Improved Pass Rush
October 6th, 2018
Solid job.
Joe is trying to find positives about the Bucs defense on this sunny college football Saturday, so bear with him.
Is the Bucs defense bad? Of course. Are the Bucs getting to the quarterback enough? No. But the pass rush has improved.
In fact, Carmen Vitali of Buccaneers.com writes the Bucs have significantly improved their sack attack from the putrid 22 sacks last season.
The Bucs have eight sacks through four games of the NFL season, which actually ties them with every other NFC South team. By comparison, the Bucs had just four sacks through their first four games last season. Both Jason Pierre-Paul and Gerald McCoy rank near the top of the league this year in quarterback hits, with Pierre-Paul tied for the lead with nine. The Bucs’ pass rush has seemingly started to improve, at least up front.
Also factor in that Jason Pierre-Paul is on pace for 16 sacks this season. No, not in a decade as fans are used to around these here parts, but in one season!
Hey, if a team can double its pass rush from the previous season, Joe suggests that is a big step in the right direction.
October 6th, 2018 at 9:05 am
and yet our defense is worse then last years lol..
October 6th, 2018 at 9:08 am
What a different with a quality coach.
October 6th, 2018 at 9:10 am
That sounds like a Bucs staffer stat.
LOL this defense stinks; say no more
October 6th, 2018 at 9:14 am
It’s not the players, it is the coach. On paper we should be better than average on Defense, yet we are dead last.
October 6th, 2018 at 9:18 am
The Bucs secondary has lost Hargreaves, Conte, Grimes and Whitehead at various times – the Bears game, there was 2 rookies, a 3rd string safety and Evans playing in the secondary. The DL was banged up, linebackers had a bad game… sometimes S…t happens…
Offense played like crap too.
Let’s see how or if they bounce back and put the “mob” mentality towards coaches on hold til then.
October 6th, 2018 at 9:28 am
LMAO! Our Buc Defense is dead last In the NFL Yet WE..see improvement? Thats my Bucs..Giving new meaning to …..Lower Expectations. After all though, Its a Buc Life baby!!
October 6th, 2018 at 9:51 am
Im willing to at least hope this coaching staff and turn things around during the bye – maybe get a few more players healthy.
Not all that optimistic at this point but we shall see.
The point is we should have never been in this situation to begin with.
#coachesonthehotseat
October 6th, 2018 at 9:58 am
Mike Smith HAS TO GO. There are no more excuses for his garbage defense
October 6th, 2018 at 9:58 am
JPP is showing all Tampa Bay fans and the whole league actually what a little b…tch GMC really is.
October 6th, 2018 at 10:04 am
In all of the comments I’ve read since Chicago I’m still having trouble figuring out any surprise or consternation.
So as this article points out we actually did improve our pass rush. But behind that pass rush….
Three rookies…another second year player who finally seems to be figuring it out…top two CB’s out with injuries…our defensive backfield has been a MESS!!! And yet we wonder why we suck back there? Our only hope is that these kids will mature under fire and eventually develop into NFL level players.
Not there yet…how many times did we see on Bear double covered while another Bear ran open through the secondary. Our guys literally did not know where to line up and who to cover in far too many situations. Looked like a peewee league game with players all looking around for direction.
October 6th, 2018 at 10:57 am
I wonder what Smitty’s doing on the bye week. Maybe down in Lovies basement working to improve that run defense. Thinking of this defense feels like a case of the runs.
October 6th, 2018 at 11:00 am
Coach Buckner for Defensive Coordinator!!!
October 6th, 2018 at 11:37 am
I’d like to see some more stats on this like sacks & hits per attempt….
Also, someone correct me if I am wrong but with all the pass attempts, I think we have only one pass tipped or batted down in the first 4 games.
I don’t want to be a wet blanket on this….but our stats are a bit better but I’m not sure the pressure is making much difference.
October 6th, 2018 at 12:06 pm
Yeah yeah and the bucs were on pace to have a r cord breaking offense after 2 games. Jpp is the engine and I hope he gets double digits
October 6th, 2018 at 12:07 pm
@Tampabaybucfan … “our stats are a bit better but I’m not sure the pressure is making much difference.” You hit the nail on the head TBBF … better ‘stats’ don’t necessarily mean diddly. Last year we had 22 sacks out of 1,011 plays on defense (not hard to do the math there … 1 sack every 50 plays sucks). In 2016 we had 38 sacks out of 1,013 plays on defense (better, but still we got to the QB less than once every 25 plays).
It’s those OTHER plays on defense that screw ya, UNLESS they equate to CONSISTENT pressure on the opposing QB. Since those opposing QBs are completing almost 80% of their passes, something tells me (just a wild guess) that our Bucs aren’t CONSISTENTLY pressuring the QB. So no, sacks (in isolation) aren’t truly a good indicator of how well our DLine is pressuring the QB.
But combine sacks stats with QB pressures, INTs & QB turnovers, and then I suspect we’d get a decent picture of DLine effectiveness. Compare our defensive stats in those 4 categories with the Jaquars last year & I surmise the difference in those 4 categories would be dramatic. Or if you want to shortcut that, just join the JBF crowd chanting ‘FIRE MIKE SMITH”.
October 6th, 2018 at 12:36 pm
Start hitting the wide receivers at the line to throw off the timing with the qb and the numbers will only get better. These players are turned off and tuned out by this defensive coaching staff and it spreads to the offense by midseason every year knowing it’s a lost cause. It’s always been the scheme so along
October 6th, 2018 at 12:39 pm
Joe is trying to find positives about the Bucs defense on this sunny college football Saturday, so bear with him. —Joe
subliminal dagger from Jose “so BEAR with him.” Joe loves his JOB. lol
October 6th, 2018 at 12:57 pm
Defense Rules
Thanks again for the stats…..
As anyone know who has followed my posts over the years, I am usually positive and optimistic…..also supportive of current players & staff….but I must say, I have lost all respect for Mike Smith….it’s like a marriage gone bad….it’s over for me…..as a fan, I hope he miraculously turns things around but I wouldn’t bet a beer on it.
October 6th, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Bucs defense always seem to play better in the second part of the season but hopefully, the bye week helps them
October 6th, 2018 at 1:45 pm
Bucemup I totally concur with you. I think the real issue is we play to far off so other teams just throw to a spot and in turn the WR is always open. I say since that does not work we should jack the WRs at the line and allow our dline another second to get to the QB. Also simply the defense for these guys because they seem to miss assignments way to often which tells me either all the players are dumb or Mike over complicates the D. Whatever Mike does he needs to seriously reconsider what he has been trying to this point or he will be gone with another performance like that. Come on Bucs just fix it already!
October 6th, 2018 at 2:35 pm
Idk what game the stat people watch. But having a better pass rush is only because jpp. Our sacks were even worst than 22. Think about this one last season against the jets we had six sacks. Maybe some one can look up How many games we went sackless.
October 6th, 2018 at 5:11 pm
It may be better on paper. But it doesn’t pass the eye test. And I bet there have been a lot more passes this year. Since we were in two shootouts a blow out and a prevent while eagles were trying to come back. But there is hardly any pressure during the game. Yeah jpp gets a sack but the rest of the game the qb can scan the whole field twice. So it is not better it is the same no penetration. And what happened moving guys all over that’s what we heard all offseason. Jpp at defensive tackle Gerald McCoy at defensive end. Find a weakness and expose it. I haven’t even seen to many stunts. It just line up base and rush the passer
October 8th, 2018 at 9:13 am
The pass rush is a little better but with our secondary unable to disrupt or cover for very long it is all for naught. When the ball is out of the QB’s hands in two seconds or under, it doesn’t really matter how good a pass rush is, when the defense can’t figure out a scheme to cover or appear to cover receivers for at least two seconds, there’s a major problem with the scheme.
Perhaps Mike Smith is a genius and just nobody can get on his level. They can’t communicate or execute because nobody is that smart…. OR…. maybe the guy’s an idiot and has failed to adjust to an ever changing league. I’m thinking it’s the latter as he spent a half dozen years in Atlanta and failed to ever field an average defense despite going through three different defensive coordinators (funny how Smith could fire a DC to protect himself but when he’s the DC nobody has the sack to fire him).
Koetter and others keep claiming that changing DCs wouldn’t change anything… it might make it worse… that’s BS… they can’t get any worse on defense. That D is about as bad as it can possibly get. Any change made would be for the better. Jim Bates was fired midseason to improved results. Leslie Frazier was fired midseason for continued abysmal results… Smith should be fired just on principal, to hold somebody, anybody accountable for the atrocity that is the Buccaneer defense.