D-Line Stunts A Focus For Verner
April 29th, 2014
As Joe wrote in his practice notes last week, Bucs coaches have really been drilling cornerback Alterraun Verner on the nuances of the Tampa-2 defense.
There is plenty to learn, so Verner told Joe today, and a slice of it surrounds three words that make many Bucs fans tremble in fear: defensive line stunts.
“Usually, generically, corners probably have the least amount of responsibility out of everybody else. Most of the time it’s man, ‘Ok, you got this guy,’ and that’s it. But for our defense, you gotta know certain fits,” Verner said. ” You gotta know stunts by the D-linemen because you might have to show up in the run. You might have to do something to help the safeties out. So there’s a lot of nuances where we have to be very smart.
“We gotta know what we’re doing. We can’t rely on somebody else telling us. And that’s probably the biggest thing. That’s why we have to study and know so much. And get in our playbook because we have those additional responsibilities here.”
Joe’s not trying to strike fear in Bucs fans who were scarred by the constant dancing and indirect pass rushing of Tampa Bay the past two seasons. Plenty of good defenses (including the glory days Buccaneers) use line stunts, just not as often as the Bucs did last season.
The eloquent Verner confirmed what Joe suspected, that there is a significant learning curve here for him, versus what he experienced as a Pro Bowler in Tennessee.
April 29th, 2014 at 3:43 pm
I’m cool with using stunts, as long as it’s no where close to the amount we did last year. Maybe a couple per game.
April 29th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
I would like to know if the Bucs really did run more stunts then other teams. I think its been overestimated because our D-line is so slow that it just seemed to count for 2 everytime they ran 1 d-line stunt.
But I guess that stats like that take reporting, which mean we will never know.
April 29th, 2014 at 3:59 pm
realist:
Who might you suggest Joe call for this information?
April 29th, 2014 at 4:00 pm
So are we going back to an old-school traditional Tampa-2 in general? I was under the impression this would be an modern evolution of the Tampa 2, especially since the vulnerabilities of a pure tampa 2 have been exposed. But most def. player interviews have talked about learning all the nuances of the traditional tampa-2. Not a hybrid 4-3/modern t-2…
Maybe the just are learning the foundation first, I sure hope Lovie has something new to bring and shock the league!
April 29th, 2014 at 4:24 pm
I think DB’s are now our weakest link again, if only because of the amount of sophistication and learning that is involved for players that are still fairly green. We should at least have a couple of veterans that are familiar with the scheme. We will get exposed, unless all these newbies can adjust quickly and definitively.
April 29th, 2014 at 5:08 pm
Lovie will run a vanilla Tampa Two in Preseason and you won’t see modern adaptions until the regular season which Lovie will adapt to every opponent. But Lovie ran a better Tampa Two in Chicago than anyone because everyone else had problems stopping the run but Lovie had Urlacher in the middle to stop it, and he needs an Urlacher Clone in the middle instead of a 230 lb Foster. Fortunately Michigan State has 160 lb 6’3″ Mad Max in the draft who can do all that Urlacher did. Sapp used to use stunts and twists to get to the QB but it was quick and not looping like the Schiano version.
April 29th, 2014 at 5:40 pm
@ joe
I thought you had a source, that is what was implied by your statement.
“Plenty of good defenses (including the glory days Buccaneers) use line stunts, just not as often as the Bucs did last season.”
Why the attitude? And then you don’t get Joe’s sarcasm coming back at you? Perhaps Joe should source the weather, cheerleader booty shakes, missed tackles, and all other obvious things like the Bucs running more line stunts than others. Greg Schiano himself said the Bucs were stunting way more than he wanted to and more than 4-3 teams are designed to do. Regardless, this was plain as day for those who study football. –Joe
April 29th, 2014 at 8:53 pm
I don’t think you actually have to count to tell how many piss poor stunts we ran, just know it was way, way too many.
April 29th, 2014 at 9:34 pm
If you attended any bucs games you could see the frustration in the players eyes. When I was there at the Monday night game I was directly behind the bench and I heard the lineman saying “they’re letting us loose” and BOOM McCoy went stupid on the dolphins. A few stunts to throw off the defense is ok but the past couple of years they would throw stunts on almost every third down play. All that did was give the QB enough time to throw a perfect ball to a WR that had plenty of time to run his route and position himself for the perfect toss and catch.
April 29th, 2014 at 9:35 pm
*throw off the offense is what I meant
April 29th, 2014 at 9:41 pm
On the topic of traditional Tampa 2, if you have the proper talent to master it, it is still as effective now as it was in the past.
As I recall, the old Tampa 2 was better against the pass than against the run. And a mobile QB was a frustration against it early on. Vick. Culpepper.
I remember screaming because they had trouble tackling Dante Culpepper (back when he was good). If he scrambled, he would drag tacklers to the first down marker.
The Bucs got better, but it took a few years and the right personel. Changing divisions helped a lot.
April 30th, 2014 at 12:05 pm
Stunts are ok but please keep them to a minimum.
April 30th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
Joe, I for one would like to get those stats on the cheerleader booty shakes! And video for film study. Haha
April 30th, 2014 at 1:08 pm
Joe will oblige a bit later today.