Bucs Defense Has Sunk To Horror Show Levels
October 30th, 2024
“My defense wasn’t that bad!”
Chilling numbers Joe dug up last night about the Bucs defense and how low it has sunk.
Let’s put it this way, two Bucs defensive coaches who had better defenses this century are to this day mocked and held up by Bucs fans as the standard for trash defenses.
Yet those two men had defenses that weren’t giving up the booty like the Bucs have this month — though one was very close.
And neither of these two ex-coaches had near the defensive talent to work with as current Bucs head coach Todd Bowles does (though all three had Lavonte David).
The coaches in question still give Bucs fans the shivers when their names are whispered.
The Smiths.
Lousy Lovie Smith and Mike Smith.
Since Joe was only going by Bucs games played this October, Joe decided to take the final four games the Smiths coached before they were mercifully shoved out the door. Keep in mind Mike Smith was launched on Oct. 15 of 2018. Lousy Lovie Smith was able to finish the 2015 season before he had to clean out his desk in the middle of the night.
Mike Smith’s defense was a hair better than Bowles’ defense the past four games. Barely. Bowles’ defense this month has given up an average of 33.75 points a game. Mike Smith’s final four games opposing offenses averaged 33.24 points.
How about Lousy Lovie Smith? In his final four games, the Bucs defense allowed 29.75 points a game.
So this is the territory the Bucs defense has entered — in a twilight zone of horror if your defenses are being gouged for more points than the Smiths.
Not good.
October 30th, 2024 at 7:13 am
TreDavious White, Mike Edwards and Azeez Ojulari. All guys on the trade block and all guys I think we can realistically plug and play. Which one/ones make the most sense. I feel like secondary help is the most needed but we also have a huge whole to fill in the middle of the field and on the edge. The more I type this, the more I realize how many issues on the defense there are.
October 30th, 2024 at 7:35 am
Hope the fire Bowles at the end of the season. Good guy but not a good coach. His players play like he coaches. No fire, no emotion. His defense has gotten worse year after year and we are consistently drafting defense guys in the trenches that don’t get better. I hate his schemes and the way he uses our defensive ends. Dropping them in coverage is just assanine. I swear the reason Bucs never get any respect nationally is because no one believes in Bowles and knows he is just blah! Please Licht make the tough decision and MOVE ON! HIRE Coen or Bring in BB and pay Coen a big bag to stay on as offensive coordinator. Anything but emotionless Bowles.
October 30th, 2024 at 7:44 am
Hopefully the Glazers read this post and filed in their memory banks for black Monday.
October 30th, 2024 at 7:46 am
That was the “cover no one” defense era. And guess what, it’s back baby !!
October 30th, 2024 at 7:46 am
Yep I called it! Lovie 2.0. We are seeing it happen. This should be Bowles last season.
October 30th, 2024 at 7:47 am
Crazy how Kwon Alexander’s thriving with another team but we never thought to bring him home….smh
October 30th, 2024 at 7:48 am
I stand corrected he has 3 tackles this year lol
October 30th, 2024 at 8:05 am
Tampa 2 lawn chair.
I had thought that Dean and Davis had perfected this,
Boy was I sadly mistaken:(
This new batch is taking this to a new low.
56-3 is coming!
October 30th, 2024 at 8:09 am
As a recommendation Joe, please do an article on how bad this year’s defense is doing in 2 areas: (1) allowing explosive pass plays & run plays; and (2) missed tackles. Just for the Todd Bowles years here. Those 2 categories are horrific but no one’s putting numbers to them.
Personally I consider explosive plays to fall into 3 categories. First, run plays that gain 10 yards or more. Second, short pass plays that gain 10 yards or more. Third, deep pass plays that gain 20 yards or more. All 3 typically result in 1st downs & keep the drive alive, regardless of what down it was.
For example, in Sunday’s game the Bucs’ defense allowed 3 explosive runs that totalled 43 yds. They allowed 5 short pass completions that totalled 95 yards & 1 TD. And they allowed 4 deep pass completions that gained 115 yards & 2 TDs. All together bucs defense allowed 12 explosive plays that resulted in 253 yards of offense & 3 TDs.
Our Missed Tackles this year are out-of-sight. Sunday was mild actually; we ‘only’ missed on 6 tackles. Through 8 games we’ve missed on 52 tackles as a team … 9.0%. In 2023 we missed on 75 total tackles … 6.2% … and in 2022 we missed on 58 … 5.7%.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:20 am
unfortunately, we had all the right DBs drafted. Shoudl’ve kept M. Edwards and SMB at cheap rates on the team and they would be helping imo.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:25 am
Why can we just find and keep a good coaching staff I mean every year its up or down cant the Bucs just be good for years on in geeez
October 30th, 2024 at 8:38 am
Comparison makes sense. Plus, I was listening to Todd Wright earlier this morning and he pointed out that it is not just Britt and whomever is playing CB opposite of Zion M who have been getting gashed. Todd pointed out that even Antoine Winfield whiffed on the 80 yard run by King Henry….. For the defense to be this bad it cannot simply be one player mailing it in or simply not talented enough to be on an NFL roster but more of a collective issue. Mr Wright got me thinking, is Winfield kind of making “business” decisions on the field since he has gotten the big pay day? Also have to say that it is not just JTS and Logan Hall under performing up front as well. Anthony Nelson has been silent and YaYa has not taken that “next” step and in fact seems to have regressed. Vea is not on the field for all the snaps and one of the Joes pointed out on Ira’s podcast that Kancey is just getting his “sea legs” in week 8 as he was injured yet again in the pre-season, this time right before the Washington game. Not a great return for a guy who was drafted at #19 in the first round. A mid first round pick should be contributing more…… So are the players tuning out the coaches making “business” decisions on the field as the Bucs D gets embarrassed. This could be as much of the issue as Bowles being a bad coach. The only thing certain is that no one associated with the D is being held accountable yet or owning up to shortcomings. Right now Carolina or the Titans could probably put 30 on this defense……
October 30th, 2024 at 8:47 am
Defense Rules, to me it seems like the amount of separation RB’s & WR’s are getting is contributing to missed tackles. Much harder to tackle when the opposition is running free in open space.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:50 am
Jose, you are delusional if you think there is a lot of talent on this defense. There are maybe 4 guys. The second year guys, Buster Kancey and No-No are useless. JTS looks better than No-No (but it’s close). Braswell should be labeled Bustwell. Vea only plays half a game if that. Dennis is single-handedly adding a new wing to Tampa General. Funderdork can’t cover (but is a nice tackler). Licht is every bit as responsible for this horror show as Bowles.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:51 am
Bowles does this every year. He installs a defense that does well at first, progressively gets worse, he then blames the players for not understanding the scheme, then he pivots.
That’s the thing about Bowles: He doesn’t learn. He can’t evolve.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:53 am
FortMyersDave, my thoughts exactly! You can’t pin this on any one player. I’m going to disagree on Winfield he isn’t that type of player, but haven’t heard a peep from Whitehead as far as making plays unless I’ve missed something. A ton of draft capital has been spent on the D line with little return. Not sure how we can hit on offensive lineman, but completely whiff on the D side.
October 30th, 2024 at 8:58 am
Good coaches can run circles around this defense. Take the Falcons for example. They are familiar with Bowles’ D and demonstrated that a few weeks ago by gashing the Bucs D in route to an OT win. Fast forward to Sunday and what happened? The same thing! It sure looked like the Falcons were the comfortable team on offense, and they were the visitors! Our D is supposed to have a leg up at home, but instead looked like they didn’t have any legs. Where were the adjustments? Wrinkles? Unexpected formations? It’s as if Bowles simply thought his players needed to play better and used the same game plan. Coen lost our top two WR and changed his offense to feature his new strength, RB. And Bowles just plugs along with the same old mantra “we gotta play better” bs. Todd, please accept the jig is up and get creative. Everybody knows what your D is doing, and if you don’t mix it up you can start planning that early retirement in 2025.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:08 am
LVD, Vea, Winfield and McCollum. Everyone else on the D is a backup or a scrub. This is the outcome of keeping dead weight like JTS and Hall. Bowles can no longer defend these guys, no one is buying it. As far as Braswell, Ya-Ya and Kancy, I’m still waiting to see signs of life.
Might as well play a lot more press coverage this week as it can’t be much worse than playing zone with huge holes in coverage. Blitz Winfield and LVD often – why not nothing to lose at this point. Depressing to watch these morons on defense after the O line finally got its act together.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:15 am
Can’t believe we are having to relieve those crap defenses. I sat through many games watching that and here we are yet again. If this keeps up Bowles will be gone. It is not like he didn’t have a say in who we drafted or brought in for his defense he is running.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:16 am
Todd Blows is not even giving his players a chance by not adjusting his scheme in coverages at all.
The QB knows where to go with the ball and where the openings are prior to the play. It’s sooooo bad and stop with the communication issue, fix it or go play golf with Lewftwich
October 30th, 2024 at 9:16 am
No pass defense. I mean it’s disrespectful to say no pass defense but our coverage’s have to be improved. There are holes there and it’s gonna cost us the season. Where do they find these people off the street? Like seriously? Minimum wage forever and ever. Lol
October 30th, 2024 at 9:19 am
We can thank Bruce Arians for saddling the Bucs with the curse of the Bowel Movement. He sure pulled a fast one on the naive Blazers.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:22 am
*Glazers
October 30th, 2024 at 9:48 am
The scheme Bowles is running now obviously isn’t working, not sure if it’s his coaching or players abilities and not being able to play in his scheme. He either needs to change things up to better match his players abilities, i.e., more press coverage with less zone, more blitzes, and for F*** sake, get more pressure on the QBs from your edge rushers and stop dropping them back into coverage.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:57 am
I think the solution is simple as Joe has stated several times. We have no edge rush. Todd’s defense needs a pass rush. Unfortunately none of our edge guys are good or have developed, or ever will. Not to mention he keeps dropping them in coverage.
October 30th, 2024 at 9:59 am
Joe was right the Bucs are not trying to win
Joe never wrote or said that.–Joe
But they have a good roster, salary cap money available in 2025. Come on Jason Licht had to know in training camp we had no pass rush. Watts, Ramirez can’t get a single snap but the rookie gets in the game? He’s a decent GM if we can see it we have to know he saw it before us since media could only see warm ups, Watts was getting put on his back in camp. I do think Bowles is that slow that all this time he didn’t know Britt couldn’t cover. Nope if Bowles couldn’t make it work this year and we had another mediocre season he was going to get fired we were to go all in on a new coach like we did with BA take that salary cap money, high pick and go all in again. Licht can’t be that dumb to think he can win without free agents but he can’t actually tell his season ticket holders we’ll wait until next year to ball out. Coen was the surprise though
October 30th, 2024 at 10:08 am
This defense has lost me, and I doubt they can redeem themselves to fans…or the scoreboard.
I expect this D to give up 400+ yds and 24+ points a game. I don’t really think Dennis and Dean would make a huge difference in this D’s performance.
It is sad to watch a non-Brady offense that the Buc faithful can be proud of, only to be erased by one of the worst defenses in Buccaneer history.
I, for one, do not expect this defense to get any better, and I am tired of Bowles “Dungy-like” excuses (“we weren’t in sync”) of “lack of communication.”
I was not that fond of Bowles taking over, but I chose to give him every opportunity to prove me wrong.
The thing is, he’s proven to be the coach I thought he was: mediocre at best.
Maybe casuals like mediocre. I do not.
Contrary to many here, I am not sure Coen has the “thing” to make him a solid HC in the NFL, since he’s never been one at any level in his career.
October 30th, 2024 at 10:10 am
Bowles defense has never been that good, he simply had exceptional talent and a high-powered offense to mask it. The SB year the defense and offense were so stacked, opponents were forced to pick their poison. We had JPP, Suh, Vea, Shaq, David, White, Winfield….whomever they doubled created mismatches for the others. Now add in the same dynamics on offense with exceptional QB play and it was easy to sit in the driver’s seat as DC.
As soon as the offense lost its luster (Brady’s last year), the defense started to be exposed. In order for Bowles defense to “work” the offense has to consistently put up points AND play error free. Without that dynamic, teams can keep us honest as they aren’t forced to pass to play catch up. What you’re seeing now is desperation…..the rate that we blitz is simply praying for something to happen because in our base defense, we cant stop anyone nor can we generate any turnovers to assist the offense. There is no quick fix…..the scheme Bowles runs has been exposed and teams are going to exploit it continously. Its a copy cat league, it will continue until we consistently are able to execute. I dont see that happening any time soon.
October 30th, 2024 at 10:18 am
I don’t blame Mayfield so much for the ints.
He knows as well as anyone that if the team does not score many points, it will lose because of a weak, butter-soft, bend-and-break, give-up-big-chunks defense.
So, without two superstar WRs, he’s forcing the ball.
I can’t blame him too much.
October 30th, 2024 at 10:44 am
Bucs can’t cover middle of the field.
Mahomes is going to have a field day.
October 30th, 2024 at 10:45 am
Why not throw an offer to trade for Josh Allen!!!!! (No not that Josh Allen,, the other one on the Jags ,, Jags seems to be unloading everything they got for a total rebuild
October 30th, 2024 at 11:17 am
The Bucs can’t cut all ties with Bowels soon enough….
He is proving to be about as good as Leftwich was on offensive side!
October 30th, 2024 at 11:45 am
No more excuses for Bowles. Too much draft capital has been invested in the D with nothing to show for it. The only thing I have seen this FO and coaching staff be good at is how more woke they can be compared to other teams. I don’t care if you hire a minority as head coach or a woman coach for the first time in NFL history. Are they good at their job or not? Football is a meritocracy! Stop with the excuses and woke BS! Win games or go away!
October 30th, 2024 at 1:52 pm
Cobraboy … ‘I don’t blame Mayfield so much for the ints.’
Sorry Cobra, but he’s the one making the decision on where to throw the ball. I might agree with you if they were all great throws and his receivers were deflecting the passes and they were intercepted, but that’s only 1 max 2 passes that’s happened on.
Fans have no problem holding Bowles responsible for decisions that players make on the field or that his OC & S/Ts coaches make on what plays to call. Fans have no problem holding Britt responsible for being slow, and some players for being injury-magnets. Fans have had no problem blaming Rachaad White for not seeing holes soon enough. So WHY would fans NOT hold a QB responsible for INTs? We credit Baker for the good (21 TDs in 8 games is awesome IMO), but that’s countered somewhat by his throwing 9 INTs in 8 games. Risk-Reward; that’s all it comes down to.
October 30th, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Sad guys..Sad. I know Brooks, Lynch and Sapp are somewhere drowning their disappointment in our Defense at a local bar.
October 30th, 2024 at 6:05 pm
Mike Smith wasn’t that good when he came here. People are always good to point a finger but I think the Bucs were happy to see a lot of people leave and he was one..
October 30th, 2024 at 7:59 pm
Why do we have wait till the season is over to move on from this disaster… Cut our loses NOW !!!
October 30th, 2024 at 10:33 pm
@DR: “I don’t blame..so much.”
Of course Mayfield threw the balls and some were bad decisions.
October 31st, 2024 at 10:58 am
The one common element all of these defenses shared was a weak pass rush. Mike Smith was lambasted for never blitzing because the rush wasn’t getting to the QB. I just remember Smith defense always staying in a Cover 2 and never mixing coverages up but his defenses never had a pass rush either. Seems simple enough and nothing to do with communication issues, no pass rush no defense.
October 31st, 2024 at 7:43 pm
So last year, it was the defense that at least allow us the stay
In or win games because our offense was scoring only 18-19
Points a game. Now we have a potent offense that is scoring
29 points about game. Unfortunately this year our defense
Sucks