Great Wall
October 7th, 2017
Progressing and dominating
The Jacquizz Rodgers brutal blitz-pickup miss against the Patriots aside, the Bucs’ pass blocking was very strong Thursday and has been all season.
Even the stats bear it out in a big way.
Every NFL team except the Patriots has played four games. So the numbers out there across the league are rather even.
America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, has been hit just 17 times. That’s the fifth-fewest number of hits allowed in the NFL. Jameis has 154 passing attempts, a whopping number, and the Bucs have thrown for the third-most yards in the NFL. Yet Jameis has been sacked just seven times.
Dirk Koetter was tipping his hat to the offensive line yesterday.
“Our line protected very well. That is one of the things we did a good job on. In fact, really neither of the sacks – we gave up two sacks – but really neither of them were on the offensive line,” Koetter said.
Later, Koetter said it was across-the-board greatness for the O-line.
“Ali [Marpet] had a good game. Ali did have a good game. Ali’s physical style of play showed up. We had high grades across the board for our O-line.”
The Bucs are pass blocking efficiently, and they have an arsenal of weapons. The 14 points the Bucs chalked up against a second rate Patriots defense has to become a massive anomaly.
October 7th, 2017 at 8:37 am
My only question is why are EDS and Pamphile steadily splitting reps? It should be one of the other
October 7th, 2017 at 8:41 am
Im not sure who is picking the unis for home games but Thursday’s choice was aweful. Bring back the orange already.
Is our OL good or is NE DEF really that bad this year so it pumped up the numbers? I am thinking the latter.
October 7th, 2017 at 8:42 am
Our OLine has been doing very very well this year overall. Still, can’t figure out why Koetter didn’t run the ball more Thursday night.
Dirk’s been our HC & OC for 2 seasons now … 20 games played. We’ve won 11 of those games, scoring an average of 22 points/game in those 2 seasons. Small sampling, BUT … looking at just those 20 games a couple things become quite obvious.
First, Jameis has passed for over 300 yds 6 times in those 20 games … we’ve won 2 of those.
Second, Bucs have rushed for over 100 yds (in regulation) 8 times in those 20 games … we’ve won all 8 of those. Looking at just those 8 wins, Bucs have rushed an average of 33 times per game. Our average time-of-possession in those 8 games was a tad over 32 mins per game. And in only 2 of those 8 wins did Bucs have a 100-yd rusher (both times it was Jacquizz Rodgers BTW).
Small sampling, but it leads me to believe that Jameis NEEDS a respectable run game to be effective at this point in his career. And in all 8 of those wins BTW, Bucs used a lot of short/intermediate passing mixed in with the rushing. And Jameis’ completion rate was much higher (as in like around 10% higher than his average) as one would expect. But that, combined with greater run emphasis, is what appears to drive the TOP higher in those wins … and lessen the time our defense spends on the field. The Bucs … and Jameis … need run/pass B-A-L-A-N-C-E in our gameplans to be effective. That wasn’t present against the Patriots Thursday night. Still can’t figure out why.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:00 am
@DoNUTS: Blame Nike. On Thursday Night Football, teams play in their “color rush” jerseys, designed by Nike. A few teams have sharp-looking color rush jerseys, but most of them look awful.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:11 am
Defence Rules Says is spot on. Need that run game.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:29 am
They need to run more.
Take some pressure off of Winston allowed to play action to develop throughout the game. Early in the game have him throw more short passes to get in rhythm.
Everyone was doom and gloom after the Vikings game, but the reality is the offense and defense are progressing very nicely. The defense needs to play little tighter and the offense needs to get in the end zone
October 7th, 2017 at 9:31 am
So Donovan smith didn’t turn into a turn-style again?????? LOL
I wish we had a punishing LG and RT to really cement the line.
I don’t know about you guys, but the bucs need another good blocking TE cause luke stocker isn’t the answer.
Anymore news on the kicker tryouts Joe?
October 7th, 2017 at 9:40 am
TheBucsAnthem,
I heard that the Bucs are bringing in Mike Nugent (ex-Bengal) and Andrew Franks (ex-Dolphin) for try outs.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:45 am
Defense Rules..Not only does Jameis need that running game, his accuracy needs to improve on key plays. yes, he’s had passes dropped. But he’s missed quite a few wide open receivers too. Martin is ready for primetime. Koetter has got to get a better mix run in there somewheres. If..our Pass Rush continues to improve, we could whip Arizona. There QB can’t take hits and he is vulnerable. Our D will have to win this one. There secondary is quicker than ours. But our O and D lines are comparable.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:48 am
Donovan DOMINATED in that game. There was one play where he blocked every d lineman at least once lol. One of his best games. Period.
October 7th, 2017 at 9:57 am
News flash: NE, Chi and NYG are all in bottom third in Sack Rate. Stats from NFL.com. I’m optimistic about the OL, but still tempering my excitement.
October 7th, 2017 at 10:07 am
The picture above reminds me of just how horrendous those ketchup uniforms are. Plus we are 0-2 now in those hideous uniforms. Retire them please! 👎
October 7th, 2017 at 10:11 am
I know this much Dotson has been very solid so far this season. He looks like his old self from 2 years ago.
October 7th, 2017 at 10:13 am
Mike J … Arizona game certainly is winnable, even if we don’t get David & Kwon back just yet (would surely love to get at least 1 back though). Agree that Jameis can be inaccurate, but he may just be the type of QB who needs to kinda ‘warm up’ with the shorter stuff early in games. Far too many of his throws (especially early in games) have him taking a 7-step drop, letting the receivers get down field, then throwing some pretty long passes (even if they’re not ‘deep’ down the field). Pats did a very good job defending the Bucs’ gameplan. Shame on us … we played right into their strength instead of pounding on their weaknesses (run & short passing).
October 7th, 2017 at 10:20 am
Some bad snaps by Ali and a couple horribly timed penalties aside – The Bucs OLine is playing quite well so far this year. Quite well. Neither Tackle was very good last year – but so far so good in 2017.
Kudos to D. Smith, Pamphile/E.Smith, Marpet, Sweezy and Dotson for an excellent start to the season.
Time to unleash the Dougernaut.
Smithers… release the hounds – er… Hampster!
October 7th, 2017 at 10:26 am
Definitely need to run more. That cant be done if we cant pick uo a 3rd down conversion. We need more, many more, quick passes. No idea why dirk doesnt have many quick hitters in all these game plans. Its obvious it helps when they do get called, once every 4 games. Lets forget about the sweeps to reedy and get a few more slants and wr screens for djax. Get a few easy ones for winston to help the confidence and the game flow. We need more high percentage passes that give guys a chance to make something happen after the catch. More first downs and many more carries for Dougie. Man he looked good. The carrot is dangling. I hope dirk tightens up during the 10 day week. This offense is loaded. Better play calling followed by more accuracy from jameis and we wont have to witness many more missed fgs. Go Bucs
October 7th, 2017 at 10:27 am
Improving the chemistry between Winston and DJax will take us deep into the playoffs. We are not far from turning everything around permanently. This will even fix the kicking concerns. Field goal kicker will be taking naps when the chemistry is present.
Go Bucs!!!
October 7th, 2017 at 10:29 am
Offensive line has been dominant all season.
Marpet, Sweezy, And Smith are playing at a probowl level.
As long as they keep playing this well- everything else will start clicking
Martin looked great Thursday night. He will help the line
Offensive lines love to run block. Thats when they really get to abuse the defensive line and linebackers.
Martin will help Koetter establish a great running attack
IF they can keep Martin motivated. But then, thats always been the story with him. I hope he stays in the game. We need him
October 7th, 2017 at 10:37 am
The ugly ketchup bottle unis are actually an improvement over our normal horrendous looking game uniforms(Nike designed as well).
The Helmets are cool and I think everyone agrees on that – but the whole uniform redesign fiasco couldn’t have been handled worse by ownership.
If that Burger King looking digital clock resembling piece of garbage design was the best those losers at Nike could come up with – then guess what – you fire them and get a better designer – not role with a terrible choice and leave our players hanging for years wearing literal clown suits on the field. All they need is the huge oversized floppy red shoes to complete the ensemble.
Get rid of the clown suits ASAP Glazers!
October 7th, 2017 at 10:37 am
Dolphins have only played 3 games
October 7th, 2017 at 10:56 am
Agreed Defense Rules..On to the next game. Cardinal Coach Brice Arians is just like Bellacheat. He takes away the 1st 2 most important things your offense want to do. So Koetter gotta mix it up and surprise the hell out of him. Jamesi will be Ok. I though he’d progress a little more this season. But its still young. I want to see his readin of defenses get better and for him to go to the checkdown here and there. Also my wife brought up an interesting point, She says, Jameis might be getting to..AMPED up before the game. She says he like a pulpit Rev all leathered down and crazy looking. Worht a looksey…. She thinks before the game he needs to calm down. Intresting observation I never though about.
October 7th, 2017 at 11:49 am
This is a good football team that is only gonna get better with doug Martin , kwon and lavonte back.
Very excited about rest of season
October 7th, 2017 at 12:17 pm
Good point Mike. Jameis does tend to get excited, which is one of the things I love about him, but maybe he needs to focus a little more on the opening part of the game (some players need that more than others from what I’ve seen over the years).
Another thing that no one’s brought up, that I’ve seen anyways, is the impact of that being a Thursday night game. They played a hard game Sunday (so did the Pats I know) then only had one walkthrough from what I read before the game. No contact, nothing. That has to be really hard playing 2 NFL games within less than 100 hours time period. Never been much of a fan of Thursday night football, probably because since our 2002 Super Bowl year we’ve played a total of 7 Thursday games … and won only 1 of them. Bummer.
October 7th, 2017 at 1:12 pm
koetter hopefully comes up with decent game plan for azcards he has plenty of time to fine tune it hopefully Jameis friendly and using DM22, we need to pound them, they hurt us real bad last year
October 7th, 2017 at 1:14 pm
Rayjay1122 Says:
October 7th, 2017 at 10:07 am
The picture above reminds me of just how horrendous those ketchup uniforms are. Plus we are 0-2 now in those hideous uniforms. Retire them please! 👎
Make that 0-3! Rams ( Ketchup/Mustard match-up ), Falcon defensive debacle last season prior to the 5 game winning streak and of course the refuse to win game on Thursday.
I sure miss the uniforms from 1997-2014…loved the orange too truth be told.
October 7th, 2017 at 4:53 pm
The title to this story …is very much MISLEADING!!!! As the O-Line goes….the Great Wall Dominates, 99.9% of the time they pick up the blitz…they pave the way..protect the passer…and they do it in a way of telling the D-Line it gonna be a long day and one other little trait…they rarely lose composure!!! ITS TIME TO PLAY A COMPLETE BALL GAME…OFFENSE AND DEFENSE!!!
October 7th, 2017 at 5:29 pm
If the O-Line was so dominant, why we only ran the ball 20 times in a close ball game?
October 8th, 2017 at 4:15 am
TheBucsAnthumSays – We need a punishing LG and RT? WHAT? Evan Smith has been playing physical aggressive ball and Demar Dotson has been exceptional ranked third for all OT by PFF through four games. Both Dotson and Donovan Smith gave up zero QB pressures against the Giants and both where rock solid again vs the Patriots.
October 8th, 2017 at 6:12 am
Can we please run the ball on 1st and 2nd down!!!???
That was the one good thing about Lovie,
he forced Dirk to run the ball!!