Getting After The QB
September 12th, 2019
“Same ol Bucs.”
The Bucs, for over a decade, have treated pass-rushing like a toenail.
You get up every morning and put your socks on and you see that toenail grow ever so slightly day after day, getting bigger and bigger but you ignore it until it tears a hole in a sock.
Then, time for the clipper.
For whatever reason, the Bucs’ back-burner thinking when it comes to a pass rush just confounds and confuses Joe on a daily basis. Through three front office administrations, pass rusht is ignored until it cannot be ignored any longer and then still, the toenail isn’t trimmed enough.
Oh sure, every few years the Bucs will draft an edge rusher with a high pick or drop a boatload of Team Glazer loot into a guy’s lap and even after the new lineman proves to be bogus or a con artist, the team continues to look the other way, hoping above hope some magic drops from the sky and the subpar lineman suddenly becomes Reggie White.
It never works.
To his credit, current Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht did put a stop to this nonsense while thieving Jason Pierre-Paul from the Giants. But not only did JPP, who was excellent last year, prove not to be enough, but his career is in jeopardy after suffering a broken neck in a car accident.
Even then, the team just shrugged its shoulders and apparently prayed a rosary once a week with the hope — there is that word again — JPP would return this season.
We still do not know if that will happen as JPP is on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury list. But when it comes to a pass rush over the past 14 seasons, the Bucs sure do bank a lot on hope. Like a degenerate gambler playing craps who talked himself into believing he can fund his retirement at the tables.
Sooner or later, he will hit the jackpot, right?
Well, remember this past offseason how various members of the Bucs waved off or openly scoffed about the need to draft or sign a pass rusher with JPP shackled in a neck brace? The most common refrain was that Bucs fans aren’t used to watching a four-man front and just didn’t know that the new 34 defense, under Todd Bowles, can get pressure on a quarterback any number of ways.
We will blitz this guy and that guy and this fellow over here and that guy over there, the Bucs said. From the left side, from the right side, up the middle. Why, a quarterback won’t know what is coming. A dedicated edge rusher isn’t necessary, you see. A linebacker or a corner or a safety can blitz the quarterback, too.
Well, per information dug up by the good people of NFL Films, analyzing tape for BSPN’s NFL Matchup, the Bucs are the same ol’ Bucs went it comes to quarterback pressure based on Week 1 results.
In short, the percentage of dropbacks where the Bucs put pressure on San Francisco quarterback Jimmy GQ was pretty grim.
The Bucs got pressure on Jimmy GQ just 10.7 percent of the time, per NFL Films, second-worst in the NFL. The Bucs’ opponent last Sunday, the 49ers, were fourth-best getting pressure on America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, on some 40 percent of Jameis’ dropbacks.
Of course, Bucs legend and 49ers general manager John Lynch believes in a pass rush and has devoted large chunks of draft capital into building a gnarly defensive line. That investment paid off.
To quote former Bucs linebacker and sports radio personality Scot Brantley, it’s about want-to. The Bucs have demonstrated for over a decade they do not place a high priority on a pass rush. The 49ers do. And we saw the results of those contrasting philosophies on Sunday.
That’s all there is to it.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:10 am
Stats are for losers.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:14 am
The defense played great last week. Spinning it into a negative is nonsense. Considering how terrible this defense was the last two years, with mostly the same guys, it’s really encouraging to see what we saw.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:15 am
Joe you maybe wrong as far as ignoring the position , it’s more like failing. During lovie they signed many FA d- lineman and they were terrible. At the time they might have been too FA. after that fiasco they backed off and JPP along with many others were signed last year again that didn’t pan out.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:16 am
The defense played well enough to win against the 49er’s!! When the OFFENSE hands 14 points to the opposing team it is almost impossible to win. Get rid of Jameis!!!
September 12th, 2019 at 12:16 am
Not “spinning” a damn thing and the defense did not play “great.” Joe calls “great” defense making the QB run for his life.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:18 am
Yes.
September 12th, 2019 at 12:48 am
To many more games like the last one and apathy will start to become a real issue… When everyone in playing their best and the game is going well just to have your QB mess it all up giving the ball right back, will cause people to slack and get tired of their own qb nullifying all their efforts and tiring them out having to go and get the ball back for him to give it right back to them again…
September 12th, 2019 at 1:10 am
You mean the Bengals got 50 percent pressure and you still lost? And Cowboys and Rams one of the least pressure and win? What’s the point of having a elite pass rush? In the Bucs defense they have tried.
Where the Anthony Nelson love? I think he look like he knew what he was doing more than Devin freaking White. Nelson never played
September 12th, 2019 at 1:47 am
I agree with Lamarcus.
Browns were 3rd best and got their a$$es beat bad.
I would obviously love to have a dominant D Line also, but you gotta start somewhere, and we all know by now where they started.
We will see if Sundays embarrassment makes a difference in 18 hours.
If not I’ll watch the Gators until Felipe, Winston’s clone, does something similar.
Then I’ll pray for T Lawrence etc.
September 12th, 2019 at 1:58 am
Singleminded Joe is back at it. This time with a very bizarre podiatric slant.
Does game planning enter the discussion whatsoever? Such as effectively keying to stopping the run?
Was the defense overall effective? Hell Yes!!! Best since Monte was running that side oif the ball.
Joe, keep.counting sacks and pressures, meanwhile I’ll watch and enjoy this largely young speedy defense come into their own.
Whine all you want, but a pass rush (or lack of) did not lose that football game. Not by a long shot.
Go Bucs!
In BA I Trust!
September 12th, 2019 at 3:18 am
Roughly half of the best pressure teams won, and roughly half of the worst won.
Take away 2 picks for TDs, and how many points did they give up? Is there any other stat that matters?
September 12th, 2019 at 3:56 am
@Joe,
(Please feel free to remove this post if you wish)
With all due respect and the spirit of constructive feedback. May I kindly suggest that You’ve taken a single metric and drawn an incomplete and possibly wrong conclusion. The reson is simple, theres another metric that can be included that either explains or can be attributed to the data you’ve supplied . Let’s call it a ghost metric.
This ghost metric explains much of the data you’ve supplied and it’s applicable in predicting today’s results. Actually, it better explains what you are seeing vs what you think you are seeing.
I will simply ask you if there’s an additional factor that you have forgotten to include?
September 12th, 2019 at 4:45 am
Oooh, I see that the ‘pass-rush-nag’ got out of the corral again. Yes Joe, it would be nice to have more of an outside pass rush, but that’s not why we lost Sunday’s game. Untimely penalties didn’t help (8-for-87 yds isn’t great but not really awful either). It was TURNOVERS that sealed our fate. BA can spin it any way he wants, but TURNOVERS lost that game.
Bucs now have the second most expensive STARTING OFFENSE in the NFL at $89.9 mil (behind the Packers at $94.2 mil). Our OFFENSE overall is THE most expensive in the NFL at $104.4 mil, while our DEFENSE comes in at a paltry $55.1 mil (coming in at #29 in the NFL). Supposedly that leaves us with about $3.6 mil Cap space today (just about enough to sign replacements for injured players during the year?).
Bucs (via our illustrious GM Jason Licht) made a choice … OFFENSE over DEFENSE in terms of Cap allocation. Big-time. What we’re left with is a very expensive, under-performing offense that has a propensity for TURNOVERS and PENALTIES. Different coordinators … same result. It’s middle-of-the-pack, at best, when it comes to scoring points. And we’re left with a young defense that showed promise in its first game of the 2019 season, yet is still very inexperienced. By design it pressures the QB via interior pressure & blitzes. It’s also designed IMO to effectively stop the run, make the opponent one-dimensional, and HOPEFULLY force turnovers. IMO, our defense did all that reasonably well in game 1, except for pressuring the QB via blitzing (didn’t look to me like we were that effective there). If the defense can continue to grow, it’ll be OK. It’s the Bucs’ OFFENSE that needs to man-up now.
September 12th, 2019 at 4:45 am
Who cares?!
It’s Thursday!
Bucs football is BACK!
We’re going to kick their asses tonight.
Cam won’t finish the game.
McCaffrey will be schemed into next week.
Arians won’t lose two in a row.
September 12th, 2019 at 4:48 am
JOE –
Bucs leaders – do not GET IT! Regarding the impact of Pass Rushers to our team success. We need pass rushers!
Yet, our QB (JW3) has to dip and dive, constantly, to overcome serious Pass rush. And our QB, gets ZERO credit, for how he overcomes pass rush, and delivers passes to Bucs receivers, under extreme pressure.
JW3 misses big time, too…..on many passes.
Yet, JW3, has also escaped extreme pressure, and delivered first downs, when seemed impossible.
Dak Prescott, with his elite Cowboys O-Line —can sit in QB pocket.
“Tie his shoe laces” while deciding who he will throw pass to for his
touchdown.
Dak Presott success is – totally prevalent on O-Line
First game at FSU for Jameis …JW3 had 25/27 night… vs Pitt…. with Aron Donald as DL…. yes, that Aron Donald….
NET – JW3 is an elite QB.
Zerso running game, and sad defense for 5 yrs. Pretend Leader, who
never wanted Jameis, as his QB.
How would you feel, if your leader, did not want you???
Bucs fans >> Give Jameis a chance to be our franchise QB..
.
September 12th, 2019 at 4:59 am
Did you all see this week’s @bobmemery post on Instagram?
It’s pretty funny.
Jameis Winston won the SBTF week 1 award!
Congratulations, Jameis!
September 12th, 2019 at 5:48 am
The debacle in Charlotte is just hours away.
September 12th, 2019 at 6:03 am
I’d like to see Licht stop getting so much credit for the JPP trade like it was the steal of the century. The steal would have been to take a chance and sign JPP when he blew his fingers off. He was a free agent that year and was forced to take a shi**y offer from the Giants because nobody wanted him…not even the Bucs. If ever there was an opportunity for low risk and high reward, that was it. Dude had ties to the area and a low dollar contract would have signed him. Since there was no signing bonus, the Bucs could have cut him at anytime without a cap hit. JPP was a gift wrapped present that the Bucs passed on and then traded draft capital later on just to get him. Licht deserves credit for the trade, but a savvy GM would have signed him as a free agent.
September 12th, 2019 at 6:54 am
Great post Defense Rules!
The defense suddenly has life. At the very least, it is improved. We need the offense to man up now.
Oh statistics! 2nd to last should have been good enough to win last week. Man I hate when the defense gives the ball away! Oh wait.
September 12th, 2019 at 8:07 am
Defense ,
The team wasn’t affective in the pass rush by design. There’s not much else that could have been done to improve it. Tonight will be the same and people will say we need better pass rushers . But that’s not what is going on.
Also, the defense is designed , as well as the team, to shut down the pass. Then the run game is the one dimensional part. Defense you are looking for answers to the game circa 1990.
September 12th, 2019 at 8:10 am
i disagree…..
“great” defense isnt just making a QB run for his life…..
great defense comes down to points allowed….
GO BUCS!!!!!!
September 12th, 2019 at 8:11 am
Love bucs,
How many years are you suggesting that we wait for winston to validate his draft status and contract value?
September 12th, 2019 at 11:53 am
D1.
This year, JW3 will validate his draft status and contract value.
September 12th, 2019 at 3:30 pm
Love Bucs,
Fair enough.
Is it about wins v losses or QBR or something based on a stat level. Honestly, just trying to listen to how you’d consider him successful at the years end.