Vita Vea: A Threat Before Kickoff
September 30th, 2024
There’s one reality that separates good players from great players.
Opponents not only fear great players but prepare all week — sometimes all offseason — to neutralize them.
As Bucs’ inside linebackers coach Larry Foote said today at One Buc Palace, Vita Vea is that guy who opens the eyes of adversaries and gnaws at their souls.
“Every offensive coordinator and center in this league understands how dominant he is,” Foote said today, after noting how versatile nose tackles like Vea don’t get the recognition they deserve.
Vea missed the Week 3 Bucs-Broncos game with a knee sprain. Before kickoff of yesterday’s blowout win against the Eagles, Joe overheard a conversation from people in the know talking about how Vea’s knee wasn’t in horrible shape last week and he probably could have played if absolutely necessary.
So that gave Joe a great feeling about what Vea would do yesterday, and he delivered. That first sack of Jalen Hurts, a clear win by Vea followed buy a CPR-style sack, seemed to suck some life from the Eagles’ quarterback.
What stunned Joe is how much Vea stayed on the field. His 39 snaps were 68 percent of the Bucs’ defensive snaps.
It seems Todd Bowles was taking no chances and wanted to bury the Eagles at all costs. Bowles blitzing on 3rd-and-29 late in the game was an exclamation point on that reality.
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September 30th, 2024 at 1:25 pm
Loved that 3rd and 29 blitz! Hurts was seeing ghosts by then , and some of them weren’t ghosts!
September 30th, 2024 at 1:30 pm
Vea is definitely a game changer. I cannot wait until KANCEY is playing alongside him.
Any word on him coming back?
And Winfield? As well as the defensive backs have played, they’re doing this without their all pro leader. Incredible.
Blitzing on 3rd and 29 because they had no receivers that were a threat was brilliant. Just demoralizing.
September 30th, 2024 at 1:32 pm
A defense won’t get a lot of sacks without a big push up the middle. You’re not going to collapse the pocket without pressure up the middle. That’s what the Bucs get from Vita Vea, that’s why he was drafted so high. The speedy OLBs has a clear path to the QB, when pressure is coming up the middle.
But the Falcons has one of best DT in the NFL at getting pressure up the middle. The Bucs interior O-LINE gonna have a difficult time with Grady Jarrett.
September 30th, 2024 at 1:34 pm
That weight loss is huge. Keeping him on the field and injury free is good for the whole team. Vita Vea just blocks out the sun when he breaks the through the middle.
September 30th, 2024 at 1:37 pm
lets not forget Vea is the reason Jason Kelce is now doing Cheerio commercials full time.
September 30th, 2024 at 1:41 pm
The Falcons are running a 3-4 defense now. David Onyemata is NT. Grady Jarrett and Zach Harrison are the DEs. We gonna have to get better play from Barton, Bredeson, Mauch if we’re going to stop the Falcons Defensive front from creating pressure up the middle..
September 30th, 2024 at 1:54 pm
With AWJ out, Jordan Whitehead is picking up the leadership slack and helping out the younger DBs. Licht probably almost had heart failure when he saw the Jets cut Whitehead loose. Raheem Morris cut his coaching teeth on Defense. He coached the DBs when he was an assistant under Dungy. So Bowles gets to play NFL chess with him. Falcons aren’t cupcakes anymore. This TNF game could turn into a dawg fight.
September 30th, 2024 at 2:11 pm
Vita is CRITICAL to the success of our defense…PERIOD! MVP of the defense!!!
September 30th, 2024 at 2:34 pm
VV50 sure was missed in Denver!
September 30th, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Panhandle
I certainly take your point! Vita is a game changer.
I’m going to be a bit of contrarian perhaps. While I absolutely agree that Vea is a game changer I think we had an even bigger game changer on D missing yesterday.
While the Eagles obviously had injury problems so DID the Bucs.
IMHO, perhaps biased, he’s one of my favorite players now, I think Winfield is the biggest loss right now. Vita plays his position as well as anybody but Winfield has more field in which to make a difference. He brings so many more dimensions to the Bucs D and with Whitehead and McCollum the Bucs have a very physical secondary.
What is the word on Winfield for Thursday night? Lord I hope he’s finally healthy because I’d love to see him matched up against Cousins.
September 30th, 2024 at 5:32 pm
Interesting Vita could have played against the Broncos. We may have won that game, but then he could have been re-injured and been out the rest of the season. A smart move to hold him back another week. Vita was brutal yesterday. He shook Jalen up. Exactly what is needed on Thursday night too. Go Bucs!
October 1st, 2024 at 3:22 am
Joe … ‘What stunned Joe is how much Vea stayed on the field. His 39 snaps were 68 percent of the Bucs’ defensive snaps.’
Vea being on the field for over 2/3rds of the def snaps unquestionably impacted Philly’s offense big-time. And what’s important IMO is that he made all 39 of those snaps count. It looked like he was collapsing the middle on virtually every Eagles’ play. They ran Barkley 8 times in the 1st half (all between the Guards), and he got only 22 yards. They only ran him twice in the 2nd half (1 over the Guard & 1 over the tackle), and he got 62 yards (the long 59-yarder was over the tackle to start the 3rd qtr).
A lot of credit should go to our OFFENSE though for keeping the ball for over 36 minutes TOP against the Eagles, as compared to slightly less than 28 minutes TOP against the Broncos. On an extremely hot day, that made a huge difference to the defense I’m sure (our defense was on the field for 68 def snaps against Denver versus only 57 def snaps against Philly). On a hot day like Sunday was, being on the field for 11 fewer def snaps looms large. COMPLEMENTARY FOOTBALL at its finest.
October 1st, 2024 at 8:19 am
The plays I loved were those when Vea shifted from NT to DE!! On those plays Hurts pretty much threw the ball in the dirt.
The recipe for an immobile Cousins is tight man coverage and pressure up the middle.
At this point, Vea has been the most missed because Idzien has been balling out on the back end and that position has not cost us like it did when Neal 23 was playing. The secondary is covering up his absence more than the DL cover over Veas absence. Getting Goedeke, Kancey and Winfield back would be huge this week!