Let Pass Rushers Rush The Passer!
October 27th, 2024
Misused too?
This is really starting to get under Joe’s skin. In fact, Joe has had enough!
Joe is done with seeing dudes who were drafted to rush the passer pretend they are cornerbacks.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles often waves off an edge rush as trivial (mind you the Bucs won a Super Bowl with Bowles as defensive coordinator in large part because it had a ferocious edge rush). And it doesn’t seem like Bowles sweats much about getting steady pass rush from his defensive tackles.
Gee, that’s working out really well, isn’t it?
So today, on the very first Dixie Chicks possession, Joe saw defensive tackle Calijah Kancey drop back into pass coverage. A defensive tackle!
What. The. Hell?
Maybe Joe is offbase. But did anyone read intel on Kancey when he was coming out of Pitt two years ago describing his pass coverage skills? Joe never did.
Same with Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, YaYa Diaby and Chris Braswell (who?). Yet Bowles uses these guys in coverage over and over. He doesn’t give a damn about a defense’s most important element: an edge rush.
Joe is pretty damn convinced Bowles screws these guys up when they come out of college. Joe is willing to bet none were drafted because they could cover running backs out of the backfield. Yet all three, Joe is sure, were drafted largely because they could put a quarterback on his arse.
So yeah, let’s try to mold them into the next Zyon McCollum. Your head would be f’d up too.
Now Bowles has Kancey — his best pass rusher — dropping back into coverage. Madness. Absolute madness.
A Twitter follower of JoeBucsFan claimed he saw Vita Vea today drop back in coverage. Joe cannot confirm that, but it wouldn’t be surprising.
It’s time to let the pass rushers rush the friggin’ quarterback. If you need a cornerback, go trade for one. But oh no, can’t do that. Might have to burn a third-day draft pick that the team otherwise would have to use on a soon-to-be unemployed punter.
Does the nonsense of dropping pass rushers into coverage remotely appear to be working?
October 27th, 2024 at 5:05 pm
This is my favorite article Joe has ever written I’m not defensive mastermind but I saw Vea in coverage at least once and was like WHAT!!!
October 27th, 2024 at 5:05 pm
It’s pretty wild that Bowles is a better HC than DC. Considering how bad of a HC he is.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Todd, you belongings are in a cardboard box and your key card has been disabled. Thanks for the memories!
October 27th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
It’s all because Todd is a fromager instead of a head coach… Todd ‘Swiss Cheese’ Bowles
October 27th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Fire 🔥 tb..it’s that simple
October 27th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Britt was your leading tackler today, that says everything. Falcons just ran plays at him knowing he’s terrible – oh and picked on the 6th string UDFA corner who the Bucs were having to start at corner.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Bowels (yes that’s on purpose) is a horrible head coach. Clock management is terrible. We mostly lose these close 1 possession games. This seasons is cooked!!!!
October 27th, 2024 at 5:10 pm
And yet here I am watching Devin White playing well for the Texans….
October 27th, 2024 at 5:12 pm
I said this when we had White, we misused his skills set.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:17 pm
Well he’s a “ Guru “ lmao. Dude made a DT drop into coverage.. you can’t make this up.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:20 pm
DL is chock full of “tweeners” /non factors. JAGs ( just another guy ) if you will.
I give Jason Licht credit for begging Arians outta retirement. He also made a very shrewd deal for JPP. So much of his other “body of work” is mediocre.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:21 pm
Todd is a system coach he doesn’t care who is in the game. It doesn’t matter. That’s why he is lovie smith 2.0. No Suh JPP or Shaq to bail him out.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:21 pm
Plan 9 is always dropping too. He is Bowles observer
October 27th, 2024 at 5:27 pm
I think you’re over reacting a bit
October 27th, 2024 at 5:30 pm
Edge rush! Edge rush! Edge rush? Bah. The center of the defense is more important if you remember your geometry. You don’t. We aren’t getting pressure from anyone on the DL. Vea looks exhausted even though he only plays 20 plays a game. This is on Licht more than Bowles. But it’s close.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
Plan 9’s favorite move is overrunning the QB in the pocket. He’s really good at that!
October 27th, 2024 at 5:32 pm
It might confuse a rookie q.b. once ir twice but not a vet. Its stupid and Blows is over thinking badly. He’s turning into the Darvin Ham of the N.F.L.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:33 pm
@Joe: it’s “eye candy” for the public and for pundits!
How many times I heard the TV commentators mentioning the “exotic looks” of a Todd Bowles D? People and journalists LOVE stuff like this…. Doesn’t matter if it only works once in a while, when it does you get the “this is Todd Bowles genius in display right here!”…
Eye Candy for the D….
October 27th, 2024 at 5:37 pm
Joe forgets that we have undrafted free agent rookies starting on all 3 levels of the defense because we are rebuilding. It’s tough to rush straight up when you’re not getting home and leaving those undrafted rookies on an island. Instead on just complaining and asking to mortgage our future for pass rushers on a team not ready to win a Superbowl, how about providing actual insight.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Bowles will be fired by the end of the year and we can finally get someone in here that actually knows how to use the players we have and provide good defense.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:44 pm
Completely agree!
October 27th, 2024 at 5:48 pm
He gets too tricky for his own good. I have never seen a team blitz so much while not getting pressure. It’s because he will blitz 2 coverage guys but drop back a pass rusher and have the corners play 10+ off. That’s why tight ends, middle of the field and quick outs are always open
October 27th, 2024 at 5:48 pm
Bucsfan81 Says:
October 27th, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Bowles will be fired by the end of the year and we can finally get someone in here that actually knows how to use the players we have and provide good defense.
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Sorry, a new defensive scheme isn’t going to help this defense. Not enough talent on the defensive side of the team. Best pass defense is a strong front four that can pressure the QB and force him to throw early or knock him down. For the second time with ATL this season, Cousins had time to drink a beer in the pocket. No good.
October 27th, 2024 at 5:52 pm
You would think…Missing 2 of the league’s top receivers, your Defense would be fired up and your defensive minded coach would have a couple of defensive schemes for the Falcons. Instead, Raheem had the schemes and beat our socks off. They own us now. They are the divisional leaders having spanked us twice. Cohen did his job. Bowles did not. Its time to place Bowles on the plank with anchor in tow..Overeboared with him and pack his bags.
October 27th, 2024 at 6:06 pm
Problem is even when they do get to rush the passer they rarely get home. JTS is useless as a pass rusher, don’t know if the few times he drops in coverage is taking from his production, what little there is. YaYa is just as bad. He’s easily defeated even going against backup tackles. Bad coaching, bad talent. We shouldn’t be surprised, everyone, and their mother picked Atlanta to win the division, and us to win about 7.5 games. Only Buc fans had us winning again. We were wrong. They were right.
October 27th, 2024 at 6:12 pm
500 coaching no better no worse..
October 27th, 2024 at 6:12 pm
I agree, dropping Kancey into coverage is ridiculous. But it’s also troubling that he’s not looking like a difference maker. 1 sack and 5 solo tackles in his 3 games are ok, but his return certainly hasn’t ‘reignited’ this defense.
And for all that talk about Vea getting in shape this offseason, I’m not seeing a difference. If anything, he looks more labored and exhausted out there than years past. If we’re going to pay him close to $20M a year to only play 30 snaps a game, you’d hope to see more quality on those snaps.
October 27th, 2024 at 6:16 pm
I saw that and honestly thought it was hilarious but to be fair ain’t much pass rush going on this year. Kancey is not really doing anything this year. He is a premier player only in draft status and his pass rush moves are ordinary and basic
October 27th, 2024 at 6:20 pm
Pass rushers? What is that?
October 27th, 2024 at 6:24 pm
Kancey is looking like a bust!
October 27th, 2024 at 6:42 pm
Bowles is running a truly embarrassing defense. We can’t rush the passer, we can’t cover anybody, and we refuse to tackle. As a lifelong Buc fan, I can digest a bad offense, but having a defense that can’t stop anything is just unacceptable. We have a defense roster full of “big names”, but refuse to put our guys in the proper position to do what they do best. Putrid!
And does anyone else think our zone defensive scheme is working out?
I’m over waiting for Bowles to figure it out!
October 27th, 2024 at 6:56 pm
Bucs misused Devin white in my opinion. Once Bowles figured out that he couldn’t cover anyone, should have made it official and make him an edge rusher, cuz he was a ferocious Blitzer. If would have had success maybe wouldn’t have been such a head case. Yep, this was frustrating watching a repeat of Falcons game 1 with our swiss cheese defense. We can’t cover anyone, so we have no alternative but to put pressure on an immobile quarterback. Cousins is really accurate, but some of those passes guys were so wide open I could have completed them. And he did a Tom Brady type scramble for a first down! How embarrassing. I’m a Baker fan, but he never should have let that ball go on the Flea Flicker unless the guy was wide open! It’s a trick play but it didn’t fool anybody, somehow there was basically triple coverage. Plus why do we not see a little more of Sean Tucker?
October 27th, 2024 at 6:57 pm
Clueless Todd strikes again! Dungy stubborn; Schiano Stupid.
October 27th, 2024 at 7:04 pm
We get murdered in the middle of the field every single game. If it appears to be going badly to us how can the coach not recognize it and attempt to fix it?
October 27th, 2024 at 7:39 pm
Hooray, Joe!! Your best thread of the year. Maybe JTS, Braswell, Kancy, YaYa, etc. are not developing into pass rushers is that half the time they are in coverage. When we won the SB we owned the defensive line of scrimmage. i don’t remember JPP or Suh dropping into coverage. The scheme does not match the players.
DBs cannot cover effectively if the QB has all day.
I admit this is evident to all here, but it just seems that Bowles and Licht haven’t realized it yet.
October 27th, 2024 at 7:49 pm
Complete joke!
October 27th, 2024 at 8:01 pm
” i don’t remember JPP or Suh dropping into coverage”
From Google: In 2020, Jason Pierre-Paul (JPP) played in 50 coverage snaps for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tying him for ninth among all edge defenders in coverage snaps.
It’s a product of a 3-4 defense. Unless you are sending more than 4, or a DL drops into coverage, one OLB is going to go into coverage on every snap.
But speaking to the lack of pass rush – Can the Bucs give Jose Ramirez and Marquise Watts a chance to just pin back and rush the passer? If the reason they aren’t used is that they aren’t good at covering thus making it obvious it’s a play where they are pass rushing, who cares? Currently, the exotic whose dropping into coverage plays aren’t that successful. Just put your best 4 pass rushers out there and best 7 coverage players and let them play.
October 27th, 2024 at 8:42 pm
Hey Glazers and Licht, better make a change before you have a mutiny on your hands with the fans. The ship has been slowly sinking since you hired Bowles and he is close to scuttling the ship. We don’t want another decade of ineptness! Winning a Superbowl, and then sucking for a decade or more is becoming your MO. We see the trend!
October 27th, 2024 at 9:18 pm
Here’s my idea….leave Vea and Kancey on the line. Pick 2 out of your remaining defensive linemen and outside linebacker and make them defensive ends and LEAVE them on the line. Even Britt, being good against the run, would work out better as a full-time DE.
The fancy schemes aren’t fooling anyone. They DO make us look like fools.
I think the offense played admirable without out best 2 weapons. The defense killed us.
October 27th, 2024 at 9:23 pm
It’s not working. JOE. It’s why I’m not ragging on JTS. Dude is being asked to cover and play zone and rush the passer. These guys should just focus on rushing the passer sense it’s what we are lacking
October 27th, 2024 at 10:07 pm
I kinda wonder if his basic 3-4 system is just junk… guys are always losing track of where to go… one slip by a defender falling down and it gave up a touchdown to Pitts. And then you have complete mismatches.
Are the OLB’s supposed to be pass rushers, or coverage guys… it just seems like it’s not working.
October 27th, 2024 at 10:29 pm
I agree. I’ve thought this for a long time. Yeah outside linebackers shouldn’t be taking the place of safeties and corners. They just don’t have the same speed or skill set. I get that he’s trying to bring pressure from unexpected places, but this creates too many poor mismatches for us.
October 28th, 2024 at 7:25 am
Todd Bowles didn’t fumble on the opening drive and spot Atlanta 7 points. We lost by 5. He also didn’t throw two picks, one of which was in the end zone. Those drive could have resulted in two field goals. We lost by 5. Turn overs plus 3 lost this game. Bottom line.