There Was A Kyle Moore Sighting Friday
August 14th, 2011
For Bucs fans who are known to have an adult beverage or two watching a football game or distracted from the game by an attractive lass pouring drinks — Courtney the Bartender is known for such things — fans may have missed something Friday night.
In the Bucs first preseason game of the season, defensive end Kyle Moore played. Really. And he got a sack!
Correction: Moore had two sacks.
Moore was one of Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik’s first draft picks as a general manager. Selected in the fourth round of the 2009 draft, Moore has been pretty much been more rumor than a football player. By a combination of injuries and subpar play, Moore is still looking for his first NFL sack.
When Dominik drafted Adrian Clayborn and Da’Quan Bowers with his first two picks this past spring, the gauntlet was laid down for Moore: Produce or pack.
Whether that was motivation for Moore or not remains speculative. But Moore did a very smart thing and during the summer, he decided to work out with beast defensive end/outside linebacker Tamba Hali and his former college coach, Larry Johnson at Penn State.
Moore spoke on the Bucs radio network after the game and noted how much he learned from Johnson while spending time at Happy Valley. It showed Friday that he must have learned something per Anwar Richardson of the Tampa Tribune.
Although he did not start, Moore came off the bench and had two sacks, two tackles, two tackles for loss and two quarterback hurries.
“He’s healthy for the first time being here,” Bucs coach Raheem Morris said. “He went out and executed the game plan that his coaches gave him. He made some great inside moves, some great outside movies.
“He rushed inside, he rushed outside. He was on it. He played fast, he played smart and exactly how coaches wanted him to.”
This tells Joe two things:
1) Motivation can do wonderful things.
2) If Moore had to reach out to a college coach to get better, that just cements to Joe just what a rotten job former Bucs defensive line coach Todd Wash did in (not) developing players.
If Moore can be the surprise of the defensive ends this fall thanks to Johnson’s tutoring and the coaching he gets from current Bucs coaches, this could be critical for the Bucs as the squad very well could be sickly deep with guys rushing from the edge.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Sometimes it just takes the right situation to light a fire under someone. Hopefully Moore keeps it up and makes the final roster.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:54 pm
Kyle Moore has had good camps before. Since I never say never, I hope this time is different, but if you don’t mind I’m going to take the “wait and see” approach on this one!
August 15th, 2011 at 3:03 am
Calm down Joe, i was going up against 3rd stringers.
August 15th, 2011 at 6:41 am
“Don’t Go Nuts Over Second-Team Sacks”
Recognize your headline?
I’m also encouraged by his performance but was just amused by the contradiction.
I’m also huge on Demar Dotson right now. Aside from his false start, I think he played a stellar game.
August 15th, 2011 at 7:54 am
We’ve got it now, little Joey. You can stop now with the “rock star general manager” BS.
August 15th, 2011 at 8:49 am
The most impressive pass rusher from Saturday was Dakoda Watson. Not because he got 1.5 sacks, but because of the way he absolutely flew off the edge, made himself small, dipped his shoulder, turned the corner and got pressure on the few rushes he had. His speed and ability, whether it be against 8th stringers or first stringers, is deadly coming off the edge and will give anybody, any team, any LT problems. I look forward to seeing more of Dakoda Watson coming off the edge.
August 15th, 2011 at 9:04 am
BTW, Dotson gave up two pressures on Saturday. One resulted in a 2nd effort sack by the RDE and the other forced the ball out of JJ’s hands quickly as Dotson was lined up on the other side. I want to see Dotson do well, but he didn’t look particularly agile out there and failed to sustain blocks.
August 15th, 2011 at 10:03 am
From what I saw Clayborne and Bennett looked good as well. Did not really notice Crowder or Bowers, but I know Crowder has a motor and can produce. Either way, IF the Bucs DEs are suddenly 5 deep and providing an actual pass rush game in and game out AND being disruptive in the run game WOW!
What a turn around that would be.
I know, I know…. one preseason game…. we’ll see as time goes on.
Nice to be optimistic about things though
August 15th, 2011 at 11:22 am
It’s waay more point 2. The D line play as a unit is my favorite part of that practice, game whatever. Regardless of the different philosophies coming into the game, you can’t short play the trenches. Can’t wait to add GMC and Big P, who is clearly eating pork rinds in the background @ KC. Trust me I know pork rinds when I see them.