“Now We Got To Learn How To Play Out The Whole Third Quarter”
December 18th, 2019
Bucco Bruce Arians calls out lax play
This Bucs season has featured many disturbing trends. Thankfully, many were short-lived.
One pattern is Jameis Winston, America’s Quarterback, throwing interceptions on the offense’s opening possession. He’s done it six times. Six! But when it happened in New Orleans, it was nullified by a delay of game call. In the other five games when the picks counted, the Bucs are 4-1.
Another pattern was off-the-wall fourth-quarter coaching decisions early in the season. Back-to-back timeouts in Week 2 resulting in a critical penalty, and backing up the kicker with intentional penalties in Week 3 come to mind, among others.
There also was the pattern of the Bucs collapsing immediately after halftime, as if they were completely asleep.
Now there’s a new pattern, coming out strong after halftime and falling apart a bit midway through the third quarter before recovering. The Bucs have done that three weeks in a row.
Bucco Bruce Arians addressed the issue yesterday on the official Buccaneers show that bears his name.
“Early in the year we weren’t coming out at halftime,” Arians said. “The first five minutes of the third quarter we talk about all the time. The last few times we came out, stopped them, went and scored points, and then we laxed. Now we got to learn how to play out the whole third quarter.”
All these inconsistency patterns are signs of a young team, and also are a sign of a team with suspect leadership. Arians previously has noted another pattern is gifting teams two-touchdown leads before waking up.
Joe is fired up to see the Bucs deliver a true complete game. It’s been a while. The last one came in Atlanta on Nov. 24. The Bucs will need one to beat the Texans on Saturday.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:12 am
*Beat a good football team
December 18th, 2019 at 8:18 am
Scotty Miller on IR. Lets see how we do against a better team We are testing our depth for the rest of this season
December 18th, 2019 at 8:25 am
Easy answer. Arians deliberately holding down Jameis’ stats as a negotiating ploy. Jaboo could easily have obliterated Van Brocklin’s single game passing yardage record last week had he been unleashed in the third quarter. Bucs are going to have to pay Jameis. QBs in demand.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:28 am
The Bucs are a streaky team, and I like how BA lets the team know that there are still improvements to be made. This comes from Demar Dotson in 2017: “It’s just one win. We don’t want the hype. That’s what we did last year. We won the game [to open the season] and the win lingered. We don’t want this to linger. We want to put it to rest and get ready for Minnesota. I hope guys learned from last year.”
December 18th, 2019 at 8:36 am
Any team that wants to beat the bucs just has to blitz every 2 or 3 plays. Its up to Leftwich to implement better quick outs and screens into his arsenal.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:48 am
Third quarter with a lead is usually the time good teams punish them with a strong running game mixed with play action. Wear down that defense. If you need an example, just rewatch what other teams have done to us over this lost decade. Only problem is, we havent had a strong running game to lean on in years. Yes, you dont want to take your foot off the gas, but at the same time, you shouldnt have to have have your INT prone QB throw it 35+ times to secure a win on a regular basis.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:51 am
To me, a sign of “suspect” coaching would be the inability to identify/correct these patterns.
All of pipj and win, have been corrected.
That points to good coaching. So does winning 4 games in a row.
December 18th, 2019 at 8:54 am
Lol I put my phone in my pocket mid post.
What I had wrote before that was… *all of them except Jameis’ penchant for throwing picks on the first possession and then coming back to win, have been corrected.*
December 18th, 2019 at 9:03 am
6 opening possession picks… another NFL record. Let’s sign JW to a long term deal. Merry Christmas Bucs’ fans.
December 18th, 2019 at 9:08 am
Gotta find a running game to close out games.
December 18th, 2019 at 9:42 am
More leadership talk from Joe. It seems you do understand that it’s important. Now you just have to prove you are credible enough to criticize or report on it.
In BA I Trust!
December 18th, 2019 at 9:49 am
Would love to see the Rojo screen game reappear this week…
December 18th, 2019 at 10:13 am
How about playing 60 minutes?
December 18th, 2019 at 11:01 am
Allbuccedup I was thinking the same thing. Teams have been bringing pressure on one side. Baiting JW to throw to the back side while a LBer sits on the hot route. I wont be surprised if it happens this week. Hopefully film will point that out to them and they make adjustments to the hot routes.
December 18th, 2019 at 12:40 pm
Man all you Jameis hatters are gone lose your $hit when he signs a 3 year $100 million contract with $70 million in guarantees.
December 18th, 2019 at 3:52 pm
Just looking at this pic of BA, could this guys blood pressure be any higher? His skin is perpetually red!
December 18th, 2019 at 7:37 pm
An interception in the first two minutes of a one possession game isn’t as important as an interception in the last two minutes of a one possession game.
The more time on the clock the less important a turnover is. There is context to just about everything.
This is one of them.
December 18th, 2019 at 11:42 pm
@Marlow1976… you don’t like being 4-1 in those 5 games of the 6 when it counted?