Back To The Future For Bucs
October 28th, 2024
It appears it is back to the lab for Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
In recent weeks, the Tampa Bay defense is getting charred like a steak on a Japanese hibachi. The Bucs went to Detroit and suffocated the dangerous and lethal Lions offense just six games ago.
What the hell has happened?
Well, Bowles wants to know himself. So he is going back to the Bucs’ research facility to dig for an answer.
“You go back to basics,” Bowles said today in his day-after presser about fixing the now porous pass defense. “As coaches, you always go back to basics. It’s fundamentals and technique and start from there.
“You start there and you see what you did well the first couple games of the season. You try to go back to that and you try to see how far you’ve gotten away from that as coaches and as a player.
“And you get back to basics and try to do what we do well.”
The Bucs have gotten far, far away from the way they played in that Detroit game. And the Bucs locked down the Lions without Antoine Winfield and without Calijah Kancey, without Vita Vea for much of the second half.
All three were on the field yesterday when Dixie Chicks quarterback Kirk Cousins flame broiled (again) the Bucs pass defense.
Now Joe isn’t stupid enough to suggest those three shouldn’t be on the field. That’s crazy drunk talk. But you would think the Bucs ought to be a much better defense with Winfield, Kancey and Vea.
Bowles might want to try to repeat what he did in Detroit. Whatever it was, it worked and worked very well.
The Bucs pass defense the past month? It’s anything but well. The way the pass defense has played lately, the Bucs will need more than just a flux capacitor to win games.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Another pass rusher traded… to the chiefs… for a late round pick. I guess ‘half the team’ is much cheaper for the Chiefs than the Bucs.
I was in on Bowles a lot longer than many people on here, now his pants are burning because his seat is so hot, and I need him to get up out of it.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:26 pm
Chiefs just traded a 6th round pick to the Patriots for a LB. So the chiefs got a WR and a LB in the last week. Maybe we can trade KJ Britt for a bag of chips and a coke.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:31 pm
“you see what you did well the first couple games” –
well, they tackled better, Dennis and Smith were on the field and they won the turnover differential vs Detroit and had 0 turnovers vs Washington
sacks? – they had 0 sacks vs Detroit and 2 vs Washington
Penalties were pretty much even in both games
Bucs not beating Bucs is key
October 28th, 2024 at 1:36 pm
yeah no flea flicker and fake punt they prob win that game
October 28th, 2024 at 1:36 pm
I don’t think the defensive guru knows HOW to fix the defense. Or else he thinks repeating the same things will get a different result. The defense is Bowles’ baby… he schemed it, he picked his assistants, he picked his players, he calls the shots on game day. The defense has only gotten worse. I think the time to can Bowles is nearing, give him until the Niners game. Fire him the following day, name Coen interim HC (made official at season’s end), new DC has 2 weeks to put out the dumpster fire and straighten out the mess.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:38 pm
Team will never achieve their lofty goals with Bowles in charge…he’s been a head coach for both the bucs and jets and what you see is what you get
October 28th, 2024 at 1:39 pm
Isn’t this the story on Bowles as HC?
3years: good start followed by a horrible few games followed by “let’s get back to .500” push…. When it happens so often is a pattern!… This year we are going through the same
October 28th, 2024 at 1:40 pm
Well keep in mind in the Lions game, Goff was awful, he kept rushing his throws even though he wasn’t under pressure, and threw the ball 54 times – even missing wide open short crossing routes.
I know listening to the trash fans in Detroit cry after the game, they were all saying the coach needs to be fired, Goff should be cut, it was hilarious. But the thing I recall the most is how they whined about Goff just flat out missing guys when he had all day to throw the ball. Not sure that’s true, but I’m not so sure the Bucs defense had a good day as Goff had a bad day.
For the Bucs defense, stop with the G-D soft zone crap. If you’re going to lose anyways, go down swinging. Send pressure – and pressure isn’t just sending an extra guy while you give up 15 yards underneath as everyone in coverage is running backwards when the ball is snapped.
But that’s not what Todd does post-Arians. Under Arians, who wanted an attacking defense, that was what we got. Now, we get a soft zone with guys just standing around. I don’t care what the ‘blitz’ rate nonsense is, if you’re sending 5 and getting zero pressure, that’s not a blitz as you’re basically running a base 5-2-4 defense.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Chiefs gave a 6th round pick for a linebacker that not even as good as Joe Tyron Pats made out.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:43 pm
Baker Bowl Says:
October 28th, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Another pass rusher traded… to the chiefs… for a late round pick. I guess ‘half the team’ is much cheaper for the Chiefs than the Bucs.
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You guys are completely underselling the fact the Bucs made a big move at punter. A 42-yard NET average on Sunday! That’s amazing and is going to pay off bigly – way more than some ‘sack’ guy.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:44 pm
Bucsfan81, you beat me to it. We keep blaming Bowles, but what is Licht doing to make this team better. A 2nd round LB from the pats who had 11.5 sacks last year, Commanders cut a 1st round linebacker who should be worth taking a look at. Not mad about Devin, but he would still be an improvement on what we have.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:44 pm
We were able to keep the Lions from scoring, that was a fluke. We never did stop them from moving the ball which they did. Anybody think we’d beat the Lions again? How about Washington? I didn’t think so. Truth is the only games our defense did really good were Philly, and New Orleans.
October 28th, 2024 at 1:53 pm
I don’t think the Bucs’ Defensive philosophy cares about yards- Detroit had 450+ yards offense and only scored 16 points.
The key to Bucs’ D success ,philosophically, is playing for field position and forcing long drives by opponents, keeping opponents out of end zone and forcing turnovers.
When the offense gives up turnovers, it shortens field and screws up the defense modus operandi.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:00 pm
The Bucs are in a rebuild
These are the players Licht had to replace with similar production
We’re getting close to replacing some of them
Tom Brady
Gronk
Antonio Brown
Ryan Jensen
Alex Cappa
Ali Marpet
Suh
JPP
Shaq Barrett
Devin White
October 28th, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Pure speculation – but where is David?? He is a senior member of our defense and you’d think we brought him back this year to teach the youth on our team, not be a placeholder just because he’s been a Buc for his career. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted him to get paid and stay in Tampa, but when tackling and LB position has been an issue, why isn’t he putting the team n his back, taking responsibility, and holding his defense accountable while trying to teach them a thing or two. I would have thought Britt would have taken huge strides by now playing with David, but that’s not the case.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:04 pm
This was another winable game! This team needs to stop beating itself! BM6 please be more protective of the ball! Defense please make more plays and get off the field on 3rd diwns especially 3rd and longs! Coaches, lets stick with what is working. TB, please get the D playing more agressive and dial up more oressure, less soft zone!
October 28th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
David did ream the team out after they lost to the Broncos. But it isn’t his nature or personality to unload on people all the time. He’s not Ray Lewis that way.
With K.J. Britt, the guy could have a degree from Oxford and know more about football than Bill Belicheat but he’s just not physically able to cut it as an above average (at best) ILB.
A guy can work out and train and study day and night. But if he doesn’t have the physical tools, none of that matters.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:07 pm
Alanbucsfan that is the philosophy except the first pillar! “Stop the Run first.” We’ve got to do that to be a good team.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:15 pm
The Lions game was more about what the Lions didn’t do more so than what the Bucs did do!! Britt wasn’t on the field as much cause Dennis was playing then and overall the Bucs tackled better in week 2. Dean isn’t a game changer but ,for the Bucs current personnel, Dean being on the field is a huge upgrade to what they are currently trotting out in games
October 28th, 2024 at 2:19 pm
All three of those guys you mentioned are coming off injuries… I bet none of them are truly 100%, as well as lot of other Bucs players.
I saw a lot of names yesterday on Bucs defense jerseys that I didn’t recognize… so while the starters are playing, there is a good chance they aren’t playing as much as they might have been, and the Bucs are having to rely on backups to spell them and those guys are just sub par.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:21 pm
You’re really overselling how “smothering” our defense was against Detroit. We gave up 463 yards. Yes, this team will get lucky once every few games by keeping the offense out of the end zone, but there is generally a strong correlation between yards and points. Todd’s entire philosophy is just wrong.
(Intentionally?) giving up a million yards each game and just counting on a turnover or a big play to keep the opponent from scoring a TD is simply not sustainable.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:32 pm
It keeps falling apart on Bowles. That’s how I see it and why I think he isn’t a good HC.
We’ve got to go back to basics… Every year.
We’ve got to coach it better and play it better .. every year.
The games riddled with really bad coaching decisions.. every year.
He’s just trying to operate at a level Or two higher than what he is capable of. He’s just not a HC
Now I know there are some coach Bowled apologists on this board that can sing through stats saying otherwise but, those stats seem to be missing pieces of the full puzzle that imo just show that he isn’t capable of keeping it together without it falling apart. I couldnt either fwiw.
It’s just time for someone more capable to take the helm.
October 28th, 2024 at 2:53 pm
Joe … ‘What the hell has happened? Well, Bowles wants to know himself. So he is going back to the Bucs’ research facility to dig for an answer.’
Great question Joe, but not that hard to answer.
1 – Camp Cupcake. All the ‘fundamentals’ Bowles is talking about SHOULD have been addressed in Preseason (4 months). Instead, everyone laughed about TB running ‘Camp Cupcake’. Well, piss poor tackling & other bad fundamentals is the result.
2 – Personnel don’t fit the defensive scheme. Bowles 3-4 hybrid defense is quite complex, and works best with speedy, talented, smart players. Sorry, but guys like Britt, Funderburk, JTS, Hall, etc just aren’t even close to being the same caliber of talent as White (early years), Davis, Shaq, JPP, Suh. Right now we’ve got no pass rush to speak of, our run defense sucks, our pass defense sucks, we allow tons of explosive plays, we can’t tackle for beans, and our takeaways have been taken away. Other than that, we’re good.
3 – No depth. Injuries are a fact of life in the NFL, and depth is critically important if you expect to compete. Ours, on defense at least, is virtually non-existent. Resulted for instance in Vea playing 73% of the def snaps yesterday. In case no one noticed, he was DRAGGING big-time in the 4th qtr (probably before that), yet that’s where all his tackles came in.
Fixing it would be easy if Bowles would just listen to Dave Pear. Fruit Loops would have TB fire himself as DC; and I agree (have said for 3 years that dual-hatting HC & Coordinator positions results in both of them getting short-changed). My preference would be for Bowles to let George Edwards take over the defense (he’s got tons of experience as a DC).
But without an infusion of some better talent, that’d just be setting up Edwards as the next great scapegoat. The trade deadline is in 1 week. Licht is sitting on $10 mil in salary CAP space, and that’s enough to probably ‘fix’ 2 positions with some new talent. Make it happen JL. You stocked the cupboard with these untalented players. Now fix it.
October 28th, 2024 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, wld like 2 know y the 2nds n 3rds that played lions looked soooo much better, we have our stars back on defense, the biggest ones….do we not try as hard or care, cause it sure looked that way in game AGAIN,…courde since todd bwls has our tackles covering other positions n playing off man by yards, yikes…poor players dont stand a chance IF BWLS Cant Coach geezzzz
October 28th, 2024 at 3:24 pm
I remember a game when the defense held KC to nine points (NO TDs) with mostly these same guys on defense that we have now. Of course Arians was HC then…
October 28th, 2024 at 3:28 pm
Defense Rules. I’m sad to see that this confounded defense has you at wits end. If we just could have scored on one more possession instead of turning it over. Good defense in the second half. Winfield and LaVonte are all up in that defense and their leadership will turn this thing around. I think we’ll make the playoffs where anything is possible. But next spring you are right – draft all defense. I hope the scouting dept is all over college campuses right about now.
October 28th, 2024 at 3:38 pm
This Buc edition reminds me of the Koetter/Smith teams.
Fun O and horrendous D.
October 28th, 2024 at 3:55 pm
Unless the Falcons have a total collapse and the Bucs catch on fire, there is no way uthis team makes the playoffs.
I do not think either will happen.
This is the worst Bucs D in years, and a couple of trades won’t fix it.
October 28th, 2024 at 4:16 pm
funny he said that last year when we started calling for his job
October 28th, 2024 at 4:23 pm
Kancey was to be the second coming of who? Compared to who? Guess what he’s not even in the same ballpark. Glimpse of him last year against who?
October 28th, 2024 at 4:41 pm
Defense rules, I literally look through every post to see your analysis and response. Always respect you and thoughts on every subject matter. I’m not part of the fire Bowles crowd, but I do like to keep things simple. Bowles since the beginning has had this bend but don’t break defensive philosophy. Giving up yards between the 20’s, but rarely giving up TD’s. I firmly believe if you don’t have the horses you can’t run this style of D! Opponents are getting in scoring position in four or five plays maybe six. Now you can say well that goes for every defense, but I’ve seen way less talented D’s at least slow their opponents down.
October 28th, 2024 at 6:46 pm
Sean Payton exposed Todd’s soft zone and everyone knows how to attack it. Now Bowles has to be accountable and make adjustments which he is known not to do quickly. I expect 4-6 and then maybe things get better after the bye but Bowles has to know 7 to 9 wins and no playoffs will get him launched
so why no sense of urgency from him???!
October 28th, 2024 at 8:32 pm
BucnJim … ‘I firmly believe if you don’t have the horses you can’t run this style of D! Opponents are getting in scoring position in four or five plays maybe six. Now you can say well that goes for every defense, but I’ve seen way less talented D’s at least slow their opponents down.’
Bowles has always had reasonably talented defenses, but not last year & especially not this year. This defense has nothing to hang its hat on … no pass rush (inside or outside), LB play is very disheartening, and our Secondary spends more time in the tub than they do on the field.
Still, I think TB is aggrevating things by trying to fit square pegs into round holes. He doesn’t have the talent to make THIS defensive scheme work, no matter how he adjusts things or what compromises he makes. IMO it all starts up-front, and this DLine is a mess. They get bullied by the big dogs, and sh1t flows downhill from there.
I honestly hope that Bowles turns the defense over to George Edwards for the rest of the season AND let’s him run things his way. My bet is that Edwards would simplify things considerably, and very possibly transition to a 4-3 defense. Personally think that’d improve both our run defense and our short pass defense, and hopefully cut down on explosive plays (those are eating us alive).
October 28th, 2024 at 8:42 pm
FortMyersDave Says:
October 28th, 2024 at 6:46 pm
Sean Payton exposed Todd’s soft zone and everyone knows how to attack it.
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Has nothing to do with Payton, the Texans did this last year, as have many many other teams.
The amazing thing is in the game vs the Eagles, the Bucs actually played an attacking aggressive style and completely shutdown the Philly offense. Yeah, they were missing their WR’s, but it wouldn’t have mattered as Hurts had no time to throw the ball.
That’s what I don’t get. How do you go out and basically run a completely different scheme, that does great, then just abandon it back to the defense that can’t stop anyone and lets every QB you face have a career year.
October 28th, 2024 at 9:35 pm
The Lions had almost 500 yards! That Bucs win was a fluke caused by a rare coaching gaffe by a great head coach, Dan Campbell. Lions game is not what we need to look at. Commanders game? Yeah maybe. This defense has been historically or hysterically bad for the entirety of Bowelszo’s head couching “tenure.” He needs to get Bill B in to look at the film with him. He won’t. Jason and the Glazers must force the issue.
In reality, it’s over. The defense is mailing it in. It’s Raheem 2011 all over again.
October 28th, 2024 at 9:53 pm
Glazers have to realize they’ve maxed out in Bowles. He will not all of a sudden make his defense at least average. His defense can’t tackle , communicate and can’t cover. He doesn’t know how to use timeouts and he’s extremely stubborn on replacing players that don’t produce i.e Britt.
October 29th, 2024 at 10:26 am
It’s simple, really: Bowles plays to not lose.
Every decision comes from wanting to keep it close and not take chances.
It’s why he doesn’t know what to do with a lead. It’s why he plays soft zone so he doesn’t get beat deep. It’s why we get conservative and lose our aggressive edge near the end of halves. He is just trying to keep it close and hoping that the other team makes mistakes or doesn’t convert (the Detroit game is a perfect example).