Catch The Damn Ball!
December 13th, 2010
In the past few weeks, Joe has been abundantly impressed with how the Bucs defensive backs have been able to get to the ball.
But in a season-long trend, Joe has been disturbed at how many interceptions the Bucs are dropping.
Peter King noticed this through his bowl of oatmeal and his mug of coffee too. He wrote in his weekly must-read Monday Morning Quarterback that the game yesterday would have been a blowout if the Bucs defensive backs could have hung onto the ball.
If the Buc defenders could catch, the Redskins would likely have gotten routed Sunday, and he could be on the first Acela out of Washington this morning. Exaggerating there a bit, but McNabb was mostly dreadful against the Bucs. They just couldn’t catch what he was handing them.
Look, can’t Bucs receivers coach Eric Yarber spend a few minutes with these guys to teach them how to catch? Joe heard his good friend “The Big Dog,” Steve Duemig of WDAE-AM 620 say last week if the Bucs defensive backs could have hung on to the ball, they would have beaten the Dixie Chicks last week.
Hey, it’s great that they are breaking up passes, don’t get Joe wrong. But at least keep the ball in your hands once in a while, huh?
December 13th, 2010 at 2:16 pm
In case you an Peter King didn’t know Joe, dropping interceptions is what all defensive backs do. Dont make me say “If they could catch they would be wide recievers.” one more time. How many almost picks has Josh Freeman thrown this year that have been dropped by opposing defensive backs? All DB’s have 2 or 3 dropped interceptions for every one they do pick off. ALL OF THEM. Except maybe the ones that hardly ever get the ball thrown their way to have opportunities to drop picks.(Revis, Asomugha etc.)
December 13th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Defensive backs are supposed to keep the opposing offense from advancing the ball. That includes knocking down balls thrown in their direction to keep the receivers from catching said balls. It seems an interception is just gravy and I’m glad our Bucs can knock a ball down when necessary.
December 13th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Double “Yes” to the previous posts. That being said, in TC they worked the same receiver drills as the WR’s (as did the LB’s)
December 13th, 2010 at 3:04 pm
If these guys would have caught even half of the balls they have dropped this season they’d probably be sitting at 10-3 right now.
December 13th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
I agree, gitarlvr. Plus, by that same token, we’ve had a bunch of Freeman’s passes dropped. Hall dropped a pick-6 early in the game. Obviously, due to our NFL ranking in interceptions, we are doing a pretty good job. This is one thing I’m not really worried about. I’m more worried about if we are going to have anyone left on the team TO drop the ball with the way our injuries are piling up.
December 13th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
I just think it has been more glaring than normal these past two weeks. Better sure up those hands against the Saints at the end of the year though…..Brees has been good but prone to throwing some picks this year and we’ll need to capitalize on those chances.
December 13th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Think of how differently the Super Bowl would have turned out if #55 and company would have just knocked down passes instead of intercepting.
Good defense knock down passes. Great defenses force turnovers.
December 13th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
@d-money-
And the Bucs defense has forced plenty of turnovers so im not quite sure what your point is.
December 14th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Joe has a great point, as good as they are doing more turnovers would be better. Morris did put a huge infuses on INTs this year. Remember he talked about it during preseason, he said we do not celebrate a defended pass, just turnovers and scores.