Todd Bowles Gets Outcoached
November 8th, 2020
Todd Bowles’ defense got exposed tonight. And a trend is emerging.
The Bucs lost in their second meetings against all NFC South opponents last season. Tonight they lost their second meeting against the Saints. And on Monday against Daniel Jones and the Giants, New York’s young quarterback looked awfully comfortable against Bowles defense — one he had seen last season in Tampa.
It hasn’t happened often this season, but Bowles got outcoached against the Saints in a bad way. And Joe really didn’t like the defense’s collective effort at times in the second half.
Through much of this season, when the Bucs play zone defense, they have had struggles. And that was on full display tonight with Drew Brees finding all kinds of soft spots across the defense. For the first time in forever, no Bucs cornerback registered a pass defense (at least not with five minutes to play as Joe types this.)
It’s back to the laboratory for Bowles. Being a defensive coordinator is all about adjustments, so this is part of the job description.
Hopefully, Bowles is up for the task. The Bucs need that defense humming to cover for an offense that’s looking awfully average all of a sudden.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:06 pm
Id like to know what the heck coverage we were running. Recievers uncovered all night.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:12 pm
How about Leftwich and his inability to even scheme a 1st down for half the game?
November 8th, 2020 at 11:12 pm
not just bowles… @joe dont be easy on arians sean payton has fathered him since hes been here mostly. this isnt the first time arians has been outcoached either. me thinks hes starting to be a little overrated as far as head coachs go
November 8th, 2020 at 11:13 pm
Bowles didn’t get exposed….He was just running a bullsh!t zone coverage defense rushing 4 guys the WHOLE first half…
This defense is BUILT to play man-press with the corners but Bowles puts them in a stupid-ass zone defense…
This crap looked like MIKE SMITH’s TRASHY PATHETIC DEFENSIVE SCHEME…
What the hell would he do that???
I don’t know what the hell happened to Bowles but you sure as hell weren’t playing to your players strengths….
This game was lost on BL & TB’s stupid calls….
November 8th, 2020 at 11:13 pm
Running a zone/ prevent in the 1st half is ridiculous. We have man press corners play to their strengths. Yes Joe your correct Bowles got out outcoached but so did the rest of the staff. And I’ll say it again Brady has looked terrible the last 2 games. BL needs to do something there’s too many weapons to only put up 3 points.
PATHETIC!!!
November 8th, 2020 at 11:15 pm
Mike Smith…is that you in that mask?
November 8th, 2020 at 11:16 pm
The Saints roster is far superior too.
Skill positions and the trenches.
Jason Licht deserves a lot of blame.
This fragile roster was exposed big time on national TV.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:18 pm
Saints coaches are light-years better than ours. Thats just a fact. Plenty of blame to go around. No one was prepared. No one played well. Total savage @sskicking.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:19 pm
Todd Bowles had nothing but a blitz, they were exposed big time. You can’t run that same linebacker blitz all season and have nothing else but that. Still trying to play off or play zone against a damn team that doesn’t even throw downfield. I’m glad the whole world got to laugh at this team the coordinators suck and are too inconsistent and the players bringing that same inconsistency to the field congratulations Bucs fans there was literally no difference between Winston and Brady tonight
November 8th, 2020 at 11:20 pm
Play man-press for the LOVE OF GOD
November 8th, 2020 at 11:25 pm
Sure could’ve used some DL and DB help at the deadline. 35 and 23 continue to look totally lost out there. If the plan was to lay back, rush 3 and let Drew pick apart a soft zone, then Kudos b/c we executed it brilliantly.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:26 pm
Ira said in his podcast that bucs were coming out to play sharp this week.
Back to back pathetic performances is concerning.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:28 pm
On defense, the Bucs got out coached more than out played. But they rarely executed on the first tackling opportunity It looked like they were trying too hard.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:28 pm
It does not matter if they play a team that throws down field. The secondary has been exposed and been the main weak point of the defense. The other parts have been able to cover for it.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:30 pm
I won’t lie tonight if Jameis was the QB at least he would have scrambled out of some of those sacks and thrown at least 1 or 2 TDs to go along with his 3 pics. Lol
I’m a die hard Bucs fan but I’ll say this at least when we lose we make sure we can’t go back and look at 1 play that would’ve changed the game.
On to the next game please to all the players and coordinators get your $hit together. This is the best roster we’ve had in years do something with it.
Oh and if we keep playing like that it won’t be long before Brown gives you the melt down that the Joes are worried about.
To the Joes please ask tough questions this week don’t let the coaches off the hook for what they just put the fans through. (Yes BL the fans)
November 8th, 2020 at 11:32 pm
Rough night boys.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:32 pm
One pass play had JPP, Shaq, White, and David all in coverage. WTF is that? At least two of those four should be going after Brees every pass play. White, Shaq, JPP, can not cover.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:33 pm
Todd Bowles played scared defense, straight up. Why play prevent defense. Drew Brees is the wrong guy to just let him pick and choose what to do. This is just like when Mike Smith was here. Why line DB’s up and your are surrendering first downs? The last thing you would expect is for T Bowles to coach scared defense. The loss of Vita has shown up the last 2 games also, they are not good against the run right now. GO BUCS!!!!
November 8th, 2020 at 11:35 pm
Man they get beat down and blame game starts lol
November 8th, 2020 at 11:45 pm
I want to apologize on behalf of The Bucs to all the fans on the East Coast that stayed up for that garbage. At least I’m out West and can still get to sleep at a decent hour.
Smh that was bad shows we’ve still got a long way to go to be on The Saints level. I believe we’ll see them again in the playoffs and we’ll get by them like we finally did Philly.
Go Bucs!
November 8th, 2020 at 11:47 pm
Arians and Bowles both can get lost. Never liked either from the start.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:50 pm
we are starting to get run on big time now…
without vita
November 8th, 2020 at 11:50 pm
film is exposing dean and bunting now…
cd3 was even missing tackles tonight
November 8th, 2020 at 11:53 pm
I cant believe our master game plan was to play off coverage zone. Brees had attempted 11 passes over 20yrds..completing 5…
November 9th, 2020 at 12:26 am
I have seen guys more wide open than at a FHSAA JV GAME!!! Cmon Folks!!!
November 9th, 2020 at 1:35 am
Can anyone find Earl Thomas, please.
November 9th, 2020 at 1:56 am
Jimmy jack it’s not coverage when it’s like that
November 9th, 2020 at 1:56 am
Said it after Monday night, but had Winston – and not Jones – been heading that Giants offense he’d have put up at least 35 points against that terrible Bucs defense. Yet you had idiots in here still claiming this defense is great, in fact it’s on-par with the 1997-2002 all-time great defenses. You have to truly be clueless to think that, yet people argued with me about that. LOL!
Bowles needs to remember what got him to the party – and that is blitzing. Just sitting back and in a soft zone and getting no pressure leads to this every single time.
November 9th, 2020 at 3:06 am
I still don’t get having two d ends with sub par coverage skill on the field at the same time. Either JPP or Barrett should be on the line, then put a linebacker there for coverage. It got exposed on 5 wide or 4 wide because the personnel.
November 9th, 2020 at 7:03 am
Dean is the biggest liability on the defense. Every team is targeting him with double moves because he’s constantly looking to jump the routes. If we are built to rely on blitzing/attacking, then the secondary has to be able to execute to the point of bend but dont break. Dean is getting beat every game….against the Giants he should have been torched for two long passes if Jones could hit the long ball.
November 9th, 2020 at 8:14 am
On a night when the weather seems to have affected the deep balls in the passing game, we continued to try and throw deep balls over the top while playing off coverage and allowing Brees to take anything he wanted underneath. Am I to assume we were unable to adjust the game plan for the weather? This was the perfect game to play press man and blitz Brees and make him make tough throws in the wins over the top but instead we played scared on defense and gave them what they wanted. Make no mistake Payton is a matter of creating favorable matchups with scheming especially for shorter routes. The only break I will give the defense is that perhaps if the offense didn’t suffer Brady’s worst game as a pro maybe they would have had time on the sideline between series to make some adjustments.
November 9th, 2020 at 9:37 am
Honestly the game plan on both sides of the ball was awful. Here is the breakdown.
1. Defense – we are not a zone defense team. I get some zone concepts over man coverage or man underneath and zone deep etc. but to play the entire game in a soft zone against arguable the most accurate passer of all-time who has only completed 5 deep balls this year is completely moronic. Our defense is at its best Blitzing. If they Blitz and beat us deep more power to you but more often than not our Blitz gets home and our coverage(s) hold up.
2. Offense – F**k no risk it no biscuit against a good line. It is like banging your head against the wall. I get if our line holds up or they cannot get pressure on us then go for the gusto. WTF not start the game out dinking and dunking ? Get the ball to our play-makers as quickly as possible keep Brady safe and sound then when teams start cheating up and trying to jump routes sting them long.
We were the better team and when you are the better team and loose it is always the coaches fault unless it is close and there are turnovers or tons of penalties perhaps. So our coaches need to get their heads out of their collective arses and start coaching better plain and simple. I think Bowles is capable of it – I do not think Leftwich is honestly he is in over his head.