Slamming The Hammer Down
October 9th, 2019
Try running on him.
This is the only thing keeping Joe from going completely mental on the defense.
The Bucs are absolutely locking up opposing running backs. How so? In sort of a throwback to the glory years, teams simply are not running on the Bucs.
Stats unearthed by the good people of NFL Films for BSPN’s NFL Matchup show no team is better at stopping the run than Tampa Bay. The Bucs are holding opposing running backs to an average of 3.12 yards a carry.
Somewhere, Warren Sapp and Derrick Brooks are smiling.
Now a cynic would say teams don’t need to run on the Bucs; they can move the ball at will through the air. Fair. Of course, defensive coordinators crave turning teams into one-dimensional offenses to make them more predictable. While the Bucs have done this, the only thing predictable is that teams will rack up points through the air.
And this isn’t like the Bucs have faced a bunch of stiffs. The Bucs have squared up against a murderer’s row of running backs. Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Todd Gurley and Alvin Kamara. The Bucs locked each one up on the ground.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:05 am
“Gee, Wally. Those Bucs sure can stop the run!”
“Yes, Beaver. In a passing league the Bucs are good against the run.”
October 9th, 2019 at 11:08 am
Exactly. Why would you run? You can get 15 yards a pop through the air.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:10 am
It’s a lot harder to run when you are blitzing guys from all over the place, thus leaving your corners on an island. Teams realize that about 5 minutes into the game.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:18 am
pass rush and coverage go hand in hand….
dont complain when bowles starts dropping shaq and nassib in coverage and teams start running the ball….LOL…
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 9th, 2019 at 11:21 am
If GMC were still here, we’d be no where near #1 rushing defense. LOL.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:21 am
@Joez Why can’t you give Breida (6.5YPC) any credit. He’s #1 in the NFL. Bucs sure stopped him as well.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:29 am
Is this an important stat? How many of those teams are legit SB, or even playoff, contenders? I see more bad teams than good on the list. You don’t see the Pats or Saints … Possibly the two best Ds in the league. So, stopping the run may be a losers stat.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:38 am
813 you are right……And I think through the first 4 games we saw the passrush cover up for how bad our secondary has been playing…….Last week our passrush was ineffective and it really got to highlight how poorly our secondary is playing.
2plays really showcased this to me.
1st was the TD to the post. We had no defender cover the endzone on this play. Completely uncovered? That’s a major breakdown in the secondary.
2nd was the TD the Thomas on the far sideline. If you go back and look at that play. Just look at Vernon and look at the steps he takes. He absolutely steps to nowhere and takes himself out of that play. It was an awful display.
Our secondary simply cannot expect the be bailed out by a batted ball or something on plays like this. Whether the passrush there or not these guy must be in position…….You cannot expect a passrush to get there all the time. When they don’t it would be nice if the secondary could defend a pass or make a play on their end to stop a drive. They cannot expect the passrush to do everything. But not only are we not making plays…….We aren’t even in position to make them. We are just leaving plays wide ass open………Sure the passrush wasn’t good enough on Sunday but the secondary was completely exposed and wildly out of position for almost most of the game. They barely look competent out there.
October 9th, 2019 at 11:43 am
And them are just two plays off the top of my head. That stand out cause they were big plays. I’m here’s guys that break down filming saying how the secondary is dropping off coverage with nobody behind them…….Or we are getting 2-3 guys covering a receiver from the backfield while a TE goes completely uncovered…..The secondary is totally lost out there dude. Passrush or not you cannot expect to compete in this league with a secondary like that.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:02 pm
No point giving good news on this site…. yea in a passing league why is it Christian McCaffrey is single handedly beating teams…. most of you are disappointed because for some reason you thought rookies would come in the secondary and fix everything even though you knew Davis was average and VH3 sucked. Didnt think they’d be last in the though. Get VH3 off the field that changes
October 9th, 2019 at 12:13 pm
Last time I checked the goal was to stop the other team from scoring. Stats are for losers.
October 9th, 2019 at 12:29 pm
There’s a sneaking suspicion that Mr. Nebraska Jason Licht is still in 1987 about how to construct a team, i.e., Vita & Devin (NT/MLB), and neither can even stay healthy. And then he drafts no speed in the secondary except Dean who…can’t stay healthy (The two blown knees didn’t give him a clue his body may not be made for this? I swear in preseason he moved around between plays like he was 80).
October 9th, 2019 at 12:36 pm
JimmyJack … “the secondary was completely exposed and wildly out of position for almost most of the game. They barely look competent out there.”
Not disagreeing with you JimmyJack, but who got picked on the most in the Secondary? To me it looked like VHIII got roasted, especially prior to Carlton Davis being ejected in the 2nd quarter. In cases like that, I’d expect that our DC would make adjustments to provide ‘help’ to VHIII’s side. Of course soon as a DC does that, the opposing OC takes advantage … and New Orleans did exactly that. They spread the ball around beautifully, short AND deep, both sides of the field & in the middle.
They ran the ball enough to keep our defense honest … 31 runs versus 36 passes. That’s a very nice mix IMO. Sean Payton had our young defense off-balance most of the afternoon. There’s a huge the difference between an experienced play-caller and a newbie, and we all saw that Sunday.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:08 pm
DR
i disagree….
the entire secondary got roasted starting with CD before his ejection….
CD gave up the first big pass to MT and then followed that up with a BS penalty…..
VHG got beat a couple times but so did the entire secondary including whitehead and SMB….
imo, they targeted SMB or MJ early passing downs and went to they’re #1 WR on 3rd down regardless who was covering him…
bottom line is the pass rush was missing sunday which exposed all of our DBs not just VHG….
GO BUCS!!!!!!
October 9th, 2019 at 1:18 pm
813bucboi
beat a couple of times… dude what the f…..ing game where you watching…. he was roasted 3 for 50 on just one td drive… your boy could not cover a dead guy
October 9th, 2019 at 1:25 pm
Saints offensive line is really good. The Saints are never afraid to spend high capital draft picks on offensive lineman. They understand the ideal of taking care of their QB’s.
We take kickers and ILB instead
October 9th, 2019 at 1:26 pm
and folks need to stop with the BS talking about, “they’ll seen VHG for 3 years”…lol….thats BS
he’s only played 1 full season in smittys passive defense….
year 2 he missed a ton of game with a hammy…..
year 3 he played the 1st quarter of the game and then missed the season…..
now we’re in year 4….
not making excuses for his recent poor play but BA is right saying this is a young secondary….VHG has played 30 total games….thats basically 2 seasons….
those same fans that bash VHG have yet to bash JW and he’s been here 5years with tons of question marks about him and his play….lol…
again…pass rush and secondary go hand in hand….
no pressure=exposed DBs
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 9th, 2019 at 1:42 pm
It’s still not a good defense and it’s largely because of the secondary. You know, all those guys drafted by Backstabbin’ Jason Licht during his 5+ year reign of terror.
October 9th, 2019 at 1:51 pm
d-rome
imo, its largely because of the pass rush…..
outside of sherman, i cant name 1 DB in the 9ers secondary….and their defense is playing lights out right now…..why?….imo, because of their pass rush…..
GO BUCS!!!!!!
October 9th, 2019 at 2:32 pm
DR probably the biggest problem here is I can’t disagree with you either. Certainly you expect a DC to have a plan and make adjustments to limit a guy like Thomas.
So it sure looks like we got plenty of issues holding us back in the secondary.
@813……That’s really quite generic to say that about the 49ers. To add some perspective you could probably say our passrush was elite in that Rams game. And they still carved up the secondary for 500+.
You like our secondary and our players, fine. But don’t try to sugarcoat it. It’s very hard to read.
October 9th, 2019 at 2:38 pm
“If GMC were still here, we’d be no where near #1 rushing defense. LOL.”
————-
First of all, what does that matter when we are last in passing defense? LOL.
Second of all, why are you bringing up a guy that doesn’t play on the team anymore? LOL.
Third, I guess you forgot the Schiano days. #1 ranked rush defense and #32 ranked pass defense (with McCoy)? LOL
October 9th, 2019 at 3:44 pm
JJ
there’s other examples too….
bears traded fuller and let a top safety walk…
why?…because they have a great pass rush….
charges are in the same boat…..great pass rush but i cant name 1 player in their secondary…..
i like our DBs but a) they’re young b) they’re learning a new system c) our pass rush comes and goes…..when that happens DBs get exposed….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 9th, 2019 at 4:01 pm
JimBuc 2: LMAO
October 9th, 2019 at 4:18 pm
813
I admire your fight. Fall on that sword my G.
October 9th, 2019 at 5:51 pm
JimmyJack … “Certainly you expect a DC to have a plan and make adjustments to limit a guy like Thomas.”
Two words … ‘Plans are nice but you’ve gotta have the horses’. (Oh well, I was close; that’s as short as I could get it JimmyJack).
October 9th, 2019 at 7:39 pm
813 has never heard of a coverage sack and why would he when VHIII and friends can’t cover. They haven’t been in the same zip code since the first half of the Giants game.
Hargreaves hasn’t improved one bit since getting torched by A Cooper except for making a couple of plays the first two weeks. Since then there has been an Amber Alert put out on him because he’s been no where to be found.
Amber Alert description:
Short, slow corner. Usually will have his back to the QB. Can be found smacking his hands together after another completion. If found call 1-800- Bowles
October 9th, 2019 at 9:06 pm
LOL