So, About The Bucs Secondary…
October 15th, 2023
Cornerback Carlton Davis.
Not a lot, but fairly often, Joe reads comments on this here corner of the interwebs where folks just don’t like the Bucs secondary.
They don’t care for Carlton Davis and there is more than enough people throwing heat at Jamel Dean. Joe never understood this. If these guys were so awful, how the hell did they win a Super Bowl less than three years ago, shutting down three future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in a row?
Remember, three of the four starting defensive backs also started in that Super Bowl season.
It seems as though the secondary, much to the displeasure of the anti-Davis and anti-Dean types, is playing rather well. And this has been without both Davis and Dean playing significant snaps due to injuries.
Per Matt Verderame of SI.com, the Bucs’ secondary is playing solid ball.
The Buccaneers have been very good at limiting [deep-ball] throws downfield, allowing just 466 such yards. Only the Giants, Jets and Browns have permitted fewer.
Maybe Joe is way off here but that’s damn good if the Bucs are the fourth-best at allowing deep throws. So Joe really doesn’t understand all the nitpicking.
If those guys aren’t good enough, Joe is confident that E.J. Biggers, Myron Lewis and Alterraun Verner will come work for cheap.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:15 am
Joe, don’t forget about Vernon Hargreaves
October 15th, 2023 at 12:16 am
The same people complaining about them are the same people saying Brady wasn’t actually that good. They’re just very stupid people, probably the same people that defended Ryan Smith and Chris Conte and thought they were great.
October 15th, 2023 at 12:16 am
Hey Joe make sure they call Tim Wansley to come in
October 15th, 2023 at 12:28 am
Well, the Jets do have Jordan Whitehead. The only gripe about Davis and Dean is they are injured alot.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:10 am
Both miss games each season, don’t get many ints, and cost decent money. We got more picks from a rookie, and a second year player has held his own in Davis’ absence. They arent bad, just overpaid when we have to find money to pay Winfield next year. Would definitely move on from Davis or Dean if it gave the team room to keep Antoine.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:12 am
I’m kinda disappointed that Joe passed up the opportunity for a Sabby Piscatelli reference…
October 15th, 2023 at 1:18 am
Bend don’t break is real. No team stops every throw.
Bowles has pit together a complimentary team so that the offense gives his defense enough time to come back out and play aggressively.
Any tired defense is going to get burned. Thus deep zones with underneath throws allowed to prevent th Big Play.
Getting hurt to me is an issue. Gotta play physical though and with depth this year doesn’t concern me as much as previous years.
I really think Bowles is the closest he has ever been to having HIS team and it is going to show tomorrow.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:29 am
Verderame … ‘The Buccaneers have been very good at limiting [deep-ball] throws downfield, allowing just 466 such yards. Only the Giants, Jets and Browns have permitted fewer.’
That stat blew my mind Joe, because I thought we were a lot better than that. And according to Pro-Football-Reference play-by-play stats for each game, we are. Considerably better.
o Vikings game: Cousins 4-for-5 deep for 130 yds & 1 TD.
o Bears game: Fields 3-for-5 deep for 75 yds & 1 TD.
o Eagles game: Hurts 2-for-6 deep for 50 yds & 1 TD & 1 INT (Delaney).
o Saints game: Carr 0-for-8 deep and Winston 0-for-1 deep with 1 INT (Delaney)
Looks to me like those add up to 9-for-25 deep (36%) for 255 yds and 3 TDs with 2 INTs. Obviously what skews the numbers was the New Orleans game (0-for-9 deep). Nonetheless, only allowing 36% deep completions is very very good.
Might be wrong on this, but it looks like we gave up 8 short completions that gained over 20 yds (204 yds total), so SI might be counting those as deep balls (that’d bring the total yardage to 459, close to their 466 number). If those were included, that’d put us at 17-for-33 ‘deep’ completions, slightly over 50% (that’s not really all that good deep IMO). I like the 9-for-25 better.
October 15th, 2023 at 2:05 am
IMHO the secondary is the best unit on our team. I think most of our sacks have been coverage sacks. As a matter of fact we probably lead the league in coverage sacks. When the DL catches up to the secondary and starts getting more pressure’s our defense is going to be elite.
October 15th, 2023 at 2:17 am
That last paragraph is bone-chilling
October 15th, 2023 at 2:26 am
Was it Anterraun or Alterraun?
October 15th, 2023 at 2:58 am
Joe it’s difficult for some to get that vision of our secondary in that Dallas disaster playoff performance at home in the national spotlight where little bo peep and her lost sheep could have covered much better than our secondary did that day. It was a shameful performance.
You are what they see you are.
October 15th, 2023 at 4:06 am
……..Other VERY stupid people claim that the Bucs NEVER beat the Lions in Tampa.
The Bucs have in fact beat the Lions in Tampa 15 times.
Literally 15 times.
Anywho……..someone is LITERALLY a full-on Tard.
Go Bucs!
October 15th, 2023 at 4:40 am
“adam from ny” please submit your comment…
“no AI, i will not submit the comment”
October 15th, 2023 at 5:21 am
Prior to the start of the season, the complaint was mostly about depth. THAT problem seems to have poofed with the emergence of McCollum and Delaney. As far as salaries, Davis and Dean are 10th and 13th respectively, which doesn’t seem excessive for their skillsets
October 15th, 2023 at 5:39 am
Joe, there is a difference between the critic that they re not playing good and the critic that they re awful.
I dont think that C.Davis or J.Dean are awful but i do think that they re not playing at the level they were a couple years back.
We all remeber the top level the Defense played during the 2020 playoffs, including the secondary. But i dont think we have played at that level since. The coverage is more soft. I remember the playoff games and our DBs were glued to the opponents WRs almost every game. But somehow we reverted back to our favorite 7 to 10 yards cushions.
I believe they dont want to give up the big play and they re sitting back. I d like to see more agressiveness. Not every play but you can play a little more tighter especially when a blitz is called. Most of our players have shown that they are not good in zone coverage.
Go Bucs
October 15th, 2023 at 6:01 am
I love our guys in press man Joe. Not so much when they play ten yards off and let All Pro recievers run free with no one near them to contest catches. I think much of that has more to do with Bowles at this point.
Go Bucs!
October 15th, 2023 at 6:02 am
Happy Creamsicle Day Yall!
Go Bucs!
October 15th, 2023 at 6:24 am
Going to ba Alot of lion fans, a exited fan base that has been starved for wins, need to match that energy Buc fans! LFG Tampa!
October 15th, 2023 at 7:01 am
“…how the hell did they win a Super Bowl less than three years ago, shutting down three future Hall of Fame quarterbacks in a row?” Idk? What have you done lately? Yea – Davis and Dean are overrated, over paid and over hurt all the time. Now you know that.
October 15th, 2023 at 7:14 am
Lt. Dan , grumpy old man syndrome..
They are starters for a reason. We also have solid backups..our secondary isn’t the problem.it’s the pass rush.
Now I will get off your lawn.
October 15th, 2023 at 7:22 am
@ #99….well done sir! That was a funny post and I’m not being sarcastic.
October 15th, 2023 at 7:38 am
Lt Dan, I try to throw in a laugh or two ..lol
October 15th, 2023 at 7:53 am
Let’s hope they have a big game this afternoon.
October 15th, 2023 at 7:59 am
Most of the teams in the NFL wish they had Davis and Dean.
October 15th, 2023 at 7:59 am
PASS RUSH PASS RUSH PASS RUSH! joe didn’t play football growing up but i know you’ve seen a lot and can’t understand how one could gripe about a secondary who won the superbowl…when you watch Winfield he jumps off the screen because he’s a PLAYMAKER, C. Davis is a solid cornerback, BUT Dean is NOT A FOOTBALL PLAYER, he tackles well and has str8 line speed. Any wr with a little wiggle dominates Dean! We don’t give enough credit to T bowls for hiding the weakness of his defense very well. It’s a reason why his players prays him so much! Naturally the fans want a SHUTDOWN corner! And we don’t have one, also it would help if they weren’t hurt all the time
October 15th, 2023 at 8:07 am
It’s amazing how some folks don’t see that a great front 7 is the best way to make your DB’s look good. Similarly great DB’s can make your D-line ‘better’ by making a QB go through his progressions and take too long to find an open man.
The 2020 front 7 made their DB’s look better than they are, IMO.
October 15th, 2023 at 8:11 am
I don’t know why I’m still uncomfortable with the secondary. Several years now. Like I said, don’t know why. Winfield is a different animal though.
October 15th, 2023 at 8:46 am
Our secondary is pretty sound, usually flying under the stat radar. Justin Jefferson and Chase Claypool contributed to the 466 yards. We made adjustments for Jefferson and Claypool out ran us, not bad at all. I’ll keep my secondary thank you very much. If we need additional help I just ran into Rod Toast Jones at HomeDepot helping customers in the lumber department.
October 15th, 2023 at 9:17 am
We need pass rush. That secondary was a lot more effective when we had JPP and Suh up front. Hoping Shaq is healthy and Kancey can get 25 snaps or so to disrupt Goff
October 15th, 2023 at 9:23 am
Watch how both gets destroyed today and both will fake an injury by the 3rd quarter first Davis then Dean like clockwork
October 15th, 2023 at 9:25 am
I hires the truth could be said about the running back room too. Let’s go get Peyton barber or Rojo. No wait Ernest Graham perhaps Eric Rhett can help our backfield
October 15th, 2023 at 9:59 am
MJ Stewart
October 15th, 2023 at 10:35 am
That Verner heist was one of ths most disgusting free agent acquisitions. We gotta find a way to get our lick back on Tennessee.
October 15th, 2023 at 11:45 am
I just think Davis will be a cap cut to save players better then him especially when other CB are stepping up. Other knock on him is the INT’s….. he can defend but no picks. Our back end will only be as good as the pass rush is. Getting the #1 pick back this week, look out Goff, they may get some pics today in the throw back jerseys! Let get 3 TO today in a blow out win!
October 15th, 2023 at 12:54 pm
Bowles has consistently shown that he can coach secondary players.
In Bowles I trust when it comes to secondary. Since he has been here, we have had mostly good to excellent secondary play.
October 15th, 2023 at 1:17 pm
Rod “toast” Jones
October 15th, 2023 at 1:37 pm
@Joe —
Are you saying that Sabby the Goat is unavailable?