Indefensible Defense
November 16th, 2024
Can defense be fixed?
For a defensive coach to have this sort of defense, there is not a whole lot to be proud about.
Head coach Todd Bowles, also the Bucs’ defensive coordinator, has a defense that will likely sink the 2024 season unless something changes.
Joe decided to check out how Bowles and the Bucs have done the past two years in the final seven weeks of the season. In 2023, the Bucs lost two games in the final seven (5-2). In 2022, the Bucs lost four (3-4).
If the Bucs lose two more games this year, the Bucs will need a ton of help from the rest of the league.
Some brutal numbers for you:
The Bucs have allowed the second-most points this year, the second-most total yards and the second-most passing yards.
The bread-and-butter of a Bowles defense is stopping the run. The Bucs rank No. 16 in total yards rushing defense and No. 27 in yards per carry allowed.
That’s a bad look for a head coach whose specialty is defense.
November 16th, 2024 at 10:25 am
What’s frustrating to this fan is that we’ve seen Bowles, occasionally, pull out a magical game-plan on D out of his hat. Our latest SB victory is exhibit A.
I think Bowles thinks his scheme will work with any player groups year-to-year, and it isn’t working. It’s not working this year with the players rostered.
He needs to change his D to fit his players, and do it fast. Little confidence the D can stop teams late in games. Frustrating because the O is doing its part.
November 16th, 2024 at 10:34 am
Where’s the Sage?
November 16th, 2024 at 10:41 am
The Bucs lack players on the defensive side that have talent. Even so, the coaching and execution seem to be lackluster as well, so I would not expect Bowles to make it another season.
November 16th, 2024 at 10:54 am
So to put it in perspective his defense is worse than the combination of Vernon Hargreaves, Brent Grimes, Chris Conte and I can’t even remember the other safety from that lost decade
November 16th, 2024 at 10:54 am
Indefensible HC!
He has been a failure at it for close to a decade…
November 16th, 2024 at 11:10 am
But yet he thinks it’s everything and everyone other than himself and his Cover Who zone schemes. Sad for Lavonte and Gholston, to go out like this.
But the light at the end of the tunnel is, getting a new HC who knows how to run a complete team, and a DC who might at least move the Bucs into the 20-teens, actually play some man to man, and teach when in zone to know when to plaster on a guy. And which guy.
It would be a fair bet when a new DC is hired, Logan Hall, JTS, Yaya, Kancey, Braswell, and even Vita would suddenly look like the players we thought they might be. Lovie has been getting the worst out of these guys . When the Glazers and Jason finally make the change, we will all see a big difference.
The talent is there. It’s the defenseless, indefensible “coaching” that is killing the Bucs.
November 16th, 2024 at 11:23 am
If the Glazers/Licht are going to keep him as head coach for another year, they must insist the he hires a DC. The D needs a fresh perspective. He can still have input into game plans, but the overall scheme and execution has got to change.
November 16th, 2024 at 11:33 am
Denver is the only game I felt like we were manhandled. Next closest was Baltimore. If Evans caught the pass before his injury we go up 17-0. Instead we lose our hall of famer and our composure. Interceptions because Mayfield was shook. Every other loss one play could have changed. Defensively or Offensively. If the defense and offense can get a tiny bit better ( and I’m betting they will ) then we can be the team nobody wants to play. It’s called finishing strong. Watch and learn fans- watch and learn.
November 16th, 2024 at 11:34 am
Last year in October and November , Bucs lost 6 of 7 and everyone was talking about collapsing for a high draft pick.
Let’s see if they can turn it around again against beatable opponents.
If they can get healthy, they certainly have enough talent
November 16th, 2024 at 12:10 pm
If the season doesn’t work out then the Bucs get to draft higher picks or trade out to get more draft players.
It’s a win win with the nucleus of good players to make a legit run for the Super Bowl in 2026
November 16th, 2024 at 12:10 pm
This defense is incapable of defending the middle of the field.
Zero confidence that they can ever get a stop when they need it or protect a lead.
I was excited about the combo of Whitehead and Winfield but to date that combo has been a nothingburger.
This defense really makes the games hard to watch…really hard.
Such a shame to waste such a incredible offense this year.
November 16th, 2024 at 12:13 pm
I’m not ready to fire Bowles but damn I’m close.
Our LB core has been an absolute travesty this season. From the run stop and pass coverage to the Edge LBs getting pass rush.
This is the #1 reason for this season’s defensive failures. It’s not because Bowles scheme is dated or even the injuries. Its the absolute disappearance of Quality linebacker play coming off the edge or in the middle of the field.
Stop with the emotional nonsense and watch the game.
November 16th, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Soft zone coverage with the worst pass rush in the NFL…
LOL!!!!
November 16th, 2024 at 1:08 pm
The Bucs are hearing the fans, media, and seeing the data. Rested up after the bye they could come back fierce, not soft up the middle. We could see an entirely different team along with Mike coming back too. Go Bucs!
November 16th, 2024 at 1:09 pm
Joe recorded a pod yesterday. It’s in the production progress. — Joe
November 16th, 2024 at 1:41 pm
From what I’ve witnessed, we only have a few starters on Defense. About 4 to be exact. Bowles keep telling us we have the players. I got new eyeglasses 3 weeks ago and still cannot see them. Can You? A mediocre pass rush, and a defensive secondary that does not headhunt. That’s what I see.
November 16th, 2024 at 1:48 pm
There is a lack of talent coupled with Bowles defensive scheme to blitz with soft zone coverage. When the Dline fails to get pressure the secondary gets picked apart. Bowles is not 100% to blame as Jason needs to shoulder some of the blame for some pretty bad draft picks on the D.
November 16th, 2024 at 1:54 pm
Fire Bowles. Enough is enough. Getting the same results,year after year.
November 16th, 2024 at 2:16 pm
I want Bowles to leave. It was a great run and it’s time for change.
November 16th, 2024 at 2:31 pm
Buc4evr Says:
There is a lack of talent coupled with Bowles defensive scheme
Raheem Morris even went 10-6 when the division was dominated by Matt Ryan and Drew Brees. We have a lack of talent at head coach. I wonder how the offense compensated for losing its two best players on the entire team and defense can’t handle losing a first time inside linebacker sharing starting duties
November 16th, 2024 at 2:37 pm
The FACT of the matter is that we have been in a lot of very close ballgames against some of the best teams in the league.
The defense has had obvious issues that have been talked about endlessly but they aren’t solely responsible for our losses and disappointing start.
The offense HAS HAD opportunities to close out games but couldn’t/didn’t.
I think injuries and personnel have contributed greatly to the defensive problems and I still think it’s fixable. Phillies defense is looking good now – they’ve sucked for a year. Players need to step up and play 4 quarters with max effort and focus.
Not a good idea to blame ALL our problems on the defense… As well as the offense has played it’s still very much a work in progress and not without blame in many of our losses.
November 16th, 2024 at 3:36 pm
Robert Saleh, a defensive HC, lost his job this year due to the offence not clicking. Todd Bowles, a defensive HC, currently still has his job even though the defence is hot garbage.
I like Bowles as a leader, I think he commands a lot of respect from the locker room and a lot of players really look up to him but there comes a point where the only thing that matters is results and current results are atrocious.
November 16th, 2024 at 4:10 pm
I’m with Kenton although I wouldn’t be upset if we got a younger DC.
November 16th, 2024 at 4:48 pm
GoneGator … ‘Not a good idea to blame ALL our problems on the defense… As well as the offense has played it’s still very much a work in progress and not without blame in many of our losses.’
I like that line Gator. Far too many ‘fans’ get far too emotional about every game instead of trying to figure out what’s actually been going on. Through 10 games, our offense has been credited with scoring 279 points … almost 28 PPG average. In our 4 wins we’ve scored 141 points … 35.3 PPG … and only made 4 turnovers (3 in 1 game). In our 6 losses we’ve scored 158 points … 26.3 PPG … but made 8 turnovers (none in the last 2 losses). Baker’s having a career year, our OLine has improved significantly as has our running game, but we’ve now lost Wirfs, Godwin & Evans for substantial periods of time.
Our defense has been credited with allowing 266 points … 26.6 PPG average. In our 4 wins they allowed 79 points … 19.8 PPG … and made 7 takeaways (almost 2 per game)). In our 6 losses they allowed 187 points … 31.2 PPG … and only created 5 takeaways (less than 1 per game). We’ve obviously had a LOT of injuries on defense, and many of our stars have missed games (Vea, Winfield, Dean etc) or were traded/not re-signed (Davis, Shaq, White). Still, we should have been playing better than what we’ve seen too many times this season.
Level of talent is a key factor IMO, and we seem to be missing ‘size’ in some critical positions AND speed. ‘Field leadership’ is just as much of a factor far as I’m concerned. We seem to be lacking the ‘bulls’ that we’ve had in the past, like Suh, JPP, Sapp, and so many others. Some of that may develop over time though as some of our ‘youngsters’ gain experience.
Nonetheless, we’re 4-6 and we’ve got the BYE to heal up and figure out how to approach these last 7 games. Running the table is hard in the NFL, but we need to pretty much do that to make the playoffs. Time to see what we’re made of.
November 16th, 2024 at 5:25 pm
Maybe Edwards can man the mid-middle where teams have been feasting…
@DR: fact is the D sucks at almost everything, and I have little to no faith it will turn around.
With two more losses, the Bucs will be out of the playoffs, and we’ll be looking at rookie HC Coen. I wonder, for conversation’s sake, who would be on his short list as DC…
November 16th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
@ D. Rules:
“We seem to be lacking the ‘bulls’ that we’ve had in the past, like Suh, JPP, Sapp, and so many others”.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That’s why they like Britt (intangibles) but,……………you know.
November 16th, 2024 at 5:41 pm
Cobraboy … I more than anyone wish that Bowles would give up the DC role. I’ve long been a believer that dual-hatting doesn’t work for the majority of coaches who try it. And those who do succeed at it do so because they have a superb OC or DC counterpart (like Monte for Chucky?) taking care of the other side of the ball.
Despite that however, Bucs tried moving the OC up to HC/OC when we promoted Dirk Koetter. How’d that work out?
November 16th, 2024 at 6:04 pm
Absolutely the defense can be fixed and absolutely there’s enough time to do it as well as funds in the bank account to do it. However they don’t want to do that and if they did Jason Licht and team would have gone out there and made it happen regardless of what Mr. Todd Bowles thinks or feels.
Vincent Jones & Kj Britt are not the answer. Win the division right now by signing guys like Deion Jones ILB , Patrick Peterson, or even Xavier Howard.
Need experienced players on the field. Not gimmicks that can buy you time until the next superstar comes in. A top-5 offense in the league and we’re gonna maybe miss the playoffs because we can’t get a decent HC or defense on the field.
Yaya Diaby and some of the other pass rushers aren’t able to get there in quite enough time because there’s too many holes in coverage. Jamel Dean went down and that cost us a few steps, and it also did when we lost Devin White granted he wasn’t ever that much better in coverage, but he was fast and athletic enough to play the game at least. We need help! Deion jones to ILB please. A tackler with speed size and ability to stop guys from getting open in the middle of the field.
He’s not a pro bowler , he’s not some elite 1in a million player, but he is one of the puzzle pieces we’re missing. As for CB2 now ugh idk. Keep playing guys off the waiver wire and practice squad and see what happens lol.
November 16th, 2024 at 8:43 pm
@DR, Koetter might have survived longer if he had fired Mike Smith when Smith’s D was horrible and getting worse.
November 16th, 2024 at 10:45 pm
Is this a bics tradition? I’m so confused as to why the same coach who called so aggressively against the chiefs in the super bowl just lays down and has the dbs playing 10 yards back like lovie Smith and Mike Smith did ( who both got fired for historicaly bad defenses ) bowles has shown to be able to call a good game at times but then just goes coi at other times and it’s the most confusing thing I have ever witnessed as a bucs fan
November 17th, 2024 at 1:11 am
The dead snook is now blaming the dual hat. Leave Lovie as the HC with one of his guys, nothing would change. Get a Robert Saleh type to work for Lovie, they would have immediate clashes because Saleh would want to change everything about Lovie’s defense that he believes earns him that Masturmind title.
And then, as Head Coich, he would still make all the wrong decisions about 4th downs, timeouts, fake punts, 2 point conversions, personnll, and play calls when the game is on the line.
But yeah, I’m sure the Glazers and Jason would love to keep a career losing head coach who has done it with two franchises and given the GOAT the only losing season he ever experienced in his whole freaking life. That will surely happen.
November 17th, 2024 at 5:37 pm
FIRE TODD “ TOILET “ BOWELS
He is a joke of a coach. I’m gonna lay it out how it happens. Team does mediocre the rest of the season just enough so Bowels does not get fired. Cohen leaves and then Bowels gets fired the following season. When what should happen is fire TOILET BOWELS PROMOTE COHEN TO HEAD COACH