It’s The Defense, Not ASJ
October 27th, 2014
The Bucs’ inability (again) to pressure a quarterback set up the team to fail says a Bradenton Herald columnist.
There is an axiom of football that bad teams find ways to lose. Boy oh boy, don’t they ever. One only has to look at the Bucs (if you can).
And, damn, the Bucs are a bad football team. Yesterday, the Bucs did just that, find a way to lose, when Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr scooped and scored on an Austin Seferian-Jenkins fumble for a game-winning touchdown in overtime.
A lot of folks are blaming ASJ for the loss. Hold up, says ornery Alan Dell of the Bradenton Herald. He thinks ASJ is nothing more than a scapegoat. Dell believes the Bucs never should have seen overtime and thinks it was the defense that let the team down.
The Bucs were playing against a beleaguered quarterback who had thrown five interceptions and was sacked 13 times in his last two games.
But Bridgewater looked anything like a rookie. He did not throw an interception, was sacked only once and completed 24 of 41 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown.
Somehow he took the Vikings on a nine-play, 61-yard drive that ended in a 38-yard, game-tying field goal with four seconds left in regulation. On the drive, Bridgewater completed five of nine passes, including a 12-yard pass on a third-and-seven play to set up the field goal.
While Joe can’t totally agree with Dell — you hold a team to 13 points in regulation you should win in the NFL — he has an excellent point. The Vikings have a sieve of an offensive line and the Bucs didn’t take advantage. Damnit, Joe just wants to slam his fist on his keyboard. Why the eff cannot this team get consistent heat on a quarterback?
Every other GD team does it, but this team is cursed. Joe freaking swears, if the Bucs could reincarnate Reggie White, Joe Green, Warren Sapp and Bruce Smith in their prime, they would find a way to not even breathe on a quarterback.
(To be fair, Joe saw Michael Johnson lay his hand on Bridgewater. That’s progress, isn’t it?)
Dell has a good point. Because the Bucs were unable (sans one sack) to harass a rookie quarterback, they set themselves up for doom late in the game.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:00 am
Pass rush needs some improvement, but I feel like the plays where the Bucs were getting pressure, there was still someone open, so part of the blame falls on the secondary as well. For example, the touchdown Bridgewater thew…how is that not a sack? There’s no way you should let someone get behind you that quickly.
Thoughts on Jacquies Smith, Joe? It seemed like he was in Bridgewater’s face a lot.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:01 am
The worst unit on the field is the safety unit, hands down. How many times were receivers able to run past, between, or outside the safeties when the team was in cover 2? These guys are strictly in-the-box types being asked to play a lot of centerfield coverages where they are expected to get over top to shutdown the downfield passing threat. If it weren’t for a few overthrows, this game could’ve been ugly.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:02 am
@Brandon Very true. I think Major Wright has actually been better than Goldson and Barron. I distinctly remember both of our “hard-hitting” safeties missing multiple tackles, much less the bad coverage.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:03 am
“(To be fair, Joe saw Michael Johnson lay his hand on Bridgewater. That’s progress, isn’t it?)”
That was MJ giving him a high-five as he got out of Bridgewater’s way!
October 27th, 2014 at 11:04 am
One sack in the last 130 passes…….1……..
Sure ASJ made the last mistake…..and it ended the game….but you can blame Banks for missing the interception or the Dline & Oline for the entire game.
The game should never have gone to overtime….I agree entirely.
What everyone is missing is that Bridgewater missed many wide open recievers…had it been anyone else at QB our pass defense would have been torched……again!!!
October 27th, 2014 at 11:11 am
The safety unit is bad but not in the same league of bad as the offensive line. Which should tell you how bad this team is and how far away it is from being a mediocre team let alone a good one.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:14 am
starting on the 15 after kickoffs really doesn’t help….FREE Eric Page! let him do his thing!
October 27th, 2014 at 11:14 am
Joe
You might want to simmer down a tad bit before you end up in emergency room from blood pressure goin wild.
Who would run the site if that happens?
Somebody put the team gear shift in reverse day 1
and still haven’t shifted to “D” yet
Maybe at some point they will figure that out
October 27th, 2014 at 11:17 am
I know he is only a rookie but so far ASJ sucks ass…
Dropped passes, shit blocking and now fumbling in OT that directly led to a loss…
GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER OR STAY OFF THE FIELD ROOKIE!!!
October 27th, 2014 at 11:20 am
Lmao. Today is gonna be fun!!!
October 27th, 2014 at 11:26 am
As i tucked my kid into bed last night i put his bucs blanket on to keep him warm. Then thought better of it and got him another one because the bucs blanket doesn’t cover well.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:29 am
ASJ can’t hold Tim Wrights jock strap yet joe continues to hug his and lichts nuts. unbelievable.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:34 am
Can we stop expecting a pass rush yet? It’s not coming. The media, this site included, seems to think the magic switch will turn on and they’ll start getting sacks. The same goes for the OL. They expect them to all of a sudden start blocking. It’s not going to happen.
Listen up fans: the season is over. Stop expecting the Bucs to start playing all of a sudden. It won’t happen. Just tune out and wait until next season. What you’ve seen is what you’ll get for 8 more games.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:35 am
robert9,
Have to give you props. When everyone else was going gaga over the Mankins trade, you were really the only one who stated then that it sucked, and you took a lot of crap for it.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:45 am
and wright has what 3 TD’s in his last 4 games????
thx lightnin
October 27th, 2014 at 11:49 am
This team needed Mankins more than Tim Wright, Good players look better on great teams no doubt.
I would like to hear the ASJ play described correctly. It was a good strip-out by their defense not a fumble same results and inexcusable. One is more grossly negligent.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:56 am
and it’s not like we needed that 4th round pick
and boy oh boy, Mankins has made the difference- our O line is looking really good
and ASJ looks just like Jimmy Graham
end sarcasm\
October 27th, 2014 at 11:56 am
I guess I agree that we needed Mankins more than Wright…but we didn’t trade them straight up. We gave up a 4th and Wright. If Wright keeps getting better and the Patriots make the 4th count into a starting player, an already bad trade will go down as horrific.
October 27th, 2014 at 11:59 am
INCOGNITO!!!
PLEASE!!!
October 27th, 2014 at 12:00 pm
Will say this. Defense is awful. Wow, that felt good to get that out. I mean it really is the elephant in the room. We took 10 steps back from last year. This is all on Lovie, Licht, and Frazier. No one else to really point fingers at besides these 3. I guess you can blame the terrible owners that are the Glazers for this since they hired this train wreck of a coaching crew.
October 27th, 2014 at 12:02 pm
Incognito could have been brought in without having had to give up Wright or a pick, and been able to play at least as good as Mankins has, which has been mediocre at best up to this point. Mankins head is still in Boston – just going through the motions here.
October 27th, 2014 at 12:29 pm
It all starts and ends with Snuffy Smith…FIRE HIS ASS ASAP….
October 27th, 2014 at 12:37 pm
Yea the Vikings line is horrible but we have Glennon under center so the excuse is we are the worse pass blocking line in the league. Another year of excuses for we Glennon is leading the last ranked offense in the league. Canon my A$$! We have the same offense Brooks and sapp had to deal with under dungy but to me the only comparison to dungys team is we don’t have a quarterback either, this is the second year in a row Glennon wool have the league’s worst offense but your trying to say he’s the answer. If we go get elite receivers a probowl running back, all-star lineman and put them around Glennon WHY THE HELL WOULD THAT MAKE HIM A FRANCHISE QUARTERBACK. I thought quarterbacks make receivers better with ball placement, Joe many quarterbacks come into the perfect situation? Hardly any….. How much more boring could a franchise quarterback be
October 27th, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Football games are won in the trenches, we don’t have enough talent on either the offensive or defensive line to get it done. At some point this defense has to put on their big boy pants and make a G Damn stop and win a game.
October 27th, 2014 at 1:33 pm
“Joe freaking swears, if the Bucs could reincarnate Reggie White, Joe Green, Warren Sapp and Bruce Smith in their prime, they would find a way to not even breathe on a quarterback.”
Warren Sapp died!?!? Nooooo! Why didn’t anyone tell me? I would have cried on his casket
October 27th, 2014 at 1:40 pm
Bucs have the worst D-line & O-line in the NFL.
October 27th, 2014 at 2:05 pm
It ain’t about getting in some dude’s face. It’s about knocking him on his arse. Disruption, at worst, is not about looking at some dude.
You know what Joe thinks about Smith? Joe almost had to look up if he was on the roster. And Joe was at the game!
October 27th, 2014 at 2:08 pm
Nope. You must not read Joe much. Not sure what gives you the impression Joe thinks the pass rush will suddenly appear.
October 27th, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Someone really needs to explain to Joe in great detail exactly why Incognito is the magic bullet for the Bucs but 31 other teams won’t touch him.
Serious. Break down his blocking technique to Joe how he is the answer for this club.
What the eff did this guy ever do to think he would turn the Bucs offensive line around just by putting on a uniform. Seriously?
Let Joe guess: Incognito is the answer because… because… well, eeerrr… because I RECONIGZE HIS NAME SO HE MUST BE BETTER THAN ANYTHING THE BUCS HAVE!
October 27th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Joe- tell us in great detail how Mankins has been the answer at LG for us this year? He gets demolished right along with those high priced garbage FAs play in and play out. Sugarcoat it for us a bit or generate some of those famous excuses!
October 27th, 2014 at 5:47 pm
There is a lot of blame to go around after yesterday.
The complete lack of pass rush. What looked like prevent defense all day.
Every receiver for the Vikings had a big cushion. A quarterback who looks like he’s in quicksand.
An O-line that can’t run block or pass block for sh*t!
Special teams is special alright.
There isn’t one phase of this team that looks prepared, talented or well coached yet. I thought the Bucs should make some trade after yesterdays collapse but they would just get fleeced again so there’s no point in it.