I don't think it's a talent issue..we have talent. We aren't elite by any means but there's enough there to be a middle of the pack defense.
The scheme is the issue. His players lapse in coverage and we play a TON of soft zone coverage that is SUPPOSED to be bend don't break but we end up doing both.
Our third down defense is atrocious. Our fourth down defense sucks. Our third and long defense sucks.
Bowles has consistently been out coached on defense.
Every big moment late in the game his defense fails after the offense has kept them in it.
He's failed to be aggressive on offense via fourth down analytics because he believes fool-hardily in his defensive scheme.
Losing is never on one person but I feel pretty confident in saying 80% of it is on Bowles as a head coach... Whether that is time management, aggressiveness, defense, or just collecting time outs for the off-season
Factor-in my last comment about the 3 key pieces (Edge/ILB/CB) we all knew we didn’t have coming into the season, and the context of defensive injuries adds perspective to the defensive shortcomings.Well, they did all play… they probably just took games off because Bowles was mad at them.the injuries to stars at NT/Safety made it worse, especially during the 4 game losing streak.
Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, Antoine Winfield Jr., and Jordan Whitehead played all four games during that losing streak.
These excuses simply don't play.
You’re flailing here with these excuses.
The team’s, and Bowles' as DC, most impressive performance this season was against the 10-1 Detroit Lions. They were without Antoine Winfield Jr. and Calijah Kancey. Let’s stop with the excuses, especially the inaccurate ones.
I have to admit, I didn't realize Bryce Hall was on IR. He's a difference maker. That completely absolves the HC/DC from having the 29th overall and 24th scoring defense in the NFL.
Again, all teams have injuries. It's an excuse. The offense had/has injuries to important personnel too, but they don't need the excuse as they are top 10 overall and top 5 scoring.
Facts, not feelings.
The offense had/has injuries to important personnel too, but they don't need the excuse as they are top 10 overall and top 5 scoring.
Bucs' offense is averaging about 30 pts per game and then with the injuries
down to 26
down to 24
down to 20
30 (Evans comes back)
(maybe confusion over how averages work?)
Factor-in my last comment about the 3 key pieces (Edge/ILB/CB) we all knew we didn’t have coming into the season
You keep saying this.
Who didn’t we have?
This is called a "strawman"
I didn't realize Bryce Hall was on IR. He's a difference maker. That completely absolves the HC/DC from having the 29th overall and 24th scoring defense in the NFL.
No one has said not having Hall gives Bowles a pass (of course).
Some have said there is a difference between having Hall, Dean and McCollum as corners and having McCollum, Hayes and Funderburk.
That is so obviously true, you changed it up to your strawman
Idk funderburk had a great 40 time.
/S
You nailed it, Bucs started with limited depth, and went into the season without 3 starting level folks at those 3 key positions - injuries are severely impacting our ability to scheme situational players (at best) - who had to be made starters (Bryce Hall, Britt, among others, etc). At some point you lose the ability to scheme around defencies.When players are out injured, it's incumbent upon the coaching staff to implement schemes and coach up the replacement players for them to perform. Admittedly the Bucs roster doesn't have the depth that other teams do. That impacts performance. But I also feel the Bucs coaching staff on the defensive side could be doing a better job getting the defense to play better. The Bucs coaching staff on the offensive side has done a better job getting more from the replacement players. And you see that circles back to Bowles and "his guys".
Thats the spot with which we’ve been dealing. Prior to the season, I believe the GM & coach knew they were still paying down the dead cap issues, so did the best they could with what they had.
I can see the case that WHEN he could draft, he made mistakes (JTS and a few others), but he was limited in being able to augment those mistakes with access to FA’s. In fact, while rebuilding the offense, he was never able to is free agency to address replacing starters like Shaq, JPP, Suh, and the CB’s lost/retired - especially this last season - it’s why we are in this spot.
No scheme is going to help the missing key spots we couldn’t make.
I can see how fans can lay it on Bowles, but many of those who are enjoying the offensive performance today, told me before the season that the defense wasn’t a problem, they thought Mayfield would collect on his barely fair contract and devolve into excrement.
So it’s all about perspective and context for me.
and went into the season without 3 starting level folks at those 3 key positions
Who?
When players are out injured, it's incumbent upon the coaching staff to implement schemes and coach up the replacement players for them to perform. Admittedly the Bucs roster doesn't have the depth that other teams do. That impacts performance. But I also feel the Bucs coaching staff on the defensive side could be doing a better job getting the defense to play better. The Bucs coaching staff on the offensive side has done a better job getting more from the replacement players. And you see that circles back to Bowles and "his guys".
great post
and sort of takes it back to one of SR's Fab 5 articles where he suggested the younger offensive coaches were more flexible and creative than the older defensive unit
Factor-in my last comment about the 3 key pieces (Edge/ILB/CB) we all knew we didn’t have coming into the season, and the context of defensive injuries adds perspective to the defensive shortcomings.Well, they did all play… they probably just took games off because Bowles was mad at them.the injuries to stars at NT/Safety made it worse, especially during the 4 game losing streak.
Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, Antoine Winfield Jr., and Jordan Whitehead played all four games during that losing streak.
These excuses simply don't play.
You’re flailing here with these excuses.
The team’s, and Bowles' as DC, most impressive performance this season was against the 10-1 Detroit Lions. They were without Antoine Winfield Jr. and Calijah Kancey. Let’s stop with the excuses, especially the inaccurate ones.
I have to admit, I didn't realize Bryce Hall was on IR. He's a difference maker. That completely absolves the HC/DC from having the 29th overall and 24th scoring defense in the NFL.
Again, all teams have injuries. It's an excuse. The offense had/has injuries to important personnel too, but they don't need the excuse as they are top 10 overall and top 5 scoring.
Facts, not feelings.
The lack of players on the defensive side of the ball is on the HC & GM. We’ve covered this before. They blew top picks on Devin White, JTS, and Logan Hall. You can use the cap as yet another excuse for Todd Bowles’ poor defense, but the cap didn’t make the HC/DC sign off on these guys.
You can’t actually think you’re making factual arguments, here. It’s excuse after excuse after excuse. Are the Detroit Lions needing the excuse of losing the best pass rusher in the league? No? How odd.
Biggsy, honestly, I love & respect ya - but your pseudo self-righteous opinions are no more facts than my opinion.Factor-in my last comment about the 3 key pieces (Edge/ILB/CB) we all knew we didn’t have coming into the season, and the context of defensive injuries adds perspective to the defensive shortcomings.Well, they did all play… they probably just took games off because Bowles was mad at them.the injuries to stars at NT/Safety made it worse, especially during the 4 game losing streak.
Vita Vea, Calijah Kancey, Antoine Winfield Jr., and Jordan Whitehead played all four games during that losing streak.
These excuses simply don't play.
You’re flailing here with these excuses.
The team’s, and Bowles' as DC, most impressive performance this season was against the 10-1 Detroit Lions. They were without Antoine Winfield Jr. and Calijah Kancey. Let’s stop with the excuses, especially the inaccurate ones.
I have to admit, I didn't realize Bryce Hall was on IR. He's a difference maker. That completely absolves the HC/DC from having the 29th overall and 24th scoring defense in the NFL.
Again, all teams have injuries. It's an excuse. The offense had/has injuries to important personnel too, but they don't need the excuse as they are top 10 overall and top 5 scoring.
Facts, not feelings.
The lack of players on the defensive side of the ball is on the HC & GM. We’ve covered this before. They blew top picks on Devin White, JTS, and Logan Hall. You can use the cap as yet another excuse for Todd Bowles’ poor defense, but the cap didn’t make the HC/DC sign off on these guys.
You can’t actually think you’re making factual arguments, here. It’s excuse after excuse after excuse. Are the Detroit Lions needing the excuse of losing the best pass rusher in the league? No? How odd.
Injuries and lack of players this season are the reason for the poor on-field performance of the defense this season. As I recall, you were one of those who were fine with the defense last season, what changed? It wasn’t Bowles scheme - it is the injuries and the players we couldn’t get this year because we deferred the higher draft picks to bolster the offense. There were no FA’s brought in - that’s on the GM.
The injuries to key positions that on defense further eroded it this season, by taking them out for multiple games - save for Goedeke - the offense didn’t experience that until the Ravens game.
These are facts.
I get it, you want to replace Bowles, which is also consistent with your preference last season. I disagree with your conclusion that Bowles is a bad coach and responsible for all of this - I don’t think he is and right now I can’t see your reasoning. I have eyes and I’ll be watching over the next 5 games.
Depending on how we finish, it’s very possible that the owners/GM will make that decision at the conclusion of this year. If we win, it will be more difficult.
I like consistency, you think firing the coach is the way forward. I’d like to still be cheering on the Bucs in the post-season. If that makes it hard on the owner/GM - so be it. They’re big boys with lots of cash, they can probably figure it out.
Anything more than that, is a distraction to enjoying each win.
The Glazers nor Licht are monitoring PR for which way the wind is blowing. That will take care of itself.
On to Carolina.
The answer was right there, I put it in bold.Factor-in my last comment about the 3 key pieces (Edge/ILB/CB) we all knew we didn’t have coming into the season
You keep saying this.
Who didn’t we have?
As to specific “who” for each spot: I think you added a few names as FA targets…but I also remember you being ok with skipping all of them because it would have an adverse effect on the cap, right?
Your current disappointment is the credit card bill we’re paying down by NOT signing anyone. I get it, no one likes paying for the Brady/SB charges …but limping along without significant FA additions at those positions this season is the payment.
Injuries and lack of players this season are the reason for the poor on-field performance of the defense this season.
These are facts.
I suppose the obvious needs to be said: that isn’t a fact, it’s an opinion. You aren’t the only one around here that confuses their opinion with fact. It’s pretty common, unfortunately.
Allow me demonstrate what a fact is. The Buccaneers have the 29th overall defense in the NFL. The Buccaneers have the 24th scoring defense in the NFL. The Buccaneers DC is Todd Bowles. Those are facts. The reasons you are giving as to why the defensive performance has sucked are opinions and excuses.
You can have the last word.
The lack of key defensive players we don’t have, the injuries we have had, and the salary cap limitations, are facts.
As I said in my last post, their impact, or lack thereof, are our opinions. However much we disagree on this subject.
The answer was right there, I put it in bold.
We had starting ILB’s.
We had starting CB’s.
We had starting EDGE rushers.
We weren’t missing anyone.
Your current disappointment is the credit card bill we’re paying down by NOT signing anyone
No. My current disappointment is an inept head coach with a career losing record.
One who still can’t wrap his head around time management.
One, who’s stupidity caused us to lose Evans for an extended period and Godwin for the year (and further proved his ineptitude this past weekend, putting Baker back in after getting injured in a blowout).
One who has continuously been passive and banked on his defense rather than the actual strength of the team (the offense).
He’s simply not a good head coach and his record backs that.
