Frightening Debut For O-Line
August 8th, 2014
Joe knew the Bucs’ offensive line would have question marks. Never did Joe think the Bucs offensive line would be found guilty in an assault and battery.
Poor Bucs quarterback Josh McCown. In his first start in the pewter and red, McCown got jostled, mocked and robbed. He was beaten, pummeled and bruised.
It’s a wonder McCown wasn’t beheaded. The Bucs’ front line was more like a swinging gate than a brick wall. “Ole!” could be heard as the offensive line waved the red flag at the charging bulls on the defensive front of the Jags.
Joe couldn’t believe his eyes. Joe knew that guard play might be an issue, but not the sieve it was Friday night.
The lame attempts at blocking were downright frightening. When backup quarterback Mike Glennon came into the game behind the same five guilty souls who nearly got McCown beaten to death, Joe feared Glennon would be snapped in half. Joe hoped Glennon had his life insurance paid up.
Yes, yes, yes. It was the first quarter of the first preseason game. But when is the last time you saw a Bucs quarterback running for his life time and again in the first quarter of the first preseason game?
Nearly the entire line was guilty, not just the guards, except for Demar Dotson who played reasonable well. One man, however, does not make an offensive line.
Imagine what this outfit will be like trying to stop the defensive line of the Stinking Panthers come September?
This past week, Dotson said the game against the Jags would be a gauge as to where the revamped line would be. Joe can confidently say they need serious work.
It seems Bucs coach Lovie Smith agrees. As he left the field at halftime, he told WFLA-TV Channel 8’s sports raconteur Dan Lucas, “We’re not ready yet,” Lovie said. “We had some protection issues. We didn’t protect the quarterback well enough.”
Indeed.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:37 pm
OL ….has skid marks
August 8th, 2014 at 10:38 pm
“We didn’t protect the quarterback well enough.”
this implies they protected the qb at all.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:38 pm
Im afraid were in for yet another long year bucs fans. Brace yourselves. FIRE SCHIANO!!! Oh wait we already did that. now what? I hope lovie enjoyed that year off cuz this team needs a lot a lot of work
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Not a good start….
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Get ready for another horrible season!
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
so lovie blew up the oline for this?!? doh.
lmao
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
The OC needs to work with changing up the snap count, more than several times jags DE were getting a running start.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Okay. It has been smooth sailing for L&L til now. Let’s see how they respond to problem #1. McCown was a friggin punching bag tonite.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Well… we were worried about the o line, and after tonight, we have every right to be. McCown couldn’t even take a 3 step drop without a d linman in his face. From left to right, just a bad night for the o line. I dont see how we have any other choice but to bring some more guys in.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:43 pm
sd thing is, we had guys for the oline
smh
August 8th, 2014 at 10:43 pm
sd=sad
August 8th, 2014 at 10:44 pm
So we draft Jameis Winston with the overall number one pick and then go o-line the next six picks. Sounds like a good plan right?
August 8th, 2014 at 10:44 pm
As Curly would say, certainly.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:44 pm
no where to go but up
August 8th, 2014 at 10:45 pm
Incognito isnt looking so bad right about now. no seriously.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:45 pm
“#1. McCown was a friggin punching bag tonite.”…….tomato can…Lovies comfort blankie….has 14 years of cat piss…
August 8th, 2014 at 10:46 pm
Tonight I would have Jason Licht on a plane to offer the 49ers a 3rd round pick for RG Alex Boone now. In 2015 free agency, I would come back and make Mike Iupati (and he’s going to be there) the richest left guard in the NFL. Believe it or not it would take less money than we paid Carl Nicks in 2011.
I would keep Jace Daniels at back-up Center, keep Patrick Omameh and Kadeem Edwards as back-up right and left guards respectively. I would give everybody else the opportunity to try out for a position with 31 other teams. I wouldn’t hesitate and would never look back. Our O-line would be set for the next 5 years!
For me, this one is too easy. We can’t afford to waste any more time trying to resuscitate two cadavers to play guard and the young guys are not ready yet. We’ve got bigger fish to fry in 2015 like finding a long-term franchise QB.
August 8th, 2014 at 10:46 pm
Glennon actually played decent with a worse O line.. How’s that for thought?
Thats what im thinking.
Anyway, Joe glad to see the coverage before anyone else on the performance of the O-Line. Did I witness Collins get beat for 2 sacks? What about The Cannon and his nice reads? Im ready to hear about it
August 8th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Makes you wonder all over again just why in the hell they got rid of Penn and Joseph. Those two at 80% would have been better than the others at 100%
August 8th, 2014 at 10:50 pm
We were so bad that it makes me wonder if we should look at any/all options including Richie Incognito
August 8th, 2014 at 10:53 pm
We have the Dunkaneers for receivers and now an offensive offensive line that we can call the Stunkaneers.
August 8th, 2014 at 11:03 pm
Yep, I’m gonna say it. Bucs need to bring Incognito in now to get acquainted with this offense, or trade for Boone ASAP. All of the Tedford offense is useless without a half decent Oline. Cousins was a wasted pick up and we already miss Zuttah and his versatility. I don’t feel confident that Lovie/Light will all of a sudden get this bad Oline to gel which makes the Sims 3rd round pick all the more surprising knowing you desperately need Olinemen. What good does it do to have a stable of running backs or Dunkaneers if they can’t run block or pass protect. Hopefully, there’s still a little bit of time to save the offense and the season.
August 8th, 2014 at 11:27 pm
Paul gruber this is Lovie smith what are you up too these days ?
August 8th, 2014 at 11:29 pm
Not looking good for the season if the line doesn’t shape up!
August 8th, 2014 at 11:34 pm
Thanks for your takes, Joe. I can’t watch the game until 4am local time, but now I know that I need to focus on the OL, as frightening as that might seem. (pun intended)
Newcastle (lots!) should help. Cheers!!
August 8th, 2014 at 11:36 pm
2 sacks from Collins.
You Penn haters are in for a long season, if the Limp ass Jags can dominate your ” never gave up a Sack” left tackle!!
At least the Jags have their QB finally!
We are gonna need 20 QBs, with this line, against good defenses.
And a MASH unit
August 8th, 2014 at 11:39 pm
Penn??? Joseph??? Zuttah??? Somebody?? I want to go on record as saying that Carl Nicks’ Big Toe would do a better job than this sh*t fest OL tonight….
August 8th, 2014 at 11:41 pm
I really think we need one guard to be brought in, then coaching and time to gel for the line would make it serviceable.
The line wasnt pretty, even watching it the second time around.
Collins has a weak spot decent inside moves.
Cousins is the worse spot on the line.
Dietrich-Smith simply was trying to do too much to cover the guards.
Merideth was inconsistent but his worse was not as bad as Cousins.
Dotson had a few issues, but still looks improved over last year.
Omameh still shows continued improvement with his hand work, but seems to let it slip from time to time and unable to recover. He has the most upside of all our OL in my opinion and should be plugged into the starting lineup to develop.
Perplexed by the lack of reps for Kadeem Edwards. I thought for sure he would get a lot of work.
August 8th, 2014 at 11:47 pm
It’s preseason so I’m not going to be overly concerned yet, but you don’t win more than 5 games in the NFL with a line playing that poorly.
August 9th, 2014 at 12:08 am
No offense when I say this. I’ve had way too many already. if you need to delete this, cool! But… God damn the o-line sucked! That is all
August 9th, 2014 at 12:42 am
I hate to say this and I dont want to but we need to trade doug martin for oline help.. he might have some value be ausemwe need it bad we have enuff runnjng backs to still be good….
August 9th, 2014 at 1:56 am
It was so bad that I actually miss last years O-line.
August 9th, 2014 at 5:37 am
Ok, we have proceeded thru underwear football and a couple weeks of training camp with low expectations from our OL. We have brought in Collins, Dietrich-Smith, and praised Dotson. We rationalize how teams can get by with mediocre OL’s and of course we have attempted to justify the release of Penn, Joseph, and Zuttah. Nicks was questionable from the start. Finally we have a crop of rookies, and unproven projects we are hoping fill in the holes. It was obvious that the 4-12 Jags (not the Panthers) manhandled us last night. It was obvious that this great arsenal of offensive firepower needs an OL to be effective. It’s been fun dreaming about what might be, but now it’s time to get our collective heads out of our rears and use what cap space we have left to fix the problem. Reality is telling us that our offense is in deep trouble if we don’t. Defense is good and shows promise, but without some serious immediate focus on this OL 2014 will be another in a long line of disappointments.
August 9th, 2014 at 5:47 am
I just spent 30 minutes of my life writing a post that I somehow lost. In a nutshell I agree with all the above. A sub-par OL will undermine the efforts of an arsenal of skilled players and a top 10 defense. We will lose games if we can’t fix it. The clocks ticking ……………
August 9th, 2014 at 7:05 am
Who do I call to get my insurance guy and my beer delivery guy an o-line tryout?
August 9th, 2014 at 7:08 am
And the bell hop at my hotel looks like he has good foot work.
August 9th, 2014 at 7:25 am
I’ve been saying it since he got here… COUSINS IS A BUM.
August 9th, 2014 at 7:55 am
That was by far the worst O line play I have ever seen from an NFL team.
August 9th, 2014 at 8:24 am
I’ll go out on a limb and say the old line would’ve looked much better. There isn’t much time to get this group playing better before the season starts. We might be watching another subpar year from the offense if they don’t figure it out in a hurry.
August 9th, 2014 at 8:33 am
Trade and sign Boone.
Sign Incognito.
Contend.
August 9th, 2014 at 9:09 am
zuttah and penn never looked that bad. joseph is hurt and done but damn why dd we dump zuttah and penn for this load of crap. that was bad buc fans. you can’t make chicken salad out of chicken crap.
August 9th, 2014 at 1:43 pm
I agree with teacherman, call the 49ers and offer them Bobby Rainey and a 3rd round draft choice for Alex Boone. Sign Incognito now. We’ve got to get some better talent on the line immediately, or we will go through 5-6 QBs this year because they will all get injured! Our O-line last night looked like a pee wee team against an average Jags D-line.