Bucs Well Prepped For Bad Turf In Chicago
September 29th, 2018
One good thing about heading to play the Bears on Sunday is the Bucs are well prepared to perform on poor field conditions.
Can we get a tarp system for the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway, please?
The more you study the film of Monday night’s game in Tampa, the more you’ll see players on both teams struggling with their footing.
Yes, Raymond Jameis Stadium was built 20 years ago with the best drainage system money could buy. But Monday was a great example of the lunacy of having no cover for the field.
Rain was forecast for the early evening and then clearing out well before kickoff. And everything went on schedule. The deluge hit the field and the surrounding areas for just under and hour and things were good by roughly 7 p.m. — except the field was in bad shape for the rest of the night.
Where is the tarp?
Keeping water off a field should not baffle 21st century scientist — for a team and a league that wants to protect players. Surely the technology is there to have some sort of raised tarp system that doesn’t affect the grass.
Mike Evans told Joe this week that the field against the Steelers was as bad as he could remember, noting the team has played in the rain.
Cameron Brate took it a step further. He said the field was “pretty slick,” just part of playing in Tampa and “with USF playing on that field, too. The rain shower before the game didn’t help at all.”
Brate is preparing for similar issues Sunday.
“From hearing other guys talk about it, the field in Chicago is not always the best,” Brate said. “Hopefully, we all wear the right cleats and stay up. Guys slipping is a huge problem. You know, it really affects the passing game. It affects [defensive backs] breaking on the ball. So you just got to make sure that we get all our cleats on the ground and are confident in our breaks.”
Joe is annoyed that the Bucs haven’t figured out how to ensure a better home turf. Isn’t that more important than remolded club suites or a fancy video board? But Joe also thinks it could represent a positive on Sunday.
Rain is in the forecast through the morning in Chicago, with much less of a chance and temperatures in the mid-60s after the noon (central time) kickoff.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:06 am
Brent Grimes slipped and fell down just reading this.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:12 am
It seemed to me there were more Buccaneers slipping than Steelers, maybe northern teams are better at adapting to crappy fields. But you would think the Bucs would have the advantage.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:27 am
The field was a mess.
Bigger problem was it felt like an away game.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:36 am
They installed new mold in the club suites? What was rong with the old mold?
September 29th, 2018 at 11:42 am
Wet field didn’t help – but the real problem is playing a college football game on the same field just 48 hours prior…
That chits got to STOP!
USF either needs to be forced to play their “home” games the weeks when the Bucs are on the road – or better yet – build their own on-Campus (or just off) facility for football like almost every other 1A program has…
Expensive for USF? – sure. But how much revenue is the school bringing in each year and over the last 20 due to a thriving 1A football program? How many expenditures has USF had to incur thus far to have all the benefits of 1A football?
Project it all over the next 30 years and I’m pretty sure the school could “afford” to build a nice little 40-50,000 capacity facility for the USF Bulls to host football games in. One where on-campus and near-campus students could walk to the games. Ya know – like a normal D1 school has…
September 29th, 2018 at 11:46 am
Ive often wondered who the field conditions are so frequently bad at RJS.
Some questions that I suppose only the Glazers’ could answer:
Why do they let a college team play on and shred the field the night before ANY NFL game, much less MNF? Didn’t USF used to play in their own stadium?
Is it just a money thing? How much do the Glazers make off letting USF play there?
What about a tarp, like the Joes have mentioned?
What about some kind of tarp/cover system and only having the Bucs play there, so the grass has a full week to recover before the next game?
September 29th, 2018 at 11:49 am
agreed, go to Home Depot and buy a tarp. Unacceptable that ground staff don’t have the field better prepared. If it was a horse track, they would have run on the dirt… The value of players and the danger they face playing on crappy fields makes me wonder what is the point of a players union? And it’s not just Ray Jay, its places like the old Vet Stadium, that was a joke. The Dolphins new field is gonna get someone killed with the endzone fence not that far from the field!! Player safety is obviously not as important as getting spectators closer to the action….
September 29th, 2018 at 11:51 am
They replace the center strip after every USF game.
September 29th, 2018 at 11:52 am
Just watch, everybody will slip in Chicago except Mack…..
September 29th, 2018 at 12:05 pm
I think that part of the original funding agreement(see: taxpayer dollars) to build ray jay had some provision about letting USF use the field.
I don’t think they make anybody makes a ton off the one night rental.
I have always hated that it hasn’t been scheduled so that they play on it before us. Like Pickgrin said…
It is time for USF to get their own.
September 29th, 2018 at 12:14 pm
Those small USF crowds in RJS look pathetic, they would struggle to fill up a 30,000 seat stadium.
September 29th, 2018 at 1:18 pm
Just went to a couple of Chicago Bears sites (similar to JBF I’m sure) and didn’t realize the Bears are THAT GOOD. Wow, some very impressive performances in their first 3 games. Such as:
o Won 2, Lost 1 (but only by 1 point). Have only given up 54 pts in 3 games (18 PPG). That’s some pretty good defense against the Packers, Seahawks & Cardinals.
o Their AVERAGE time of Possession is 35 minutes per game (no wonder their defense is only giving up 18 PPG).
o Bears have averaged 28 rushes/game, for an average of 116 yds/game (a little over 4 yds/run). Not exceptional, but enough to eat up the clock.
o Bears offense has turned it over 5 times in 3 games (almost 2 turnovers/game) BUT … their defense has taken it away from their opponents a total of 8 times (almost 3 takeaways/game). In their 3 close games, turnovers have played a HUUUGE role.
Their commentators on those sites seem convinced that the Bears will run the ball down the throat of the Bucs interior DLine, wear ’em out and control the clock. That’s EXACTLY what they did in their first 3 games BTW. Not a really hard game-plan to figure out … good old-fashioned smash-mouth football. I seriously doubt that the Bucs defense has has enough beef left DLine trench to stop them for 4 qtrs. Bad feeling about this game. If Jameis doesn’t start, maybe he could play defense for awhile. Surely Smitty’s defense could use the help.
September 29th, 2018 at 1:40 pm
Bucs Rank 3rd in Rush Def an 1st in Offense bears can’t throw an that’s our weakness I’m pumped for this game
September 29th, 2018 at 1:49 pm
No one has yet mentioned another possible lost TD when Adam Humphries slipped down coming out of his break, leading an incompletion. The ball seemed well-thrown otherwise.
@Defense Rules:
You are absolutely right that TURNOVERS ALWAYS play a huge role, as I’ve posted ad nauseam. Hopefully, Trubisky will help us out with a couple of INTs.
tickrdr
September 29th, 2018 at 3:20 pm
Bucs defensive secondary perform quite a few SLIPS..both in running and tackling frequently! Chicago receeivers gotta be chompin at the bit. If we don’t get Defensive pressure up front? God help us in the..Yards after catch category against them Bears.
September 29th, 2018 at 3:52 pm
Just protect the ball and play smart and the game will come to the Bucs
September 29th, 2018 at 5:41 pm
30-17 bucs
September 29th, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Defenserules,
If the bears game plan is to play smash mouth, as long as the team scores like they have been, the bears are assured a loss. Scoring in the first quarter and half is the key to an easy victory.
September 29th, 2018 at 6:30 pm
Since we’re evenly matched with the Bears on both sides of the ball, I expect the game to be close, due to how poor our Defense has been and haven’t shown much improvement (especially against the pass), I don’t know what to expect against the Bears offense. On the other side of the ball, our running game to be real, has been stagnant. I definitely believe our WR’s can have a big game against their wounded Secondary, and Fitzpatrick could put up near 400 yards of passing again. My problem though is if we can’t run the ball, Monken will have no choice but to keep calling pass plays, and eventually Fitzpatrick will throw around 2-3 interceptions which will be what will cost us the game. Score Prediction: Bears win 31-28. Just being realistic.
September 29th, 2018 at 7:41 pm
I’ll be happy…but shocked…if the Bucs win.
If the Bears play smashmouth defense with a serious pass rush, our legs get cut off.
I don’t feel good about this game at all.
The Bucs defense is horrible. Forget the rushing stat. Who needs to run the ball when the Bucs give up massive yards through the air? Seriously: would YOU run the ball against the Bucs with that poor pass rush and d-backfield?
September 29th, 2018 at 10:43 pm
The Bucs defense is not as bad as every defense that the Bucs have faced, since the Bucs are #1 in passing yards, yards per games, and 4th in scoring.
September 30th, 2018 at 10:46 am
Everybody gives up big passing yards against Big Ben and Drew Brees. I doubt whether Chicago will have a huge day offensively. I worry more about our offense giving Fitz time. We have to establish a run game and if we can then we will win this game easily. I still think we win either way but if we become one dimensional it will be much closer.