just rust. He was money all game other than those couple throws and didn’t make any stupid plays.
September 18th, 2017 at 4:38 pm
I’m beatin yo @$$ I’m prolly thinking about chewing up some clock in second half. I rather not be forcing ME and Desean across the middle.
September 18th, 2017 at 5:57 pm
Mark Schlereth claimed later in the game that the Bears were holding our receivers so much because they were gassed and couldn’t move their feet.
Maybe…later in the game. But in the first half what made me smile was the Bears realizing there is simply no way for them to cover our multitude of targets without clutching and holding. If they hadn’t held who knows what would have happened with our targets running open in the secondary.
I hope this is a continuing pattern….a team with so many excellent targets that you can’t stop them all without some clutching and holding. We absolutely scored bigtime in the #WeaponsforJameis !!!!
September 18th, 2017 at 6:12 pm
Not a Conte fan but that UC penalty called on him was BS. That was like a set pick in basketball, not a cheap shot. Weak, weak call.