Return To The Starting Lineup?
November 9th, 2021
Status.
Joe already brought troubling intel about Jason Pierre-Paul’s battle with what he considers the “worst” football injury of his NFL career.
Now for some comforting news.
Yesterday starting corner Sean Murphy-Bunting, who has been out since the first half of the season-opening win over Dallas with a dislocated elbow, returned to practice with his teammates for the first time.
SMB broke out on Twitter with encouraging words about being back on the fields of One Buc Palace in an actual football practice, not just working out on a secondary field.
Felt so good playing football again 🙏🏽 Longest 8 weeks of my life..
— Sean Murphy-Bunting (@seanbunting_) November 8, 2021
Now yesterday Bucs Super Bowl-winning coach Bucco Bruce Arians cautioned about connecting dots, saying just because SMB is practicing doesn’t necessarily mean he will start Sunday at Washington.
“It’s one thing to practice,” Arians said of SMB and Scotty Miller, who also returned to practice after battling a turf toe injury. “It’s another thing to throw them out there in a game.”
Still, SMB practicing tells Joe that the cavalry is coming to save the Bucs’ injury-riddled cornerbacks room. Joe can see the dust clouds in the horizon.
November 9th, 2021 at 10:03 am
Hopefully Antonio Wingfield Jr doesn’t take his other elbow out while making another recklessly late tackle
November 9th, 2021 at 10:07 am
Not exactly a probowler coming off the couch. I guess something is better than nothing.
November 9th, 2021 at 10:23 am
It can’t get any worse. welcome back
November 9th, 2021 at 10:25 am
@Listnfrmafar I rather see him than pierre desir covering wideouts.
November 9th, 2021 at 10:48 am
I don’t believe it will matter much, this team is built based on the success of the offense. If we get a two score lead….Bowles will become more and more aggressive, if we are in a close game, Bowles tends to remain vanilla. Our offense dictates everything. Ideally we score TDs….the opposing teams settles for FGs. We get to 14-3 or 20-6, then Bowles releases the dogs. That’s where ball protection and penalties kill us, we let teams hang around which minimizes how we attack on defense.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:10 am
I just hope when he returns (and Davis) he and the Bucs D will be playing more like the playoffs last year and be in the LOS jamming WRs and not feeling cozy enough to be 10 yards off all the time. I get there are players missing but that soft and passive coverage all the time is meeehhh. Go Bucs
November 9th, 2021 at 11:10 am
@Bobby M not so. In the playoffs they might face a team that could get stops on their offense. They need this defense to step up big time.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:13 am
Good so tired of watching 43 get burned.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:00 pm
FN “realist” pete at it again, full blown, no stops and such a miserable poster. He’ll shut up again after the season, such a sh!T poster, go away “realist”
November 9th, 2021 at 12:01 pm
SMB finished last season strong. He is an upgrade over what we have now. Because this is the only defensive system he has play in the pros, he is likely to catch up quickly, Giving Bowles a bit more scheme flexibility on the back end. I expect this defense to improve as they make their run in the second half.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:35 pm
It was nice to see T-maxi back for a day or two. Now it’s old again. I hope his mom changes the wi-fi password again…soon.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:47 pm
Bobby M … ‘I don’t believe it will matter much, this team is built based on the success of the offense.’
Certainly offense is where we’ve spent the majority of our salary CAP Bobby, but few teams make it to the Big Dance based on just one side of the ball being strong. The other has to be at least adequate (normally middle of the pack or better).
Bucs’ offense is no-doubt a powerhouse, averaging 32.5 PPG over the first 8 games (260 total points). But it’s not like we’ve scored that average in every single game. Bucs scored over half our points (131) in just 3 games: Falcons (48), Dolphins (45) & Bears (38), for an average in those 3 games of 43.7 PPG. Very impressive to be sure, especially since we were 3-0 in those games.
But we’ve scored significantly less in the other 5 games: Cowboys (31), Rams (24), Pats (19), Eagles (28) & Saints (27), for an average in those 5 games of 25.8 PPG. Still excellent IMO, and we did go 3-2 in those 5 games, but that’s an 18 point difference when compared to the other 3. Closer games require a defense to step it up; margin of victory against the Falcons, Dolphins & Bears was 28.7 pts average … over 4 TDs … while the margin of victory or loss against the other 5 was only 5.8 pts average … less than 1 TD.
I doubt that any offense could consistently put up 43.7 PPG in every regular season game. Heck, the Bucs had a pretty high-flying offense BEFORE Tom Brady arrived. Problem was that it wasn’t consistent, and that combined with a bad defense spelled ‘no playoffs’ and ‘losing seasons’. It takes a certain degree of BALANCE between both sides of the ball IMO to win championships.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
To Defense Rules Says:
Well said and quantified !
Totally agree need a good defense along with our high-power offense to win SB again end of story!
November 9th, 2021 at 1:03 pm
Not sure what people are expecting when SMB comes back. Other than the playoffs last season, he was usually burnt toast when he was on the field. Go watch the play he got injured on if you need a reminder of how awful he usually in coverage.
November 9th, 2021 at 3:06 pm
Snook: Sean Murphy-Bunting was good at the end of the 2019 season. Everybody was hoping to see more of that for 2020, which he wasn’t for most of the year. Again, he played better at the end of the season. Maybe that’ll happen again this year.
November 9th, 2021 at 3:39 pm
I hope he’s been studying film like a champ because when he played Dallas he Stunk!
November 9th, 2021 at 4:40 pm
I love how everybody thinks how SMB played in the first half of the first game of the year is how he plays every game. Dallas OC did a great job of completely changing up their attack against the Bucs. We definitely were not ready for it and then the injuries made it look a lot worse. Yet some how we still won. Give our corners a chance to get in the groove before you write them off. They are what we have to work with. Go Bucs!
November 9th, 2021 at 5:13 pm
He ain’t no miracle worker
November 9th, 2021 at 7:08 pm
Not a #1 corner on any team. Need I say more?
November 9th, 2021 at 8:05 pm
Not so quick to get excited about his return. He gets burned a lot and seems out of position alot. That is what got him injured, botched a tackle and he reached out w his arm to try to make up for it. He was not that good in College either. Draft cornerbacks
In 2022. We are mediocre at best in that position.
November 10th, 2021 at 1:16 am
Sherman still hasn’t even been fully incorporated. Pray that the entire roster, D and O, are fully healthy by playoff time.
November 10th, 2021 at 7:25 am
jpp is definitely hurting. not good
November 10th, 2021 at 8:06 am
Not to change the subject, but Devin White paid more in fines for making plays than Karen Rogers for breaking protocol for weeks. Go figure. GO BUCS!