I'd like to point out a couple stats that haven't really been touched on in here, that really emphasize what Blayton mentioned earlier.....This defense has only generated 18 Turnovers this season..Tampa is tied with 3 other teams for the #17 spot in the league. The only playoff teams with less are Washington and Baltimore with 17 a piece, compared to the the top 10 teams all having 25 or more with Buffalo, Min, Pit leading the league with 36,33,33 respectively. Tampa also ranked #23 in the league with a defensive TO% of only 8.8% ending with a turnover. Lastly Tampa led the league in missed tackles with 152 this season and ranked 31st in tackling efficiency just ahead of N.O who missed 148 on 37 fewer snaps. This defense needs to tighten up their fundamentals, work on tackling, communication, and try to come away with turnovers to help out the offense going forward in the playoffs.
That would be nice, I just don’t know if we’ll have (healthy) horses back in time to pull that off this week. Does sound like AWJ will be back in the lineup, but he was out previously, and he seemed to be one step away from his old self - it will take some time to get his game speed back.
I do think we can win this game, which winning would mean the reps in this game will be critical if we move to the next round.
‘Skins/Daniels will be tough, but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.
This defense has only generated 18 Turnovers this season.Tampa is tied with 3 other teams for the #17 spot in the league. The only playoff teams with less are Washington and Baltimore with 17 a piece, compared to the the top 10 teams all having 25 or more with Buffalo, Min, Pit leading the league with 36,33,33 respectively.
This is what you'd expect with the way the Bucs' defense plays.
Two things all year: LIMITED PRESSURE and INJURED BACKFIELD
The story of the 2024 defense is a revolving door of DBs with guys like Hayes and T Tavierre and stars like AWJ injured and Dean mostly injured. Just use AWJ as one measuring stick:
In 2023 AWJ delivered 6 sack, 6 FF and 3 INTs
in 2024, AWJ is 2 sacks, 0 FF and 0 INTs
Our use time . . the Super Bowl defense forced the same number of fumbles but more than double the number of INTS
Lastly Tampa led the league in missed tackles with 152 this season and ranked 31st in tackling efficiency just ahead of N.O who missed 148 on 37 fewer snaps.
This is one of the most damning stats for Bowles because its one thing to not have the horses, buts its another to have an UNDISCIPLINED and fundamentally unsound defense ESPECIALLY when you (reportedly) used the BYE to simplify your defense and focus on this key fundamental.
Some of the tackling should be bad because of the talent difference in the backfield and the LBs but you cant drop in zone and not tackle well . . . OR YOU DONT GET OFF THE FIELD
his defense has only generated 18 Turnovers this season..Tampa is tied with 3 other teams for the #17 spot in the league. The only playoff teams with less are Washington and Baltimore with 17 a piece,
PR
"But the key for Washington is that, while it doesn’t take the ball away very much, it also doesn’t give the ball away at a high clip. The Commanders turned the ball over 16 times, so they finished the season +1 in terms of turnover margin. The same can’t be said for the Bucs. Tampa Bay turned the ball over 23 times, making for a -5 differential. Neither team turned the ball over when they met in Week 1, so even one turnover in either direction could make a significant difference on Sunday night."
Lastly Tampa led the league in missed tackles with 152 this season and ranked 31st in tackling efficiency just ahead of N.O who missed 148 on 37 fewer snaps.
This is one of the most damning stats for Bowles because its one thing to not have the horses, buts its another to have an UNDISCIPLINED and fundamentally unsound defense ESPECIALLY when you (reportedly) used the BYE to simplify your defense and focus on this key fundamental.
Some of the tackling should be bad because of the talent difference in the backfield and the LBs but you cant drop in zone and not tackle well . . . OR YOU DONT GET OFF THE FIELD
Exactly...As to your point about not getting off the field...Tampa was ranked 19th in 3rd down % allowed which was a little higher than I initially thought they'd be, but Tampa also ranked #3 (tied with Philly,Denver,GB) for 4th downs attempted against with 30, of those 19 were converted into a new set of downs(tied with Philly) and good for 24th in the league. Tampa also was ranked second for most passes attempted against with 630(just behind Minn, and just ahead of Baltimore), of those 66% were completed(tells story of banged up secondary) but those teams also had 24, and 12 Ints respectively(TB had 7). I didn't mention it last night because I kind of felt like those numbers may have been misleading as there's not really large gaps between teams. The number that's really damning is the opposing QB rating, in this Tampa is ranked #25 in the league with a 96.6. Which when you combine that with the missed tackles, the lack of turnovers, and the conversion rate really tells more of the story of what's going on within the defense.
I edited that last post to include that the defense is ranked 3rd (not surprisingly) in blitz rate,6th in sacks and 9th in pressure%, so the team is pressuring at a high rate and also getting home for sacks, but also allowing opposing teams to overcome that and still convert in many of those situations....for some reason it didn't add that edit though
the number that's really damning is the opposing QB rating, in this Tampa is ranked #25 in the league with a 96.6. Which when you combine that with the missed tackles, the lack of turnovers, and the conversion rate really tells more of the story of what's going on within the defense.
wow that is bad
Thank you for sharing all that data!
Fascinating
so the team is pressuring at a high rate and also getting home for sacks, but also allowing opposing teams to overcome that and still convert in many of those situations
Doesn't this mean that the defense either cant blanket receivers in short space or, maybe more likely, has really failed to tackle receivers short of the LTG?
So the pressure is applied and QB goes to the quick blitz beater but we don't stop it?
That seems consistent with poor LB coverage play and either bad coverage by DBs (particularly the Nickel) and/or the bad tackling that shows up in your data
That's the way it comes across and what most of us see with the eyeball test on Sundays I feel like the data just re-enforces it...I think all of that coupled with "poor communication", and the extremely soft zone coverages....also just now came across another bit of data that kinda lends to that in that Tampa was the 8th worst team in the league giving up 54 plays of 20+ yards, and tied for 10th worst in the league with Cleveland giving up 9 plays of 40+ yards. Tampa also only allows a 40.7 completion % when in bump n run or press coverage...I also was trying to find out the % of pass plays we were in zone compared to M2M, and mind you I prefer to look at hard #s rather than depend on AI, but the AI response that popped up first gave these quotes from Bowles that I either hadn't seen before or maybe just don't remember seeing.
- Coach Todd Bowles says they play zone when the game is on the line so the clock can run out.
- Bowles says they don't have the personnel to play a lot of man coverage.
Bowles says they don't have the personnel to play a lot of man coverage.
he has suggested this last season for sure
there you go again . . lmao
Whenever something goes wrong with a drive on offense the problem can almost always have been prevented by handing the ball to Irving or Tucker.
Look, instead of me just talk to Josh Q
"Headed into Week 18, Liam Coen has been a fairly conservative first-down play caller. On first down in neutral situations outside of the two-minute warnings Coen has called a run 54% of the time, which ranks 14th in the NFL. In the first half against the Saints that number ballooned to…50%. He called a run on four of eight first downs.
On second down, Coen called just three runs. But Tampa Bay was only in second-and-8-or-less three times in the first half. They were in second-and-10-or-more five times. That doesn’t lend itself to a lot of run calls."
"even the best play-callers are going to struggle when having to contend with dropped passes and penalties. And that’s exactly what Liam Coen had to deal with during the first half on Sunday. A second-and-10 dropped pass put the Bucs behind the eight ball and eventually stalled the first drive. A timing issue between quarterback and receiver stopped the offense from going more than three plays on the second drive.
Bunch of drivel. I'm giving you examples of specific drives. Third drive Bucky starts with 2 runs to the Saints 39. After that we get 8 passes and 1 jet sweep and kick a FG. How can anyone defend that, seriously. Please try to defend it.
I've given this board examples vs Carolina, vs Oakland, vs Dallas, vs New Orleans of failed drives because this fraud refuses to run the ball. Will I have to do it vs Washington?
because this fraud refuses to run the ball.
The irony of you calling him a fraud.
Tampa also only allows a 40.7 completion % when in bump n run or press coverage...I also was trying to find out the % of pass plays we were in zone compared to M2M, and mind you I prefer to look at hard #s
Pretty good table here about the playoff teams. Bowles was the least among Cover 0 (Man) & second least Cover 1 (Man) and the most Cover 3 (Zone) among those playoff teams.
