Pass Defense Rage
December 29th, 2023
A former Buccaneer is angry.
As Joe painfully shared earlier this week, no team has allowed more passing yards this season than Tampa Bay.
And one former Buccaneer is angry about it — because he feels there’s an easy fix.
Joe is referring to NBC Sports film guru Chris Simms, the former Tampa Bay quarterback (2003-2006). He’s been railing for weeks that Todd Bowles’ defense puts too much emphasis on stopping the run and it’s hurting the Bucs significantly.
During his Pro Football Talk Saints-Bucs preview this week, Simms resorted to a bleeped out F-bomb.
“Stop going all in on the run. … Play fuc*’n pass defense,” Simms barked. He likened the Saints to the Jaguars and other teams on which he said Bowles focused too much on run defense — because the Saints “can’t run the ball on anybody.”
The Saints rank 30th in the NFL in yards per carry; the Bucs rank last (32nd).
Joe hopes Bowles can repair his leaky pass defense. It’s poor in zone coverage and shaky overall. That can’t be all on the Bucs’ inability to generate a reliable four-man pass rush.
Simms picked the Bucs to beat the Saints 28-20.
December 29th, 2023 at 11:54 am
Bucs can’t generate a 7 man pass rush……and secondary is playing way too soft.
December 29th, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Too much emphasis and n stopping the run. It sort of makes sense. I just wish it came from a more credible source.
December 29th, 2023 at 12:21 pm
^^^EXACTLY!!!
December 29th, 2023 at 12:22 pm
IMO, the pass rush is getting better. We are getting sacks.
December 29th, 2023 at 12:28 pm
How come no one in the media ever asks Bowles why receivers are running wide aas open in his secondary so consistently throughout the year?
December 29th, 2023 at 12:30 pm
Chop Robinson R1 2024 draft
December 29th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
Worst against the pass and worst in rushing????
Give Bowels an extension today! Blank check!!!
December 29th, 2023 at 12:33 pm
Simms is exactly right, but Bowles may feel like he has no choice. Have seen times this season when we focused more on coverage, but we got eaten up with the rush.
Indy game was a good example. They had 6 rushes of 10 yds or more, plus 9 rushes of 5-9 yds. That’s 15 runs out of their 27 total rushes that gained significant yardage. Minshew still passed a lot (24-of-41 for 251 yds), but we held him down to 58.5% on completion percentage. Still, their 27 runs for 155 yds & 3 TDs worked out to over 5.7 YPC average. And in the end it resulted in a loss.
December 29th, 2023 at 12:40 pm
Is JTS better against the run than YaYa? That has to be the only reason he wasn’t benched sooner
December 29th, 2023 at 12:50 pm
Says,
Chop Robinson R1 2024 draft
I agree Buckeyebuckchuck,
Based on film study, he’s from Penn State n his play style is similar to Micah Parson. He’s very aggressive. Let’s be done with JTS, he’s dead weight n a pure waste. He’s a one trick dud.
December 29th, 2023 at 1:50 pm
To be fair to Bowles he knows that his defense has the 4th best red zone TD allowed rate in the league. I think he’s content to play underneath, force a field goal, or hope to get lucky with a sack or a hold in the meantime to get off the field. No one is confusing this with either Bucs Super Bowl defense, but that’s the recipe this year.
Our CBs are not good, and we can’t just up and change personnel now. They cover grass in zone and they don’t seem good enough to matchup w elite WRs in man. He’s got to mask his weaknesses and play to what strengths he has.
Bend but don’t break. Tolerate the yards if you can keep points off the board.
December 29th, 2023 at 2:24 pm
I’m afraid if Todd could fix it, it would be fixed by now. If Todd is retained for 2024, Jason and the Glazers need to insist that the Bucs will hire a full time Defensive Coordinator. And wherever Keith Tandy is, bring him in to be pass defense coordinator. That dude might be the smartest former Buc to play defense and knows how to teach and communicate.
I’ve started bringing an air sickness bag to the TV when the Bucs are on defense because Todd’s schemes are so shreddable it’s vomitous.
December 29th, 2023 at 2:38 pm
Poor Todd he probably thinks what he’s doing is just great because he won the last four games
December 29th, 2023 at 3:54 pm
We need to ditch the ultra soft zone in the middle of the field. Bowles is too worried about a big completion in the middle of the field, because we have no 4 man rush. We need a better pass rush and tighter coverage!
December 29th, 2023 at 6:18 pm
Pear, I oughta bring in a vomit bag so I can ignore your comments. Bowles and Licht brought in Canales so Bowles could concentrate on his strength: the Defense. That’s the ‘fatal’ mistake that got HOF coach Dungy fired. He was not an OC. I gotta laugh cos both David Shula and Clyde Christensen sorta showed up on other teams after they helped get Dungy fired. Gonna enjoy watching/listening to the game Sunday. I might even check in on the live Joes game thread.
December 29th, 2023 at 7:35 pm
‘tampa 2 ghost lawn chair cover zero zone’. For the life of me I wish coach would stop calling it. It’s downright embarrassing. Nobody really knows for certain where the players go as it’s been said perhaps they run into the exit tunnel hiding.
Personally, coach should have trashed that defensive scheme after that Dallas debacle last year! It will remain one of those Bucs mysteries why he didn’t.
December 29th, 2023 at 8:34 pm
Bucs have 44 sacks. In 2002 we had 43. In 2020 we had 48.
It isn’t the pass rush. It’s playing our DB’s 1,000 yards off the LOS. They line up several states away.
We are so worried about giving up a home run ball that we allow opposing teams to work freely 20 yards out from the LOS.
December 30th, 2023 at 2:47 am
Agree with your point hes seeling out too often to stop the run which he doesnt need to do. You have Mr. Vita Vea on the inside who can easily force a double team and does on kost snaps. You have a health Calijah Kancey who is gonna be an absolute IMO superstar; the comps to Aaron Donald arent looking so crazy now. Yaya was known for his run stopping ability coming out and of course you got Mr. Barrett. Its Bowles’ play calling and lack of trust in his young guys(tho theyve proven he can trust them) that are the problem. The talent is there to stop the run tje coach however is not; hes been known for a long tkme as a great defensive coach but maybe some of hos schemes amd play calling cant keep up with todays league. Personally if we win the division and get stomped in the 1st rd like last year he should be gone. Even if we make a deep playoff run Licht should still consider it. Maybe this is a little extreme but anything less than a ring and Bowles should be gone; bring in a young mind instead of our old man. Its like the Hlazers want coaches they can sociallybhang out with lol jk
December 30th, 2023 at 6:52 am
Glad to know we invested so heavily salary cap wise in cbs… hopefully we can dump one… the soft coverage also could be too cover up how brittle Dean and Davis have been this year
December 30th, 2023 at 9:29 pm
Our pass rush isn’t bad and with Yaya and Kancey it’s improved. Problem is, when the DBs are 10 yards off the LOS the QB can get the ball out quickly before the pressure gets there. It isn’t more complicated than that. Unless a pass rusher is unblocked, he’s not getting to a QB in under 2.5 seconds unless he toasts his man off the snap like TJ Watt sometimes does.
If Kancey and Vita can get that good push up the middle, it will make a world of difference.
I just wonder what the plan is for Sunday with Shaq out. Nelson perhaps?