Three Bucs Keys From Former GM Mark Dominik
December 9th, 2021
“Greg, I’m talking about a free agent and you’re talking about thermostats in in the defensive backs room?”
The ol’ rock star general manager was on stage Wednesday night.
Mark Dominik (co-architect of The Lost Decade) was behind a SiriusXM NFL Radio talking Bucs. He outlined three keys for the Tampa Bay scoring a top playoff seed and mowing down clubs in the playoffs.
In no particular order, Dominik discussed continued great pass blocking for Tom Brady, the emergence of Leonard Fournette playing as good or better than he did down the stretch last season, and the health and growth of the secondary. Dominik emphasized that the defensive backs “coming of age” late last season was a major key to the Super Bowl. (Amen to that!)
Joe would focus more on the pass rush if Joe were picking three keys.
Lombardi Lenny is valuable and versatile, but Joe will take a pass rush over running back success with this Bucs team. Heck, the Chiefs won the Super Bowl two years ago without a special running back.
December 9th, 2021 at 11:07 am
I’ll take both, and a healthy AB and secondary please.
December 9th, 2021 at 11:08 am
Mark Dominick stating the obvious……I do agree with pass rush vs RB……
I’m surprised he didn’t say….score more points.
December 9th, 2021 at 11:14 am
Mark was brilliant last night b/c he was honest about the NFL having an officiating problem & blamed Roger Goodell for letting it get outta hand. Said the refs have too much power w/o fear of consequences.
December 9th, 2021 at 11:14 am
He meant well, he really did.
He just wasn’t very good as a general manager.
I like him a lot better as a radio guy.
December 9th, 2021 at 11:44 am
Joe was it the DBs who complained about him controlling the thermostat ? All I heard it was just him being controlling about it but didn’t know who was the one complaining
December 9th, 2021 at 11:48 am
To surmise the points above, the secret to success, is Complimentary Football.
The Bucs were the best complimentary football team last year with the exception of Special Teams.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:10 pm
The takes are spot on. Better secondary, better pass rush. Lenny brings a much better balance to the offense. As stated before, when the defense and offense play more complete games, they beat everyone. TB12 is not lying when he says you need to improve every day during the season so you play the best when it counts. This team is getting better and in a much better position than it was last year. They are tested in close games, and I think that gives them the edge over Buffalo in a close game.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:23 pm
Whether it’s the D-line or the Secondary, the key for the Bucs in the playoffs is to get the other team off the field on third down. We can’t keep allowing multiple third down conversions.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:50 pm
SlyPirate, the secondary was not great last year. They played great in the SB but make NO mistake the front 7 saved the defense in the playoffs last year. Short memories, remember Washington?
December 9th, 2021 at 12:54 pm
FYI the major players for playoffs both NFC & AFC with the exception of Balt & New England are pass first offenses. Plays right into Bucs weakness.
December 9th, 2021 at 12:57 pm
I just don’t see the pass rush being as ferocious this season, when compared to last season. That JPP rotator cuff injury has really neutralized him, and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka looks “all rookie” (not in a good way) too often to be a realistic replacement this season. I’m all in favor of giving Tryon-Shoyinka more snaps after the Buffalo game, but I just don’t see him hitting stride as an OLB/EDGE this season. I think that’s why Dominik didn’t mention it.
I’m more concerned about the secondary getting and staying healthy, and playing together as a cohesive unit following all those substitutions this season. With the return of the starters, there should be less soft zone, which should eliminate so many of those high-percentage passes that pick apart the Buc defense. With a better defensive secondary, the pass rush might improve as the QB will require more time to find an open man.
As long as the O Line stays injury-free, the Bucs are in great shape, particularly when AB makes his way back onto the field.
December 9th, 2021 at 1:36 pm
Passing thru, I have two words for you, Dallas game!
December 9th, 2021 at 2:01 pm
Analyses like Dominik’s make great fodder for the media, but winning a Super Bowl nowadays takes a total TEAM EFFORT. on both sides of the ball & S/Ts. If you have noticeable weaknesses, playoff-caliber teams will exploit them mercilessly.
Evidence our 2nd playoff game last year against the Saints. Brees went from being their strength to being their weakness, and we exploited that mercilessly. Drew was obviously hurt, and kept everything short. He threw THREE INTs in that game (he hadn’t done that since Dec 4th, 2016 when the Saints went 7-9 on the year). Bucs capitalized by scoring TWO TDs off of 2 of those INTs (plus a 3rd TD off the Saints’ fumble), and then running out the last 4 mins of the clock on Brees’ last INT. IOW, he was the weakness & we capitalized on it big-time to win 30-20.
Bucs on the other hand were healthy going into (and through) the playoffs & didn’t have any real weaknesses. This season will be quite a bit different UNLESS we let several guys heal up. For instance, both LVD & White are hurting & it’s impacting their speed of play IMO. Whitehead’s hurt (out), and JPP’s also hurt. And now so is Gholston, plus Vea is still banged up & being limited in snaps. Our 3 starting CBs, Davis-Dean-SMB, are each still hurting also (especially Dean it looks like).
That’s 8 starters right there. Only Suh, Shaq & Winfield seem to have escaped the injury bug at this point. We’ve gotta start prepping for the playoffs by getting our starters healthy one way or another.
December 9th, 2021 at 2:03 pm
Yeah, the Bucs weren’t sharp out of the gate for Game 1; the pass rush was anemic and the offense looked disjointed. I’m not reading too much into that, Green Bay got destroyed by New Orleans 38-3 during that opening week as well.
December 9th, 2021 at 2:38 pm
Ooof…that combo pic of DirtStar Dominik & One time Sandusky Lieutenant Shiano makes my colon clinch worse than a Whopper Combo. Somewhere Dominik is trying to trade for Revis for his fantasy team offering up a pile of cash and perhaps the use of Irv’s Lil’ Red Escape.
December 9th, 2021 at 3:17 pm
Lmao!
December 9th, 2021 at 3:19 pm
Joe, that picture is triggering.
December 9th, 2021 at 4:46 pm
Dungy always said it… you focus on the pass rush, if you have one, that makes your corners better. At this point the Bucs corners mostly seem like a lost cause, so yeah, we need a strong pass rush and can just hope the corners can play as well as lawn chairs and maybe just trip some people up.
December 9th, 2021 at 5:06 pm
@Joe It may or may not be a coincidence , but our successful pass rush down the season also coincided with our successful run game . Pass rushers are at their best when they are fresh and still explosive . Pass rushers who stay on the field and play a bunch of snaps are neither .
December 9th, 2021 at 5:08 pm
Running the football effectively helps the defense tremendously.
December 9th, 2021 at 5:40 pm
I simply don’t care what Domoronik has to say.