Jameis Winston Collapse Against Bucs Sparked Change In League Offenses
June 6th, 2023
Rough day for Jameis Winston turned into a rough change for Tampa Bay.
The NFL is about adjustments, though that golden rule might not apply to the 2022 Bucaneers offense.
It did, however, apply to the Tampa Bay defense last season, per the words of cornerback Carlton Davis today.
The Bucs defense was awesome early last season and in Week 2, the Bucs upped their record to 2-0 with a bludgeoning of the slimy Saints in New Orleans. It was a beautiful thing, Jameis Winston threw three interceptions and stud Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore got ejected.
But those three picks by the Bucs after four Week 1 sacks and a pick at Dallas led to an adjustment by the league, Davis said. No longer were Bucs cornerbacks being tested in the same way.
“I don’t like making excuses, but I felt like a lot of teams kind of ran away from us as a secondary,” Davis replied when asked about the Bucs defense’s low interception total (10) last season.
“After the Saints game it was a huge dropoff of passes down the field and them attacking us, especially on the outside. So I felt like we didn’t get as many opportunities after we had that hot start, especially after we killed New Orleans. … … I felt like teams kind of went away from us and started to, you know, do different things: dink-and-dunk, bootleg, kind of run the ball, whatever the case.”
Joe hears Davis and agrees, but Joe does not feel like the Bucs defense under Bowles failed to adjust. Joe thinks the culprit mostly was getting manhandled in the run game in ways that didn’t happen in 2019, 2020 and 2021 — more of a personnel issue than anything else.
A big bounceback year is necessary for the defense this season. Overall, they were pretty good, but averaging 28 points allowed over the final six games is nowhere near acceptable.
On a side note, Joe had to chuckle a bit at the Davis explanation. It almost sounded like Jameis picks haunted the Bucs yet again — three seasons after he left the team.
June 6th, 2023 at 2:58 pm
BS. Why don’t these guys go out there and make a play, instead of excuses.
June 6th, 2023 at 3:09 pm
I feel like this was compounded by our poor offensive showing. If teams are up on you or near even and don’t feel threatened by your offense, they’re not going to have to force it downfield. They can dink-dunk, run the ball, play field position and wait for a breakdown in coverage or some other defensive mistake.
June 6th, 2023 at 3:22 pm
We were #1 vs the run the past 2-3 years forcing teams to pass more. last year opponents were able to run resulting in less passing resulting in less ints. Add to the fact that we weren’t leading by multiple touchdowns so there was less attempts to play catch up as in years past.
June 6th, 2023 at 3:51 pm
The thought of Jameis tossing the ball around while being on his team made Sean Payton retire. Probably gave him nightmares too.
June 6th, 2023 at 4:05 pm
Our O was so bad last year – teams stopped playing offense to let the game play out.
June 6th, 2023 at 4:06 pm
Winston being Winston
redemption for 5 years of ripping our hearts out
June 6th, 2023 at 5:04 pm
Was Jameis great for the Bucs? No, but people who call him a bust don’t understand how hard it is to play quarterback in the NFL and aside from the turnover issue, (Trigger warning) Jameis was solid for 5 year and produced huge numbers
June 6th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Yeah the horrible offense made things really hard on the defense as well. The opposing team was never really under pressure or worried about keeping pace with the scoring.
June 6th, 2023 at 5:13 pm
Even if the Bucs intercepted it the offense would just go 3-and-out
June 6th, 2023 at 5:32 pm
You can’t ask for any better in the modern NFL than having teams shy away from your secondary.
Teams wouldn’t be able to dink and dunk and run on us if we had an offense the opposing team had to keep up with.
June 6th, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Y’all can get Jameis back next year
June 6th, 2023 at 6:28 pm
Is Mayfield really an upgrade over Winston? The film and numbers say they aren’t too different. Alpha personalities and turnover machines.
June 6th, 2023 at 6:53 pm
Who knows if Trask or Mayfield is better for this team?
Thats why they are practicing.
June 6th, 2023 at 7:03 pm
The defense was mediocre at best in all areas. Couldn’t stop the run, and couldn’t get pressure on the QB without a blitz. IMO the defensive backs were not that great either.
June 6th, 2023 at 7:19 pm
Old Pooch Booty JaBoo……always ridiculous.
June 6th, 2023 at 8:36 pm
Why would teams pass on the Bucs when they can just run it down our throats and throw under coverage. Yet two more reasons 45 should not be sweating a big contract.
June 6th, 2023 at 8:37 pm
Jamies is just another victim of being drafted to the bucs just like Kyle Trask and all the other quarterbacks they drafted . And next year they will draft another quarterback and they will failed him as well . I have no confidence that the bucs will ever developed a quarterback and until they do so far Tampa Bay is where quarterbacks careers come and die it’s just the truth!!
June 6th, 2023 at 9:08 pm
‘Joe thinks the culprit mostly was getting manhandled in the run game in ways that didn’t happen in 2019, 2020 and 2021 — more of a personnel issue than anything else.’
I agree 100% Joe. Lots of talking heads seem to believe that we’ll have a strong defense this year, BUT … have we REALLY improved since ranking mid-pack (#13) in 2022? From an experience perspective, we’ve added Greg Gaines (DT) & Ryan Neal (S) to the defense, but lost Hicks, Gholston, RNR, Edwards, SMB, Keanu Neal, Nassib this off-season and back-filled those losses with a bunch of rookies. Add in question marks related to Shaq’s injury recovery and Devin White’s discontent (?) and it’s hard to see how folks can be optimistic about us getting back into the Top-10 defensively.
I admit part of my concern is that our defensive rookies over the past couple of years haven’t exactly set the world on-fire. And JTS & Hall were 1st/2nd Round picks. Hopefully they’ll break out this year, but there seems to be a big drop-off in talent from the days when we had Suh & JPP on the line.
June 6th, 2023 at 9:42 pm
That’s some revisionist history.
On the first INT, neither the Saints or Bucs were moving the ball, so Winston just chucked it into the endzone and the Bucs came up with it, and got the ball at the 20. The Saints were just going to punt anyways, so who cares? Also the Bucs made a great play on the ball to get it. That was absolutely not a bad pass. I didn’t care when Winston did that here, and the only people that do care are people who look at box scores and don’t watch games.
On the 2nd INT, if memory serves right, Winston totally missed the throw, but also looked very injured, got nothing on the ball. Was he already injured in the Bucs game? I don’t recall, but he didn’t look right.
What people seem to forget is Winston came right back with a big play and their rookie WR literally just dropped the ball as he was going to run in for an easy TD.
The last INT was just a desperation play when you’re trying to make something happen. Again, the only people that care about INT’s in that situations are people who look at box scores, or just repeat boring talking points.
The only big thing that happened that week was Arians getting in trouble for being on the sidelines. Moving him off the sidelines completely killed the edge the team had been playing with as they realized that Bowles really was in charge. From that game on, with Bowles being the only one on the sidelines, the Bucs went 6-10.
June 6th, 2023 at 10:04 pm
The four years previous to that every NFL offense had their way with this same secondary. So what was the excuse then?
June 6th, 2023 at 11:20 pm
And teams dink and dunked the hell out of us. Bowles didnt adjust. There were pick six ints to be made in spots last year on telegraphed and very obvious screen dumpoffs and bubbles but we were always too cautious. Teams getting a 1st down on 3rd and8 , 3rd and 11 on bubble screens and rb screens because our defense was way too cautious and always a yard late to the short pass , so wr te and rb could make , have time to make, a move upfield in yac. D white and dbs were too far off short routes often. But we didnt get beat deep…lol. Bowles is overrated , decent def coordinator..but there are better def coords. That is all he is a decent def coord with occasional dumb calls/reads on defense.
June 6th, 2023 at 11:29 pm
One of the things that frustrates me about bowles aggressive blitz defense is if you are gonna blitz,,”sometimes” you need your whole defense to attack short area so to speak.. .There have been times when me, you, and aunt ethel can see the other team isnt going deep and just wants to dump off a short pass for a better punt. And somehow those turn into 1st downs on yacs of 10 15 yards when the plays could have been “jumped” . There were pick sixes out there. I wish bowles would bring the whole kitchen sink” sometimes” dont half ass the pressure. Pick and choose, sometimes stay conservative on the back end. But sometimes bring it all..it is an intuitive thing but there were obvious occasions where ints were to be made on telegraphed plays.
June 7th, 2023 at 9:05 am
Agreed Joe
Need to find people willing to make tackles not just grab people. and linebackers who dont get thrown out of the bar and can get off blocks.
June 7th, 2023 at 10:26 am
Winston was already playing with 4 fractures in his back and torn the tendon connecting his ankle to his foot in the 3rd quarter of that game his the collapse in the 4th. He could barely stand up and had no foundation to throw from.
June 7th, 2023 at 2:50 pm
Can’t we all agree that Winston is elite at throwing interceptions.
June 7th, 2023 at 4:28 pm
I second this – Jameis Winston is King of the Ill-Fated Sling
June 7th, 2023 at 8:12 pm
The tackling needs to be a lot better this year.
June 8th, 2023 at 8:23 am
Jameis gone,let that man rest. Y’all fixing to get something a whole lot worse than Jameis with Baker. Let’s see how y’all make excuses for him this season lol
June 8th, 2023 at 9:07 am
Jameis has almost been a Saint longer than he was a Buc. Get over him.