“I Have Learned That The Best Defense Is To Play Offense”
August 2nd, 2022
Todd Bowles is getting wise in his old age.
Football isn’t what it was when Bowles played in the 1980s and early 1990s. Defense no longer rules the day. Even Warren Sapp has said through the last decade that defense doesn’t win championships any longer
Why is that? Because the NFL wants offense, offense and more offense. Scoring sells, and fantasy football drives a ton of interesting the league, which means more revenue.
Bowles was a guest on NFL Network today with Colleen Wolfe and Steve Smith, live at One Buc Palace. Smith, the former Panthers great, was needling Bowles about being a defense-first head coach. Smith was poking Bowles about all guys like him really care about is defense.
Bowles shot back with a smile and noted how many stud offensive players the Bucs invested in this offseason.
“I’ve learned that the best defense is to play offense,” Bowles said.
Smart man.
The Bucs have averaged 30 points a game through the 2020 and 2021 seasons. It’s nearly impossible to miss the playoffs with that kind of offense.
Obviously, defense is critical, but Joe’s glad to hear Bowles has the right frame of mind. Yeah, the Bucs have given Tom Brady everything he could want (except a one-way ticket to Miami) but their talent level and balance on defense is excellent and good enough to shut down anyone.
Bowles couldn’t ask for a much better team from top to bottom.
August 2nd, 2022 at 2:00 pm
Hopefully Bowles is an improvement on his predecessor against New Orleans and the Rams, if not dreams of a championship and enjoying the relevance of having Brady will be gone
August 2nd, 2022 at 2:14 pm
I don’t believe Bowles for a second. If he truly believes that, why the hell does he still blitz nearly half the time? Blitz rates have been coming down significantly over the last 10 years. If your offense is putting up 30 a game, it makes more sense to force opposing offenses to matriculate down the field. Timely blitzing still has a place in the league. The Rams game was a microcosm of why smart teams don’t blitz good QBs anymore.
Belichick had a mantra for his defenses, GTFB. He realized that so long as they didn’t give up the big play, they would win, more often than not.
August 2nd, 2022 at 2:25 pm
Blitzing isn’t our problem……ineffective blitzing is our problem…..
And…..our defenders need to get their hands up more…..we have some tall guys….need to bat/tip more balls at the LOS.
August 2nd, 2022 at 2:50 pm
I , also , do not believe bowles . he said this solely for PR reasons ..His guys got burned more than once in that Rams game when he was blitzing.
August 2nd, 2022 at 2:54 pm
TBBF, I disagree. if you can’t blitz effectively, then modify the freaking scheme!! Stafford could see it coming a mile away, yet bowles continued to blitz. Good coaches adapt their scheme. Bowles is way too predictable. Most good QBs carve up the blitz. That’s why blitz rates have been coming down for years.
August 2nd, 2022 at 3:15 pm
Tampa, New Orleans and Rams prove you wrong, they rush 4 and drop 7. Bucs need more of a push from their overpaid nose tackle and tackles. Also, look at the Saints & Rams secondary, far from a bunch of NO names.
August 2nd, 2022 at 3:31 pm
I wish he would have reminded Steve Smith about that time he said the “The Bucs gone get ran”
August 2nd, 2022 at 3:44 pm
‘Their (Bucs) talent level and balance on defense is excellent and good enough to shut down anyone. Bowles couldn’t ask for a much better team from top to bottom.’
I’m convinced that our starting rotations, on offense AND defense, can hang with anybody. We’ve got good depth on offense (well, maybe except at QB?), but our depth on defense is circumspect (especially in our Front 7?). Still think that we’ll see a couple more bodies added though before all is said & done.
August 2nd, 2022 at 4:14 pm
In the 2021 season, Stafford had a +89 EPA against the blitz. It was the highest number ever in the next gen stats era. If that wasn’t enough info for Bowles, he saw what Stafford did to the Cardinals a week earlier vs. the blitz.
August 2nd, 2022 at 4:40 pm
Thank goodness he gets it… I love Father Dungy to death but this is one concept we was never able to grasp…
August 2nd, 2022 at 4:48 pm
I agree with the hands up.
We have a rotation where the whole line could be 6”5’ or taller.
We need more batted down balls.
August 2nd, 2022 at 6:38 pm
Marine Buc — But when Dungy said it, that was the case, the Bucs literally won a SB because they had perhaps the greatest defensive of all time, and undoubtedly the best passing defense of all time. They allowed only 12.3-points a game, and in the playoffs, only allowed a NET of 1.0-points per game (38 given up, 35 scored). If fact if Rice doesn’t do a stupid, away from the play, personal foul after an INT vs the 49ers, the Bucs defense would have literally outscored the other teams offense, and all 3 of the offenses the Bucs faced in the playoffs were in the top 8, including the #1 overall offense.
So yes, in that era, defense absolutely won it all. But in recent years, it’s been a lot harder to win on defense, although it does happen, the Bucs last SB was mainly on the defense completely smothering the Chiefs – although they wouldn’t have gotten to the playoffs without the offense doing the heavy lifting during the season.
August 2nd, 2022 at 6:51 pm
I think it was Colin Cowherd who said the reason the NFL is becoming so offense heavy is linked to the simple fact that wide receivers get paid more than cornerbacks. So these kids going into college all want to be wide receivers and not cornerbacks or safeties. So there is now a preponderance of wide receivers and a shortage of cornerbacks. Beacuse of this, heavy loaded wide receiver cores are becoming a strategy for teams because the number 3 and 4 wide receivers are much better than their counterparts.
August 2nd, 2022 at 8:09 pm
I love Todd Bowles. He’s The Man. It’s going to be a great season if we stay healthy. I expect to beat some teams down real good. It’s payback year and The Bucs are going to another Super Bowl! GOBUCS!
August 2nd, 2022 at 8:37 pm
Reason it is offensive heavy is the NFL changed passing rules in the 1970s. Feel free to look up the “Mel Blount Rule.”
August 2nd, 2022 at 8:39 pm
Rod, it also helped that the Chiefs fielded an arena league offensive line in the superbowl. Let’s not go crazy with how great the bucs defense was last year. They were good, and very good when it counted, but not great by any stretch.
August 2nd, 2022 at 8:51 pm
Joe, the reason the NFL has become pass happy, directly relates to the crying colts GM, who got the rules changed. The Patriots routinely mauled recievers at the LOS. Their defenses routinely smacked around QBs too. Go ask Kurt Warner. Mad respect for Warner, because he played the last quarter of a Superbowl with an obvious concussion. Richard Seymour absolutely hammered him. Physicality has largely been removed from the game. You can’t hit crossers anymore. You can’t hit the QB. Pat Mahomes even gets away with sideline, NBA style flops.
August 2nd, 2022 at 9:43 pm
GOB – Well, correct, the KC line was terrible, but the Bucs defense did their job in NO and GB as well. NO, they weren’t the 2002 Bucs, not even remotely in the same ballpark, but for that year, they were one of the top defenses in football. Just shows how much, overall, defensive play has declined.
August 2nd, 2022 at 10:44 pm
The best offense is the best defense. Defense wins. Period. Bowles knows that offense sells tickets. NFL, NBA, etc. knows that too, which is why they keep destroying the rules to favor offense offense offense. All for normies.
August 3rd, 2022 at 1:15 am
No they haven’t given him every thing he needs. They need a center and a quality guard or this is going to be a very long season
August 3rd, 2022 at 4:48 am
Joe Says:
August 2nd, 2022 at 8:37 pm
I think it was Colin Cowherd who said the reason the NFL is becoming so offense heavy is linked to the simple fact that wide receivers get paid more than cornerbacks.
Reason it is offensive heavy is the NFL changed passing rules in the 1970s. Feel free to look up the “Mel Blount Rule.”
You know Joe the funny thing is in the first year of the change 1973, it ended up being called “The Year of the Runner”, no one expected that to happen, but it became that when the moved the hash marks. Thats the year OJ became the first RB to get over 2,000 yards rushing
“In 1972, the NFL’s competition committee and the league owners and the television networks all agreed that the game needed more scoring, and more excitement. Their remedy was to move the hash marks on the field closer to the middle of the field. Their hope that by doing this, pro quarterbacks across the league would be able to throw the ball more often to their increasingly open wide receivers”.
GOB, it is much more simple that a crying GM, it is good old fashioned Capitalism. The all mighty dollar has more to do with the NFL wanting more offense than any other issue. And nothing wrong with that.
GO BUCS!!!!