D-Line Focus In Pittsburgh Tonight
August 9th, 2019
There are many moving parts of the Buccaneers to study tonight in Pittsburgh, but Joe’s going to go out on a limb and say the defensive line is the most important.
No Vita Vea. No Jason Pierre-Paul. No Gerald McCoy. Joe’s not about to pretend this is an established group ready to stop being the butt of jokes.
Joe wants to see improvement and promise. It’s beyond critical. The Bucs aren’t going anywhere without strong defensive line play. Few teams do.
JPP is a crushing loss. Vea’s injury remains a mystery. Beau Allen has a lot to prove after his yawner of a season last year. Another coaching staff thinks it can revive Will Gholston.
Go ahead and bark all day about the offensive line, but they’re all back and last year’s unit had no problem moving the ball up and down the field. They didn’t suck. Don’t compare them to the defensive line.
Yes, Joe gets that Bucco Bruce Arians wants Todd Bowles to blitz often, but that doesn’t negate the need for a strong D-line. Stopping the run doesn’t mean Devin White tackling guys four yards past the line of scrimmage. And an effective pass rush often has to come from three or four guys no matter what defense you’re playing.
General manager Jason Licht raved about the consistency of Shaq Barrett as a pass rusher in practice this week on SiriusXM NFL Radio. Great! Let’s see it tonight.
The Bucs need Carl Nassib to prove last season wasn’t a career year. Noah Spence is on his last chance in a Bucs uniform.
Joe’s not worried about Ndamukong Suh in a preseason game. But there’s plenty to see from the rest of the crew.
Derrick Brooks talks preseason value and more on this new TAMPA TWO episode presented by Caldeco Air Conditioning & Heating, produced by The Identity Tampa Bay and JoeBucsFan.com.
August 9th, 2019 at 11:58 am
Offensive line doesn’t suck. They are straight trash.
August 9th, 2019 at 12:08 pm
The further we go into the day makes me more and more concerned about vita vea. It’s typical for the Buccaneers to wait to Friday to give us bad news. Other than that I have no idea why they waited so long for the MRI. Hope I’m wrong.
August 9th, 2019 at 12:10 pm
For the swelling to go down…
August 9th, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Not sure why anyone would be talking about what veteran players need to show in the first dealing preseason game. It’s simple this is about the young guys, rookies and udfa’s. Vets may play one or two series, the young guys will be highlighted.
August 9th, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Vita Vea news was released by Ian Rapoport, not season ending but could miss first 4 games of the season….
August 9th, 2019 at 12:13 pm
You can’t really tell anything in the first preseason game. Mostly depth/backups. week 3 vs Cleveland would be a more realistic chance to grade the starters.
August 9th, 2019 at 12:39 pm
im focused on the entire team…..
GO BUCS!!!!!
August 9th, 2019 at 1:04 pm
C’mon fans…..look at the silver lining…….Vea & JPP will come on board about the time a couple of our other Dlinemen go down……we will be Re-“Vita”lized……..
August 9th, 2019 at 1:15 pm
Gotta agree with Joe……The biggest thing this team needs to show is some capability on defense. And if it don’t start up front it’s gonna have a rough time getting started.
If I had to sum up our defense problems over the year I would say it’s a lack of physicality. That stats up front. Gimme just one 3rd and 1 for this 1st team defense and let me see them dominate that one play and I’ll sleep a happy man!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
August 9th, 2019 at 1:49 pm
FOOTBALL IS BACK finally. Go Bucs #endthedrought
August 9th, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Joe, one could easily conversely say that the pass catchers on the Buc’s offense were responsible for the ball moving down the field while the Buc’s secondary was responsible for the other team moving the ball down the field. I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone with this theory.