TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS DEFENSE:
OVERALL: 20th (329.3 ypg)
RUSHING: 30th (163.3 ypg)
PASSING: 7th (166.0 ypg)
Many people on this board including myself have been baching Allen and Phillips really hard for their play the first few weeks. Maybe I should add Barber and Kelly to that since they have been hearing a lot of criticism because of their play as well. When you look at these numbers it seems to show that it is not the secondary that is playing bad but the Dline and LB's. I know that the S's and CB's have been missing was to many tackles but so has the rest of the team. The problem with blaming the S's and CB'c for not taking down the RB's is that the running back should never have even made it that far. This D is ranked number 7 aginst the pass allowing only 166 yards per game. That to me sounds pretty good considering the run D which is controlled by the Dline and LB's is ranked 30th and giving up 163.3 yards per game. The bottom line is that the D as a whole needs to play better but more needs to be said about the Dline and LB's and less about how bad the S's are because the numbers prove that they are not the biggest weakness.
I think the main reason why our Pass Defense is ranked so high is because teams have predominantly run the ball at us, because they know that we are hopeless in defending it.
