Could The Fix Be As Simple As Turnovers And Penalties?
November 18th, 2021
Cleanup ordered.
Bucs fans love to overcomplicate things.
Hearken back to 2014, when fans rolled around the floor in the fetal position trying to figure out why the Bucs were so dreadful, despite the answer being right in front of their face. The all-powerful and new head coach decided Josh McCown was the quarterback to lead the team out of abyss and Mike Glennon was the QB of the future. Mix in a horrendous offensive line and the answer was easy.
Fast-forward to 2021, and is it possible the Bucs’ recent woes just come down to penalties and turnovers?
Bucco Bruce Arians was on SiriusXM NFL Radio last night lamenting the Bucs leading the NFL in penalty yards and how their turnover ratio has fallen to +3.
The turnover number ranks tied for eighth in the NFL, but the Bucs were much better before their two-game skid.
(Newsflash, the Bucs’ next opponent, the Giants, have the same turnover ratio. And their Nov. 30 foe, Indianapolis, ranks second in the league at +10.)
Look at Sunday’s loss to Washington. Remove those two heinous turnovers (or perhaps just one) and the ridiculous pre-snap penalties and Joe suspects the Bucs win by a touchdown or more.
Obviously, you can’t do that, but it’s certainly worth considering that the Bucs are just a cleanup job away from being an elite team.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:10 am
I don’t really believe the fix is as simple as that, but certainly will help a great deal.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:16 am
Pete’s eating scungille & osso buco right now and sipping on Natty Daddy thinking that could be the easy answer BUT the problem is the players FRAME OF MIND. They are content w/ what happened last season.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:29 am
When the game started out with an OJ presnap penalty I had an ominous feeling.
It turned out to be true.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:31 am
The injuries lower the margin for error.
When you add turnovers + penalties + poor offensive game plan , you get losing results .
Checkdowns should happen no more than 2-3 times per game.
Evans is an elite deep ball receiver- use him!
November 18th, 2021 at 11:36 am
Alanbucsfan Says:
November 18th, 2021 at 11:31 am
Checkdowns should happen no more than 2-3 times per game.
^^^^^^^^
I think every NFL game I’ve ever watched had more than 2-3 check downs.
November 18th, 2021 at 11:49 am
Checkdowns are for Blake Bortles, DeShone Kizer , Jacoby Brissett or Brock Osweiler – all losers in NFL
November 18th, 2021 at 11:57 am
I believe against Washington and New Orleans it was that simple. Take away the turnovers and the penalties and we would be 8-1. They have played sloppy football the last couple weeks.
November 18th, 2021 at 12:34 pm
I believe this to be very true. Especially last week. Those two first quarter turnovers and the penalties throughput crippled us and just gave life to Washington and they never let up. Same against the Saints. Can’t have tos and penalties against well coached teams like that. Even the Rams game… Had an early int right in our hands that could have changed the whole dynamic of that game. Right the ship, fellas! There’s still a lot football left.
November 18th, 2021 at 12:35 pm
Drew Brees made a career of checkdowns. They are effective in the right situation.
Rarely does a team win a game when they have more penalty yards and more turnovers than the other team. Another big issue last week was 3rd down play. If a team wins in those 3 categories they should win the game
November 18th, 2021 at 12:39 pm
Wow Joe, you almost had me; I thought you’d seen the light. Then my more skeptical side said ‘Nah, Joe’s just trolling with top-water bait, or maybe even just chumming the water’.
The Bucs are not ‘just a cleanup job away from being an elite team’. We’re a 6-3 team, because that’s what our record says we are. Turnovers AND penalties have BOTH been factors in some games, but we’ve overcome them at times. The Cowboys game for instance. FOUR turnovers and ELEVEN penalties on our part, and yet we won the game.
We won because we overcame our screwups (in addition to losing the TOP 34-26 mins). BUT … we were healthy in Game 1, and it made a big difference I think. What also made a big difference is that our offense scored 4 TDs instead of settling for FGs, even though those 4 drives only averaged 5 plays each. We also didn’t dig ourselves any deep holes in that game; the most we were ever behind was by 2 points. That was HUGE at game’s end when we needed a FG to win.
In our 3 losses we fell behind 21-7 to the Rams (no TOs but 7 penalties), 23-7 to the Saints (3 TOs & 11 penalties in that game), and 16-6 to Washington (2 TOs & 6 penalties). All 3 teams beat us by playing smashmouth football IMO (which is the primary reason why they got the takeaways). In those 3 games they also ran the ball an average of 30 times per game.
They beat the snot out of us in the trenches IOW (and especially our defense which is beaten up anyways) & played us like a fiddle at the end. Bucs can play that kind of game, and play it very well. BUT … we gotta be healthier than we are now to do that.
November 18th, 2021 at 1:16 pm
Soft as charmin, undisciplined as a Raheehaw coached team. Whatever Arians’ accountability sheet is, it’s not doing anything, or rather the coaches aren’t doing anything with it.
Bucs are a steaming pile until they pay attention to the most basic details.
Super Bol hangover.
November 18th, 2021 at 2:29 pm
I knew when we started the game with a drive-killing false start….that things would be difficult….
Coming off a bye week to start a game like that is unacceptable.
Darden’s “interception” was worse…….and, I think that should be considered a fumble…he had possession and then lost the ball…..
November 18th, 2021 at 6:35 pm
Darden smells like hind end. Dexter Jackson the second, revisited. Bring Mickens back. He’s reliable if not flashy.
November 19th, 2021 at 10:48 am
Uh, Schiano was the one who said Glennon was QB WB of the future, not Lovie.
Lovie drafted Jameis after that season. .