Dave Canales Said He Let The Bucs’ Defense Down Yet Official Gamebook Tells A Different Tale
November 9th, 2023
Needlessly falls on sword.
After a Bucs offense struggled all season to score points finally snapped out of it and scored 37, only to see the defense collapse and lose Sunday’s game, it had to be frustrating for Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales.
Hold up, Canales said today. He told the local pen and mic club in his weekly presser that he had done a better job early in the second half, few would be screaming about the defense in the 39-37 loss to the Texans.
“Love the progress, love to have that spark,” Canales said of the highest-scoring game the Bucs offense has had this season. “I was excited for the guys. Another big end-of-game finish for the group. I love that part of it.
“Yes, 37 points but you guys saw it: We came out of the [second] half and [Houston] had an answer for the stuff we were doing.
“They made it hard on us and we were punting the ball. And we were putting our defense back out there a lot in the second half. That’s where I have to get better.”
This is a strange comment to Joe because the Bucs only punted twice in the second half, the first coming on the Bucs’ third possession of the half.
If Canales was suggesting the Bucs were kicking too many field goals to begin the second half, well, OK. The Bucs kicked field goals on each of their first two drives of the third quarter.
It almost smells to Joe like this was a rehearsed narrative because Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs also basically said the offense let the defense down when the defense needed them the most.
“They’ve had our backs for weeks,” Wirfs said of the defense cratering in Houston.
Strange times in BucsLand these days, man. Strange times.
November 9th, 2023 at 4:15 pm
Trying hard not to pile on, as the case has been the reverse most of the year
November 9th, 2023 at 4:30 pm
“Strange days have found us,”….J.M.
November 9th, 2023 at 4:32 pm
Yadda Yadda.
November 9th, 2023 at 4:49 pm
All from the Todd/Jason school of excuses, nothing to see here.
November 9th, 2023 at 5:00 pm
I’ve never seen a coach this happy to lose.
November 9th, 2023 at 5:11 pm
The schtick is getting old.
November 9th, 2023 at 5:32 pm
Anyone who knows what a true “team” is will appreciate what Canales and Wirfs said and why they said it. They’re backing their teammates. You gotta love that. 9 games left to prove something.
November 9th, 2023 at 6:20 pm
They had 19 yards in the third quarter. Great self awareness by Dave.
November 9th, 2023 at 6:26 pm
Todd sat on the lead. He’s so out of touch with modern football. Nine more games, and his fate will be sealed. Lose Sunday at home again to another rookie should do it.
November 9th, 2023 at 7:49 pm
The Bucs offense have their defensive buddies back- hopefully that will motivate everyone to play to save Todd Bowles job and propel the Bucs into the playoffs.
November 9th, 2023 at 7:52 pm
We need to see what Canales can do with Trask as we saw against Jet. Canales is limited with the plays that Baker can run due to his height and inability throw long balls to open up the offense.
November 9th, 2023 at 8:44 pm
It’s nice of Canales to fall on the sword but fortunately most of us saw with out own eyes what happened out there
November 9th, 2023 at 9:15 pm
If Bucs can get to 6-6….
November 9th, 2023 at 10:00 pm
Dave Canales seems like a nice guy, the type of dude you’d like to have a beer with but unfortunately in the NFL nice guys get boned and tend to lose and Canales is on a sinking ship. I won’t pile on the guy; he is a first year OC who is basically being the good soldier and following the script. The big problem is his boss, whom I will now refer to as the “Meathead” (apologies to Rob Reiner/Mike Stivic) thanks to Joe’s most excellent article today.
November 9th, 2023 at 10:22 pm
FMD:
Michael Stivic. LOL!
November 10th, 2023 at 1:38 am
Outside of a few true fans on here , you all are a bunch of Fairweather fake bandwagon fans who probably didn’t even watch our Bucs before Brady arrived. Now you are spoiled. You think that we are going to win the Super Bowl every year ? We are lucky enough to have 2 Super Bowl wins 🏆 🏆 as half the league has ZERO ! Look at Buffalo, all the great teams they put on the field every year and walk away with NOTHING ! This is the price we pay for being a Super Bowl contender for the last 3 years. This isn’t the NBA or MLB where you can buy a championship every other year ! It’s called parity and salary cap .. I love the guys on the last article about Todd Bowels. Yes , I agree that he’s not head coach material , but for you guys to say that he doesn’t know what he’s doing and that you could do a better job than him , that is just plain asinine and shows just how much you don’t know about football. Go Bucs
November 10th, 2023 at 4:33 am
Canales is so needy and desperate for everyone to like him. It’s absolute cringe mode when he speaks.
Leaders don’t GAF if everyone likes them. They are there to do their job and execute, and that’s all that matters. Nothing will stop them and they will allowing nothing to get in there way. Meanwhile, Canales thinks he’s running for class president in high school.
The Bucs are a perfect organization for him. It’s a collective of loser coaches where everyone tries to cover for each other.
November 10th, 2023 at 6:59 am
He is not wrong… Half time adjustments have been truly awful both for us and against us. We were crap last year and much the same this year.
Go Bucs!
November 10th, 2023 at 11:12 am
“They made it hard on us”…you gave Vaughn the ball three plays in a row and punted. You made it hard on yourself.
November 10th, 2023 at 2:33 pm
Canales is towing the “corporate speak”, although there were many opportunities to score in the first half, which the offense missed. He is completely correct that Houston appears to have adjusted to the Bucs offense after halftime and it showed on the field. However, the collapse of the defense in the final 2 minutes of the game was both inconceivable and unforgiveable. CJ Stroud tore the Bucs defense apart through the air an Tampa made no adjustments. I’m quite sure the Tampa defense and Bowles were playing to run the clock out, but Houston had different ideas. Another epic collapse and the fourth loss in a row. Bowles doesn’t even deserve a chance to finish out the season. Nuff said. Go Bucs.
November 12th, 2023 at 7:14 am
Houston came out in the 2nd half and stacked the box with 8 & 9 players to stop the run and short passing game. I recognized this immediately and told my wife it’s time to make them pay and go deep. Guess what we only went deep 1 time and it worked perfectly. Canales must learn to adjust quickly.