Bruce Arians Frustrated & Encouraged By Cornerback Play
January 26th, 2022
Joe has yet to recover from Sunday’s brutal loss — at home … after a phenomenal comeback for the ages.
It’s going to take Joe several weeks. Perhaps Joe should fly to Vegas to relax and to hang with Shaun King?
It might take Bucco Bruce Arians time to recover, too. That could depend on how many times Arians watches the film. There was so much bad tackling and too many blown coverages, it’s not easy to view.
Speaking on the Buccaneers Radio Network this week Arians relived the Rams’ final drive in a bit of disbelief.
“Well, the first [completion to Cooper Kupp] I thought was the biggest play, we were playing 2-man and Sean [Murphy-Bunting] fell down. Got good pressure but it was a great throw by Matt [Stafford]. But we can’t fall down in that situation,’ Arians barked.
Yeah, Murphy-Bunting fell down. Joe can’t blame it on SMB’s healing hamstring.
Arians used the phrase “that can’t happen,” but he was referring to cornerback Carlton Davis blowing his coverage on Kupp earlier in the game in what was a 70-yard catch-and-run.
On the upside, Arians lauded Jamel Dean’s work through the game on Odell Beckham, Jr., saying Beckham got some catches but nothing was “dynamic.”
“I thought Jamel Dean really, really improved this year,” Arians said.
Joe has to give Dean some love, too. He’s no superstar, but he’s a heck of a late-third-round draft pick and he grinded through multiple injuries in what was his third season. Dean ended up playing a lot more games than SMB and Davis. And when Dean was out, his loss was always felt.
January 26th, 2022 at 10:32 am
SMB deserves to be traded, let him consistently trip elsewhere
January 26th, 2022 at 10:41 am
I believe he fell down the first or second defensive snap. I told my son he needed to go change his cleats.
January 26th, 2022 at 10:43 am
Not much to be encouraged about
January 26th, 2022 at 10:55 am
It may not have been blown coverage by Davis. It looked much more like a communication problem.
Davis was playing Kupp as if he was in zone coverage, he turned around at the edge of his zone and looked back towards the QB, which is what he’s supposed to do. The Safety on the other hand wasn’t in zone, or at least he didn’t believe he was in zone. He was fixed on Stafford’s eyes, believing that Carlton Davis was on Kupp in man defense (which is stupid in of itself, but I won’t go there for now). A good Safety would have realized there was no Ram receiving target in the middle of the field and wouldn’t have taken the bait, but that didn’t happen. As a result, the Safety never noticed Kupp racing up the sidelines wide open.
Who is at fault? The Defensive Coordinator Bowles. This isn’t MiniCamp where rookies and second-year players practice together, these are veteran players in a freaking divisional playoff game. They didn’t communicate, and obviously, they missed a key coverage assignment and weren’t coached up on “what if”.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:00 am
Also second to last play I saw which appeared to be Dean not go full force and try to tackle Kupp in bounds. If he had done that clock would have kept running and the Rams run out of time on spiking ball. Just food for thought. In the end it wasn’t our year I guess.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:00 am
As I said prior to last season’s draft, this team needs to prioritize drafting at least one quality CB. I just don’t get why Licht didn’t prioritize it. The CBs were the weakest position group on the roster and had the least depth. Now the best CB is a free agent, and the other two CBs prove themselves to be nothing special.
The team needs to draft two CBs and be aggressive at signing guys who slipped through the cracks on draft night.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:00 am
Davis, Dean, a decent vet signing and/or drafting a CB in the 1st or 2nd Round.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:08 am
We need to draft corner either in 1st or 2nd round
And bring in free agent
Smb had rough year and i know injuries
If you think about he played good in playoffs last year only
And sorry but is carlton worth a 17.5 mil tag. Ouch
January 26th, 2022 at 11:12 am
For too long, our secondary has been atrocious. We would usually make excuses, mainly due to not getting pressure on the QB. Even with Shaq, JPP, Suh and Vea these past several years, the secondary has been a weak spot. I don’t want to hear about injuries either. No one is scared to attack SMB or Carlton Davis when they are healthy. We continually let mediocre QBs look like superstars. This needs to be addressed.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:25 am
Of course you never know what would have happened in OT, but that’s where the game should have ended. Not them driving down the field without any timeouts to get into get into FG range and having time to spike the ball to stop the clock. If they don’t make just 1 of those last two plays we’re in OT. Hard to take!
January 26th, 2022 at 11:38 am
Teams target SMB. That likely won’t change. Do something about it.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:39 am
Face facts; the Bucs have an ‘average’ Secondary. Considering how little we pay the entire group, performing ‘average’ is actually a compliment. They’re all youngsters (well, except for Pierre) on their first contract.
They played quite well together in the 2nd half of 2020 & exceptionally well in the 2020 playoffs. This year injuries have about crippled the group, yet we still ended up with a #5 ranked defense in Points Allowed, a #3 ranked defense in Rushing Yardage Allowed. and a #21 defense in Passing Yardage Allowed. Considering that our opponents threw against us MORE than against any other team, that’s actually an accomplishment in itself.
But ya, let’s fire Todd Bowles and gamble on what we get to replace him. Brilliant strategy.
January 26th, 2022 at 11:46 am
in the end we have spent a crapload of draft capital on DB’s without much to show IMHO
Am I wrong to think we are DB’s are average at best?
January 26th, 2022 at 11:48 am
This is why I hope Bowles stays. These guys are young and they are already showing promise. We have GOT to draft defensive linemen. JPP is physically spent and who knows about Suh? Bowles can finish building the defense. We need him.
January 26th, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Injuries really killed the defense this year. End of story.
What I do blame on Bowles is poor tackling and sloppy gap discipline.
No excuses for piss poor tackling in the NFL. Frankly, our D looked pretty soft at times. That’s even after taking the injuries into account.
January 26th, 2022 at 12:04 pm
I watch a lot of Bucs football. I can’ t remember a single instance when a Bucs receiver was just running uncontested down the field and got hit for 70 yard TD.
With the Bucs Defense, it seemed to happen every other week.
January 26th, 2022 at 12:30 pm
Think Arians knows who can cover in our secondary
It’s just Dean
35
Go Bucs
January 26th, 2022 at 12:35 pm
As the D-line diminish continues, toilet Bowles and the secondary will be exposed for what they really are!
January 26th, 2022 at 12:50 pm
we cannot understimate the loss of trisant our right tackle
January 26th, 2022 at 12:52 pm
Many fans are frustrated with Arians and are encouraged he will soon be no longer associated with the Bucs!
January 26th, 2022 at 1:12 pm
I have no comment. The Davis/Edward’s play was the exact play Jackson scored on their first game. They should of been expecting it.
January 26th, 2022 at 1:54 pm
Copper Kupp 9 catches almost 200 yards receiving. Most of his catches he was wide open. How in the heck could you be encouraged about that.
January 26th, 2022 at 1:58 pm
The corner play was awful most of the season — but look around the NFL, there’s very few good corners anymore, it’s why most of the NFL switched to zone defense.
Also, this year, the Bucs defense could get away with blitzing and playing man-to-man at times, mainly against bad QBs, like Hurts. But for the most part, maybe around game 6 or so as injuries just kept piling up, the Bucs went from primary a man-blitz team to a zone team, and the defense got dramatically better. Why the Bowles went from zone, back to man-to-man, when he had been having so much success in zone, is beyond dumb. Of course you need to mix things up, but man, what an idiot to call what he did when he did, it really should knock him out of HC discussions for this year.
January 26th, 2022 at 2:18 pm
Let Carlton Davis Walk do not pay him do not pay him
January 26th, 2022 at 3:50 pm
Past time for Bucco to retire; He cuts L Bell who had been with Brady a few wks & could have been used as slot receiver a few times–But he replaces him with John Brown one wk before the Divisional Round & who hasn’t been with the team all yr.??
He , Bowles & BL are in the same place …without Brady none would have that ring
January 26th, 2022 at 3:55 pm
Poor coverage, blown assignments, and so many dropped INTs this season. Can’t say I saw much to be encouraged about.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:01 pm
Never have cared for our secondary!
January 26th, 2022 at 4:17 pm
Sucks that we basically have to pick between Carlton Davis and Chris Godwin this offseason
Personally I would pay Carlton Davis and draft a WR in the first round. Pass rusher in the second. Another cornerback in the 3rd. Can shuffle those around a little bit however the board falls of course.
We get an extra 3rd round pick apparently if Jags hire Leftwich, we will certainly need it if Brady retires.
January 26th, 2022 at 4:43 pm
Everyone keeps saying we need better corners which may be true, but how about a new secondary coach? Seems to me our secondary has been mostly crap for the last three years whether it’s the starters, or back ups. To many blown coverages, confusion on who’s covering who. I firmly believe our secondary coach, and our special teams coach needs to be replaced. We’re always bottom of the pack with both units. It can’t be all on the players.
January 26th, 2022 at 5:06 pm
I still say Bowles needs to employ more man coverage and not have them in so much zone. We have corners that excel in press man coverage, but he insist on having them play this soft zone with a 10 yard cushion
January 26th, 2022 at 5:16 pm
Davis and Dean are solid. But Dean gets hurt a lot and is not all that reliable week to week….
SMB still needs a good bit of work to get to where he needs to be. He was a liability out there as often as not this year once he came back from the elbow injury. Trails the play too often – tackling after the catch instead of being in position to defend the pass from being caught….
Bucs need to re-sign Davis and draft a CB fairly early next year. (Rds 1>3)
I like our 3 safeties but Whitehead will have to get paid as well to maintain that group.
January 26th, 2022 at 6:03 pm
Joe get over it have a couple of brews
stop the what if, we got beat it happens.