Lavonte David Explains What Worked For Bucs Defense
December 16th, 2024
Smelled blood in the water.
Joe still believes the turning point in the game yesterday, a huge Bucs win, was the Jamel Dean interception.
The Bucs followed that late-third-quarter play with a touchdown and it seemed the Chargers were shot after that.
Joe knows Bucs icon Lavonte David felt that way about Dean’s pick.
“It was big!” David told Joe after the game. “We have to take the ball away, that’s why we dialed up the pressure.”
And therein lies what Bucs coach Todd Bowles and the defense tried to do.
The Bucs smelled blood in the water. Star Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was beat to hell last week against the Chiefs. He wasn’t 100 percent yesterday. He looked hobbled.
The Bucs hit him a couple of times early and you could see Herbert looked more hurt than he was letting on. Soon, he wasn’t very mobile any longer.
And that’s when the Bucs smelled blood. David told Joe the Bucs made adjustments at halftime. The biggest, he said, was that everyone had to settle down.
Then attack the quarterback.
With Herbert being less mobile, if he got pressure he couldn’t buy time. And that’s when the Chargers offense began to crumble.
“We were able to get pressure on the quarterback,” David said. “And we received that gift [Dean’s pick].”
What amazes Joe so much about how the Bucs were able to affect Herber is the Bucs were basically playing volunteers from the Salvation Army at safety.
Before signing last week with the Bucs, if you told Joe that Ryan Neal was sitting outside a Publix all day ringing a bell, Joe would have believed you.
December 16th, 2024 at 8:01 am
LVD = HOF
December 16th, 2024 at 8:16 am
The Bucs came back on fire 2nd half. Lavonte did a sensational job. Jamal was right there when we needed him too.
I was surprised that Harbaugh didn’t take Justin out earlier than he did. The guy looked beaten. The whole team did. The Bucs stunned them all.
December 16th, 2024 at 8:28 am
32 yards rushing for the game by the Chargers-they were one dimensional with an immobile QB-Bowles game plan worked to perfection.
December 16th, 2024 at 8:39 am
so proud of the O line, izien and smith as hybrid DB types, and MIKE and LVD have me close to tearing up… beautiful effort in the second half, whether Herbert was 50 pct or 75 pct i dunno, but outside of Ladd it didn’t seem they had enough weapons to keep up with our offense in any scenario… might take some creativity to keep Liam, maybe it’s time for a new NFL coaching setup — no rule says the OC has to make less money than the head coach. make him the highest paid coach in the NFL. he prolly knows HC would detract from his offensive work. Inevitably. If Bowles retires, could use the McVay setup. But it might be better to let Liam help pick the head coach, or at least pick a HC that is willing to defer to Liam 100 pct offensively. Licht has work to do. Hard work.
December 16th, 2024 at 8:43 am
The game changed very late in the 2nd quarter when Todd Bowles decided to stop exposing his injured secondary. Bowles finally made the common sense decision to attack the offense with blitzes. And go man to man in the secondary. We have a good defence we just need to turn it loose. Yes I am saying Bowles is suffocating this defence by being to timid
December 16th, 2024 at 8:49 am
@Jeffrey you make some excellent points! It would be a great idea to make Liam the highest paid offensive coordinator to keep him on board, especially since we should have a boatload of cap room next season. I wonder if there are any examples of other teams in the league paying coordinators to keep them on board or would we have to be the first to break the mold?
December 16th, 2024 at 8:52 am
Great scheme by both offense and defense. Lets Go BUCS!
December 16th, 2024 at 9:00 am
Ahead of the game I was expecting our safeties to be attacked. Thankfully they weren’t. Izien and Merriweather weren’t terrible.
JJ Russel made some plays and he seemed to take a step up in his play. With LVD blitzing, JJ had more exposure and did OK.
December 16th, 2024 at 9:05 am
zero third down conversions for chargers!?
December 16th, 2024 at 9:40 am
Herbert looked like a below average qb to me. He was missing all kinds of throws. Not impressed
December 16th, 2024 at 9:42 am
Agree Joe that Dean’s interception and the offense answering with a touchdown did the Chargers in. But, I think the Bucs offense marching down the field at the close of the first half and getting that field goal was huge as well. Then the Chargers got the ball to start the second half and the defense shut them down. Enter Baker & Coen’s play calling and the o-line and skill players were off to the races! 27 unanswered points! How glorious was that!? Great team win against a quality opponent in their crib. Quintessential complimentary football. Who wants us in the playoffs? If we get healthier in the next three weeks, watch out!
December 16th, 2024 at 9:56 am
The defense finally arrived yesterday from Detroit. The last time they played decent lol
December 16th, 2024 at 10:56 am
Might have been the best Defensive game of the year for us. If our Defense brings it, we can run the table. Keep it up.
December 16th, 2024 at 11:01 am
The Bucs defense played well in the second half against a hobbled Herbert. They need to keep it up against Cooper Rush. He’s starting to play better and Lamb is still balling. It’s time for the Bucs to show up in a prime-time game, get some respect, and throttle ‘America’s Team’. Run over Parsons and bury Rush. LFG!
December 16th, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Hopefully when AW returns hel’ll be more like the AW of 2023. Maybe the rest for the knee will also help his foot. If we get our safeties back for the playoffs without any more injuries we could make a run in the playoffs.
December 16th, 2024 at 1:32 pm
“Not ready after two years on practice squad” guy Vi Jones forced two fumbles!
December 16th, 2024 at 2:14 pm
Where are all the worthless Todd and his defense haters at 😳?
Some of our regulars are feeling shltty about the win apparently, since they were so invested in their it’s all Todd’s fault narrative.
The guys who have felt the need to dump on Todd, every post, no matter the subject of the JBF articles, are awfully quiet today 🤣.
It’s only 1 game but Todd’s defense smashed the crap out of a good team. We will need to keep improving but it’s hard to deny Todd made some of you regulars look more like idiots than you already did and I, for one, love it!
December 16th, 2024 at 3:06 pm
Since the bye:
Defense –
15 ppg – best in NFL
This game:
3 sacks
195 yds passing
32 yards on the ground
0 for 6 on third down
Got to keep it up, and prepare for stiffer competition, but it’s exactly what we would have hoped for after the skid and the bye week 👍🏼
December 16th, 2024 at 3:12 pm
That was a great game on both sides. Defense didn’t turn on till 3rd quarter unfortunately. Either way a lot of you “couch coaches” need to STFU. Our players and our coaches are much more successful at football than any of us. GO BUCS!!!!!
December 16th, 2024 at 3:22 pm
I truly feel privileged over the last 10 years to watch Two Hall of Famer’s in Mike Evans and Lavonte David play. I told myself I would never purchase an alarm clock jersey! But David did some numbers during those years, so I’ll get that one in white.😎