Much has been made of the improved play by the Tampa Bay secondary in the past week. I am seeing that a lot of Bucs fans have bought into the Lovie Smith propaganda that the starters were not playing well enough and that Sterling Moore and the kid with 3 names are a big reason why the secondary is playing better. I have seen very little commentary regarding the scheme change and shift in defensive philosophy that has coincided with this improvement in our play in the secondary. Lovie has changed our coverage to mostly man to man coverage with safety help. The 3 deep soft zones defense has been scrapped for the most part and when they did run it they greatly reduced the cushions the CBs are giving up. I have a few snaps of the Redskins and Giants games showing the cushions that defenders were giving up and a few of the Cowboys game showing the changes. In my opinion the improvement we have seen has been 100% scheme related and nothing to do with personnel. Here is a quick look at the cushions in the Redskins and Giants games. This was during the Redskins comeback. This is a 3 deep zone where the CBs have to stay as deep in their drop as any offensive player who may go deep to their side of the field. As you can see here and as we all saw during the game this defensive play calling allowed Cousins to torch our defense and easily come back and win the game. This was typical play call for our defense that day. 
Against the Giants we did something very similar. Our defenders are simply in no position to make a play in this defensive play call. 
The defense is playing tight coverage. The defenders giving up cushions are still within the range they need to be to make a play. This is a scheme shift thatcis unrelated to personnel. Are these players playing better? No. The only thing worse than a bad football coach is a bad football coach who blames his players for his insufficient schemes. That would be Mr. Lovie Smith in this case.
