Preparation
September 29th, 2020
Peter Schrager of NFL Network had a very interesting observation earlier this week.
Schrager, the closet Bucs fan who co-hosts “Good Morning Football” seen weekday mornings on NFL Network, noted that the Bucs have outscored opponents 31-0 in the first quarter of their first three games. How wild is that?
Those numbers have a deeper meaning to Joe. It demonstrates that the Bucs are coached up, prepared for kickoff, ready to pounce on opponents.
It also tells Joe that the biggest and brightest coaching staff has scouted opponents rather well. What a refreshing change this is.
The Bucs currently lead the NFL in points scored in the first quarter. And that is allegedly with an offense that park-violating, home-invading, NFLPA-ignoring Bucs quarterback Tom Brady is uncomfortable with — and with an offense with virtually no running game.
How many years did the Bucs always seem to be losing early in games? It used to drive Joe wild how unprepared Raheem Morris’ teams were to start games. The Bucs were always playing from behind. Joe wrote numerous articles how the Bucs, with Morris as coach, should have hired an outside consultant to help figure out why the Bucs so often either dropped the ball in preparation or scouting.
The Bucs were bottom of the barrel in scoring in the first quarter under Morris. It also was not an uncommon trait in the Lost Decade.
With the exception of former Bucs commander Greg Schiano and Bucco Bruce Arians, the Bucs almost always finished in the bottom half of the NFL in scoring in the first quarter of games.
NFL Rank First Quarter Scoring
2010: 29th
2011: 30th
2012: 9th
2013: 10th
2014: 31st
2015: 23rd
2016: 18th
2017: 12th
2018: 19th
2019: 3rd
2020: 1st (through three games.)
Again, Joe believes this is a combination of strong scouting and attention to detail in preparation. Either way, it is a welcome change from the trend developed in the Lost Decade.
September 29th, 2020 at 3:46 pm
Gotta play 4 quarters as #1
……cause KC is the team to beat!
September 29th, 2020 at 3:52 pm
Can we find out NDogs real name and Address I’d like to send him a Picture of Jameis Winston holding a clipboard and a sympathy card .
September 29th, 2020 at 3:57 pm
Joe is right. Its the coaching staff. The stats speak for themselfs. 3rd last year as well. But let us give no credit to Byron for this improvement. He is reseved to be the scapegoat for only the wrong things. Hes not alliwed to revieve any credit.
September 29th, 2020 at 4:00 pm
Michael Lombardi says that the most important stat to determine winning in the NFL is first half point differential. So if we continue to win the first quarter thats good (obviously).
September 29th, 2020 at 4:04 pm
and crappy defense
September 29th, 2020 at 4:24 pm
KCs core players on offense and OC have been playing together for years….
they have CHEMISTRY….
BL and the offense is just warming up….we’ll continue to improve each week…
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 29th, 2020 at 4:30 pm
You receive credit when your worthy of it. Need I say more?
September 29th, 2020 at 4:33 pm
@Colin in CA . Has Michael Lombardi watched Falcons games ?
September 29th, 2020 at 4:41 pm
The only thing that’s bothered me on the other side of the coin… 3rd quarter seems we do our worst.. which to me means the other coahxes are making great half time adjustments and we aren’t being flexible enough. It’s great we have a game plan coming in, but we should be willing to adjust as the other team does and have some flexibility
September 29th, 2020 at 4:53 pm
Yeah thats a good point about the falcons but they exceptionally bad at closing out games
September 29th, 2020 at 5:00 pm
where are the ranked and the other three quarters, because the last I checked you play four quarters of football.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:14 pm
after the initial point scoring onslaught, there is usually a lull and it gets worse as the game goes on…
hopefully they can work on a steady scoring balance throughout the game…
other teams are gonna be ready for the initial scoring burst in future games
September 29th, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Clearly you can see the offensive play calls have advanced weekly becoming a more intricate web of deception based off of so many super receiving targets.
Moving Shady around can help to open things up but his ball protection is
SUPER SCARY!
I am dressing up as Shady for Halloween. scary with the ball. YIKES!!!
I could be wrong but I feel a QB Spy this game.
Somethin tells me he’s gonna try to run and use draws and underneath stuff.
You don’t think a OC notices 4 INT in 2 weeks? 13 sacks in 2 weeks?
Countless QB pressures and knockdowns? The Chargers aren’t ready for this fight but we are.
GO BUCS!!!!
September 29th, 2020 at 5:24 pm
Lack of early turnovers and strong defense……equals 30=0
September 29th, 2020 at 5:27 pm
I still remember how Paul Harvey used to say … “And now for the rest of the story”. Yes our offense scored 31 points in the 1st qtr this season, but if I was going to give any kudos for PREPARATION, it’d be equally if not more-so to our DEFENSE & S/Ts for the turnovers that they’ve generated in the 1st qtr.
Bucs scored a TD on our 1st drive of the season by rushing 7 times against the Saints versus 4 passes. Our 2nd drive ended in a punt.
Bucs punted on our 1st drive against the Panthers (1 run/2 passes), but then our DEFENSE intercepted the ball & our offense scored a TD (3 runs/7 passes) on our 2nd drive. Our DEFENSE then forced a fumble & our offense scored a TD (1 pass) on our 3rd drive.
Bucs S/Ts blocked a punt on the Broncos 1st drive and our offense scored a TD (2 passes) on our 1st drive. We punted on our 2nd drive (4 passes) and kicked a FG on our 3rd drive (5 passes).
So what I see is our offense capitalizing on turnovers generated by our DEFENSE (2 TOs) & S/Ts (1 TO). That’s excellent COMPLIMENTARY FOOTBALL IMO (we scored on each TO), and it’s certainly helped by the fact that our DEFENSE has allowed ZERO points in the 1st qtr (getting the ball back to the offense). On 1st qtr drives that didn’t involve TOs, Bucs offense scored 2 other TDs & punted 3 times.
September 29th, 2020 at 5:32 pm
The next few games will determine this but i think the lack of points in the 2nd halfs is blown out of porportion.
Just looking at the Broncos game you can write off the 4thQ as our gameplan was to bleed out the clock and we were successful. It was mistakes that cost us scoring opportunities in the 3rdQ(pretty much the same at Carolina. Starting at 1st & 20 really hampered us. Didnt we even see a 3rd & 28? Not to much in the playbook for that situation.We also ruined a golden opportunity after the saftey that took away a good return.
And while the 3 points doesnt look great that was a big FG. It put us up by 3 scores and ended any hope for Denver.
The frustrating thing is whats holding us back is the same crap that was holding us back in week 1. Pentalties, drops…….Its all cute right now since we are winning but ots in the way of our ultimate goal if we can figure it out.
Hopefully soon we see a clean and complete game.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:06 pm
Smooth…forget it. I doubt Ndog needs more pictures of Jameis. His football den wall is probably covered with them already.
September 29th, 2020 at 6:28 pm
mark2001, you know Ndog is decked out in Jay Miss underwear!!!!!!!!
(Extra credit for Realist exclamation points!!!!!)
September 29th, 2020 at 6:45 pm
Nice recap Defense Rules and what a refreshing sight…a D that plays like their hair is on fire to compliment an O loaded with talent
Kudos to all 3 sides for doing their part