The Red Brick Wall
November 11th, 2019
Symbol of Bucs’ run defense.
If teams are not smart enough not to run on the Bucs defense, then they will learn the hard way.
The Cardinals came into Sunday’s game with newly acquired, red hot running back Kenyan Drake and tried to run on the Bucs’ defense. But it was a road to nowhere, noted the Around The NFL staff at NFL.com.
Most certainly, the Buccaneers can stop the run. Though they entered Sunday as the 31st-ranked scoring defense, the Bucs were tops against the run and feasted upon the Cardinals. In total, the Cardinals ran for only 75 yards, with the fleet feet of Murray carrying for a team-high 38 yards. At the end of the first half, Arizona had just 35 yards on the ground, most of it coming on a Murray 32-yard scamper. Upon his return, David Johnson had five carries for two yards, while Kenyan Drake, just a week removed from a dynamic Arizona debut, was held to 35 yards on 10 carries. Shaq Barrett (who had a sack and has a league-high 11.5) had rightfully drawn plenty of praise, but the run-stopping bunch of Bucs, such as linebacker Lavonte David and defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, put in a strong Sunday’s worth of work.
Joe knows former Bucs great Warren Sapp was in the house at the Den of Depression yesterday and he had to be smiling seeing the Bucs just lock up the Cardinals’ run game the way he and his teammates used to during the glory days.
If the Bucs can figure out this secondary, and there were flashes yesterday that may be coming, this defense could be downright scary.
Alas, will that help get a good draft pick?
November 11th, 2019 at 12:09 am
Almost an entirely positive article from Joe. A win has miraculous affects.
In BA I Trust!
November 11th, 2019 at 12:14 am
LMAO….I think the bucs are great too!
Playoffs!!
November 11th, 2019 at 12:20 am
LOL @ Howard and Sport.
Go Bucs!!!(Where I have no idea)
November 11th, 2019 at 12:32 am
Remember when Lovie Smith had a great run defense but with Tim Jennings and Mike Jenkins trying to defend the pass?
Having a great run defense with no pass defense in todays NFL is about as useless as having an excellent pass defense and no run defense in 1924.
November 11th, 2019 at 3:10 am
If our secondary was just barely average our record would look a lot different.
November 11th, 2019 at 3:33 am
Now let us get to facts, Kicking still a issue Na JW will we keep him? Go Bucs
November 11th, 2019 at 4:18 am
Jimmy, just by converting a chip shot FG in the final seconds vs NYG and by having a patient ref actually watching the play he is officiating our record would look different…
November 11th, 2019 at 4:27 am
German Buc just brought up officiating.
Brenneman announced that the crew we had yesterday was ranked second among all NFL officiating crews for calling penalties.
It looked as if they were trying to get to first place for most penalties called. When Brenneman announced their crew’s record at the start I knew it would be a bad game.
The NBA has a policy of no harm no foul…in a game where penalties are out of hand already I hate calls like illegal formation…illegal shift…if the formation or shift is what made a play succeed fine call the penalty…if it had no bearing on the outcome then swallow the dang whistle.
Same for holding…if it occurs so far away from the play as to not have had an impact…swallow the whistle..no harm no foul!
November 11th, 2019 at 4:45 am
You were doing so good, until that last statement. Real Bucs’ fans shouldn’t care about garnering good draft picks in early November. There’s a LOT of season left, and we desperately need to see who on this team can play. Tanking for good draft picks won’t give us that. IF this team can go 6-2 in this second half of the season and go 8-8 on the year, that’d be a great foundation for next year.
And for the record, this defense is ‘downright scary’ right now. It’s a shame that it’s taken this long to get Hargreaves off the field; he’s been the weak link all season. It’s an even bigger shame that Gump passed on so many much better CBs to get us to this point. Vernon now has well over 500 defensive snaps this season that have produced a grand total of THREE passes defensed & was picked on virtually every game. Rookie Jamel Dean got more than that in EACH of the past 2 games.
November 11th, 2019 at 5:30 am
Why run when you can pass at will? The Titans took until the 3rd quarter to figure that out. Once they abandoned the run, they cruised to victory. Same with the Giants.
November 11th, 2019 at 5:32 am
And BTW Joe, the first half of our season was about as bizarre as any I can remember seeing. TWO home games … BOTH losses … with SIX road games. That’s rough all by itself, but wait, there’s more.
The teams we played in those 8 games had a combined 43-24 record after we played them, and 37-22 before we played them. No matter how you cut it, all but one, the Giants, were formidable teams either on offense or defense or both. And we LOST to the worst of the lot, as well as to the only other team with a losing record, the Titans. Not by much in each case, but hey, a loss is a loss.
When I looked at those teams offensive & defensive rankings when we played them, the AVERAGE offensive ranking was #13 … better than most NFL teams. But interestingly if you take out the Giants (#23 offense) and Titans (#26 offense), the other 6 teams we played had a #9 ranking … MUCH better than most NFL teams. IOW, we played some 6 good offenses & 2 mediocre ones. We LOST to those 2 mediocre ones … two teams that we SHOULD have beaten. Bizarre. Just think how much different our season would look like right now iIF we’d won both. 5-4 would at least still have us in the playoff hunt.
And when I looked at our first half opponents’ defenses, a similar pattern arises. Those 8 teams we played had an AVERAGE defensive ranking of #16 … exactly average for NFL teams. But take out the worst two (Giants #29 defense & Seahawks #22 defense) and the other 6 teams had a #12.5 ranking … again better than most NFL teams. And again, we LOST to those 2 mediocre defenses … teams that we SHOULD have beaten IMO. Bizarre.
The Bucs simply aren’t CONSISTENT. We’re playing down to our opponents & NOT beating the teams who we SHOULD beat. Part of that is probably due to our youth on defense, BUT a bigger part of it is on coaching & management IMO. Especially for those 3 games that were perfectly winnable … Giants, Titans & Seahawks … and that we SHOULD have won. Poor preparation, poor game-planning & inconsistent play-calling & execution doomed us. And a big part of that was wasting valuable snaps on players who had no business being on the field. No need to name names on that one I presume.
November 11th, 2019 at 6:37 am
I know everyone wants to run Winston off. Yes his turnovers are a prob but we have a bigger problem. The secondary. It’s showing improvement which is good
November 11th, 2019 at 7:03 am
Not enough love for Big V. He is a major reason for this run defense.
November 11th, 2019 at 7:11 am
Play your best football every Sunday. Wherever that lands us in the draft is exactly where you should be. The right player will be there for us. Just got to believe. When you play for the draft you should get burned by the draft.
November 11th, 2019 at 7:54 am
Stop with the draft pick nonsense. First half 2-6, second half 6-2. Let’s go
November 11th, 2019 at 9:07 am
Vita Vea is more of a reason than Suh for this dominant run d
November 11th, 2019 at 9:09 am
Good team win…
Defense stepped up when it mattered…
GO BUCS
November 11th, 2019 at 9:14 am
How about (perish?) the thought that the Bucs go 8-0 this last half of the season? Why not? Atlanta kicked the crap out of the Aints yesterday. Aints are the hardest team left on our schedule BTW. My gripe is BA. His offensive play calling stinks! The team won the game yesterday, not him. JW is inconsistent but plays are not being called to his strengths. Where are the bootleg option, laterals and 2-minute drill type calls? DK called stuff like that and JW ran wild his fist two seasons as a Bucs. And please, NO MORE RUN-UP-THE-MIDDLE-ON-FIRST-DOWN!!! Gawd, I am SICK of that one!
November 11th, 2019 at 9:30 am
The Red Tide.
November 11th, 2019 at 9:48 am
People who want Winston gone are the ones who want us to tank. They think replacing him with a top 3 pick will help the team…and nothing is impossible, so it might. But it is unlikely. They are not thinking about the big picture.
* The best players on defense are Vita Vea, Suh, JPP and Barrett. One might argue they are the ONLY good players on defense, outside of David. Suh, JPP and Barrett will all be free agents at the end of the season. Tanking will chase them off quicker than anything else. You cannot tell them you are trying to change the culture into a winning culture, and then tank. None of them would re-sign.
* Look at the rookie QBs who looked so great last year. Several of them are struggling, outside of a couple. So if we draft a replacement for Winston (even though it makes sense cap-wise), odds are you are looking at a new, long-term project. That means a rebuild, because guys like Mike Evans, David, Jensen, Smith, Marpet…they will all decide to move on. Heck, David has already been through a rebuild. And again…cannot tank and claim you are changing the culture.
* After this season, there are multiple quality veterans who will hit the market, simply because their teams think their replacements will work out. For example, Eli Manning will likely be a free agent. Say what you will about him, but he has two rings, and Arians coached his brother. Andrew Luck might decide to return if he can play for Arians, who also coached him.
The point is, the Bucs could land in a similar situation that the Saints did years ago when they signed Brees.
* Jameis Winston has years of bad habits to break, and although Bucs fans are impatient (some with good reason), it could be worth it if he is fixed byu the end of this season. Going into this year, we all knew Arians had his work cut out for him. Shoot, many here expected 6 wins or less this year. If I recall, it took time for Arians to fix Palmer.
Jameis is only 25, and so there is plenty of time leftin his career. If successfully fixed he has a good 20 years of playing left in the tank (ask Tom Brady).
* On the surface, replacing Winston with a draft pick would help our cap situation. And it would, because as a result, we would also lose a lot of expensive players that this team needs. So tanking for a pick is basically saying you are willing to wait another 3-5 years of losing again. So if Winston does not work out, we need to sign a quality veteran, not rely on a draft pick. But it is best if Winston can be fixed.
November 11th, 2019 at 9:48 am
Screams draft pick if even one of these young corners become solid, I will take it at this point. Besides, there will be qb’s worth taking after the first round. I hope we go with a pass rusher with our first rounder, but Joe knows we won’t draft one. 😃
November 11th, 2019 at 11:11 am
Playing for draft picks is pathetic.
You can’t complain about the losing culture and then root for the team to lose for better draft position. That’s the definition of a losing culture.
November 11th, 2019 at 12:28 pm
6and 10 or less every year is not great…..
November 11th, 2019 at 2:08 pm
i am tired of hearing people talk about play for the draft!! i coach a little league football team and my first message to them is always to never give up!!! …. Joe why do you clamor for more inexperience on one page .. then chastise the team for not having any vet leadership…. sounds like the mark of a man who doesn’t know football or how teams are built!! playing for the draft is what has us in this spot now!! i am seeing the defense start to improve and these are the right coaches to do the job… give these rookies time they have the will to win and ability too!! bunting and dean will be good corners!! … or should we listen too fools who want to blow the team up and get even more rookies in here!!! then we can play for the draft again next year too!! and the next year and the next and the next ….. see how stupid that sounds!!!
November 11th, 2019 at 3:33 pm
You never play for the draft. Who thinks like that? Most draft picks don’t even work out. Ask Belicheck if he plays for the draft. Ask Tomlin of he plays for the draft. That is awful thinking folks. Forget about it and win as much as you can.
Also. Watch the best defenses today. The philosophy changed. Stop the pass first then stop the run. The priority has changed in today’s game.
November 11th, 2019 at 4:13 pm
Before I start Joe I wanna say that a “good draft pick” isn’t where you select. It’s if you pick the right player & that can be done anywhere in the 1st round or the draft. So whatever pick we end up w/ let’s just get the right player!
For secondary, honestly for 3-4 games now SMB has played really well. The TD he gave up yesterday was really him thinking he had inside help when he didn’t. Other than that he played really well & has been. He’s our best corner!
Dean once I believe is our 2nd best. He’s now shown that he gets his hands on the ball 2 games in a row w/ pass breakups & now a INT. Against a QB that doesn’t throw any. That wasn’t a gimme pick like Hargreaves had week 1 lol. Dean actually made this happen. I would start both of those guys the rest of the way.