As Bad As 1986
October 4th, 2018
Unnerving.
How bad is the Bucs defense?
Well, a cool thing going at FootballOutsiders.com, a stat-geeky site Joe respects, is a bunch of otherwise would-be accountants sit around and comment in real-time about games, sort of an oral history meets open thread sort of thing.
And how the Bucs defense got lit up by the Bears even shocked the numbers-crunchers. So much so they went scurrying for the calculators. According to their calculations, this year’s Bucs defense is the worst in franchise history save for the 1986 season. Given this franchise’s sorry history (not to mention a lost decade the past 10 years), that’s saying a lot.
Joe went back and checked. The Bucs in 1986 had the No. 28-ranked defense (the NFL since has added four teams). It gave up the most points per game (29.6), most yards per game (395.8) and most points (473) in the NFL
You know it’s bad when before the Bucs have played a game in October, folks are beginning to pull out the Leeman Bennett card.
October 4th, 2018 at 12:04 am
Yuck or should I say….Yucks!
October 4th, 2018 at 12:07 am
Of course, it’s that bad. The organization has no commitment to winning nor fielding a competitive team. Combined with the fact the team has the mental toughness and personality of a doll playing crying clown. It’s not coaching, it’s not scheming, if that was the case it would NOT take 16 years between meaningful wins. Clearly, the glazers have no desire to field a competitive nfl football team. Starts at the top. No how many coaches and gm’s they let the crying clown runoff until the glazers sell or give the reigns to a real football guy there is no hope…. and to be very clear, dungy the clown is a failure that chokes in the postseason not a real football guy…. that publicity stunt already failed with lovie dovie and the family plan.
October 4th, 2018 at 12:11 am
LOL
Mike Smith leave town yet?
October 4th, 2018 at 12:44 am
They’ll improve and go from dead last to 29th in the league and the glazers will say oh look they are improving so let’s give him another year. Dork doesn’t care about his friends results so I’m not even sure why he scouts the defense and their efforts he doesn’t know anything about defense which is why the offense is so inconsistent. Good teams, playoffs tasks don’t get beat like that then make the postseason. The only question is how bad will it be this year
October 4th, 2018 at 12:46 am
Alex Cappa injury update please
October 4th, 2018 at 12:48 am
When the next curb stomping of our beloved Bucs occurs in Atlanta in a couple weeks, we will see if the Glazers decide to force Koetter to fire his inept best buddy. I have a funny feeling the Glazers have already hinted to Koetter that he better either make changes quick to the non defense or risk being fired before the end of the season, along with his inept sidekick on non defense. What a turn of events two weeks makes although the defense and it’s ineptitude was overshadowed the first two weeks because we outscored our competition with a record setting offense. Without record setting offensive numbers, the Bucs won’t be able to win again and since Americas human ATM (America’s turnover machine) is back at the helm, no more offensive records bound to occur and the losses pile up and as dead coach walking “Crying Koetter” exclaimed, everyone on the field should be fired lol. Go Bucs!
October 4th, 2018 at 12:54 am
All those offensive stat categories are up league wide. All the new rules in the last couple of years is starting to adjust league wide. Once we get a good average established they will be able to settle what the new normal should be. It might just be the norm today for all teams to give up 350 – 400 passing yards a game. Time will tell but in the mean time it’s sort of unfair to slam them for the totals but it’s perfectly fine to slam them for being last in those categories.
October 4th, 2018 at 1:19 am
I felt like I was looking at the worst defense we ever fielded last week. I don’t know if it’s possible to fix how bad that defense is. I mean this is four weeks of some of the worst play we’ve ever seen. Ever!
October 4th, 2018 at 1:53 am
Wow. That’s a horrible hat.
October 4th, 2018 at 2:03 am
So in other words, this current defense is WORSE the the defense of the 0-26 Buccaneers. Just….damn.
October 4th, 2018 at 2:53 am
This is on Licht!
No offense to Rojo or MJ or Carlton. They are all worthy 3rd round picks.
But not 2nd round picks!!!
Look who was drafted IMMEDIATELY AFTER MJ Stewart, you know, the 4.6 nickle we drafted.
Round 2
Pick 53- MJ Stewart (taking 1 or 2 rounds too early)
Pick 54- Jessie Bates, Safety- STARTING for the Bengals.
Jessie Bates would have been perfect next to Justin Evans!
Pick 55- Donte Jackson, CB, LSU aka DBU, 4.3 speed, 3 interceptions already!
Pick 56- Duke Dawson, CB, Florida, 4.45 speed, drafted by the PATRIOTS.
Pick 58- Isiaih Oliver, CB, drafted by the Falcons, 4.5 speed
We could have drafted Donte Jackson AND Jessie Bates and had 2 new starters!
Licht FUDGED UP the 2nd round AGAIN!!!
We could have had 2 great DB’s!!
And we whiffed on BOTH!!!
October 4th, 2018 at 2:56 am
And dont get me started on the Rojo pick!!
He’s a WR playing RB! But a WR with NO HANDS!!!
NFL running backs MUST be able to break tackles!!!
We could have drafted Kerryon Johnson, who breaks tackles, or Devonte Freeman, who breaks tackles, or Derrius Guice, who HURTS tacklers.
But, we decided to draft another Charles Sims, a guy who CANNOT BREAK TACKLES!!!
Our 2nd round was HORRIBLE.
October 4th, 2018 at 2:56 am
And I love and respect Rojo, MJ, and Carlton.
But they were all drafted 1 round too early!!!
October 4th, 2018 at 3:08 am
@Trench War … “All those offensive stat categories are up league wide. All the new rules in the last couple of years is starting to adjust league wide.” Great observation Trench War, and I agree with you, BUT … those new rules have been favoring the offense more & more this whole century. IOW, they didn’t just happen overnight, and teams have had sufficient time to adjust (in terms of how they TEAM-BUILD). The Bucs? Not so much. This defense was built to stop the run FIRST & foremost, then pressure the QB from INSIDE (like we did when Sapp was here?).
Well, something strange happened on the way to the forum. That approach emphasizes the Front-7 (usually at the expense of the Secondary). It stresses building from the inside-out to STOP THE RUN. But now that the run isn’t nearly as important to most teams as it used to be, a problem develops … IF you can’t pressure the QB with your Front-7, your back-end gets exposed & you give up gobs of yardage. IOW, in a league where everybody’s pass-happy, if your Front-7 can’t get pressure on the QB you’re dead-meat. And it looks like that’s what we’re now seeing (and have seen for quite a few years in Bucsville BTW).
The way this defense is constructed fits an outdated mold, and has for quite some time. To make matters worse, losing much of your interior beef (Allen, Unrein, Vea) REALLY hurts, but having your LBs contribute mediocre play puts the final nail in the coffin. A near-rookie Secondary, with one aging corner who shouldn’t be on the field right now, really doesn’t have a prayer in a situation like that.
Mike Smith had NO ANSWERS Sunday for ‘good’ (?) reason … there were none. His defense this year has pretty much done what it was designed to do: STOP THE RUN (we’ve given up an average of 88 YPG thus far). And the passing game is running amok as a result. Very inconsistent DLine pressure on the QBs, combined with mediocre play by the LBs, exposed our Secondary big-time.
Is there a fix? Yes … next year. I’m convinced that our Bucs defense can do better (it has to), but not until it gets healthy. We NEED the interior beef, and we NEED our LBs to play a LOT BETTER than they have been. I’d also love to see us go all-young in the Secondary. Evans & Whitehead back, with Ryan Smith, Davis & Stewart at CB. At least they’ll get experience and we’ll find out what we can build with next year.
October 4th, 2018 at 3:10 am
@teacherman 777 … “Licht FUDGED UP the 2nd round AGAIN!!!” Yea verily! BIG TIME!
October 4th, 2018 at 3:12 am
Bucs had Jalen Ramsey who filled a need fall from heavem into their lap and choosed to put a big butt who sits on the bench in front of their Blessings. A new coach and GM is needed.
October 4th, 2018 at 3:49 am
Bao, I think you meant Derwin James. Because we had no chance at Jalen Ramsey, unless we traded up.
October 4th, 2018 at 4:31 am
Yeah this last one stung us all right in the A$$… think back to training camp when Koetter was asked about the progress of his offense and defense. His reply always was “well I’d have to say the defense is ahead of the offense” next day he was asked again. “ well the defense got em’ again” WTF I just think this cat is full of sheee~it Either he has no clue on evaluating his team, or he was just sticking up for his buddy cause he really knew the defense looked like they were slobbing on some bear balls. Or was the 2-0 start to the season just magic mixxed in with a hell of a lot of luck!
October 4th, 2018 at 4:46 am
There is winning and there is losing.
Everything else is just chatter
October 4th, 2018 at 4:59 am
I’m still furious we did nothing about Mike Smith. I’m so concerned about the future state of the Bucs and if anyone is able to make good decisions in the front office. This is not football.
October 4th, 2018 at 5:04 am
Can Licht evaluate Defensive back talent or is it the coaching that can’t utilize them properly? Maybe its a combination of both but Justin Evans is the only DB who has impressed me under Licht both rookies and veterans. Whitehead might be good but its still too early to tell.
October 4th, 2018 at 8:02 am
Well we can’t go back in time an re-do the draft an who knows maybe these guys become great one day but that’s who we got so let’s get behind this team an be positive instead of doing the what if’s lol let’s go Bucs
October 4th, 2018 at 8:06 am
Now if the same thing happens to Mike Smith that happened to Leeman Bennett, on National TV…. then history certainly repeats itself….
October 4th, 2018 at 9:00 am
Is that the same Leeman Bennett that while coaching in Atlanta allowed only 129 points on defense in a 14-game season? Isn’t that an NFL record?
October 4th, 2018 at 9:02 am
this year’s Bucs defense is the worst in franchise history save for the 1986 season
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and folks still want to believe lovies defense was worse….lol….with all the stats and evidence out there some of these clowns are allergic to the truth…..
grass aint always greener on the other side…..tried to tell yall….lol….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!!
October 4th, 2018 at 9:24 am
Lovie defense was a Top-10 defense in yardage against. Lovie got a raw deal, everyone know this. Lovie curse them with 10 years of piss-poor defense.
October 4th, 2018 at 9:39 am
That 1986 defense was SOOOOOO BAD.
Ryan Smith, Davis and Stewart do still look a little green out there so far – but compared to epic bust 1st rd pick Rod “Toast” Jones they are all prospects extraordinaire.
October 4th, 2018 at 10:35 am
Licht reminds me of richard williamson days another mr magoo stumbling bumbling employee of the bucs
October 4th, 2018 at 10:41 am
Leeman was such a nice guy too. and had come over from Atlanta where he had a successful run as HC.
As they say the more things change the more they stay the same.
October 4th, 2018 at 11:07 am
Sufferin succotash, you’d think Buc fans would have a full belly by now.
October 4th, 2018 at 11:24 am
LMAO! This Bad Buc Defense is almost about to surpass Lovie’s, Kinda
Ironic huh?
October 4th, 2018 at 4:39 pm
I didn’t start watching every week until the first game of the 1987 season, when the Bucs beat the hell out of the Falcons on opening day, 48-10, on their way to a 4-11 season.
But 1986… I have no memory of that.