On a day where the weather was about as nice as you could possibly ask for the final day in July in Tampa Bay, the defense showed their stuff and, for the most part, got the better of the offense.

But the encouraging performance didn’t come without discouraging news. That came when we caught Bucs first round pick defensive tackle Vita Vea rolling out to practice with a cart and his lower leg in a walking boot.

Vea left practice on Sunday with a limp and his leg totally wrapped with ice. After practice Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter said he wasn’t sure what the diagnosis was.

From the looks of it, we assumed it was a calf strain, but a boot seems like overkill for just a calf strain. We’ll have to wait a few days to see what the timetable might really be.

Tuesday’s practice featured a lot of one-on-one work. Most of that came from the trenches, but we saw some good pass rush and coverage drills as well between the tight end/running backs and the linebackers.

Charles Sims proved to be the best pass blocking back with Peyton Barber and Jacquizz Rodgers holding their own, too. Rookie running back Ronald Jones is still getting the hang of it.

Linebackers Lavonte David (shown above) and Kwon Alexander had their ways with most of the tight end and running back assignments they went up against.

One of the best matchups of the day came from Jason Pierre-Paul going up against Ryan Jensen. The two new comers went at it in the one-on-one drills and, boy, it was a battle.

Pierre-Paul got the better of Jensen in round one, as shown above, with a vicious push-pull move to bring Jensen to the ground.

Pierre-Paul almost got the better of him in round two, but Jensen was ready for the pull that time and hung on to recover very nicely.

That is Pro Bowl-caliber stuff from both guys there.

The big plays from practice were on plays that we weren’t able to get on video, unfortunately. Linebacker Kwon Alexander had an interception that came off an aggressive blitz where the pass was tipped at the line of scrimmage, and safety Justin Evans had a pick-6 over the middle.

The offense has reigned supreme for most of camp so far, but Tuesday was certainly the defense’s day.

In some other notes, rookie cornerback Carlton Davis was the starting outside cornerback with Brent Grimes taking a veteran’s day off, and rookie cornerback M.J. Stewart was getting plenty of work on the first, second and third teams, at times all throughout the day.