“We Aren’t Learning”
November 28th, 2020
Former Bucs offensive guard and current popular local sports radio personality Ian Beckles doesn’t like what he is seeing.
He sees the Bucs wanting to play a certain brand of football, despite lip service to the contrary. That brand of football is throw, throw and throw some more, preferably deep.
The problem with this, Beckles said, is when your quarterback can no longer throw deep — while you just boxed yourself in for a long game.
Beckles took to his podcast, “In the Trenches,” to sound off on the Bucs. Beckles is incredibly frustrated because he’s got bad vibes the Bucs will take what was a 7-2 record and find themselves in five weeks clawing just to have a chance at a wild card berth.
“The Bucs are lucky that was a competitive game because I thought they got grossly outplayed,” Beckles said of the loss to the Rams. “After you watch that game you have to ask yourself, ‘What are we hanging our hats on?’ What have they done the most consistent this season? Any good team you asked me what they do and I will say, ‘This, this, this and this.’
“It seems like we have a schizophrenic type of team. One week Brady is the most accurate and the next week he’s the least accurate. One week our running backs go off. The next week our running backs suck out loud. One week our DBs look fantastic and the next week they look the worst in the league. One week we have a good pass rush another week we let a quarterback come in our house on Monday Night Football and let the quarterback throw the ball 51 times and barely touch his arse.
“Zero sacks on 51 passes. That’s not winning football everybody. To not be able to run the football, and to not be able to rush the passer, they don’t go together.”
On running for 42 yards two weeks after rushing only five times:
“We aren’t learning.” … “When you’ve got two, you’ve got none. Neither one of them are worth a darn. They really are not. RoJo’s not a great running back, man. No way. He can’t catch at all and neither can [Leonard] Fournette.”
Beckles was particularly outraged that Jalen Ramsey stopped RoJo in his tracks for no gain on a play where RoJo had Ramsey one-on-one in the open field. Beckles said no running back worth his salt doesn’t get YAC on a corner in the open field, at least two or three yards.
On the offensive line:
“They are not physical at all. They need Ali Marpet back. They weren’t godawful protecting the passer.”
On playing what he thought was dumb football:
“We made enough mistakes to keep those clowns in the game.” Beckles harped about offsides penalties on third-and-short on defense. “You’ve got to be better than that. You’ve got to be better than that.”
On Tom Brady:
“He’s looked as bad as I have seen.” Beckles said having a quarterback throw 48 times for only 216 yards is “grossly inefficient.”
On receivers:
Beckles loved, loved, loved the “incredible effort” from Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to score touchdowns. May have been his favorite things from the game.
On Antonio Brown:
“He’s way down the list” of people to point fingers at for the loss.
On foot-rubbing, car-littering tight end Rob Gronkowski:
“He’s getting paid a lot of money to get two catches a game and be a blocker. But we don’t run the ball! We don’t run the ball worth a darn!!!”
On Jamel Dean:
“Mmm… He’s a terrible defensive back and he makes up for it by not having good footwork or ever being in the right place. Hhheee sucks, OK?”
On the linebackers:
“Everybody upfront sucked. All the linebackers, Shaq Barrett, JPP — JPP had an interception, great. That’s just a heads-up play. I’d rather he get the quarterback, OK? Shaq Barrett, y’all got a lot of money. I like the way he plays. He plays hard. But you are playing against a backup left tackle. And I didn’t hear your name much. You are supposed to have two-and-half sacks in that game. Fifty-one passes attempts. Fifty-one. With a pretty good quarterback in Jared Goff, but he’s not that.”
On Scotty Miller:
“I keep hearing people call for Scotty Miller. ‘We need more Scotty Miller.” Well, here is why Scotty Miller is not playing: He’s not better than anyone on the field. … We have great receivers out there.”
On beating the Chiefs:
“Crazy things happen. But that would be really crazy. Let’s hope that is the case this week.”
Beckles added that if the Chiefs get their wide receivers “wide-@ss open” like the Saints and the Rams did, the game will be a “bludgeoning.”
As always, Beckles welcomes feedback and encourages listeners to submit Bucs questions by e-mailing him at IanBeckles@RadioInfluence.com.
FIRE UP THE IRA KAUFMAN PODCAST, presented by Bill Currie Ford.
Ira Kaufman Talks “Ornery” Tom Brady, Chiefs-Bucs Predictions & Keys, Jason Licht “Feather,” Lineup Changes, And More
November 28th, 2020 at 5:55 am
Beckles found the perfect word to describe the Bucs … ‘schizophrenic’. Bucs’ fans (and all football fans for that matter) want to see QUALITY FOOTBALL being played when they tune in to watch the Bucs. We’ve seen that from this Bucs’ team several times this year. And unfortunately we’ve also seen the exact opposite on several occasions.
He’s right … “We aren’t learning.” Execution certainly plays a part in that, but the bigger culprit appears to be coaching. And especially game-planning, or lack thereof. Bucs’ coaches … offense especially, but also defense & S/Ts … aren’t continually putting players in a position where they can succeed it looks like.
Quite the opposite seems to occur all too frequently. When you’re middle of the pack in the NFL in 3rd down conversions with our level of talent, there’s probably a reason. I’ll take a guess and point at coaching based on what I’ve seen; we’re wasting far too many plays PRIOR to getting to 3rd (or 4th) down. Incomplete deep throws have obviously been a factor, but it’s a lot more than that IMO.
November 28th, 2020 at 7:03 am
Sometimes I wonder what team Beckles is watching. Not this time. I agree with almost all of it.
November 28th, 2020 at 8:01 am
What he said….
November 28th, 2020 at 9:32 am
Spot on — the poor play lies solely with the coaching staff.
This team has no identity because the coaches consistently ask the players to do things that they cannot do: Brady throwing deep, backs catching passes, secondary playing zone, etc.
November 28th, 2020 at 9:46 am
Nailed it!!!
November 28th, 2020 at 9:58 am
Not Physical? Bite the bag, Bricklayer
November 28th, 2020 at 10:01 am
Coaching is our biggest shortcoming. Soft coverage when Brees can only go short. Running continually right at Aaron Donald, little or no play action to give Brady more time when clearly the OL is not giving him much help and insisting on deep passes when the OL can’t give Brady that much time. Brady thrived in New England getting the ball out quickly to Edelman & co ….we have great receivers here…surely they can get open short and move the sticks!!!
November 28th, 2020 at 10:33 am
That evaluation was pretty spot on. I’m supremely unimpressed with Arians. Totally overrated.
November 28th, 2020 at 10:43 am
@Boltsfan17 … “I’m supremely unimpressed with Arians. Totally overrated.”
But, but, but … He saved Jason’s job, so there’s that. Whooppee (yup, sarcasm)
November 28th, 2020 at 11:01 am
So Arians is the new scapegoat while the GOAT gets off Scott Free? BS. Brady shares over half of the blame. Once he is rattled, he starts throwing passes like firecrackers..all over the place. I’m not letting Mr. 50 mil off of the hook…EVER.
November 28th, 2020 at 12:13 pm
All this, yet the Bucs are still 7-4 and will likely be in the playoffs even if they lose Sunday. Definitely an improvement over the last 10 years but in order to win in the playoffs the coaches will need to pull their heads out of their asses for sure
November 28th, 2020 at 2:05 pm
Brutally honest and spot on.
November 28th, 2020 at 2:54 pm
Once again Beckles nailed it this season.
Though I’d say RoJo and Fournette are a little better than he claims, especially RoJo (as a pure runner).
He’s definitely right about that tackle by Tamsey though. RoJo should have ran him the F over!
November 28th, 2020 at 2:54 pm
*Ramsey
November 28th, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Beckles should get a bigger stage to showcase his insights. Every time Joe posts his analysis he is spot on. With the Bucs in the late 90s early 2000s we knew what the identity of the team, it was suffocating defense with just enough offense to win games. Every week I have no idea if we will play good on either side of the ball. Frankly it seems like the coaches aren’t sure either and have no answers.
November 28th, 2020 at 7:32 pm
The issue IS the coaching staff and no they will never learn, BA will get fired before he retires because he is too senile. They oldest quarterback in the league by far at 43 is leading the nfl in passing attempts how ignorant is that. No calling out the o line for not opening up holes in the run game or the running backs for dropping passes but dumping on Brady every week. Only Bucs could screw this up. Pretenders and it’s all because of coaching. Most teams in the league are successful without the deep ball.
November 28th, 2020 at 8:22 pm
Everything we all have been saying. My old ball coach used to say excuses are for losers so hearing Brady mention that at least makes me feel better about the game. Let’s see how it translates to the field. Go Bucs! Every detail matters.
November 29th, 2020 at 2:16 pm
I have never ever in all my years seen a 230 pound back go down like Fournette ………. if I’m Bruce I’m telling him if he is not top 5 in rb yards after contact every game that he better be ready to take his last NFL snap and be walking around at 300 pounds depressed . Not sure if he has broke a tackle all year it is painful to watch the guy ,,,,,,CUT HIM !!!
November 29th, 2020 at 2:22 pm
Frank Gore would be a huge upgrade , at least he sees a hole, runs hard and can catch the f ing ball………… no dancing, stone hands , going town easy of the combined 3 ………..Just run the lil passes to Ro jo he can catch and for the love of GOD Brady put touch on it and get it out earlier 😔