QB Pressure SOS
October 12th, 2018
Can Vita Vea help?
This is almost too crazy to believe.
Even after adding two proven pass rushers, Jason Pierre-Paul and Vinny Curry, and both of those guys demonstrating they can still get to the quarterback — JPP is on pace for 16 sacks! — Bucs defensive linemen not named “JPP” or “Vinny” still are allergic to quarterback pressure.
There is no question that the Bucs upgraded on the defensive line in the offseason. Hell, just getting rid of offsides-jumping, Lightning-trolling, belly-shirt-wearing, practice-hating, kicker-heckling, tree-grinding , non-contact-football-loving, chicken-wings-grilling, playing-time-squawking, TV-cooking-star, half-sack Swaggy Baker was an upgrade.
Yet the Bucs still cannot get to quarterbacks. Straight from the good folks of NFL Films, by way of BSPN’s NFL Matchup, only the Raiders are worse at applying pressure to quarterbacks.
The Bucs can only get pressure on quarterbacks 22.9 percent of the time. No wonder quarterbacks are completing 77 percent of their passes, worst in the league by the way. Hell, against Chicago, Mitch Trubisky had enough time to have a deep dish pizza from Giordano’s delivered to him.
Wondering about how the Bucs stack up on total QB hits? Here are the roster totals:
Pierre-Paul 9
McCoy 7
Gholston 4
Curry 3
Kwon 1
Stewart 1
Allen 1
Nassib 1
Spence 1
David 1
October 12th, 2018 at 12:19 am
Has anyone crunched the numbers to determine if the difference between 37.6% and 22.9% is actually a statistically significant number? These stats mean nothing if the confidence level between these number is not 95% or higher.
October 12th, 2018 at 12:22 am
In other words, straight percentages mean nothing when taken as a whole within all snaps in the NFL. It very well could be that the mear 15% difference means next to nothing objectively.
October 12th, 2018 at 12:37 am
But wait….. all we’ve ever needed was DE help to take advantage of Ol’ Softie’s double and triple teams on every play.
That quick first step, those great pre-game speeches..:.
The leadership…
The comic book collection.
That smile…..
I’m no mathematition but something doesn’t add up.
Gee……. wonder what that is?
October 12th, 2018 at 12:54 am
Just imagine if they had invested 1/3 of the salary cap into this position group.
October 12th, 2018 at 12:58 am
Wholly capped crusader you mean even with all the line help now Batman STILL can’t get to the QB?? But that is not his job though right? His job is to disrupt….. well that and help the QB off the turf and apologize for hitting him to hard and give him a big hug and kiss. And then be really nice to the opposing team after the game.
October 12th, 2018 at 1:29 am
These stats are skewed by a secondary who can’t cover a snail with a bucket.
October 12th, 2018 at 1:42 am
So 77.1% of the time we’re sucking a$$ on defense.
October 12th, 2018 at 1:51 am
Those totals are not exclusively about the four down lineman. Those percentages are on the entire defense as a whole. We don’t use the blitz that much which effects those percentages. All the teams on top are teams that do blitz quite often and the higher percentage reflects it. Smith expects the down four to put all the pressure on the QB themselves. I don’t know why he’s afraid to put more pressure on the QB using our LB’s and DB’s. If he’s worried about giving up the big play …he is anyway, so why not game plan it in anyway. Stop being predictable.
October 12th, 2018 at 2:13 am
It’s not a mere 15 percent increase. That’s how dumb people look at numbers. Those numbers show the top team getting pressure 60 percent more often than we are.
October 12th, 2018 at 3:59 am
@Joe … “The Bucs can only get pressure on quarterbacks 22.9 percent of the time. No wonder quarterbacks are completing 77 percent of their passes, worst in the league by the way.” FINALLY an observation about the Bucs’ defense that I can agree with Joe. The 2nd grade students who I tutor could write the equation for that formula for disaster as … No DLine Pressure = High Pass Completion Percentage Allowed. It really is THAT elementary.
Although the obvious clearly escapes JBFers like ‘Bucs Non Believer’, the REAL question is WHY? As in ‘Why no DLine pressure?’ Gee, I wonder if DEFENSIVE SNAPS through 4 games MIGHT give us a clue? Going into training camp we had FOUR primary DTs on our roster: GMC, Allen, Unrein, Vea. The new FEARSOME FOURSOME, wow. Defensive snaps per game?
o Game 1 (64 def snaps total): GMC: 59 … Allen: 31 … Unrein: 0 … Vea: 0
(however, DEs Worthy & Gholston got 40 combined snaps, most at DT).
o Game 2 (79 def snaps total): GMC: 65 … Allen: 20 … Unrein: 0 … Vea: 0
(however, DEs Worthy & Gholston got 66 combined snaps, most at DT).
o Game 3 (66 def snaps total): GMC: 56 … Allen 0 … Unrein: 0 … Vea: 0
(however, DEs Worthy & Gholston got 72 combined snaps, most at DT).
o Game 4 (61 def snaps total): GMC: 48 … Allen: 0 … Unrein: 0 … Vea: 33
(however, DEs Worthy & Gholston got 45 combined snaps, most at DT).
Out of 270 total defensive snaps, 2 DTs (standard 4:3 defense?) should’ve had 540 TOTAL between them. Instead we had …
o GMC: 228 snaps total (on the field 84% of the time);
o Allen: 51 snaps total (on the field 19% of the time in parts of 2 games);
o Unrein: 0 snaps (kinda easy to figure out);
o Vea: 33 (on the field 12% of the time).
o Worthy & Gholston also got 223 combined snaps (on the field 83% of the def snaps combined, most of those playing DT).
And yes, for those who added them up, that STILL only accounts for 502 TOTAL def snaps for DTs, not 540 (I assume Bucs had to use other DEs like Curry or JPP at DT position or just went with 1 DT on occasion).
So through 4 games we essentially had GMC on the field for 5 out of every 6 defensive snaps as 1 DT and we alternated in lightweight DEs as our 2nd DT. Sounds pretty much like a prescription for disaster against stouter, smash-mouth football teams like Pittsburgh and Chicago. Hmmm, and we lost BOTH games. IMO, Chicago beautifully figured out how to cripple the Bucs defense: 7-man protection. The result? No DLine pressure on their QB; no lanes for our LBs to blitz through.
Back to your earlier observation Joe written as an elementary school formula?
No DLine Pressure = High Pass Completion Percentage Allowed.
Nah, too simplistic … FIRE SCAPEGOAT SMITTY. (Out of curiosity, does anyone know where Jerel Worthy is right now? Oops, my bad, he’s no longer on the team).
October 12th, 2018 at 4:02 am
It doesn’t help that guys like grimes are 15 yards off the ball and allow 8 yard outs to WR that get the ball out of the QB hand so quickly
October 12th, 2018 at 4:46 am
The Bucs defense needs some #VitaFusion.
As he continues to get more reps, GMC and the others can play off his lead and have an easier path to the QBs.
October 12th, 2018 at 5:03 am
something is wrong in bucsville…and attending comic con to purchase “happy books” will not solve the issue…i can promise you that
October 12th, 2018 at 5:07 am
Almost no Safety or CB blitzs, only a four man with LB’s sometimes. Our D is so predictable offenses always know what the Bucs are going to do. Coupled with poor tackling and bad coverage in the second and third level – Smitty’s weekly recipe for disaster.
October 12th, 2018 at 6:00 am
IMO 7 man fronts against us are used to plug gap lanes to the QB. LB’s should
try faking the blitz, drawing blockers to that gap. Well timed corner or safety blitzes should then be used. That said corners that are tough and can be good in
run support are important.Even when Grimes is healthy ,IMO that isn’t one of
his better traits. We need to move on from this style of play and get more
aggressive at corner and safety .
October 12th, 2018 at 7:43 am
I love how Jason Pierre-Paul is on pace to tie his career high in sacks in a season (which was back in 2011), and that he hasn’t had a ten sack season since 2014, but y’all want to pretend that has nothing to do with playing alongside Gerald McCoy on this line. What, did JPP forget how to play football the past 4 years and remember when he got to Tampa??
Our secondary is trash because of the youth movement going on right now, they will get better in time, and then the pressure percentages should see at least a small boost while the QB has to hold longer. The D Line is good enough for this year, next offseason the Bucs should really think about using some picks or free agency cash on some young DE’s, at least 1 or 2.
October 12th, 2018 at 7:51 am
77% completion rate on QB attempts, with 22.9% pressure on QB attempts = 99.9%. That tells me, with no pressure, QB’s are completing damn near 100% of their passes.
October 12th, 2018 at 8:19 am
I know that reading comprehension does not always jive with not-so-hidden agendas, BUT, I’m pretty sure that QB Hits statistic above has JPP as #1 and “‘ol Softie” at #2. Kind of runs counter to your point.
Please though, don’t stop because of facts and all! Your running anti-GMC diatribe is quite entertaining.
Defense Rules- Don’t you dare use statistics to argue your point! GMC sucks! End of story. He’s the reason WRs are running free, LBs are missing tackles, and safeties are getting rope-a-doped by stiff-arms down the field!!!
October 12th, 2018 at 8:41 am
ive read on here more help along front helps gmc so far thats false and with a better DL the secondary will be automatically improved also False, could be a bad combo of poor oersonnel and horrible scheme?
October 12th, 2018 at 8:47 am
Anyone else notice that we pressure the quarterback a low percentage of 23 and quarterbacks complete 77% against us?
100 – 23 = 77%…. Coincidence?
October 12th, 2018 at 9:42 am
It’s so funny that people can take this information and process it into being McCoy’s fault. They must all be Mike Smith fans. They must all think our secondary is great. It’s no longer even worth arguing, because their minds are already made up. I’m just glad I’m not that stupid.
October 12th, 2018 at 9:53 am
The answer lies in the linebackers and DB’s. I am betting the Rams and Belicheats have QB pressures by LB’s and DB’s we have almost none.
October 12th, 2018 at 9:58 am
As alluded to by others this would be a much more useful metric if it were just the D-line and excluded any pressures by LBs/CBs/S in a blitz.
October 12th, 2018 at 10:41 am
I get that the stars have to play like stars and we need production from them….but when 4 guys have virtually all your production that is NOT good.
Spence is an obvious disappointment. I still can’t figure out what happened to his once promising career. But he could really be adding help at this point. If Vea’s health and experience continue to improve there should be some numbers from him as well.
If just Spence and Vea played like we hoped they would our D would be immediately improved.
October 12th, 2018 at 11:04 am
Say what you want about McCoy, he is the only DT we have that has played more than 20% of the snaps. He may not be Sapp, or any other great nasty DT in NFL history, but you can’t argue that he isn’t a serviceable DT. yes when he came into the league he was billed as the next Sapp, he even was somewhat helped by Sapp, at least he stays healthy and is a solid player.
October 12th, 2018 at 11:53 am
Go Batman!
October 12th, 2018 at 12:24 pm
’87- Don’t fake the funk bro! You know you’re a Batman fan!
October 12th, 2018 at 2:38 pm
BF77
Do you pay $100mil to a serviceable DT?