Bucs’ defense gives up too many points, but pass rush is showing up

Bucs’ defense gives up too many points, but pass rush is showing up The Bucs’ defense has 15 sacks, including four from Jacquies Smith, here taking down Tennessee’s Marcus Mariota in Week 1. By Martin Fennelly | Tribune Staff Published: October 24, 2015LANDOVER, Md. — It should be the main headline on the Buccaneers’ defense, but it isn’t. That happens even when you’re ranked fifth in yards allowed, because you’re still giving up nearly 30 points a game, can’t stop the run and you’re horrible in the red zone.But we need to say this: The sackers are here.For now, the Tampa Bay pass rush is, well, a pass rush.Fifteen sacks through five games. Only three NFL teams average more sacks per pass play. The sacks are coming at last, six against Jacksonville alone.We’ve wondered if a Buc would ever again get 10 sacks in a season. Hasn’t happened since Simeon Rice in 2005. Well, Gerald McCoy, with 4.5, and Jacquies Smith, with four, are on pace. In fact, Bucs sackers are falling from the sky, like Howard Jones, who had two in the win against Jacksonville, including one on his first NFL snap.Nothing to it.Still …“If you look at how many points we’re giving up, it’s pretty bad,” McCoy said. “Total defense is OK of a stat to look at, but it doesn’t really tell the true story. And the true story is we’re not good enough on defense. We have to be a lot better. We’ve giving up way, way, way too many points.”But the pass rush is better. Today brings Washington, which has allowed only seven sacks this season, near the top of the league. Tampa Bay’s defense had six sacks in beating Washington last season, which on the whole didn’t produce enough pressure when it mattered. So don’t trust the six sacks against Jacksonville just yet.New arrival George Johnson hasn’t delivered sacks, but the rest of the front four has 12.5, helping the Bucs to the NFL’s fourth-ranked pass defense.“It’s encouraging,” Smith said. “But it’s a long season. It’s a marathon. And we’ve left sacks out there. We’ve got to keep getting better every week.”In theory, the better the pass rush, the better the pass coverage.Hasn’t worked out that way, given the problems in the Bucs’ weak defensive backfield.And the Bucs are 25th in the NFL against the run. There’s the challenge against Washington runner Alfred Morris, as well as former Armwood High and Florida Gators running back Matt Jones.At least the pass rush has picked up the challenge thrown down before the season. Bucs coach Lovie Smith talked about pressuring the quarterback. So did defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier. Then there’s defensive line coach Joe Cullen, who is always in his unit’s ears, loudly when necessary.It’s no surprise. Cullen, a former college nose guard, has worked with former Bucs defensive line coach and live wire Rod Marinelli. Marinelli also made the Bucs’ pass rush of Rice and Warren Sapp a league-wide power all the way to a Super Bowl championship.“He’s crazy, man,” McCoy said of Cullen. “But he’s a good crazy. He doesn’t care who you are or what your name is or what you’ve accomplished. You’re nobody to him. You have to put the work in every day, every single day.”Cullen said, “I’ve always had a theory that you coach the worst player in the room like the best player in the room and vice versa. Your either getting better or worse. Rarely do you stay the same. I’m high energy. But don’t confuse the yelling with being mad.”It’s just five games in. Long season. A marathon.And it’s about more than sacks and pressure. As much as Rice and Sapp and the rest brought the rush way back when, the Bucs still needed Ronde Barber, John Lynch and the others back there to make the plays. These Bucs have nothing like that. They also don’t have enough consistency. They get their sacks, but also have stretches of no pressure at all. That’s the next level.“We haven’t really done it yet,” McCoy said. “We’re doing it more. We’re getting there, but it you look at the tape, there are so many more opportunities. Our goal is to average three (sacks) a game. That’ll put you close to the top of the league, if you average three a game. That’ll take a lot of pressure off the back end.”It hasn’t yet. But you have to start somewhere. Up front is as good a place as any.