I’ll Take The Rush … And My Chances
May 18th, 2018
BY IRA KAUFMAN
They’ve got the whole Buc World in their hands. Maybe the fate of a couple of high-profile employees, too.
You can’t exaggerate how much the Bucs are counting on a new defensive front and a new assistant coach to get the dirty job done this fall. You don’t add five linemen through free agency, a trade and the draft unless you’ve looked at the film and decided this simply can’t go on.
Tampa Bay fans reached that sad conclusion midway through last season after watching Case Keenum, Carson Palmer, Tyrod Taylor and Drew Brees carve up what was ultimately deemed to be the NFL’s most porous pass defense.
While young corners Vernon Hargreaves and Ryan Smith struggled, the bigger culprit was a pass rush that generated a league-low 22 sacks.
And as new defensive line coach Brentson Buckner pointed out in his introductory news conference, there’s more to the story beyond depositing quarterbacks on their backsides.
It’s about collapsing the pocket. It’s about throwing off a thrower’s timing. It’s about making the guy under center uncomfortable.
“It has to go hand-in-hand, in terms of putting pressure on the quarterback,” says Mike Smith. “Obviously, the statistics say we were not a very good pass-rushing team last year. We’re going to have to get pressure on the quarterback to help our secondary and our linebackers be able to cover more efficiently. That was a big issue for us last season and it’s something that we have addressed and now we have to go out and do it.”
If they do, they just might take an embattled franchise along for a sweet ride.
Camouflage Time
Nobody is comparing Smith or Hargreaves to Patrick Peterson or Xavier Rhodes, but let’s be fair. Darrelle Revis in his prime might have taken his lumps last year working behind that woeful pass rush.
The right offseason additions can make a huge difference.
In 2004, the Eagles got their “Freak” on in free agency and pounced on Jevon Kearse, whose burst off the edge promptly made everyone around him better. Behind the league’s No. 2 scoring defense, Philly went 13-3, posting 47 sacks and nearly beating the Patriots in the Super Bowl in Jacksonville.
Philadelphia’s assistant director of player personnel that season? Jason Licht.
Calais Campbell was the catalyst for Jacksonville’s dominating defense last year as the Jags registered 55 sacks and almost represented the AFC in the Super Bowl.
It’s hardly a coincidence that Jacksonville allowed an NFL-low 68.5 passer rating to opposing quarterbacks.
Surely the Buc secondary has to do its part, but NFL history has proven that a fierce pass rush can camouflage deficiencies downfield.
“We have to hold up our end of the bargain obviously because the longer the quarterback can hold the football, in terms of coverage, we’re going to give those guys more time to get there,” says defensive backs coach Brett Maxie.
Consistent pressure up front would allow Smith to blitz because he wants to — not because he has to. When Lavonte David finishes a season with zero sacks, that tells me opposing teams knew he was coming.
We all saw it … the 2017 Bucs blitzed often and blitzed ineffectively.
That’s a disastrous exacta.
“Big Brothers”
Now it’s up to Buckner to forge a four-man front capable of hunting quarterbacks, starting with Brees in Week 1. Buckner played on such a marauding unit in Carolina 15 years ago, when he joined Julius Peppers, Kris Jenkins and Mike Rucker to form a dynamic line that evoked comparisons to the Warren Sapp/Simeon Rice crew wreaking havoc in Tampa.
Buckner knows the Bucs can’t hope to end a 10-year playoff drought unless his guys head the posse.
“I’ve never blamed a defensive back for a long pass or giving up a whole bunch of yardage — because we’re closest to the quarterback,” Buckner says. “We affect everybody’s job. We stop the run and we keep the linebackers free – their job is better. We get to the quarterback, the defensive backs’ jobs are better.
“We’re the big brothers, we’re the foundation. If you build a house on a shaky foundation, I don’t care how many bells and whistles you put on it, it’s going to collapse.”
You know the old cliché — pass defense is rush, plus coverage. I’ve heard it a million times.
Here’s my take. Give me the rush, I’ll take my chances with the coverage.
May 18th, 2018 at 4:41 pm
Very well put sir…
May 18th, 2018 at 4:49 pm
All eyes will be on the D line. Either get the job done, or jobs will be done.
May 18th, 2018 at 5:01 pm
That last sentence; my thoughts exactly. Nailed it Kaufman!
May 18th, 2018 at 5:01 pm
Yep been on this page for years..
Build from the trenches out
May 18th, 2018 at 5:28 pm
Only took Licht 5 years to figure this out
May 18th, 2018 at 6:58 pm
Nicely presented piece Ira – as usual.
May 18th, 2018 at 8:12 pm
Right on, Ira. It all starts up front and from the middle out. If a team can’t win the game in the trenches, all is pretty much lost from the get to. Moreover, winning in the trenches, with all due respect to Simeon Rice from yesteryear and JPP in the present, starts from the middle and works outward. If a team isn’t strong up the middle it already has a fatal weakness. So, let’s keep our fingers crossed that Beau Allen, Vinny Curry when needed, Vita Vea, and Stevie Tu’ikolovatu can combine with Gerald McCoy to collapse that middle, move some QBs off their spots and hurry them to give our secondary and LBs a bit of an easier time in coverage.
May 18th, 2018 at 8:26 pm
We always hear about a 3-4 defense vs. a 4-3 defense. Why are those the only options? If I had a plethora of d-linemen, and very fast linebackers, I’d experiment with a 5-3, or 5-2 defense.
Think about it. Teams will have to double GMC and JPP, maybe even Spence and Veal The offenses will have no choice but to keep a tight end and/or a running back in as additional blockers. That leaves 4 potential receivers running routes.
Can you imagine the havoc created by a d-line of GMC, JPP, Spence, Vea, Curry?
May 19th, 2018 at 1:35 am
Is it just me or does coach Buck sound like a defensive coordinator?
May 19th, 2018 at 7:18 am
The football gods seem to be finally smiling down on the Buccaneers in recent years.
When ASJ flamed out after a couple of years here Licht and staff took the blame. There were no red flags raised when he was drafted. Koetter was unable to implement some of the two tight end sets that he had publicly stated he wanted to do. Oh, well.
Last year O.J. fell to us late in the first round of the draft. Licht scooped him up rather than address the needs on the defensive line. Some fans and pundits denounced him soundly. So the Bucs have now thrown good money away on Cameron Brate also.
This year Bruce Arians announced his retirement from the Arizona Cardinals. Brent Buckner found himself out of a job and the Buccaneers promptly pounced. All luck, no decisions on anybody’s part here.
This year Licht took advantage of the fact that the Bills wanted to trade up and got more picks in later rounds. He promptly passed on Derwin James and took Vita Vea instead. Some fans and pundits are still howling over that one. After all, he had acquired JPP, and Curry, etc. in free agency. What in the world was he thinking?
The Buc’s brain trust from the Glazers, the administrative staff, and the coaching staff did not really do any post-2017 season self-critiques. It was all smoke and hot air. It was all a PR campaign only. Only the gods were making the real decisions.
The Bucs are poised for another disappointing season. Listen to those fans and pundits who know best.
If we come out with 7 or more wins this year we can all say “God bless the football gods!”.
_________
Go Bucs!!!
P.S. Licht and his staff had little to do with acquiring JPP. After all, everyone knew the Giants wanted to jettison him. They made so much noise about. All the other teams just did not want him. It had to have been just blind luck again!
May 19th, 2018 at 11:39 am
BAM!!! There it is Ira. Give me a great rush and I’ll take my chances. Been sayin this for almost 4 yrs now. And I still say we need yet another Strong DE. You can never have enough of them. JPP is going to work wonders for us. But IF..he goes down…… You can bet Koetter and Smitty both know they need at least 8 wins to keep their coaching jobs next year. We get great pressure to cause hurries and adjutments and we create confusion. I’m hoping for the best. But being a longtime buc fan…. well prepared for the worst.
May 19th, 2018 at 3:02 pm
Right on Ira. Defense (and offense) starts with the line. You get good line play and you have chance, without you are done. Licht did a great job, and at least we have a place from which to start. Good news is we have proven veterans. Bad news is there is that we still need to add new blood to keep it going. Unfortunately Noah Spence appears to be an injury waiting to happen. Vea is at least a start. We are much better off this year but need to continue to build on what we finally have started. Hopefully future drafts add a lineman or two within the top three picks. Keep filling the pipe.