Rondé Barber Compares Falcons To Bucs
June 1st, 2020
If you believe the Bucs defense came on crazy strong last year and is poised to continue that run in September, then you probably think the same thing about the Falcons.
Atlanta won six of its final eight games, including a 26-9 win at New Orleans and a 29-22 comeback victory at San Francisco.
Bucs fans routinely block that reality out of their minds when fantasizing of Tampa Bay marching easily to a 12-4 record and their first NFC South title since Jeff Garcia was quarterback.
Buccaneers icon and FOX analyst Rondé Barber chatted with his brother Tiki Barber on CBS Sports Radio last week and spoke about the Falcons being a lot like the Bucs.
Rondé Barber talked about how the Falcons moving Raheem Morris from wide receivers coach to defensive coordinator at midseason was a catalyst.
“You saw an immediate change,” Barber said of the Falcons defense. “So the process is obviously better on that side of the ball. But they still need talent. I [didn’t] think that their young guys were up to the task last year. So I predicted that they would [struggle] and they did. They couldn’t score enough points to keep up with a bad defense. Very similar to Tampa. Tampa had a team that put up a lot of points but their defense was young on the back end and they just couldn’t stay in football games.”
The Falcons are 43-37 through five seasons with head coach Dan Quinn, plus a 3-2 record in the playoffs. Yet a lot of Bucs fans think they’ll be a pushover for Tom Brady’s Bus. Joe sure hopes so! Joe might cry if Todd Gurley looks like Todd Gurley.
Tiki Barber thinks a big key to the NFC South will be Brady finally playing in what he called a “stacked” division after years of patsies in Brady’s former division. “There was no competition in the AFC East,” he said.
Rondé Barber concurred. “Yeah, theoretically no competition. Right? They still had to play the games to win. But it got kind of ridiculous. He won 9 or 8 division titles in a row.” (The exact total is actually 11.)
In what qualifies as one of the oddest takes of May, Tiki Barber also is very upbeat about the Panthers.
“…Christian McCaffrey’s one of the best players in football, period,” Tiki Barber said. “Forget the position. Forget the fact he’s a white running back; he’s a stud. So the division is probably the toughest one in football.”
June 1st, 2020 at 1:59 pm
Tiki Barber is a clown when it comes to analyzing….
Alota stuff Tiki says makes you shake your head and say “WHAT!?!?!”
Even though Brady historically did play in a “soft” division…..they still had to win all them playoff games to get to the championships.
INFACT……if Tiki was insinuating that Brady had it easy for 20 years in NE and then suddenly got good in playoffs is completely ridiculous.
This year is a “prove it year” for Brady because he wants to show the world that:
1. I can win without Bellicheat
2. I can win at age 43
3. I can win with any team I play on
Trust me……Brady has all the motivation in the world right now to prove all of the naysayers wrong.
June 1st, 2020 at 2:12 pm
Falcons have had a lot of injuries last few years and they did get healthier toward latter half of the year. That said, its easier to play well when you have no pressure to play well when out of playoffs. We shall see who responds better to early season pressure (Falcons or Bucs)!
June 1st, 2020 at 2:27 pm
Tiki or Ronde’
June 1st, 2020 at 2:57 pm
Matt Ryan isn’t going to lay down for anyone. If Julio is back to speed and Gurley is close to himself, they will be ready. The Birds still have a grudge against Brady coming back 28-3 in the Stupor Bowl.
Bridgewater might be a poor man’s Brady and Brees is Brees. The NFC South games are going to be epic.
I think Brady has an edge because of the hype, though.
June 1st, 2020 at 3:00 pm
Well during their win streak we still should have easily had 2 wins – and visually looked to be the better team / defense by far in those games.
And during their win stream they beat up on the Panthers who were doing horrible in that stretch (2 Ws), and had upsets vs us & the Saints which aren’t that shocking in this division. Another win was vs a terrible checked out Jags team. They only had 1 impressive victory to me (49ers).
I didn’t see their corners develop into the type of guys ours look like they are becoming – but I may be wrong. If they are competitive this year I’m guessing it’ll be due to their pass rush.
June 1st, 2020 at 3:03 pm
2 impressive victories actually – the Saints still count.*
We should have finished 7-1 last year but also beat up on bad teams for most of that
June 1st, 2020 at 6:29 pm
Oh I haven’t, and that’s why I think we have a tougher schedule than most want to admit. Just the fact we play N.O. twice and Falcons twice plus never count out the unpredictable Panthers make our schedule tough already. Now add in 4 playoff teams Vikings, Rams and division winners Packers, Chiefs. That’s 10 out of 16 that will probably come down to the wire and you still can’t count out Chargers, Broncos, Raiders, Giants, Bears and Lions. This ain’t no cakewalk but with TB at the helm at least I feel we’ve evened our odds.
June 1st, 2020 at 7:41 pm
Ok so Brady is going to Tampa. Has everyone forgotten that historically great QBs have not done that well once they leave their team. For instance Brett favre did not fair well in Min or NY. And he was a way better qb than Brady. He just didnt have the right set of coaches around him. Brady will find out real quick what the NFC south is all about. Yes the Falcons have some question marks but it’s not unreasonable that their class of free agents and draft class can come and make an immediate impact.
June 1st, 2020 at 8:13 pm
Ronde has promise for the Bucs every year.
June 1st, 2020 at 9:09 pm
Year to year things\ teams change. No game is a sure win at this point, I’m thankful that Brady is a vetran like no other and will prepare with the best of them so HOPEFULLY we will be fine. But I highly doubt that teams will be same as they were last year. Some will overachieve ans some will fall off. We sure seem to be the ” paper champs ” at the moment…but we have been here before and have failed to live up to the hype to many times. Go Bucs !!!
June 2nd, 2020 at 1:04 am
The Falcons are going to expect Gurly to carry the team. Ryan may have some gas in the tank but I have never considered him a high elite QB. Julio it’s a given there but it’s Gurly they will rely on and he may come through for them but not against the Buccaneers. The Buccaneers know all about Gurly and he will not be a threat to us in any way. I will put the Spirit of the Namath on this one and say that the Bucs will super spank the Falcons twice and send em’ home rethinking their lives and direction. GG Falcons
(>”)>[GO!!! BUCS!!!]<("<)
June 2nd, 2020 at 6:50 am
“In what qualifies as one of the oddest takes of May, Tiki Barber also is very upbeat about the Panthers.”
Really? The Panthers will be lucky to win more than 6 games this year and the Falcons will be lucky to go above 8 wins. The Bucs and the Saints should dominate the division.
June 2nd, 2020 at 8:21 am
When you have Brady as your QB – you are going to get everyone’s best shot. We’ll need to be ready every single week – Brady’s going to have to win some games late for us.
Go Bucs!
June 2nd, 2020 at 5:17 pm
Tiki is right on the money, because nothing is ever easy, in the NFC South.