Irked By Pass Rush
September 2nd, 2017
Edge rush discussion.
It is getting to the point that Joe can’t buy bottled beer any longer because he is scared he will do serious damage to his house by going all Nolan Ryan and fastballing dead soldiers at his TV.
This utter nonsense that the Bucs are so inept at finding and developing an edge rush from a defensive end is driving Joe mental. It is simply inexcusable for a franchise, through three general managers and five coaching staffs, to be unable to find and mold a pass rush is beyond Joe’s comprehension.
In any other walk of life there would be federal inquiries on the abject incompetence this franchise has demonstrated in obtaining and/or developing an edge rush.
And the one guy this franchise seemed to groom to rush the passer, they let get away for no good reason.
There is a large dent on the door to Joe’s fridge where he has punched it so many times over this nonsense.
Well, it seems winning Bucs coach Dirk Koetter is beginning to get fed up with this crap as well. Speaking Friday, Koetter discussed the lack of an edge rush and indicated injuries may part of the curse.
“Well, I don’t think we are probably where we need to be, but I don’t think we’ve played with a full, healthy deck of cards for a whole game yet, so I think that’s probably still evolving and that’s something that is going to have to be a work in progress here,” Koetter said. “Hopefully we can stay injury-free as we do get into the regular season.”
That hardly sounds to Joe like a ringing endorsement that the pass rush will be fine.
And the folks who outed themselves as fools who want stud defensive tackle Gerald McCoy run have gotten a taste of what life is like without him this preseason. It’s the equivalent of nursing a warm can of Stag beer.
It is simply shameful how this franchise has wet the bed year after year trying to find an edge rush, to no avail. And the lone time the team did find a decent defensive end to get after the quarterback, they ran him out the door, which was a kick-in-the-nuts move to any loyal Bucs fan, the absolute stupidest stunt this side of running Darrelle Revis out of town. (Joe has been on some serious, serious benders in his life, but never so inebriated or blackout drunk as to want to toss two potential Hall of Famers like Michael Bennett and Revis out on the street.)
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:10 am
Pass game is pass rush and coverage…coverage scares me, grimes and Hargreaves are awesome pair…niclkle I don’t know?
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:19 am
Live by the Blitz, Die by the Blitz for yet another year.
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:40 am
Swaggy? Jacques? 2 keys to this issue…not enough cover corners…Get violent with the rush…relentless!!!! A relentless rush..move it you f’n millionaires! Love the game, like it used to be!!!!
September 2nd, 2017 at 12:54 am
With gmc in or out pass rush still sucks.
September 2nd, 2017 at 1:32 am
fast-balling dead soldiers lol …been there done that …although not at the TV
September 2nd, 2017 at 2:10 am
Lets give it a couple/few regular season games to see what we’ve really got before going all postal about the lack of edge rush again this year – shall we?
Ayers is a solid player and Noah Spence should be better than last year when he had a very respectable rookie season – especially playing as hurt as he was for most of the season.
The middle should be getting good push on pass plays from the GMC, Baker, McDonald trio and that will make things a bit easier for whoever happens to be lining up at DEs
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:03 am
The complaints about our edge rush are just way too early. We get pressure from the tackle spot as well as any team and our linebackers can pull off some of the most exotic blitzes in the NFL. It’s a fact we don’t have a Von Miller who can seal the edge and haunt a QBs dreams in the same game. But if Ayers/Gholston do the sealing and Noah Spence does the haunting… I’m gonna be just fine, as will our pass rush
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:20 am
Offense has been taken care of hopefully, next couple of years we concentrate on defense
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:20 am
Stop wasting picks on kickers would probably help too
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:21 am
Or fullbacks, just saying
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:24 am
I never realized how small Noah Spense is until he got in that fight early in camp. He truely looks linebacker size. In the cleaveland game on one play he was trying to bull rush a man twice his size and the Oline dude stood him up and held him off like he was a little kid. Why is Spence trying to bull rush people?
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:25 am
Agree with Pickgrin, let’s give it a few weeks and see where we are.
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:29 am
I agree with Pickgrin.
September 2nd, 2017 at 5:44 am
How ironic isn’t it the J E T S just traded Mohamed Wilkerson…
September 2nd, 2017 at 6:04 am
Seems like I remember a line from earlier years “You get what you pay for”. (Well, hopefully you get what you paid for). In the Bucs DLine case, we paid 3 DTs on the interior of the line … McCoy, McDonald & Baker … some reasonable $$$. Our 5-6 DEs on the exterior … Gholston, Ayers, Spence plus 2-3 … don’t make but a fraction of what our DTs make as a group. And folks complain? Pick up JJ Watt and his salary THEN we can complain if he doesn’t perform. We could’ve signed Calais Campbell & used him primarily off the edge, but we didn’t. Now’s not the time to complain about pass rush. That ship sailed.
We are who we are. If the Bucs are gonna get pressure on opposing QBs this year, I think it’ll largely be as a result of interior DT push, squeezing & containment from the DEs, plus well-designed & well-executed LB blitzes. Not unlike how the 2015 Panthers operated when they went 15-1 and made it to the Super Bowl.
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:04 am
It still amazes me that we can’t draft and develop quality DEs.
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:20 am
Yup. Blitz them speedy linebackers. Even beckwith looks the part
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:26 am
We should pick up rookie karter schult from the Browns. It’s worth a shot looking at him.
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:35 am
Joe, youre way past drunk if you think Michael Bennett is potentially HOF.
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:36 am
Are we surprised?
September 2nd, 2017 at 7:46 am
@Joe
why the panic???? Is this the same defensive line on the defense that as Warren Sapp described as “choking out teams”????????? is this not the roster with your “beasting Robert Ayers”???? Why were the Bucs top ten in sacks but the QB pressure was lower???? The answer is Coaching and scheme!!!! That is what made the defense work last year!!!!!!
At the beginning of last year, the money pressure play was the double a gap blitz with LVD54 and KA58!!! But teams started to catch up when they saw both sneaking up to the line!!!!! What really made this Defense good was when the DE injuries came up and NS57 consistently on the field!!!! GMC was still a bit healthy and getting doubled!!! NS57 was doubled with a tackle and RB and the other DT and DE was 1 on 1!!! this let Coach Smitty bring just 1 from the back 7 free and clear!!!! Even Daryl Smith was getting good pressure in the middle of the defensive run!!!!!
This will be the recipe for the first couple of games then we will start seeing the sprinkle of 3-4 which would be closer to putting the strongest group on the field!!!
The key is the health of NS57 and GMC!!! GMC cannot have another year of where he plays like a hall of famer in the training camp and preseason, Then plays like a pro-bowler for the first 4 games then gets nicked up and plays injured and is just an OK players for the rest of the season!!!!!! They have to be healthy to get full attention so we can have a man free!!!!!! Then Coach Smitty can pick his spots to “Bring it”!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why do you think they were so good on 3rd downs!!!!!!!!!!!
While the sheep and out of date analyst cry about not having a perennial pro-bowl DE that gets his sack a game and constant QB pressure, The “Real” fans will be watching the chess match that Coach Smitty will put on display!!!! and was very successful last year!!!!!!!
It must be Labor Day Weekend because I just let this school class out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Go Bucs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
September 2nd, 2017 at 8:08 am
Im with dream big, spence would thrive at lb. Hopefully they dont end up trading him for peanuts to another team smart enough to convert him like rams did with Barron to LB.
September 2nd, 2017 at 8:10 am
Priority 1 is stop the run which McCoy needs to improve at. Cant sit there a say swaggy has to do it. McCoy needs to be more stout in the middle. Force some 3rd and long and blitz will work then.
September 2nd, 2017 at 8:25 am
@BFFL … “Force some 3rd and long and blitz will work then.” ‘3rd & long’ is what every defense aspires to I’m sure BFFL, but ‘3rd & 4 or less’ is probably a lot more likely. And blitzing on ‘3rd & long’ can easily open up the quick, short pass to a WR, TE or RB that we’ve seen work so many times in the past. It’s all situational IMO, and that’s where great coaching succeeds more times than not in playing the cat & mouse game.
September 2nd, 2017 at 8:53 am
Aquib Talib, Adrian Claiborne, Mark Barron (could’ve been Luke Kuechly), Michael Bennett… SMH
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:29 am
People give Spence a chance !!! Limited playing time rookie year 5.5 sacks and played injured. How can you complian about his performance. Fans trying to move the guy already got to let people develop. How quickly you forget lynch and Barber were terrible for a few years before they became great.
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:37 am
I could see us doing some moves when players are cut. Devin Taylor was cut by the Giants. Had a decent couple of years in Detroit and still only 27
September 2nd, 2017 at 9:47 am
Maybe the DL Coach we got from the Bangals isn’t as good as we think he is.
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:26 am
Revis was washed up. Get over it Joe
September 2nd, 2017 at 10:42 am
Excuse me guys but what am I missing here. Do sacks only count if delivered by a “traditional” DE like Rice? Isn’t the D a team…shouldn’t the metric actually be how many sacks we get. I get that tipped and rushed passes are also important but that takes us into some serious stat breakout.
Let’s just stick to sacks for the sake of comparison.
With gmc in or out pass rush still sucks.
That is simply UNTRUE! To my way of thinking “sucks” means at minimum in the bottom half and actually should be the bottom half dozen.
Last year the Bucs were not only in the top half they were 11th in the league in sacks and if they had gotten more sack yardage…they tied in number for 9th..they would have been top ten. But is 11th that horrible?
What am I missing here? Some might say yeah but we inflated that number with strong play in the second half…again IMHO IF that’s true that’s just more impressive. Finishing 11th…ahead of teams like the Cowgirls…..:Pats!!! Dolphins (who spend ton on their DL) and the Falcons and Saints…we trailed only Carolina in our division is not sucking. Somebody explain this to me.
https://www.sportingcharts.com/nfl/stats/team-sacks-and-sack-yards/2016/
September 2nd, 2017 at 11:50 am
Its good Dirk is worried about the pass rush. because..he should be! Look for us to pick up a couple of DE’s during final cutdowns. You can never have enough pash rushers. Its always been our bread and butter from day one..way back in the 70’s. Had we not passed over Aaron Donald long ago..we would not be in this position today!!! MANS A BEAST. He’s everwhere.
September 2nd, 2017 at 3:42 pm
If you don’t draft someone you need to sign someone. I brought up this example yesterday but the Bucs in 2000 had Marcus Jones coming off a season where he had 13 sacks. He’s a young first round pick with 13 sacks – that’s fantastic right? Wrong, the team goes and signs Simeon Rice because they’re not hung up on stats. Most of Jones sacks were just falling on someone after Sapp destroyed the other team’s offense (and no McCoy haters, that doesn’t mean McCoy stinks because he’s not a 1st ballot HOF that defined a position). So the team signs Rice and Jones goes on to get 3 more sacks his entire career.
The point being the Bucs in this case did draft a guy who put up good numbers, but they weren’t satisfied with stats, they wanted a game changer, so they spent huge money to sign Simeon Rice. Can you image the fake outrage from Bucs “fans” in 2001 if Twitter had existed – how dare you sign a big money FA that can’t play the run after we have a superstar stud DE that has 13 sacks last year?!?! Rice stinks he only had 7.5 sacks last year and you give him HUGE money!!!
Anywho point being if you can’t develop your own guys, then buy someone. The Bucs have been buying guys who career years are 7.5 sacks and that’s why the FA signings have all been non-factors.
September 2nd, 2017 at 8:05 pm
Too much emphasis on actually putting the QB on his a$$. The problem is they have essentially the same cast from last year, trying to make the QB get rid of the ball before he wants to. Baker benefited from the edge presence of Ryan Kerrigan. The bucs have no one remotely close to Kerrigan’s production. Sacks will come from the coverage on the backend, if at all. Spence came in several pounds lighter than last year. You lose weight as the season goes on. He’s not getting around anyone at 240 or less, especially since he’s not as strong as you would like your DE to be. Spence is quick, not fast. 4.65 around the edge is nowhere Von Miller, Bud Dupree, Vic Beasley speed…all three run in the 4.45-4.5 range. They really need him to stand up and rush, because getting in a three point stance just makes it harder against big guys with quick feet…who already have the advantage just from where they line up.