Snaps Tumble For Vita Vea And Ndamukong Suh
September 27th, 2021
Joe always thought the idea is to have your best players on the field.
Yesterday, manbeast interior linemen Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea each only played about half the game in the critical NFC clash against the Rams. Suh played 34 snaps (52 percent) and Vea had one less.
By comparison, 30-year-old Aaron Donald played 60 snaps (82 percent of the Rams plays).
Joe’s not sure what the heck is going on with Vea. He played 54 snaps in Week 1, 42 in Week 2, and 33 yesterday. And Joe would say Vea has been the Bucs’ best defensive lineman. Heck, it was cool and comfortable in Los Angeles.
Suh’s significant cut in play this year is understandable given his age, and it may have been a condition of him returning to the Bucs this season.
Yeah, Joe suspects there’s an intelligent reason at One Buc Palace, but Joe also suspects the whole truth might not be forthcoming.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:04 am
All the more reason to keep younger guys as backups. It’s not worth bringing a bunch of guys back who are too old to play as many snaps as you need. Bucs did not play this smart and bringing everyone back instead of trying to get better seems to be a bad move considering no one up front is producing. McClendon didn’t do anything last year. No reason on earth he should have a roster spot
September 27th, 2021 at 11:05 am
Vea has to drop weight to around 300-305 to be a every down starter. Thats not happening
September 27th, 2021 at 11:06 am
I really hope it’s not an endurance issue. They should be in shape by now. If not maybe they should start taking Cardarine.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:11 am
They were using him more on third down. Trying to get a pass rush
September 27th, 2021 at 11:14 am
Gotta be on the field to be great, guys!
September 27th, 2021 at 11:15 am
Agreed pewter lower. A lot was made about bringing everyone back, but even a superbowl winner should look to see where improvement can be made. There is the case that some of them did team friendly deals, but possible someone wanting a ring could have done the same that was a free agent
September 27th, 2021 at 11:23 am
Remember BA’s first year when he was throwing way too many red flags for pass interference calls like a madman and he kept saying he was trying to prove a point?
Maybe this is one of his tricks because he’s getting ticked at the Dline’s subpar start to the year.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:27 am
It’s a mystery….
September 27th, 2021 at 11:30 am
I suspect they plan for the playoffs and dont wana tip their hand. And make sure they dont lose Vea or Suh to injury. Bowles is a great game planner in the playoffs. He doesnt wana show it during the season, it seems. They’ll prob see LA again and he’ll hopefully have a better plan.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:32 am
Pete’s convinced Bucs lost that game on purpose as a motivation tool. Steelers 11-0 last season then fell apart
September 27th, 2021 at 11:36 am
Vita is 350lb and can’t play 3-downs. His best season he only played 66% of defensive snaps — that’s 66% of 3 downs, that doesn’t count 4th down, ie, he’s a 2 down player.
Gee, where have I heard that before?
As Sapp said back at launch, he isn’t going to be able to play at 350lb in Florida. He’s going to get injured (check) or not be a full time player (check). Vita should listen to Sapp, drop 30lbs, and see what he could do as a 3-down player. Instead, Vita balloned up to 380lbs, then dropped 30lbs just to get back to 350. Look, at 350, he’s a very good 2-down run stuffer, the issue is people think he’s much more than that, and he’s not. If he was, he’d be on the field more.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:39 am
probably because nacho an mclendon are holding their own
September 27th, 2021 at 11:42 am
Who doesn’t think that Licht & Arians aren’t sitting in a steam room right now sweating out insane amounts of booze while talking about the CB position & how we pissed away the draft
September 27th, 2021 at 11:44 am
I still think too many people are pressing the panic button to quickly. I don’t think you can tell who’s for real for another month. It’s kind of like KC, our defense thought they were the bomb after the offseason. Shaq was talking about his 20 sacks, the gravediggers were dominant during the playoffs. The offensive line was the best in the league.
The wakeup call has been given. Last season, our offensive line dominated in the second half with the run game. Our defense played just like this until week 8 or 9. They did get after the QB more. Yesterday, before Dean went out was the best the defense has looked this season. We definitely have work to do, but I believe in our coaches.
I think Brady was upset after they lost the onside kick because he wants that perfect season. I think he wants to add that to his legacy. It’s pretty sweet to have the ultimate competitor leading our offense.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:46 am
Kenny Young of Rams kicked ass yesterday- trucked Bernard on 2 blitzes that nobody mentioned because it’s not RoJo.
Young and Donald were better than anyone on Bucs’ D.
Bucs had their chances- 3 potential turnovers and Brady didn’t see wide open Evans on 3rd and goal in 4th quarter.
September 27th, 2021 at 11:54 am
Are we blaming our stupid personnel groupings on Vea by assuming he had to come out because he was winded 3 games into the season? Hint he played more snaps in week 1 when he would have been more winded and not in full game shape. How is he more tired in week 2-3 than week 1? no it’s our stupid personnel packages that take him off the field.
Stop taking about him being overweight this many years into his contract because it’s dumb considering he played his first two games at ray jay versus this week in a stadium
September 27th, 2021 at 12:05 pm
Not showing all the cards when you know they will see them again in playoffs
September 27th, 2021 at 12:10 pm
Vita’s snap count percentage…
WK 1, 64%
WK 2, 58%
WK 3, 51%
Even in week 1 he was a 2 down player. However, in week 1, what was impressive, is that he was in there at the end of the game. I do wonder if that is the idea by Bowles, to limit early snaps so you have him at the end of the game. However, if that was your idea Bowles, you might want to watch the actual game realize that your defensive gameplan sucked and you need to switch things up.
September 27th, 2021 at 12:10 pm
They’re trying to get teams to try and run the ball more against them. So long as Suh and Vea are in the game nobody is going to try to run the ball and our secondary can’t hold up against the pass.
This decision doesn’t surprise me. What confuses me and has confused me since last year is why our best pass rushing DE is still playing most of his snaps on the left side rather than right. Tryon had a good preseason rushing from the left side, JPP was injured yesterday, the smart play would have been moving Shaq to the right side and let Tryon play where he had some success, but no.
Shaq had 21 sacks at RE, they are paying him as a premium pass rusher, put him on the money side of that D-line. I do not get it and I never will.
September 27th, 2021 at 12:13 pm
The Rams Offense dictated that game yesterday. They were one step ahead of whatever we thought we could do on Defense. If Stafford was not wild on those first few drives, it would not have even been close early on.
Injuries in the secondary, along with no JPP and then giving the rookie lots of snaps impact the personnel on the field for the D-Line. Nothing else other than that going on here. Better team (on that day) won. On a similar note, I’ll take Vea’s 60% of impact snaps over some dude that can do 100% but not have a big impact. Every time that dudes out there, advantage Tampa. Even if it looks like he did not do anything, the O-lineman still has to try to match up to him.
Either way, I am ready to file that game away in the Bad Moments in Buc History file, which is rather full from the past 40+ years, but not so much lately.
Bring on the Pats and Mac Jones. Their vertically challenged offense may be exactly what this defense needs right now.
September 27th, 2021 at 12:33 pm
I am not panicking. I still see a lot of wins on our schedule. Just gotta sort out Defense a little. For me it is all about just making the playoffs. We have plenty of time to fix a few things and get healthier.
September 27th, 2021 at 12:34 pm
People…CHILL. This is a 17-game season. We lost on the road to a VERY GOOD VERY WELL_COACHED team. The goal is not to be the best team in September (Please see : The New Orleans Saints damn near every year)
There are defensive problems but this coaching staff is not Mike Smith. I will all but guarantee you that TB12 will take part in defensive meetings this week. This team will not embarrass him in NE and he will not allow it.
Catastrophe is losing TB12 or losing a ton of starters for the year like San Fran did last year. Whether it’s a personnel move or a coaching adjustment, they will figure this out.
Any long time Buc fan knows a term that I coined “Battered Fan Syndrome” … we naturally expect doom and gloom to be around the corner. How nice was it to see our QB PISSED after losing as opposed to yucking it up with the opposition after the game. Make no mistake that this is a DIFFERENT Buc team.
September 27th, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Because we have a lot of coaches on this team who still overthink the game….
September 27th, 2021 at 1:19 pm
@gotbbucs you might be on to something with that. It was pretty obvious in the first two games that the teams were not even going to try and run. Unfortunately, at this point we would rather they run, so leaving those guys on the sideline may have been our way of enticing them to do that. It makes sense to me.
September 27th, 2021 at 2:52 pm
17 game season. Ain’t winning the Super Bowl in week 3. Rams play in the toughest division and still have to face Cardinals, Seahawks and Niners twice. They should beat each other up.
September 27th, 2021 at 3:21 pm
If yesterday’s officiating is any indication, you’re now allowed to hold or pretty much tackle Vea if you’re a major market team. So, might as well rest him in these types of games.
September 27th, 2021 at 10:10 pm
I believe they are rotating everyone in and pacing themselves because of such a long season. If that’s what they’re doing, it needs to decrease… A lot
September 28th, 2021 at 9:35 am
It’s a long season. Bruce hold a little back during the season. Look at the BUCS Saints, Bruce let them get best twice by holding back. Then when the playoffs came, boom, they derailed the saints.
D lineman take a lot of physical abuse, Vita got hurt last year, Suh is older, Arians is being smart.