Reserve Defenders Came Through To Shut Down Commandos
September 8th, 2024
Linebacker SirVocea Dennis hunts down Washington QB Jayden Daniels.
Man, the door was open for Washington to mount a comeback in the second half. And it was the unlikeliest guys for the Bucs defense who prevented it.
First, the Bucs were down two starting defensive linemen, Calijah Kancey and Logan Hall. Then, corners began falling like ducks at an arcade shooting gallery.
Down goes Zyon McCollum. Down goes Josh Hayes. Down goes Byrce Hall. The Bucs were now short three starters and two backups to the lost starting corner.
When a team is down a starting corner and two backup corners, that’s usually when a quarterback (who doesn’t have Byron Leftwich as a playcaller) exposes a defense. It didn’t happen today.
Perhaps it was because Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels was making his first NFL start in Week 1. Or, perhaps it was the play of Schiano Man Christian Izien and SirVocea Dennis, a pair of second-year defensive players.
Dennis at least was playing his normal position, linebacker. Izien was playing outside corner. The last time he did that was at Erasmus Hall in high school.
“I know the reserves cross-train but I know ‘Izzy’ was focused on playing safety,” Bucs starting safety Jordan Whitehead said, raving about Izien’s play in a pinch. “He didn’t cross train to play outside cornerback, I can tell you that.
“We had to dig into our safeties room to find someone to play corner.”
Izien played huge. He had two tackles, a pass defended and a forced fumble. Now that’s impact.
“I have started in this league before,” Izien said of his pinch-hitting Sunday. “I have proved I can start in this league. I proved it last year.
“Whatever I can do to help the team win, that’s my goal. [Playing for injured players] is not the situation I ever want to play. But I had help from my teammates on the field and the coaches on the sidelines.”
Joe admits to being critical of Dennis in recent months for being a hot tub Pro Bowler. But man, when he went in the game today. the Commandos felt him.
In back-to-back plays, Dennis had a sack of Daniels and then had a thundering tackle. The entire Licht House took notice.
“It was a rough training camp,” Dennis, a second-year linebacker out of Pitt told Joe. “I battled injuries but I fought hard to get back here. I give credit to my coaches, the team, the training staff to get me ready for the first game.”
Dennis ended with six tackles, a sack, a quarterback hit and a tackle for loss.
Asked what the defense did to quash Commandos quarterback Jayden Daniels from effective running in the second half (Daniels burned the Bucs in the first half with his legs), Dennis said, “We were tired of him running around.”
“It was simple,” Whitehead said of stopping Daniels’ running. “We told the d-line, if you want to get off the field, you have to stop him.
“All it took was for someone to tell them he was getting out[side], and they made the quick switch.”
During training camp ,Joe thought the Bucs looked deep, specifically in the secondary. Then they got lit up in preseason and Joe figured his initial analysis was wrong.
Today, the Bucs showed they seemed to have significant depth on defense.
So which is it? Are the Bucs deep on defense or not? Well, even though the Bucs shut down one of the worst teams of 2023 today, it was still a regular season game, not a worthless preseason game.
Regular season wins count, no matter who the opponent is. Worthless preseason? Please!
September 8th, 2024 at 9:28 pm
Joe what’s up with Winfield? He was in a boot after the game?
September 8th, 2024 at 9:29 pm
Still whining and trying to convince us that the preseason is worthless.,,,then lauding all these backups who got valuable preseason snaps…,that’s rich
September 8th, 2024 at 9:29 pm
Anyone could see they kept losing contain on every pass play. Why couldn’t the coaches up in the booth?
September 8th, 2024 at 9:39 pm
Defense played good!!
September 8th, 2024 at 9:55 pm
Preseason games are worthless.
September 8th, 2024 at 9:59 pm
Great win against a Washington team that stinks. Got a good Lions team on the road next week.
September 8th, 2024 at 10:02 pm
No “whining.” It’s a fact.
When they start playing starters most of the game, play full defense and full offense, and count the wins and losses toward the regular season record, then Joe will pay attention and consider than worth something.
Until coaches treat those games as valid, they will be and are… worthless.
Unless you are an orthopedic surgeon or a stadium worker paid by the hour, they are so worthless.
Anyone who believes those games are worth a pot full of p!ss, they have been fully hoodwinked by the NFL Industrial Complex.
September 8th, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Did David ever return after getting injured. Our defense has a full season of injuries after 1 game. Losing 2 starters pre game and another with Zyin and then add in David and now the mention of Winfield in a boot after the game. Not good with Lions on deck. Wanted to be full strength vs them.
September 8th, 2024 at 10:27 pm
Other than Bryce Hall, it appears most injuries are pretty minor so hopefully they get healthy and get Kancey & YaYa back.
But everyone did step up. They definitely have some depth. I’m worried about linebacker depth, but might be better than I thought.
September 8th, 2024 at 11:00 pm
Yaya played the entire game he just didn’t do much unfortunately. Came close to getting to Daniel’s a few times but other than that he didn’t show up in the box score.
September 8th, 2024 at 11:15 pm
One of the worst trams in the league last year with a rookie QB making his first start…
Let’s see what this defense looks like against Detroit next year.
That said, major props to this guys for stepping in today either way.
September 8th, 2024 at 11:16 pm
Wow I need to proofread my comments.
*one of the worst teams
*against Detroit next week
September 9th, 2024 at 1:49 am
If we play the lions next week n make broken tackles, bonehead penalties, n overthrown passes, we’re in for a long day. Game will be a mirror of first game against the lions last year. Lions play super fast. All JTS believers will come back down to earth once he face better completion. He is passive n just a lost kid. Let’s not get over jubilant with a once in a life time strip sack he made, that was a fluke. Our offense needs to play super fast against the lions. Let’s put RWhite at slot also n keep Bucky at rb.
September 9th, 2024 at 2:00 am
Goff takes apart the best secondaries. Bucs need to stay aggressive on offense. Keep heaving the oblong spheroid around the yard, scoring points.
Outscore the kitties. They will get theirs.
September 9th, 2024 at 2:49 am
Joe … ‘So which is it? Are the Bucs deep on defense or not?’
Depends. Right now? Not. We’ve got 26 defense on the active roster, with at least 6 of them hurt (Kancey, Logan Hall, Bryce Hall, Winfield, McCollum, Hayes). And probably several more dinged up. That’s 4 starters & 2 reserves, with us having to play a very physical Lions team in their house in 6 days.
In retrospect, dressing Thomas but not dressing Funderburk probably hurt us. Izien stepped in at outside CB & played reasonably well, but we probably lucked out a bit (going against a rookie QB?).
Watching the game, I kept thinking that we showed every team we’ll play for awhile how to beat us: run the ball down our throats. Washington is not a particularly strong running team, but they were having good success in the running game (30 runs for 138 yards … 4.6 YPC average). And it came all over the field; our contain fell apart any number of times, and they were running over us up the middle far too often also.
September 9th, 2024 at 5:39 am
Defense Rules. One of the few folks here that I learn from. But I think that running the ball down our throats is not going to be the formula to beat us. I think Dave Pear has a sense of our weak spot. We’ve got to keep improving our pass defense. But just watch – we’ll keep improving. That scrambling Heismann winner ran for 88 of those 138 yards. Goff is good but I’ll say right now that he won’t run for 88 yards against us this week.
September 9th, 2024 at 10:40 am
I can see why Jayden Daniels won the Heisman, and I don’t follow college ball. He’s like a quick gazelle with smarts and an arm. He stays healthy, and DC builds him a decent supporting cast, he’ll be a terror like Michael Vick. I’m glad Coen, the Offense and Special Teams stepped up. Defensive players were getting bit by Buc Luck right and left. Well, get ready for Motown. Whew….
September 9th, 2024 at 11:28 am
Dennis looked like Micah Parsons out there. I was literally saying ‘who the h3ll is that guy’ not remembering it was Sirvoccea. He looked so much bigger than I remembered lol. Thought of him as some speed small LB but my god he was laying the hits.
We may have a gem at ILB that was never even on the radar for most. What an awesome opener