Michael Robinson Hands Out His Game Ball
November 29th, 2021
Digs Bucs defense.
NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson was a meh college quarterback with a run-first offense on an Orange Bowl-winning team and a fullback on a Super Bowl winner. So you probably know his feelings on running the ball.
He’s all in favor of it. A lot.
Robinson has begged Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians to pound and pound and pound the ball some more. If Joe didn’t know any better, Joe would think Robinson is in cahoots with Ira Kaufman. Robinson often talks about the “maulers” he calls the Bucs’ offensive line and believes between Playoff Lenny and Ronald Jones the Bucs could dominate on the ground.
So when he was handing out his game ball on “Good Morning Football” today Joe thought for sure Robinson was going to give it to Playoff Lenny for his four touchdowns and hard-nosed running.
But no! Robinson threw Joe a curveball. Instead, Robinson gave his game ball to the Bucs defense.
“For me, my game ball has to go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense,” Robinson began. “I mean Todd Bowles had this group ready to go.”
But did he? Sure, Bowles had the Bucs defense primed to stop Jonathan Taylor. The defense balled out in the first quarter. Way, way impressive. But once Jamel Dean got hurt and the Colts started to air it out, that defense looked awful.
Yeah, they forced five turnovers with excellent plays (the sixth came on special teams). No denying that.
Old-time readers remember what Joe used to type about lousy Lovie Smith’s fetish about forcing turnovers: Forcing turnovers is equal parts luck as skill, maybe more luck than skill. The goal of the defense is to stop the other team. A punt is a turnover, too.
Just remove one of those Colts’ offensive turnovers yesterday, do the Bucs win?
Look, the defense was very opportunistic. Dudes made plays. And major props for that. But Joe’s tapping the brakes if someone comes at him that the defense played great yesterday. The first quarter? They sure did. The final three quarters, well…
You can see Robinson’s full take in the NFL Network video below.
The gang gives out their #GMFB Game Ball Awards ❗🏆❗🏆❗@Pschrags ➡ @19problemz@heykayadams ➡ @D1__JW@KyleBrandt ➡❓❓❓@RealMikeRob ➡❓❓❓
Who did we forget ❔❔❔ pic.twitter.com/jIHKhIsbHI
— Good Morning Football (@gmfb) November 29, 2021
November 29th, 2021 at 4:15 pm
4 Game Balls:
#1 – 4Net
#2 – Shaq
#3 – Winfield
#4 – Gronk
November 29th, 2021 at 4:18 pm
The D gave up over 300 passing yards. But came through good enough at the end.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:19 pm
A big part of the problem in the 1st half was that we gave the Colts 7 posessions. You can almost cut that number in half if our offense doesnt start off so slow.
We gave up 7 points in the 2nd half. Defense did exactly what was needed to give our offense the chanse to win it.
November 29th, 2021 at 4:30 pm
The only thing that really got under my skin with that defense was the drive they gagged up right before halftime. We had Tom Brady ready to put at least another FG on the score and had the Colts at 3rd & 15…………Theres no excuse not to get off the field there…….Later same drive 3rd & 10….we gag it up.
2nd half 3rd& 10 then later 3rd & 13…….two more gags. 4 in a row 3rd & forevers and we give up all 4.
I dont complain to much about the coaching but we need to run a better defense in these long distance situations. It wasnt just yestereday we have been giving up this plays sinc ed Bowles got here.
November 29th, 2021 at 5:07 pm
Given what he was working with, meaning backups at multiple positions, the defense did remarkably well. I think that’s where Robinson was going with that. DR listed on another thread the amount of snaps played by some of our starters which was minimal given injuries. One of the major douchebag talking heads tweeted out just after Dean went down that the Bucs were going to get absolutely hammered with no hope for victory. How’d that work out?
November 29th, 2021 at 5:13 pm
AWjr31’s Pick was skill not luck…
November 29th, 2021 at 5:25 pm
@”..AWjr31’s Pick was skill not luck…”
——————
no doubt 100%, and he is a real Bad A$$ too.
November 29th, 2021 at 5:46 pm
I don’t want to call it easy, but it seems to me the Bucs D play calls are not down and distance appropriate very often
On 3rd n 5, why are both CB 8 yds off the line and bailing at the snap? All day..
How many times did they run the same TE rub that we never covered?
How many 3rd and plus 7 did they convert? Too many!
The heroic plays by Shaq and Winfield saved our butts
November 29th, 2021 at 5:50 pm
Secondary is our Achilles heel. Hopefully they can get healthy for the playoff run.🤞🤞
November 29th, 2021 at 6:01 pm
Kyle it was last year as well. I don’t see any reason why Nelson or Vea should ever drop back in coverage, yet they do. Shaq as well when he is Bucs best pass rusher. Bowles keeping JPP in is just insulting JPP, he is hurt and hurt bad, his game shows it. If I were a DC I would attack him every play. I don’t k ow the answer, love the guy, player & his passion.
November 29th, 2021 at 6:05 pm
Anytime there is an argument over who gets the game ball…..that’s always a very good thing….
In this case…..I give it to the team. Lots of balls!!!
November 29th, 2021 at 6:26 pm
Agree with Jimmy Jack (and several others) who think they should have used another running play before halftime. Would have likely stopped a Colt score before the half.
November 29th, 2021 at 6:32 pm
Skill and luck ain’t that the truth! You can’t live by them but sure enough can die by them. Think they should’ve had two more but LVD and someone else were scared when the ball hit them in the hands.
November 29th, 2021 at 6:37 pm
@Listnfrmafar. I throw up in my mouth every time I see one of our D Linemen drop into coverage. Simultaneously the opposing QB salivates and says thank you to Todd. The target is immediately going to that player being covered by a linemen. No linemen can cover a receiver or RB or even tight end. That stupid cute crap never works. Todd’s defense is fine for the most part but it shouldn’t take us getting our tail whipped for Todd to get it figured out in games. Like others have said, you won’t get away with that in the playoffs or against good teams. With all of that said, it’s easy for me to say that injuries happen and that’s no excuse but virtually all of our CB’s have been out. That’s pretty tough to overcome.
November 29th, 2021 at 7:02 pm
The crazy thing about that play cmurda is #98 was right there with him and could have made a play on that ball but for some odd reason he pulled up on his coverage. I was so mad!
November 29th, 2021 at 7:27 pm
Neither our offense nor defense was great yesterday, but everyone on the team deserves a game ball for pulling out a win against a good team in their home. Our defense has been more bad (and sometimes pathetic) than good this year, but any defense from this year would have struggled yesterday.
November 29th, 2021 at 7:48 pm
As much as I trash the coaching, when I look at the NFC, the Bucs are the team no one wants to play, mainly because they have no idea what team will show up. Yesterday’s game was more Buc like compared to last season always finding a way to win. They have withstood the test of time with these injuries and hopefully one by one the players return to secure a playoff spot. We have all witnessed the difference when Gronk returned.
November 29th, 2021 at 8:24 pm
The what if game is a dumb exercise, what if this didn’t happen etc. It did happen and the bucs won.
November 29th, 2021 at 8:26 pm
A punt is not a turnover.
A punt is a strategic decision to trade possession for field position based on down and yards to go for 1st down.
A turnover is an unintended loss of possession based on poor execution or poor judgment or both.
A punt is usually part of a winning strategy – if it wasn’t, no team would ever punt.
A turnover almost always has negative consequences.
Teams that win the turnover battle usually win the game.
The 3rd quarter turnovers by the Colts helped Bucs erase a 10 point deficit and the D gets credit for that.
November 29th, 2021 at 8:28 pm
I am 100% with you on this one Joe. I was at the game yesterday and I was not pleased with that defense at all. I know they got the turnovers but they had a lot of negatives too. What’s Bowles doing when Anthony Nelson is (trying I think) to cover Jack Doyle? And that soft coverage sucks. Wentz was playing catch with guys in the first half because they were wide open due to that soft coverage crap. Defense needs to be better. For crying out loud, Trevor Simeon beat them. Come on man. That being said, was a cool win yesterday …but scary at times.
November 29th, 2021 at 8:28 pm
Carson Wentz won ELEVEN games one year with Philly and nine more two years later.
Last year Wentz sucked because his O line should have started for St. Pete High.
He was blasted and blasted and his wheels came off his game blew up.
Indy has done a great job of giving him Taylor and a good running game to take off the heat and he also has a good OL anchored by Quentin Nelson.
This was a GREAT game for the Bucs…the injuries…the Zebras…the hostile crowd in a LOUD dome against a HOT team on a three game win streak with talented players of their own on both sides of the ball. Again Wentz is not chopped liver and these guys will be tough next year with a good draft.
This game is the turning point. We won against a talented team, on a win streak, in their loud house with a large # of our players out of action. It was a character win, Brady rebounded from an obviouis off day for him….everybody did their job the playoffs are virtually assured and we have a great shot at home field advantage.
Yesterday’s win was sweet indeed!
November 29th, 2021 at 10:43 pm
Joe
You keep saying that the Bucs forced SIX turnovers but I only remember them forcing FIVE???
1. Edwards forced a fumble that LVD recovered
2. Shaq forced a fumble that he himself recovered
3. Winfield got an INT
4. Hines muffed a punt that Miller recovered
5. Desir got an INT
Am I missing one?
November 30th, 2021 at 7:46 am
Alan ,
The main reason we have punted in the first half of the last three games has
been the offenses failure to extend drives due poor execution,penalties and
play design and or checkdowns well short of the sticks on third and long,IMO.
Lets get strategic on offense and score more points early and often. There won’t
be many chances like this one where the defense created so many turnovers to
give us a chance after our third slow start in a row.
November 30th, 2021 at 9:05 am
Bob in Valrico-
Agree with your points.
My point was Joe’s take that the passing D gave up too many yards means the D played poorly much of the game, irregardless of the turnovers and my point is you can’t separate the turnovers from the overall net result.
November 30th, 2021 at 9:26 am
The Bucs fan base has been conditioned since the 1990s (and perhaps, since the 1980s) to expect a stellar pass defense (with Ronde Barber) and a solid running attack (with Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott) with an average QB. Now, we have a stellar run defense (which has been the plan since Coach Schiano), a seldom used run game, and a HOF GOAT QB. Even with the Superbowl victory, it’s taking a while for the fans to get accustomed to it.
November 30th, 2021 at 4:00 pm
At first I was in total agreement that defense was not that prepared, despite some very key opportunistic turnovers.
But then let’s look at the offense is the first half- they totally stunk it up. We were getting killed in time of possession, so the defense was on the field way too long, and the add in all the injuries… They made plays when we needed them. Good enough for me.
I’m more concerned with the offense looking pathetic for half the game.