“Might Have Overthrown A Few”
September 20th, 2016
Was Bucs coach protecting his QB or mocking his WRs?
Joe is a big spoken-word kind of guy when it comes to the NFL. What coaches and front office types say in public and what they believe in private are two very different things.
Often — and this is hardly exclusive to the NFL — a coach or a suit will use a public forum to motivate someone or to CYA for someone.
For example, it got Joe’s rapt attention last week when wide receivers coach/offensive coordinator Todd Monken called out Vincent Jackson for blowing a route leading to a pick of America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston. That wasn’t just candor, folks. Monken said that for a reason. Hhhmm?
So take Dirk Koetter. The Bucs coach has a weekly Monday sitdown with dangerous Dan Lucas of WFLA-TV Channel 8. Lucas asked Koetter about how the offense melted down Sunday and Koetter’s response was quite curious to Joe.
“The issue wasn’t protection, even though there was pressure,” Koetter said. “The issue was, we either turned it over, or the throwing-and-catching part. We missed. We missed or we had breakdowns either in our route or Jameis might have overthrown a few balls.
“We just didn’t make some plays that you have to be able to make. When a team is bringing pressure, they are exposing themselves to giving up big plays down the field and we weren’t able to make those plays.”
Might have overthrown a few? This is why Joe doesn’t get so bent about passes that don’t always hit a guy in the numbers.
What route was the receiver running? Often, and Joe has seen this a number of times in practice, Jameis will let loose with a pass before a receiver even breaks his route. It’s not always as simple as playing catch with a kid in the backyard.
So is this another jab by Koetter or one of his staffers, a very public jab, for the wide receivers to wake up and run crisper routes or fight more for a ball?
Very interesting messages seeming to be sent in recent days.
September 20th, 2016 at 6:31 am
@Joe … “We missed. We missed or we had breakdowns either in our route or Jameis might have overthrown a few balls.” I might be misinterpreting what Koetter’s saying Joe, but sounds to me like he’s saying the whole offense was out of tune. Jameis overthrew some? Check. WRs had route breakdowns? Check. Turnovers hurt us? Check. Oh ya, we left a bad smell in the desert. Check.
Effective reality check. Tells me that if Bucs don’t bring their A-game each and every week they’ll get thumped. This team isn’t good enough to just show up and win, especially not against Top 5 teams like the Cardinals. And not even against teams like the Rams.
By the way, Koetter’s statement about teams who bring lots of pressure exposing themselves to big plays downfield I think tells us a lot about his game plan and play-calling this past Sunday. His going to ME13 a total of 17 times says a lot too. Risky strategy unless Jameis is right on (deep) and/or the WRs are stepping up big-time. Personally prefer the more patient attack that eats up the clock and keeps the other team’s offense off the field, with a periodic throw deep throw if their defense gets sucked in. Cards secondary obviously more than held their own Sunday … kudos to them.
September 20th, 2016 at 7:03 am
These large body receivers/TE’s are not the fastest players on the field so it is very important to establish position to where they can block out or out jump the defender. Much harder for timing passes like crossing patterns without being quick or just flat out speed. Would hate to take Vjax off the field, but something is just not right with him. Hopefully it is just something like being up a little and not an attitude problem. I really like him, but his lack of fight and overall passion is concerning.
September 20th, 2016 at 7:23 am
Wow Joe, did you watch the game? Jameis overthrew almost every pass he threw Sunday. I love the guy but he had a horrible game and I would say that all of those overthrows were on him. C’mon man! Jameis is not perfect!
September 20th, 2016 at 7:25 am
They expected the downfield throws and welcomed them. Maybe if we would of dinked and dunked things would of turned out different.
September 20th, 2016 at 7:32 am
Love how tje issues of the QB are getting pinned on the WRs.
Bottom line is JW has not been on whay so ever the first two games.
He got bailed out by two highlight real catches and an amazing highlight real catch in run week one.
VJax looks peeved no doubt because JW can hit him and VJax aint willing to expose himself this early in the season.
The problem is with JW not throwing the ball accurate… We have to stop kidding ourselves when we look at whay he is doing on the field…
We really need to start him with bootlegs and deaigned roll outs… He gets locked in after a few throws on the move… We dont need him going all Freeman on us and forget how to scramble and throw….
His best passes last week came with him on the move… Including the first one of the game…
VJax will make the catch bit JW MUST give him a chance… Bad route or not… Unless its the wrong one you gotta get it close… VJ looks annoyed cause even perfect routes are being missed by Jamiss…
That ME ball that got picked deep was completely on JW… ME gave him the entire left hash to throw him wide freaking open… Thats why when he looked for it he lost it… The ball was on the right hash… Dropped perfectly into Petersons arms…
ME looked like VJax after thay pass… ANNOYED…
SAY WHAT YOI WANT BUT OUR QB HAS TO WALK THE WALK IF HE HOPES TO HAVE THESE GUYS FOLLOW HIM
September 20th, 2016 at 8:00 am
“The issue wasn’t protection, even though there was pressure,” Koetter said. “The issue was, we either turned it over, or the throwing-and-catching part. We missed. We missed or we had breakdowns either in our route or Jameis might have overthrown a few balls”
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A FEW????????????
September 20th, 2016 at 8:10 am
Call me crazy, but with their DB’s , I expected to see a lot of TE’s and Sims catching passes. We didn’t see hardly any of those. I know ME is as talented as it gets, but Jameis really needs to learn to stop using him as a crutch.
We could point the finger at Koetter too. Take that pick 6 for example. He called four bubble screens in row. It’s no surprise they figured it out. Yeah, it was kind of a fluke play, but that first tip wasn’t a fluke. The defender knew exactly when and where Jameis was going to throw it.
We also keep forgetting Jameis is still very young and is going to be wildly inconsistent for a while yet.
September 20th, 2016 at 8:44 am
yes there were overthrows,there were at least one that fluttered.and the first three attempt to Vjax were either behind or uncatchable.Quite a few throws were behind the recievers.Koetter just didn’t want to pile on Jameis.Fact is on Sunday, a review of the passes showed that Jameis was behind his recievers
also that is not route running.perhaps the experiment with jameis and Humphries on deep passes needs to stop.Jameis and VJAX need to work together because I saw VJAX open on first three attemts and Jameis missed him badly.after that it was on Vjax for the miscues.Why does it always seem like the deep endzone passes seem like they are 50-50 passes. Evans had inside position and the the whole left side of the endzone open. It is not realistic to think Evans is going to outrun Peterson especially when he stride for stride with Evans.Back shoulder route would have been safer in this instance.
September 20th, 2016 at 9:01 am
Koetter is not the kind of coach that mocks players .If they did something
wrong he will say it directly.
September 20th, 2016 at 9:12 am
Well young JW will have to get better fast. Teams are going to just repeat the formula… Blitz six, play man. Force Winston to be accurate and force his checkdown back to stay and protect.
September 20th, 2016 at 9:27 am
@ JAB that is a ludicrous statement about Jameis in the first game. The dude was lights out and damn near perfect after the 1st quarter. He was the offensive player of the week for Christ sake! You’re just showing that you’re a hater when you make dumb statements like that!
September 20th, 2016 at 10:14 am
Just to add to what everyone is saying, NO RUN GAME. Once Doug went out the Cards didn’t worry about the run. JW threw 52 passes, 52!!! Forget the interceptions. If Jameis is throwing 52 times in a game, we’re in trouble simple as that.
I don’t know what the aversion is to running behind a fullback. You see your QB is struggling in a game. I don’t know, scale it back maybe?
September 20th, 2016 at 11:40 am
The Bucs just got beat by a better team, that’s what I saw in the game. It wasn’t close and the Bucs laid a stinker. I don’t think the Bucs could beat Arizona if they played them multiple times this season.
September 20th, 2016 at 12:17 pm
Did ME catch a TD against arguably the best DB in the league?
Must have been my imagination! Wonder who threw that ball?
It’s ONE GAME!!!
September 20th, 2016 at 3:33 pm
trent dilfer was on the radio and he said JW threw 15 off target passes.Not picking on JW but I do wonder what caused all the misthrows.Hope he picks himself up and has a great game this week.
another 4:00 game,hope we don’t get Charles white again.