Zone Defense = Scorched Earth
November 8th, 2023
Bucs cornerbacks after playing zone.
This is just mind-boggling to Joe on a couple of levels and it’s a bad look for the man running the Bucs defense.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles has long been thought of as one of the better defensive minds in the game. Recent events are beginning to make Joe wonder what Bowles is trying to accomplish with his pass defense.
First, there is no consistent pass rush to speak of. Bowles is not a position coach for outside linebackers or the defensive line. But as the defensive coordinator and head coach he’s ultimately responsible.
The main issue here is the secondary. The Bucs are getting scalded when they play zone. When the Bucs play man defense, the defense is quite good.
Jenna Laine of ESPN has dug up very telling statistics.
In zone coverage, they’ve surrendered 10 touchdowns on 207 dropbacks this year – more than any other team in the league. In man coverage, they’ve given up three touchdowns on 123 dropbacks – tied for the best mark in the league.
The Bucs’ defense has allowed just a 40.7 completion percentage when both outside corners are in press coverage this year – third-best in the NFL – and they haven’t given up a touchdown in that category. When neither is pressing, that number jumps 73.3% — 27th in the league — and nine touchdowns, 28th in the league.
This, in Joe’s mind, is flat out irresponsible. Bowles has said the reason he has played so much zone is that others (not Carlton Davis or Jamel Dean) struggle in man coverage.
Well, stats don’t really bear that out (yes, Joe knows there is often a wide gap between numbers on a pie chart and the actual game of football). But what Joe gets worked up about here is that you have two corners, solid corners, maybe excellent corners (certainly expensive corners) playing a defense in zone they don’t excel in.
This would be like having power hitter Albert Pujols in his prime bunt whenever there were men on first or second (and Joe is a strong proponent of bunting).
Why would you ask two of your best players to work in a defense that does not fit their skillset?
This seems completely backward.
Then, to the point Bowles said about the secondary outside of Davis and Dean (Joe assumes Bowles isn’t including Antoine Winfield) cannot play man. OK, then…
Who picked the final 53-man roster?
That’s usually the head coach. Very few guys will take a job as an NFL head coach if they don’t get to pick their own roster come early September as far as who stays and who gets turned loose.
Joe thinks it’s safe to say Bryan Glazer isn’t picking the roster.
If Bowles is picking the roster, why did he keep dudes that cannot play man to supplement his two pricey corners? It’s not like the team couldn’t have sifted through the leftovers of other teams to find guys who might be able to play man, or maybe make a trade.
There has to be more to this than just a safety and a nickel corner unable to play man. And the results of recent games reveal the culprits can’t play zone defense, either.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:40 am
The pass coverage and pass rush go hand in hand…
The Bucs have a below mediocre pass rush so it is no surprise they are struggling in pass coverage as well.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:40 am
I’ve been saying this for awhile. Dean and Davis are built to play press man. if the other corner cant do it then put them on the best WR and double them with a safety. Pressing also gives the front 7 a couple extra seconds to get home.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:42 am
Same reason we keep force feeding the run game while Evans and Godwin struggle to get looks each game. Bowles has a certain approach he wants to take with this team, but the approach doesn’t fit the personnel. I might even go so far to say that the passive approach Bowles seems to want to take on both sides of the ball – balances, run-heavy offense, and bend-don’t break zone on defense – is outdated and incapable of success. This entire season (and last, in all honesty) has felt an awful lot like the days of Lovie and Mike.
Please bring back “No Rick It, No Biscuit!” At least it was energizing and fun to watch. This brand of football is sleepy even when they win.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:46 am
I’d be interested to see if both of Izien’s picks happened while he was playing man or zone
November 8th, 2023 at 10:47 am
In order to give your secondary a chance in this MFL, you gotta have pressure up front. And we have not had that even halfway consistent thus far. The worst QB’s can find targets given enough time. And our opposition has had quite a long time.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:50 am
BINGO!
November 8th, 2023 at 10:53 am
@BCULAW
I have been saying the samething. He’s taking a team that is designed to throw down field all day and changing into a run first team without those types of players. The only thing more insane is that somebody in the front office allowed and still allows this buffoon to keep coaching the team as if we have those players. Its maddening.
November 8th, 2023 at 10:57 am
If I didn’t know better, seems the fanbase has finally tired of Todd Bowles.
/sarc
I was tired midway through last season.
The Bowles we see is the Bowles Jet fans saw. He was equally bad there, too.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:01 am
If there’s a consistent pattern emerging with Bowles, it’s that he never reverses a plan. He keeps the same players in long after they should have been dropped to the bench, he keeps the same schemes in long after they should have been scrapped
November 8th, 2023 at 11:03 am
At 4 million Bowles choices were Homer, Darnold, Walker, Lock, Mullins, Minshew, and Mayfield. Bowles had a great selection there based on the Money that was available.
Glazer’s picked the Roster indirectly by the choices they made years before to Win a Lombardi.
Eventually things have to be paid for. Can’t go out and buy a fleet Lincoln’s if all you can afford is bunch of Used Ford’s with a few Kia’s mixed in.
Teams are out plowing with Juan Deere’s and Glazer’s could only hand Bowles a few good Oxes. Bowle’s is no dummy and I would imagine he might have asked ‘What the F can I do with this’. Only logical answer is do whatever you can.
Was Mayfield told he would be the starter before he signed? Was Bowles told to do what he can this year and has a pass on this season.?
One thing for sure is Mayfield will be the QB and no matter how much fans piss and moan Bowles could be a sure bet to be HC in 2024.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:13 am
“If Bowles is picking the roster, why did he keep dudes that cannot play man to supplement his two pricey corners?” – Joe
Joe, because he is intellectually bankrupt and totally over his skies as a HC.
How much more evidence do you need to see before you jump on the fire TB train?
Or is that just asinine?
November 8th, 2023 at 11:14 am
In zone coverage, they’ve surrendered 10 touchdowns on 207 dropbacks this year – more than any other team in the league. In man coverage, they’ve given up three touchdowns on 123 dropbacks – tied for the best mark in the league.
Wouldn’t you need to know whether the field position is the same for these stats?
November 8th, 2023 at 11:24 am
Why is this MAN OR ZONE?! Our high school defense decades ago had “zone man under” and similar concepts, where you play man to man and let the rest of the D play zone. Look at the 1995 Cowboys… Deion played man. The rest of the D played zone. This is no reason the two “star” corners could stay in man all day. How are professional coaches not seeing this?
November 8th, 2023 at 11:26 am
The defense had one bad game out of eight games and Baker’s fans are beating it death for 3-5 record. There were no out cries when offense losing one game after another. LOL
They need to get off Carlton Davis. He is a super bowl quality defender. It is the coaching not him.
Let’s face it. These season was lost when we lost to Atlanta at home to give them their first win on the road and a division lead in the past 7 years. Baker had 1 TD, 1 INT with 41 QBR.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:28 am
The defense had one bad game out of eight games and Joe and Baker’s fans are beating it death for 3-5 record. There were no out cries when offense losing one game after another. LOL
They need to get off Carlton Davis. He is a super bowl quality defender. It is the coaching not him.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:29 am
So Bowles is just incredibly stubborn and will continue to try and force a square peg into a round hole so he will continue to call the same losing defensive configurations? Does he lack the humility to quietly admit he has been wrong and make adjustments or is he just blindly arrogant like his buddy SpongeBob was on offense last season? What gives, Bowles repeating the same mistakes week after week should be in the Webster’s dictionary as a key example to display what the 2023 definition of insanity is.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:31 am
THANK YOU!!!!
Your excellent point is why Joe thinks there is much more to this story than what’s on the surface.
November 8th, 2023 at 11:52 am
Why has it taking anyone this long to realize what Joe just penned? This is NOT new!
D-cone, Todd was given a team where “the cub boards are full”, (BA) with the GOAT at QB and it inhaled vigorously! Maybe Todd is what his record says he is!?
November 8th, 2023 at 12:03 pm
Right where the heck is the combo coverage ? There isn’t a rule where you can’t play man and zone at the same time. Bowles lost his fastball
November 8th, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Somewhere Mike Smith is wetting his pants from laughing so hard.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:08 pm
One thing for sure is that Todd’s word salad works as well as his defense.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:09 pm
That’s a GIF of TB career!…
His ancient defense going down in flames…
November 8th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
‘Head Todd Bowles has long been thought of as one of the better defensive minds in the game.’
Those days are OVER!
November 8th, 2023 at 12:20 pm
Didn’t we already go through this in 2013 when Schiano and DC Bill Sheridan were gifted Revis and then played him in zone all season?
November 8th, 2023 at 12:25 pm
One question about zone, which is very similar to “prevent” defense….has anyone ever found their self saying, man if we only played prevent, we could have won?
November 8th, 2023 at 12:27 pm
Dude’s a moron. Move on. Embarrassing that he’s our head coach.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:27 pm
Ha!
Well, Revis you may remember was coming back from knee surgery and physically, he couldn’t play top-level man defense at the time.
Of course, Tampa Bay’s version of Nick Saban comes to town (lousy Lovie Smith) and deems Revis unworthy of playing for him. So Bucs dump him, Belicheat picks him up and — voila! — Revis gets a ring and makes the Pro Bowl.
The moment Lovie told the Glazers that Revis couldn’t play for him he should have been fired on the spot. Any coach — and Joe means *ANY* coach — who says out loud a Hall of Fame player can’t play for him when the team he took over had just four wins shouldn’t be given 30 minutes to clean out his office.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
That stat is completely damning! And I’m not quite a stat geek.
You say there’s got to be more to the story than is being let on. I’m not so sure that’s true. On the surface that does seem logical, but the only explanation would be that Bowlzo is deliberately trying to sabotage the season for a better draft pick. I sincerely doubt that’s true.
I think Bowlzo is just over thinking everything and being stubborn and bull-headed and in need of a good proctologist to get to the heart of his problems.
I was livid with Bowlzo last year and wanted him fired. When it became apparent we were stuck with this clown I decided to try to support him and give him another chance. Well, he’s definitely pooped all over that support.
Yeah, we couldn’t sign any high-end free agents, but I’m confident that with proper coaching this team should at least be competitive. I suppose they still could be, but not with this idiot at the helm.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:37 pm
Many of us have been calling this out all season here. Another example of why Bowles has got to go. If a fan can watch the game and easily identify the issue then the coach should be able to as well.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:49 pm
@WiscoJoe – Izien’s pick against the Bears looks like it was zone and the Vikings was man coverage.
November 8th, 2023 at 12:51 pm
If the defense starts failing as regularly as the offence we will get the number one pick. Defence is the reason we have had any chance in all the games this year except this week. Hopefully it’s an aberration because I believe this offense can’t win regularly without outstanding defensive play.
November 8th, 2023 at 1:01 pm
Zyon McC should be able to play man. He did during the first couple games, I think. Bowles claimed in preseason that Hayes was good outside, too, even though he was drafted for the slot.
It is hard to hate on Bowles but it seems like he is making up excuses on the fly, throwing players under the bus as he goes.
“We went over that on day one” is becoming too familiar a refrain.
November 8th, 2023 at 1:15 pm
Todd Bowles is running Cover 2 like Warren Sapp and Simeon Rice are still playing 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
November 8th, 2023 at 1:16 pm
Todd Bowles is running cover 2 like warren sapp and simeon rice are still playing 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
November 8th, 2023 at 1:21 pm
Joe … ‘THANK YOU!!!! Your excellent point is why Joe thinks there is much more to this story than what’s on the surface.’
OK Joe, the FOUR exclamation points peaked my interest. If you think there’s more to the story, could you maybe share that with us? I’m of the opinion that there’s much more to the story too (because nothing fits together to create a plausible explanation for what I’m seeing go on on the field), BUT … I have no clue what’s going on in the background. We’ve got several JBFers who constantly claim inside information, but I’m not hearing any plausible explanations coming out of them either (well, except for a few conspiracy theories). Time to share Joe …
November 8th, 2023 at 1:22 pm
Absolutely ridiculous. This is why I defend dean and Davis. They are good man to man corners NOT perfect but they get the job done. They Bowles had them play what isn’t their strength. Kinda like RW1 running the football instead of catching short passes. The point I’m trying to make is play to these guys strengths and not their weaknesses. If Bowles sees a need to play zone which there is a need then sub in guys who are good at zone. You can substitute players. Are defense when in man to man is excellent and the stats back it up. Why are we playing so much zone getting burned and not adjusting. Just ridiculous. Bowels is a good to excellent DC we don’t win a SB without him but his decision making is making me crazy
November 8th, 2023 at 1:29 pm
Bowles doesn’t look at stats or he might know this.
November 8th, 2023 at 1:38 pm
What anyone thought things would get better this year with Bowles h. hand picked roster was just a crock
Please fire Todd Bowles now and put all of us fans out of our misery
November 8th, 2023 at 1:57 pm
All you have to know is that a common aspect of some of our most crushing defeats have come at the hands of a busted Bowles coverage.
November 8th, 2023 at 2:15 pm
Licht wasted a second round draft pick on Trask, not that Trask is bad, I think he is a good QB. Trask was drafted to play in Arians offense not this shat offense. Licht has been general manager for nine years ranked 23 a few years ago. Please tell me how many hits to the number of misses he has had. I can talk about kickers he drafted and others. He is a terrible evaluator of talent. Gay the kicker he cut was an all pro the yeas he was cut. Defensive ends he drafted all suck. He picked Bowles a head coach looser. You must cut off the head of the snake,Jason Licht.
November 8th, 2023 at 2:58 pm
It doesn’t matter if they’re playing traditional Cover 2 or Cover 2/Man Under, you still need to come up and challenge the recievers. Trying to play off man with these guys isn’t working. The free releases on the snap are killing us and it isn’t buying any time for the rush to get to the QB. You don’t have to blitz like a lunatic, but you do have to challenge recievers and give your d-line a chance.
Bowles isn’t this dumb, so I have no idea what he’s trying to accomplish.
He’s like the run away bride of defensive coordinators. He comes in hot and heavy, gets the lead, and then starts inching away from the alter, too scared to fully commit.
November 8th, 2023 at 3:09 pm
Hey Joe, how do we get rid of all the non-Buc garbage on here? Plenty of blogs for me to wander on, but I come back here, hoping the educated Bucs fans will post.
November 8th, 2023 at 4:12 pm
I stated this very fact in an older post. They don’t have the players who can grasp zone assignments on the fly. You have to go more man and apply pressure. Zone is something you sprinkle in, but teams have figured out Todd Bowles’ zone defense. Without pressure, his defense is garbage. So, this defensive guru is a one-trick pony.
November 8th, 2023 at 4:39 pm
BucsBeBack (Artist formally known as: BringBucsBack) Says:
D-cone, Todd was given a team where “the cub boards are full”,
Cuppoards are always full with 53 Perishable items. One can of Jensen fell off the shelf and was replaced with an off brand.
Bowles is +400 to be the next coach fired. Quick quadruple your money.
Better yet bet on a sure thing like Mayfield for MVP at +25000
November 8th, 2023 at 4:49 pm
Why is this even surprising to you?
Myself, Rod Munch, and few others have been screaming about how bad they are in zone all season long!
I mean… DUH.
November 8th, 2023 at 5:26 pm
They have guys who are press man corners playing in zone 8yds off the ball. Your just giving the offense 5 or 6 easy yds a play. Then when they go in “prevent” the wheels come off completely. Like nobody knows who’s covering who or where thier zone starts and ends. It’s pathetic. Most no.1 wide receivers can identify and split the zone coverage.
November 8th, 2023 at 9:01 pm
All these comments are spot on. Kinda sad cause the Offense played their hearts out They brought it against the Texans.
November 9th, 2023 at 3:43 pm
when Bowles goes into man the liabilities get beat almost instantly… Zyon gave up some deep passes in zone and man… David is solid in coverage but gets beat, White is busted coverage waiting to happen… and not even gonna mention Neal … add those liabilities with the non-extent pass rush and you get what we have now…
this team may be at a place now where Bowles doesn’t trust the team to go out and execute and the team doesn’t trust him to make the right call and its snowballing… lets hope they bounce back & it doesn’t
with all the gloom and doom about Bowles and the defense… that side of the ball has played well enough for the Bucs to have a winning record… if the offense could put up 21 points this teams is 5-3