Defense A Precursor?
August 28th, 2015
Bucs DC Leslie Frazier talks about the defense stepping up.
For a moment, Joe felt like he was having an out-of-body experience Monday night at the Den of Depression.
Joe saw a talented young quarterback march a team 80 yards on an opening drive for a touchdown. He saw a defense suffocate an opponent and score on turnovers.
Joe felt transformed to some stadium up north, where fans not just expect, but demand January football regularly.
Alas, it was the Bucs. Yes, Joe’s mentioned the strong play of America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston quite a bit, but how about that defense? Joe wasn’t the only one excited.
Stripped-of-play-calling-duties defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier even had to temper his excitement for what he saw, as he talked about yesterday.
“You put it in perspective when you consider it’s still the preseason, but there were so many positives that happened at that ball game – the takeaways, the pass rush that we had, the way the guys played and played fast,” Frazier said. “It was really encouraging and you would like to develop some consistency going forward. [Against Cleveland], the starters will play a little longer so you hope to build on what happened on Monday night and then carry it on through September 13th and throughout the regular season.”
Well, Joe isn’t sure if Lovie Smith taking over the defense was why the Bucs suddenly looked like the old Bucs, or whether it was just a coincidence or a window to the future.
Joe is still trying to figure out what those things are when defensive ends tackle a quarterback behind the line.
August 28th, 2015 at 8:32 am
nut sack
August 28th, 2015 at 8:36 am
In Lovie we trust…
August 28th, 2015 at 9:36 am
Joe, I see slot of hate from commenters whoo bash the Bucs for smashing the Bengals when they played “vanilla” and supposedly we did not, but give the Vikings credit for smashing us on their second game (our 1st) when we played vanilla and they did not??? What say you? Lol
August 28th, 2015 at 9:37 am
I guess we now know who Lovie’s “Fall guys” are!!!!!
August 28th, 2015 at 9:41 am
O-line will need to holdup Sat night!! Brownies have a big strong D-line.
August 28th, 2015 at 9:43 am
It’s PRESEASON
…….calm down
August 28th, 2015 at 10:04 am
Or the Bengals were that bad.
August 28th, 2015 at 10:30 am
Enough talk show me improvement in the regular season.
August 28th, 2015 at 10:54 am
The Defensive play from 1st teamers Monday night was VERY encouraging. Yea – its still pre-season, but I believe the effort in the Bengals game was a definite sign of what we can expect to see more of during the season. This team is going to get better and better as the year progresses. If the Bucs can somehow put themselves in position to make the playoffs – they could be dangerous at the end of the year. Time will tell. Saturday’s game against the Browns will tell us more.
August 28th, 2015 at 11:07 am
@santos..I completely agree!!GO BUCS!!!
August 28th, 2015 at 11:31 am
All of you whining about its just preseason, show me in the regular season.
SHUT UP!!!
It’s not the regular season yet, it’s preseason. The team looked great for a change. Lets be happy with the improvement that we have seen so far. Lets encourage them and support them and look forward to a hopefully much improved team this season
August 28th, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Didn’t BucsAnthem say by the end of the Bengals game we’d be regretting taking the “wrong QB” ? I think you might just be the wrong kind of special.
August 28th, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Nodak- they looked good in the 3rd pre season game last year then looked like garbage for 14 out of 16 games. So it’s only natural to not embrace this team until they prove it