“It Was Blood In The Water”
October 22nd, 2014
During a week when Lovie Smith is preaching a “mentality” change, quite a picture was painted yesterday of the defensive hunger the Bucs should have.
Former Tampa Bay starting linebacker Ryan Nece, a rookie on the legendary Super Bowl team, explained what a guy like Teddy Bridgewater coming to Tampa used to mean.
Speaking on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Nece shared tales of how hungrily Warren Sapp, Simeon Rice, Derrick Brooks, Shelton Quarles and Nate Webster prepared.
“It was amazing. You’d come into the meeting room, especially the defensive line, there was a sense of energy. There was a sense of intensity. And they would be circling this guy in the film room,” Nece said. “‘We are not going to let a backup come in here and beat us.’ And then you would dial it up even more. A rookie? A rookie? Oh, forget about it. These guys, I never saw anything like it. I mean, it was blood in the water. There were ready to take this guy out.
“We would dial up blitzes. We would confuse him. We would harass him. And by the end of the first quarter, that rookie quarterback wanted no part of the Buccaneers defense. If this rookie comes in this week, they have to do that and they have to do it early. And if they can rattle him and hit him and, and again, I don’t mind if even they get a penalty on him early.
“Hit that young quarterback and hit him hard. And they’ve got an opportunity to win that game.”
Frankly, Joe can’t imagine the Bucs not blitzing and attacking Bridgewater and the beat up Vikings offensive line early Sunday. Considering the Bucs are scoring an average of less than five points in the first half of games, they’ve got to try and make things happen.
The worst thing Sunday would be let the Vikings jump out to a lead and allow Bridgewater to feel comfortable.
(You can catch all of Nece’s interview via the 620wdae.com player below.)
October 22nd, 2014 at 10:50 am
I would love to see Bridgewater flattened, but considering what a 3rd string rookie (Austin Davis) did to us, I don’t feel any confidence in that happening.
October 22nd, 2014 at 10:58 am
The good old dominant Bucs D days. Man, those were great defensive shows and all Bucs fans take pride in that memory. They were a great defense and with just a passable offense, would have won multiple Super Bowls. We got one, it should have been more.
October 22nd, 2014 at 10:58 am
The good old dominant Bucs D days. Man, those were great defensive shows and all Bucs fans take pride in that memory. They were a great defense and with just a passable offense, would have won multiple Super Bowls. We got one, it should have been more.
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:03 am
Take one off, I don’t know why it posted twice, I pushed submit once and it said unable to connect at this moment message. then I cancelled out and saw this double post. What!
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:08 am
Buccfan37
No worries. That post deserves to be posted twice!
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:16 am
Defense hasn’t stopped two backup QBs why expect them to stop a third one?
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:20 am
Austin Davis just beat Seattle, that kid can ball, don’t be shocked if Fisher sticks with him next season.
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:20 am
Joe, any word if Gerald McCoy is 100% from his hand injury?
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:40 am
It all sounds fine and dandy until Bridgewater takes a page out of Flacco’s book and beats the crap out of our secondary with the three step drop. What we need is for our corners to play press coverage and take away the short passing routes. If they continue to give so much cushion, they’ll just continue to get picked apart. Force Bridgewater to throw deep and maybe our pass rush will get there.
October 22nd, 2014 at 11:47 am
Bucsfan4lyf….and this matters because?
October 22nd, 2014 at 12:12 pm
^The guy was asking a question relevant to the here and now and not just reminiscing about the past. Maybe get off his ass?
October 22nd, 2014 at 12:21 pm
I still will never forget the hit Sapp laid on rookie Tim Couch. People forget Couch actually looked like he might be a decent QB before Sapp crushed him and put the fear of god into him. Poor guy.
October 22nd, 2014 at 12:25 pm
How interesting of you to use that third string of a slug QB Austin Davis in the photo (Your words).
Will you wipe that egg off your face now that he helped lead his team to a thumping of the vaunted Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks.
C’mon Joe, stop with the unkindly remards about second or third string QB’s like they are castoffs from the Arena League like that dreg Kurt Ramsey.
It makes you look ignorant.
Also, I have a few painful memories of the Bucs losing some game to first time starting rookie QB’s.
One of them was that alug of a QB Phil Simms. The other was Charlie Batch for the Lions. I am sure there were a couple of others but they just don’t come quickly to mind.
“Get back to reality, back to reality,” M & M.
October 22nd, 2014 at 12:40 pm
There’s not one team or QB in the NFL that fears the Bucs defense.
October 22nd, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Bucs defense is a boost your stats game for opposing QB’s.
October 22nd, 2014 at 1:03 pm
YES I LOVE THAT IDEA BUT THE ONLY PROBLEM IS THIS ISN’T THE OLD BUC DEFENSE, IT’S NICE TO HEAR OLD BUCS TALK ABOUT IT IN THE MEDIA BUT THE REALITY IS THAT PROBABLY ISNT GOING ON RIGHT NOW IN ONE BUC PLACE. EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE KIND OF COMPARABLE PLAYERS AT KEY POSITIONS, THE MINDSET DOESNT COMPARE LOVIE MAY HAVE WISHED HE COULD BRING BACK THE OLD BUC DAYS BUT THE PROBLEM IS HE ISNT THE DEFENSIVE MIND DUNGY WAS AND HIS PLAYERS DONT ATTACK THEY PLAY ON THEIR HEELS. WIN OR LOSE ILL BE HAPPY IF THE KILLER INSTINCT CAME BACK TO THIS TEAM
October 22nd, 2014 at 2:11 pm
How in the hell are the Bucs favored by Vegas to win this game? I mean seriously, as bad as the Vikes have been it’s not even close to the trash the Bucs put on the field.
October 22nd, 2014 at 2:13 pm
And I miss the ‘good old days’. But they’re long gone and not coming back. Got to get used to the hear and now, everyone. This garbage is what we have, and there’s no way we can turn this chicken crap into chicken salad.
October 22nd, 2014 at 3:04 pm
I made a chicken salad today…..little bastard didn’t even eat it!
October 23rd, 2014 at 6:32 am
I think we can get off the “Austin Davis is Garbage” kick now, can’t we? The kid was amazing at Southern Mississippi. Shattering all of the school records (Favre’s records) but went undrafted because a lack of elite physical talent and a gunslinger’s mentality. His rating for the season is 94.3 and he put up 128 against the Seahawks. He’s a pretty good player and we’ve seen that. Unfortunately, we were the first to see him… but he’s pretty good.