Doubling Up
October 24th, 2017
When opposing teams face Mike Smith’s defense of late, they get to double their fun.
To be direct, that would be Arizona and Buffalo.
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com had some jarring numbers that made Joe ill.
@greggrosenthal: Bucs D gave up 34 PPG last two weeks to Bills and Cards.
Bills and Cards every other game: 15.5 PPG
Well, the Arizona game was sort of understandable. They have Hall of Famers on offense (albeit over-the-hill) and a guy who before he started collecting social security checks was one of the better quarterbacks of his generation.
The Bills? They are led by Tyrod Taylor, more of a running quarterback than anything. Yet he of all people drove 75 yards on three plays to tie the game late Sunday. Jiminy Christmas!
How bad is the Bucs defense of late? A Bills fan pregame Sunday did imitated it.
Bills fan imitating Bucs defense before game. RT @LacesOutShow: Bills Mafia was ON FIRE today (get it?) pic.twitter.com/SoLcKLDBz3
— JoeBucsFan (@JoeBucsFan) October 24, 2017
October 24th, 2017 at 12:20 am
Mike Smith has coached good defenses before.
So, either the NFL has got Hip to him and his schemes, or his players are letting him, and the whole area of Tampa Bay down.
I will leave it to those smarter then me, to figure out WTF is wrong.
Yes, our defense played bad last game, but Jameis and our firepower were able to overcome nearly all of that, until Hump fumbled. THAT broke our backs, IMHO.
October 24th, 2017 at 12:22 am
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Carson Wentz SUCKS, he lost to Alex Smith.
The Eagles must trade Wentz and draft picks to the Chiefs for Alex Smith if they want to win a SB.
#TrollTheTrolls
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In other news … cute models!
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October 24th, 2017 at 12:23 am
You know Joe, there seems to be a Domino effect going on. Bad defense by Mike Smith, Dirk Koetter wanted Mike Smith to be here, approved by Jason Licht. We need to flush out our Scouting staff, DC, HC, and I’ll give Licht 2 more years max to fix this mess. I hope Saquon Barkley falls to us and a decent QB to back up Jameis Winston.
October 24th, 2017 at 12:24 am
We need to double up on DEs and CBs in the offseason….
October 24th, 2017 at 12:31 am
^ I 100% agree … we need TWO new CBs and DEs!
CBs Malcolm Butler, Trumaine Johnson and Vontae Davis are all expected to be free agents this offseason … I’d prefer Butler.
Ziggy Ansah also may hit free agency but I’m thinking we may draft a DE or two
October 24th, 2017 at 12:35 am
@unbelievable agreed. But not one who is lazy and complains… *cough* *cough* 90
October 24th, 2017 at 12:36 am
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BucJ,
Saquon? That dude will most likely be a top 5 pick unless there is a massive run on QBs at the top of the first round, which there certainly could be with Darnold, Rosen, Allen, Jackson, Mayfield, Rudolph, Browning and others all in the draft … however I doubt we have any legit shot at Saquon.
I’d be thrilled with Stanford’s Bryce Love but have a feeling he may be off the board before we draft as well … the kid is absolutely electric though.
I’ve got my eye on LSU’s Derrius Guice and have been watching him since his freshman year … the kid can play and has some monster games … not much of a receiver though but neither was Fournette at LSU and he’s been a fine NFL receiver, so …
But, as last year proved with Kareem Hunt, Dalvin Cook, Kamara and Cohen all going 1nd round or later while Christian MacCaffery (who looks like a slot receiver more than a legit RB) … RB talent can be drafted outside the first round.
I expect us to draft and/or sign in the offseason: (2) CBs, (2) DEs, RB and RT
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October 24th, 2017 at 12:58 am
This is what Joe had heard through the grapevine (Ira actually heard it through his NFL sources. Pretty sure Ira has spoken about this on radio before.). First, Koetter is a very loyal guy. A very loyal guy. Mike Smith was a big reason Koetter got his break in the NFL. The two met at a coach’s clinic when Koetter was at Arizona State and Smith was at Baltimore coaching linebackers and both guys hit it off right away. Smith introduced Koetter to various NFL coaches including Jack Del Rio. The rest is history.
Word is when Smith and Koetter left Atlanta, the two had a handshake deal: Whichever one got a head coaching gig first, he would hire the other as coordinator.
So Joe can understand why Koetter is 100 percent defending Smith. Koetter is going to give the guy responsible for him eventually having his current job every opportunity to turn things around.
If, for whatever reason, Smith isn’t here next year, it won’t be on Koetter.
October 24th, 2017 at 1:07 am
Problem number 1
I think tampa bay defense since gmc was drafted only had a handful of lights out performances. This has to be a “GLARING” issue leading to off season. This flat word keeps haunting the Bucs.
I’m at wits end. Nothing works. U think firing coaches will work? 4 and counting coachING staffs n 7 years is embarrassing enough.
October 24th, 2017 at 1:23 am
Man don’t you guys see that Aunt Geraldine is quadruple teamed every play? He is top 5 DT in the league. THE YUCS are soooooooo fortunate to have him. Great pillar on defense. He always earns the right to be a “C” on defense. It’s the other ten guys on defense that are the problem.
October 24th, 2017 at 1:24 am
How on earth did we go from being a feared defense and having so many commentators picking as a sleeper hit to this crapola???
How did it get so bad? Coincidence since we got two FA’s that have been very vocal in their displeasure??? Is it them causing the disease to spread?
We got same coaching staff and same team..what the heck went wrong???
October 24th, 2017 at 1:36 am
Well the quadruple team ain’t working. Shoot. It ain’t worked for forever
ALL GMC LEAD DEFENSE ARE FLAT LIKE 10 TIMES A YEAR.
Still today same story
October 24th, 2017 at 1:39 am
It’s hard to coach a squad of bums. Jason Licht has done a poor job of getting quality players for the Bucs defense.
October 24th, 2017 at 1:51 am
unbelievable is right–we need double DE’s and CB’s
how?
answer–trade Djax for first round pick, trade tj ward and swaggy baker
get rid of the divas that are not doing us much good anyway
October 24th, 2017 at 1:59 am
@NFLNut You do make a point. I think if we tank Barkley could most definitely fall to us since the teams in front of us are QB needy. Honestly my RB draft list from best to worst would be Barkley, Guice, Scarborough, Love, Chubb. This list isn’t really fair because Scarborough and Guice are powerbacks while Barkley and Love are shifty runners. Chubb reminds me of MJD and Doug Martin. In the draft, the bucs should also draft either the quarterback out of Washington state (forgot his name) or the quarterback from Memphis (also forgot his name). You also make a good point on McCaffery. So far he isn’t cutting it RB wise with his poor stats but he has pretty good hands but that’s about it. And for offseason, RT, CB, and DT/DE is a must.
October 24th, 2017 at 2:09 am
@Joe I know where you’re coming from Joe, and I respect Koetter for helping out the guy who made him a name in the NFL, but like all coaches and players praise, the NFL is a business. Unfortunately, the weak link on this team seems to point towards Smith. I don’t understand how we had such a huge defensive breakout last season and seem to crap the bed this season, but something has to change. I also hope that Dirk Koetter realizes that his playcalling is a bit vanilla and easily anticipated. Tony Romo even called out Koetter’s play calling. This team is talented on paper, but someone needs to find out the underlying cause of defensive miscues.
October 24th, 2017 at 2:15 am
“Well Gmc gets triple teamed” scheme gets ur ass handed to u week in and week out
October 24th, 2017 at 2:17 am
I wouldn’t mind seeing what Goodwin got. No reason to be targeting Djax all day when you got Evans, Brate, OJ and let’s see if Goodwin can ball.
October 24th, 2017 at 2:19 am
Lamarcus
Ray Rice being sarcastic. He hates gmc more than most.
My man Ray Ray! What da biz niz cuz?
October 24th, 2017 at 3:15 am
@Bucj … “someone needs to find out the underlying cause of defensive miscues.” Ask any JBF commenter & they’ll tell you in a heartbeat Bucj. ‘It’s Smitty’s fault; fire him.’ Or ‘GMC isn’t getting 10 sacks a game; trade him.’ The list is endless, and we’ve both seen them all I’m sure.
When I look at the games, and I’m certainly no expert but do love my Bucs, I keep seeing several things playing over & over on this defense this year. First, guys getting blocked out of plays, and quite easily it looks like. Especially our DLine & yes, our LBs on too many plays. Second, very poor tackling, almost across the board. Guys are ‘flying around’ but they’re not wrapping up (as Ronde used to call it). And I’m seeing virtually no jarring hits like I used to see from John Lynch & Hardy Nickerson (man both of them could hit). And third, opposing receivers (to include TEs & RBs) running free all over the field. Our coverage has been totally unbelievable … unbelievably bad.
The latter is the only one I’d ‘blame’ on the coaches (might have something to do with our defensive ‘schemes’ but I think the lion’s share of the ‘blame’ needs to go to the players). Not being able to get off blocks & poor tackling? That to me is on the individual players. We’re either not big enough, or not strong enough, or not talented enough or not gutsy enough … not sure which (or all), but in any event, we’re not ‘enough’ of something.
It’s easy to ‘blame’ 1 or 2 guys for the end result (scapegoating seems to be a full-time Tampa Bay sport), but reality is that NFL football is the ultimate T-E-A-M sport. All an OC has to do is find 1 or 2 weaknesses & they can exploit it all day long. Newsflash: Bucs have more than 1 or 2 weaknesses. Many more. We’re now paying the price for years & years of dumb personnel decisions compounded by poor player development. That won’t change overnight, but we’ve got to start someplace with this defense, just like we started with the offense back in 2014 when we drafted ME13 in the 1st round. Took us 3 yrs to improve our offense, but that’s coming along OK. Time to fix this defense.
October 24th, 2017 at 5:47 am
Baker- 6 million
Evan Smith- 4 million
Erase them, that’s 10 million
Calais Campbell- 15 million
So, he would have only cost us 5 million!!!
October 24th, 2017 at 5:57 am
Teach
We had the money to sign him. 18 mil in free cap as of today. But remember this team just got a pros locker room this year. Ijs
October 24th, 2017 at 6:42 am
This D turned it around last year with Tandy and McDougal last year and they talked about was the communication on the defensive side, what’s different? Cohesion, that’s what is different. Tandy and Ward at safety, Kwon hopefully back to full speed and not tentative and Ryan Smith either really stinking it up in practice or Smitty playing favorites with his former falcons. #getoutthepressbox
October 24th, 2017 at 6:59 am
we are 4 and 2 if we can just tackle
That’s what scares me – our Management looked at our roster and didnt feel the need to go sign Campbell. What does that say about your talent evaluators.
Everyone in the league needs pass rushing DL. You need to draft them over and over – and you better have some quality coaching to coach them up.
Just my opinion – I’d like to see us go to a 3 / 4 and more press coverage. I’m not saying man to man – you can go press and still have some help over the top.
We need to scheme our way to an avg D., but in the end – when you give up 7yrds make the tackle and not give him 5 more.
October 24th, 2017 at 7:08 am
the only reason ryan griffen smith is still on the roster is because it would make licht beer look bad
when ryan griffen smith eventually gets cut he will be out of the league
October 24th, 2017 at 8:30 am
We can’t keep changing coaches, but he (Smith) has to get them to be more aggressive. I do think we can find a better GM.We need to make some trades and build a solid pass rush, Run defense and secondary! Trade for more aggressive D lineman.Bring in some Bad arse people who want to punish the other team.
October 24th, 2017 at 8:42 am
We had some cohesion last year during the five game stretch.We added two
one dimensional players. Swaggy is a run stopper who doesn’t look to be in any kind of shape to mount a rush. TJ ward is looking inadequate in the passing game.
Now i will say that some of our defensive alighnments are cause for concern.
One Tyrod’s big runs up the middle came with 3 down lineman.There were huge gaps between McCoy and the other lineman. McCoy started to rush around the O lineman and he was easily pushed out of the play. You gotta have better LB support to fill these gaps. We have played mobile QB’s much better last year.
Back to the 3 spread out lineman it sure seemed like the middle man should have
home to defend the run,and possibly wrong personnel.
I wonder if Swaggy trying to plug up the middle might have been a better option. But in any case dump the three man lines,lets our four man lines have struggled but four is still better than three.
October 24th, 2017 at 8:43 am
edit: stayed home to defend the run.
October 24th, 2017 at 8:45 am
This article supports my argument that DK is way over his head. Zero accountability for his coaches or players. To my point, I wonder how many of them will be at Rocco’s Tacos tonight at International Plaza many sighted last week. Doing shots of tequila with the Tampa bimbos is probably not the best thing to be doing the night/morning of Wednesday practice.
October 24th, 2017 at 9:20 am
regarding dirk and smitty….didn’t we fire lovie because he hired his friends and had a trash defense?….lovie and leslie go way back….at least when things got ugly lovie made a switch(even tho the defense still sucked…mostly because kwon missed the last 4 games)….
I can understand helping a friend that helped you but you have to realize that you have a job to perform and your job is to win football games….currently he aint doing that so he needs to make adjustments….tell smitty it aint working and things need to change because their jobs are on the line….
people say we cant keep changing coaches….BS….we have a franchise QB and solid young talent on both sides on the ball….get someone in here that wont waste the prime years of Winston, evans and others like they did with GMC….GO BUCS!!!!
October 24th, 2017 at 9:49 am
Lmao what the actual f… that dude was on fire !!! Lmao
October 24th, 2017 at 10:08 am
I think this Bucs D should be called the Red Sea Defense, because it parts like the Red Sea before Moses.
October 24th, 2017 at 11:44 am
You are a goober if you think getting rid of GMC solves a problem. Getting rid of flabby shaggy baker–that is a GOOD place to start! He is the cancer! GMC is a vey good player. Not other wold, but good! IF there was someone who would give up a CB for TJ Ward. I’d deal. But flabby shaggy is out of shape and out of place on nearly every play. Robert Ayers and McDonald would be better at DT. I’d like to see Siliga too.
Bucs need CB help fast! Kwon an lavante should play on opposite sides. Beckwitg shoild man the misshle on first and Second. Third down should be 3-4 alignment with David, Alexander, Glanton, Ana Spence.
I may be too hard on TJ Ward. He could be biting on play action vibe cause kwon or Alexander or Beckwith get out of position.
October 24th, 2017 at 12:04 pm
It’s the defenders not the defense. Mike Smith can’t go out there and tackle. Or not get sucked in on play action. It’s not Smith who fails to set the edge or get pressure on the QB. Tyrod Taylor was just running around like Mike Vick all day. All I saw were arm tackles and defenders diving in the grass. The secondary has ZERO help from the line. It’s a disgrace. Smith might as well start blitzing corners and safeties since they’ll left out to dry anyway. The weaknesses in this defense start upfront and we supposedly have the best D line coach in the league, yet NO development. Teams like the Rams and Vikings can totally turn games around with their pass rush, but the Bucs have a bunch of Subpar, overweight guys getting mauled every Sunday. GMC has the best “get off” in the NFL and THAT IS IT! that is the extent of his talent. We wont have a great defense untill we get a group of linemen who fight like dogs every down. “Every blade of grass”!