Derrick Brooks Talks Mike Smith Xs & Os
November 17th, 2017
Iconic Hall of Famer and Bucs icon Derrick Brooks seemed to be staunchly defending defensive coordinator Mike Smith yesterday, a man Brooks has said many times was the Bucs’ top offseason acquisition.
Brooks hopped on WDAE-AM and offered insight as to why the Bucs may not have been blitzing as much as some would have liked prior to their success with a more aggressive attack versus the Jets.
“We didn’t do a lot of [blitzing], either,” Brooks said of his teams. “The talent in what we had obviously is different, but from a [coaching] confidence standpoint, I’m looking at it from that. You can draw up all the blitzes in the world but if you’re not showing that you can handle that Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in practice, you’re not going to put it into the game. We were notorious for that. We would run a thousand blitzes all during the week. But in practice, if we didn’t execute it, guess what on Sunday? It was never played. So we ended up playing [our primary defense]. So a lot of that can be just a product of what’s happening in practice, which unfortunately and fortunately, we don’t get a chance to see. So you try to play what they’re comfortable with.
“The flip side of that is if that’s what you’re confident in playing, you gotta execute it better. And I think that’s more so what Coach Smith and the defensive coaches want to accomplish: ‘Hey, let’s do what we do and get better at our own execution. So whenever I do call a chance play or a chance blitz or a chance whatever, I have confidence we can execute it.’
“And the four-man pressure was there this past Sunday. Again, I don’t care who they were playing, it showed up. And you can continue that this week, especially going against a team that’s coming off some protection issues Monday night.”
Great analysis by Brooks there. Hey, if the Bucs were flat on blitzing in practice, then why would Smith dial it up in a game? It’s an intriguing layer of thought.
But for Joe’s taste, the Bucs clearly didn’t blitz enough in games prior to the Jets contest. However, the blitzes they did run repeatedly before the Jets game failed. (Man, the Bucs ran all kinds of blitzes in training camp that Joe has yet to see.)
Regardless, the Bucs need to stay aggressive. There’s no reason to think the four-man pass rush that magically appeared at times Sunday is going to sustain.
November 17th, 2017 at 9:50 am
There were some blitzes this past week that showed nice results. Plain as that.
November 17th, 2017 at 10:02 am
Very winnable game for the Bucs. IF..they show up and play. The Dolphins simply are not that good. But we never can say with outright confidence our Bucs will win. Not like other teams. We..just have to watch, hope and pray!
November 17th, 2017 at 10:35 am
a dirk lead football team on the road…..im expecting us to get blown out or look unprepared or “FLAT”….GO BUCS!!!
November 17th, 2017 at 10:45 am
Has anyone calling for these coaches heads stopped and thought that this team has done this Three Times chanding coaches after a couple of years and nothing changed
Some discussion on Joe Bucs as 6 years ago
Maybe it’s time to look at other problems
Doing the same thing over and over again looking for a different result is insane
The Bucs need the LOSING CANCER REMOVED
November 17th, 2017 at 10:55 am
This is a winnable game for us Sunday, especially if we play like we did last week.
I like how we moved McCoy around, for a change.
November 17th, 2017 at 1:20 pm
Regardless, the Bucs need to stay aggressive.
Joe
I think you nailed it for most fans with that statement. We can always debate schemes, blitzing etc. but the fans just want to see some freaking aggression.
IE…Don’t let CB’s play ten yards off of ever WR…how about some jam in our coverage? Same for our pass rush…just create some aggression and violence and we’ll be happy.
November 17th, 2017 at 1:43 pm
This fan base grew up on speed and aggression by the defense, win or lose. Just ball hard and we’ll appreciate you. When your team loses it’s hard, but when they lose and they’re without any identity…that’s rough. They don’t have the talent those Lee Roy Selmon or 90’s – 2005 Bucs teams had, but that doesn’t mean that can’t play with passion.
November 17th, 2017 at 2:05 pm
Hope the Chris Simms Rumors are true. Just imagine what Gruden could do with JW. Gives me wood!
November 17th, 2017 at 6:32 pm
Maybe it has something to do with the corners playing tighter coverage. Call me crazy but if you cant throw the ball you may get saked more than not. Smdh