Film Woes For Leonard Fournette
October 6th, 2021
“Sorry, Tommy.”
It sounds like Leonard Fournette got an earful from coaches on Sunday night.
And it wasn’t happy chatter about his strong night of running the ball.
Remember that hands-to-the-face penalty on Donovan Smith that wiped out a deep completion on the first drive of the second half? The Bucs had 3rd-and-6 on their 18 yard line and Tom Brady fired a strike to Antonio Brown near the New England 40 yard line.
Bucco Bruce Arians said the penalty never should have happened if a Buccaneer not named Smith had done his job.
“The biggest one was the start of the second half. We hit that bomb to [Antonio Brown] and Donnie gets hands to the face. But somebody was supposed to be helping him on that play that didn’t get the job done. And it would have never happened ” Arians said on his streaming Buccaneers.com show yesterday.
“So we lose a 40-yard play, a big momentum play in the game and he gets a penalty.”
Film of the play, combined with Arians’ comment, tells Joe that Leonard Fournette was supposed to stay in the backfield to block and/or chip the edge rusher on Smith before running his dumpoff route in the flat. There was no other Bucs player that could have been an option to help Smith.
Little things turn into big things.
It remains encouraging that the Bucs keep winning despite so much to clean up.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:15 am
Donovan Smith ALWAYS needs help. That’s the PROBLEM
October 6th, 2021 at 10:33 am
Soooo is it time to finally start telling the truth about our at BEST average running game ooor should we just ride it out and ignore that these guys aren’t making plays. AT ALL
October 6th, 2021 at 10:38 am
No! On this site it has to be DS76 and ONLY DS76! He caused cancer, you know…. really…..LOL
October 6th, 2021 at 10:39 am
Bruce setting up Fournette to be traded to Pats for Gilmore?
October 6th, 2021 at 10:41 am
Judon was simply giving Smith a beat down, which is something Fournette should have been aware of prior to the snap. Instead he either played poor situational football or decided to take the risk and go for the glory by running a route.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:41 am
Ummm…I don’t like Fournette, but blaming Donovan Smith’s garbage blocking technique on a running back not chipping is ridiculous.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:44 am
Gotbucs – Agree. I don’t this this as a reason for hands to the face.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:46 am
There really are some ignorant football fans on here. Donovan Smith is a top 10 tackle in this league and has been for years.
1. That should not have been called hands to the face
2. He was protecting the inside rush expecting a running back to chip on the outside.
He was in the correct position doing what he was supposed to and Lenny didn’t show up to chip the outside shoulder.
October 6th, 2021 at 10:54 am
Just more room for improvement. Obviously its a big deal, because we rarely see Rojo anymore. I bet Lenny embraces the feedback and improves his game.
October 6th, 2021 at 11:16 am
David you hit the nail on the head. There are some ignorant fans out there for sure. No matter how many times the coach (who I know joe loves because he is so candid) comes out and tell this ignorant fan base exactly why a play went wrong, we have these wanna be pop warner coaches trying to tell Arians he is wrong. It is mind blowing to say the least. Instead of learning something by understanding the nuances about the game, they prefer to stay uneducated, loud and wrong!!!! As you said, when you are expecting outside help and it does not come then that will cause a breakdown in your technique for blocking on that particular play. Its really simple but these arm chair coaches know more than Arians. Who knew?
October 6th, 2021 at 11:27 am
I still say great play by the defensive player, I think Judon, who literrally ducked his head under Donnie’s hand to get that call. Donnie did not initiate the hands to the face “this time”.
October 6th, 2021 at 11:29 am
I don’t understand the Donovan Smith hate. Our oline currently is the best we have ever had. Mistakes are gong to occur and sometimes players are going to get beat. If we are going to worry about anything it’s the injuries in our secondary.
October 6th, 2021 at 11:34 am
Joe
Good that we’re getting wins.. bad that we had a full training camp and a full season together under our belt and things are this sloppy. We should look into getting another coach or two.
October 6th, 2021 at 11:53 am
A flag that should have never been thrown. I know blaming the refs won’t get you wins but it sure seems like they’re making more garbage calls this year. Maybe the crowds are getting to them…
October 6th, 2021 at 11:58 am
Well said Webster.
October 6th, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Fournette making a mental mistake?? I’m shocked!! lol
October 6th, 2021 at 12:23 pm
This makes Dsmith even worse than what he is. Fournette doesn’t help means Dsmith should be able to block a 1 on 1 assignments or at least hold them long enough but no …..Fournette gets the blame?
October 6th, 2021 at 12:37 pm
Left tackles get the big bucks, d smith is the laziest left tackle in the league. Even when he’s playing hard he looks uninterested
October 6th, 2021 at 12:46 pm
Medicated Pete, don’t normally agree with you but why does Smith always need help? Whether Gronk on Chase Young or RB’s etc? Why does BA find the need to always air the teams laundry in front of the media? Shut Up!!
October 6th, 2021 at 1:14 pm
Just 1 of many BS calls against the Bucs in New England….
October 6th, 2021 at 1:16 pm
If it wasn’t hands to the face, it was a blatant hold, and that was one of several times that that exact thing happened.
@David and Webster
What I saw Sunday night was some pathetic foot work and hand placement. Lazy technique. He is a low effort player. Maybe on this particular play he expected a chip, so be it. Explain then the other five or six plays that I saw him just blatantly get beat off the ball and not recover? Was that someone else’s fault too.
Thank god we have Marpet and a slew of TE’s and RB’s to help our Top 10 offensive tackle block Top 50 defensive ends.
Arians can call Smith whatever he wants, but that’s just a super low effort inconsistent football player according to my eyes. Wirfs is already twice the player Smith is.
October 6th, 2021 at 1:45 pm
Smith was grasping and hanging on to defenders. Why the refs did not make multiple calls is beyond comprehension. He gets knocked back on a bull rush and grabs whatever he can. Multiple replays showed him getting pushed around and grabbing pass rushers. Of course he often draws the top rushers on Bradys blind side.
October 6th, 2021 at 2:12 pm
still none of this calls for smith to do a facemask penalty
October 6th, 2021 at 2:15 pm
hey Bruce, maybe it’s Trump’s fault
October 6th, 2021 at 2:22 pm
now correct me if i’m wrong but doesn’t BA and Todd sound just like they did the first half of last season? The last 5 games last year we were a fined tune machine. We’ve played 4 games and all you hear is that we have so much to clean up. We got all 22 players back from that SB team. Coaches are treating them like high school kids. Tommy Boy was planning SB 56 the day after SB 55 haha
October 6th, 2021 at 4:33 pm
Running straight up the middle 90% of the time though? LF missed the chip block for sure… And Smith still kept his hand off the face mask.. bs call really
October 7th, 2021 at 4:31 am
It’s going to happen but I myself think Lenny will learn from that and continue to be a very good asset unlike some other hard headed running back.
October 8th, 2021 at 12:32 pm
So everybody bashes Rojo for missed blocks. This one almost cost us the game. Where is the get rid of Lenny talk? BA needs to just play Rojo for a couple of games on almost every play. See what you TRULY have in him. I mean hell, he wasn’t even played his rookie season. He shows he runs with more power than Lenny, and even has better vision. While it is true the Lenny does run behind his blocks more, he also averages less per carry as he goes down if someone touches him. So man up BA, find out what we have in Rojo…who knows, the kid may surprise you.