Fun Watching Defense
December 4th, 2019
Shooting for three wins in a row. (Photo courtesy of Buccaneers.com.)
In his day-after presser Monday, Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians admitted he had fun watching the tape of his defense dominating Jacksonville.
It was the defense that took over and won the game for the Bucs, even though the Bucs have one of the best offenses in the NFL,
Joe spoke with several offensive players and like their coach, they too enjoyed watching the defense suffocate the Jags.
“Our defensive line played phenomenal,” guard Ali Marpet said. “They were getting to the passer all day. They did a really nice job of helping us to play from ahead which we haven’t done a whole lot of this year. They really did a nice job.”
Marpet wasn’t the only offensive player who enjoyed having a front row seat to watching perhaps the best defensive outing the Bucs have had, maybe since beating the Seahawks at home in 2016 or crushing the Bears on opening day of 2017.
“I loved seeing that,” Bucs receiver Mike Evans said of his defensive teammates kick tail. “As an offensive player, I love seeing the defense be successful. They balled out.”
Even Mr. Entertainment, America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston believed the defense all but won the game for the Bucs.
“That’s the key of football, run the football and play good defense,” Jameis said after the game. “If you do that, you win games – 99 percent of the time. So, we’re proud of those guys, they were incredible and we’re very thankful for them.”
The way the defense has played recently, you wonder how far it could carry this Bucs team?
December 4th, 2019 at 10:05 am
“That’s the key of football, run the football” ha, where do they do that though?
December 4th, 2019 at 10:13 am
I must admit this Defense hasn’t been this fun to watch in a while. I paid Way more attention when Jax had the ball than when we did.
Also just picked up the Bucs D in both of my FF leagues for the playoffs!
December 4th, 2019 at 10:13 am
gotta resign JPP….
he’s the heart and soul of the team….
GO BUCS!!!!!
December 4th, 2019 at 10:24 am
Had to coach the last staff out of them first. Looks like Arian might have been right when he said the secondary is fixed.
December 4th, 2019 at 10:33 am
Must resign JPP and Barrett. Nassib and Suh would be nice but not sure if we can afford both of them
December 4th, 2019 at 10:39 am
“If you do that, you win games – 99 percent of the time”
lmao Jameis basically admitting the defense has been horrible his whole NFL life for the most part and that you need defense in the NFL to win games – which is absolutely correct.
In general this team has lost games still even when the offense cranks out 27-35 points and plays pretty flawless.
I don’t recall us losing many games where the defense shuts an opponent down and holds them to like 15-17 points…
Defense wins championships still.
December 4th, 2019 at 10:41 am
Some serious coaching up happening with the Bucs this year. Nice to see.
December 4th, 2019 at 10:44 am
We’ve held opponents to the league AVERAGE or less of 22 points or less just 3 times in 12 games. I’d say 4 with 49ers game week 1 because of pick 6.
We’ve scored more than the league average of 22 points in all but 3 games, and we won 1 of those games still (Carolina 20-14) because ultimately
defense >>>>> offense for winning in the NFL
Look at the Steelers for that example. They have random QBs off the street winning games because of that defense.
December 4th, 2019 at 10:49 am
The defense is getting there, but I wish the statistic of the Bucs offense wasn’t used so much.
The Bucs had 68 yards of offense and 0 points in the second half of the Jaguars game. That is truly offensive but not in a good way.
Jameis can’t put together a whole game for anything. If we are lucky he starts fast and we hope they can hold on late in the game. That is only about thirty percent of the time anyway.
The more usual circumstance is Jameis starting slow and the team falling behind. Maybe with the defense getting closer to fine that won’t fall quite as far behind and Jameis can catch back up, without giving the game away.
December 4th, 2019 at 11:05 am
@Craig
To me that was more about game situation. Your post makes it sound like the offense was just going 3 and out and punting. The Jaguars didn’t even score a TD till the 4th quarter.
Revisiting each drive:
1st drive – eats up 3:30 minutes – we were moving into Jville territory. We converted a 4th down for a 1st down. Then Jameis had a 16 yard run for another 1st down. THen came the infamous Rojo wiff on a block that caused a fumble that killed the drive.
2nd drive – we chew up 6 minutes moving the ball and get to the Jax 37. 4th and 4. Probably should have kicked a FG because we have been bad at playcalling 4th down this year, but instead we call a 4th down play that is blown up bad and we take a sack.
3rd drive – 3 and out after a 3rd down sack given up. At this point it’s the 4th quarter and we’re still up 25-11.
And that was it really. The next drive by the Jags was the long one that failed in the red zone on the INT, and then we got the ball at our own 2 where we were just trying not to give up a safety. Kicked a FG on the next offensive possession.
The offense was still moving the ball in the 2nd half even if we only put up 3 points. It’d have been a lot easier if we had a run game to lean on in games like that to run clock vs having to still convert long 3rd downs passing
December 4th, 2019 at 11:43 am
The defense is exciting right now. I’m as excited about it as the next guy. But I’m old enough to remember we were excited about the defense after week 2 of this season.
December 4th, 2019 at 12:58 pm
Football Outsiders now has the Buccaneers Defense ranked as the 9th best defense in the league. But offense is ranked only 22nd. Overall, Buccaneers have climbed to 18th in the league. That means we’re better than 14 other teams.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:13 pm
And when you can’t run the ball and play D a team will win go something like 24-40 or whatever Jameis’ record is as a starter.
December 4th, 2019 at 9:57 pm
Defense wins championships. That’s how we got ours. Look at the patriots an what they did against the chiefs last year an the chiefs had the best offense. Bucs super bowl best defense vs best offense an we all know who won that. I hope Davis smb Dean Edwards an Whitehead keep improving an turn into above average keep the front 7 an we have a legit defense. Go Bucs