“Pure Exhaustion” & “A Breath Of Fresh Air”
October 26th, 2018
The left side of the offensive line speaks
Joe believes the Bucs have new life in more ways than one as they march to Cincinnati for a critical game on the path to the playoffs.
One great thing is the offense was pushed to the brink of exhaustion Sunday against the Browns. That’s got to be fantastic for conditioning purposes — and especially pleasing to the haters who think Dirk Koetter ran a soft training camp.
Koetter admitted this week that the Bucs tired against Cleveland, and he added that there’s no excuse for that.
But the Bucs did grind out 95 snaps on offense, which is at least 40 percent more than a typical game workload. And it was a summer-like day at the Stadium on Dale Mabry Highway.
Asked on “The Ali & Donovan Show” about what it felt like at the end of the game, Donovan Smith went right to the pain of all those snaps. “Pure exhaustion,” Smith replied.
Yes, there was ugly overtime film on Smith that made it looked like he had given up, balanced by a load of great film displaying his power and footwork against a stout young Browns pass rushers. Frankly, Joe doesn’t understand why any professional player gets to the point of complete exhaustion (not partial) and doesn’t ask to come out of the game.
Anyway, Smith also talked about how the victory was a “breath of fresh air” after a three-game losing streak.
Joe thinks that latter take is important when it comes to the mentality of the Bucs on Sunday. They feel great about that “W,” even if it was very ugly. It did a ton for the team psyche and the defense now has some confidence.
Ali Marpet talked about the Bucs perhaps finally being on the cusp of putting together an all-phases game and how “scary” (good scary) that would be.
If that happens Sunday, man, that would be the ultimate breath of fresh air.
October 26th, 2018 at 10:34 am
That definitely explains why JW was getting hit almost every time he dropped back to pass. This lazy MF needs to man up and play with BALLZ. Exhausted or not.
October 26th, 2018 at 10:52 am
Blindside strip sack was on DSmith
October 26th, 2018 at 11:10 am
Winston himself seemed exhausted too….
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!!…GO BUCS!!!!
October 26th, 2018 at 11:22 am
That type of game is rare.
They will be fine and execute a good game-plan.
I’m sure that beat down for the Bengals which left a ton of players hurt, will still be having an effect.
Lack of confidence etc. It took the Bucs 3 weeks after a big loss to get right.
I’m really feeling the Bucs win big this game.
Not really sure why, but a win streak is coming, you can just feel it!!
Get by these next 2 and Tampa could easily be 8-3 after the 49ers game.
It’s got to be a huge load off their shoulders to know when they relax and play fast, the defense will be ok.
I’m sure those receivers are raring to go!!
October 26th, 2018 at 12:04 pm
Bengals 30 Bucs 27 Jw will be intercepted twice & fumble once.(Bengals recover)
October 26th, 2018 at 12:32 pm
I’m lost Joe. How does the offense being “pushed to the brink of exhaustion” equate to it being “fantastic for conditioning purposes”? It MIGHT improve their mental toughness, but physically going to the point of exhaustion probably does more to increase the chance of injury than anything else.
And it seems like Koetter admitting that the Bucs tired against Cleveland … and that there’s no excuse for that in his opinion … tells us that the Bucs weren’t in good enough physical shape in his eyes. Doesn’t that reflect back towards a ‘soft training camp’?
Hadn’t recognized that Bucs had 95 offensive snaps BTW (15 of those were in OT). That’s impressive. Cleveland in comparison only had 68 offensive snaps (9 of which came in OT). It’s really interesting (OK to me) looking at the Drives Summaries (can really tell you a lot for the game IMO). For instance, Browns had 14 drives total … 9 of those resulted in Punts (including the first 6 drives in the first half). Browns turned it over on Downs TWICE (plus scored 3 TDs of course). Bravo to the Bucs defense.
Bucs offense had 16 drives total … 4 drives ended in Punts; 2 resulted in INTs & 2 in fumbles; plus 1 ended in a safety & another 1 ended at the half; 2 ended in FGs made & another in a missed FG, while 3 ended up as TDs. Long day … and the Bucs offense managed to control the clock for 37:43. COMPLIMENTARY FOOTBALL .
October 26th, 2018 at 12:49 pm
Reality check!
40% more plays is SIGNIFICANT. Add in Tampa weather and it becomes huge. Ask a ditch digger or a roofer or other hard working guy out in the sun how he feels after a day with 40% overtime.
Joe is spot on with this piece. I agree with the poster who suggested 40% OT can leave players vulnerable to injury but once they got past that it’s a good thing. The disappointment of that three game losing streak and the hard fought win has to be a nice mental lift.
BTW…am I the only one who noticed this? JW actually had a look in his eyes in the 4th quarter…he seemed like his supreme confidence had deserted him and he seemed a bit frightened.
Maybe as another poster suggested he was also just gassed but he didn’t not look like the same JW in his eyes at the end.
October 26th, 2018 at 1:25 pm
TOM Says: “Bengals 30 Bucs 27 Jw will be intercepted twice & fumble once.(Bengals recover)”
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Way to keep the faith, man! Ouch. Clearly the glass is very empty.
Just kidding TOM, hope you are wrong. — Go BUCS
October 28th, 2018 at 8:43 am
Jameis poor play in overtime (several throws too high for any receiver) I knew was total exhaustion. He was too accurate during regulation to just lose it like that. You could be disappointed in him but I’m not he gutted it out and got the plays he had to but it was obvious and I’m just glad we got the w surprised Koetter didn’t call time out or throw Fitz in but you just can’t do that so yeah it was an ugly win but I loved it.
October 28th, 2018 at 8:47 am
By the way time for a signature win to catapult us into the postseason!! Let’s say Rojo finally breaks one to the house and we find a running game. There’s some optimism GO BUCS!!!!!!!