I'm not all doom and gloom about the Bucs because of this game. I just think they made some critical errors that they have to clean up. Hopefully Coen, Bowles and Co can learn from it.
Bowles should have called timeout when the Falcons went for it on 4th down. If he did that defender would have been more prepared to stop that pass.
David should have known to knock down that pass instead of intercepting. That cost them seven yards, but seven big yards.
Coen should have been more aggressive on the playcalling on that last Bucs drive of regulation. Normally you want to let the Bucs defense salt away the game, but our defense was depleted and gassed and even me as a fan could see nobody was going to stop Cousins if he got the ball back. They should have known that was a bad situation to get into even with the lead.
And of course how did the Bucs get back to the line of scrimmage faster than the Falcons on the Falcons last second FG?
OK the refs miss calls at times, but in the case of the Irving facemask non-call - he's the ball carrier! Shouldn't at least one ref be looking at the ball carrier? But why is Barton holding when you are just trying to use up timeouts?
And Irving fumbled, but we actually got the ball back after the four downs and INT. So that wasn't what killed us.
It just seems like the Bucs weren't prepared to make the right decisions in the heat of the moment at the end. Whether that's on Mayfield, Bowles or Coen I don't know, but hopefully it was a learning experience and they'll do better next time.
Bottom line, the defense and the OL didn't hold up in the second half. My guess is the short week, after a brutal hot weather game where guys were puking behind the bench, probably had something to do with that. That, combined with how thin TB is in several positions just caught up to them in this game. They simply ran out of fresh-enough bodies in what turned out to be a war of attrition.
The long week should help some in that regard, but really you just need some guys to finally come back, like Winfield, Kancey and Goedeke for starters. Once that happens, given a couple three weeks to get reacclimated to the game, the defense should look a lot better.
I tend to think we got away from the 1st half scheme that was working and started becoming really conservative - shifted to ball control/run calls in the 2nd half. Someone keeps thinking we can salt games away with our run game, they get conservative, and turn too early to pound the rock, despite not having a healthy o-line to pull that off (and a weird compulsion to run on first down).I'm not all doom and gloom about the Bucs because of this game. I just think they made some critical errors that they have to clean up. Hopefully Coen, Bowles and Co can learn from it.
Bowles should have called timeout when the Falcons went for it on 4th down. If he did that defender would have been more prepared to stop that pass.
David should have known to knock down that pass instead of intercepting. That cost them seven yards, but seven big yards.
Coen should have been more aggressive on the playcalling on that last Bucs drive of regulation. Normally you want to let the Bucs defense salt away the game, but our defense was depleted and gassed and even me as a fan could see nobody was going to stop Cousins if he got the ball back. They should have known that was a bad situation to get into even with the lead.
And of course how did the Bucs get back to the line of scrimmage faster than the Falcons on the Falcons last second FG?
OK the refs miss calls at times, but in the case of the Irving facemask non-call - he's the ball carrier! Shouldn't at least one ref be looking at the ball carrier? But why is Barton holding when you are just trying to use up timeouts?
And Irving fumbled, but we actually got the ball back after the four downs and INT. So that wasn't what killed us.
It just seems like the Bucs weren't prepared to make the right decisions in the heat of the moment at the end. Whether that's on Mayfield, Bowles or Coen I don't know, but hopefully it was a learning experience and they'll do better next time.
The secondary needs a shot in the arm that returning starters can provide, but the previously noted “war of attrition” just keeps running through the Bucs roster - and has now begun backing over the depth/role players.
only consolation is, most teams are feeling it too. Getting AWJ, Kancey, and Goedeke back should help - but the secondary is scary-thin.
Second half play-calling/scheme has been spotty. Somebody said it before the game …we need to be “all gas, no brakes”…I’ll add “all game”… mix in a run to confuse, but STOP thinking we can use our running attack to finish games. It’s just not there yet.
Then again, I’m just a Baker fluffer, so what do I know.
I think it was a matter of Bowles recognizing that his defense was not going to stop Cousins and changing his strategy to reflect that. They should have been aggressive on offense and trust the offense when you couldn't trust the defense. Sure they would have taken heat if they threw incomplete passes and gave the ball back to the Falcons with timeouts in their pocket, but that was the reality of the situation on the ground. You just couldn't afford to give the ball back to the Falcons at the end of the game. Bowles wants to trust his defense, but he has to be able to judge how things are going and make the adjustment. You can say it's hindsight, but anybody could see during the game that defense wasn't up to the task at that time.
we just fumbled when we were about to put it away. It happens. We did enough to win just turned it over. I definitely think we got the guys to put it away with the run given we were doing it last year about 5 times with the ball last and run out 5minutes. Definitely am still salty about it and I cant look at any falcons media.
what was absolutely disgusting though is seeing cousins go for 500yds . We go zone and cousins threads it in or finds the holes. Ya know after 300 yards and 24pointz you gotta start thinking does it even matter if change the defense to man if he’s gonna shred me to the red zone.Kirk knew exactly what we were gonna run pre play. When Kirk is moving the ball like that to the red zone in zone how about we switch into ma and see if he can tear us up into the red zone from man. Like switch it up trial and error it if the opposing offense is having that kind of day
Just more situtional football focus, that 4th down know that it is situational up by 7, 4th and 5 at the redzone its no guarantee they are gonna kick, get lined up and watch what that offense is doing, is Kirk leaving the field or is he staying on instead of celebrating for 10seconds. Fumble could he have done more to keep that ball safe given the situation in fg range or did bates just make a stellar play. Situational football... close games against good teams like this usually comes down to a few moments, can't relax
Even a casual fan like me could see the Bucs defense was not going to stop the Falcons during the second half. "FGs not enough. Need TDs on every possession." Me in the game day thread. The Bucs run game is inconsistent, but even worse when the defense knows they're trying to run the clock out. The Bucs should have kept pushing to score TDs, and they win the game. Lost opportunity to establish control in the NFCS.
We had the game iced.
We were at the Atlanta 35-yard line with a 3rd and 2 and White picked up three BIG BOY yards for the 1st down.
Very next play, Bucky fumbles at the 25-yard line with 2:48 left on the clock.
Thats the game right there. Would’ve had 2nd and short, taking the clock down to close to the 2-minute warning; unless Atlanta wanted to start burning TO’s.
Good chance we run out the clock, or at worst, go up 6 leaving Atlanta little to no time with the ball back.
Offense played like shit in the 2nd half. “You Like That” absolutely clowned Bowles for 500+ and 4 tuddies all night.
Injuries and short week caught up to us as well.
But, we absolutely had this game won and fumbled it away.
Fortunately, we get the “mini-bye” and get some much needed rest and game planning for a tough stretch.
All true. Glad you’re reading my stuff, nice catch.We had the game iced.
We were at the Atlanta 35-yard line with a 3rd and 2 and White picked up three BIG BOY yards for the 1st down.
Very next play, Bucky fumbles at the 25-yard line with 2:48 left on the clock.
Thats the game right there. Would’ve had 2nd and short, taking the clock down to close to the 2-minute warning; unless Atlanta wanted to start burning TO’s.
Good chance we run out the clock, or at worst, go up 6 leaving Atlanta little to no time with the ball back.
Offense played like shit in the 2nd half. “You Like That” absolutely clowned Bowles for 500+ and 4 tuddies all night.
Injuries and short week caught up to us as well.
But, we absolutely had this game won and fumbled it away.
Fortunately, we get the “mini-bye” and get some much needed rest and game planning for a tough stretch.
What went wrong is the Buc players didn't execute in the 4th quarter.
We also had a chance to win after Buckys fumble. But the total collapse of our secondary couldn’t keep ‘You like that’ out of the end zone.
‘All gas, no brakes’ would have done that better than trying to run out the clock and protect a lead.
This team’s run game is currently only capable of passing to set up the run, even average fans know that.
Maybe we’ll get our starters back after the bye…and we can get back on track to winning games, differently.
We’re still in good shape if we can get our stars back on the field. Then we’ll see what happens here in Tampa, the next time we see #YouLikeThat.
Most games are not won or lost in a play or even a series
this is why they lost
”Kirk Cousins completed 42 of 58 passes for 509 yards, 4 TDs and an INT, with all 509 yards coming from passes within the pocket, the most in a game in the NGS era (since 2016).”
Why you don’t put the ball into the sure & proven hands of Mike or Chris to close out a game - and defer to closing out a game using a run game that doesn’t have the horses up front, consistently yet - is reminiscent of Pete Carol’s Super Bowl failure (only in reverse).
We’re not consistent enough up front, even though we have an amazing rookie running back…he’s still a rookie.
It’s still just kvetching over a “what if”… but in my opinion it was a head scratcher. I like what Liam is doing, but he just screwed the second-half play-calling up - the run game may be coming around - but it just isn’t trustworthy/consistent enough, yet, to go that conservative.
Last week, we closed out the game running the ball with White with more than 4 minutes left in the game (up multiple scores).
He averaged nearly 5ypc on that drive.
In Atlanta, he had just picked up a critical 3rd and 2 on the ground. Only to see Bucky fumble it (and the win) away on the very next play. We've also seen White in those situations know when to get down or slide vs. trying to pick up the extra yards. Something Bucky clearly needs to learn. But, I'm confident he'll get there. He's a rook, and he'll get better.
Regardless, since Week One, I've been saying over and over again..."All Gas, No Brakes".
Stop running the damn ball on 1st down. Stop running the ball in obvious run situations. Keep the pedal down. Stay aggressive.
Definitely a learning moment for Liam.
Why you don’t put the ball into the sure & proven hands of Mike or Chris to close out a game - and defer to closing out a game using a run game that doesn’t have the horses up front, consistently yet - is reminiscent of Pete Carol’s Super Bowl failure (only in reverse).
We’re not consistent enough up front, even though we have an amazing rookie running back…he’s still a rookie.
It’s still just kvetching over a “what if”… but in my opinion it was a head scratcher. I like what Liam is doing, but he just screwed the second-half play-calling up - the run game may be coming around - but it just isn’t trustworthy/consistent enough, yet, to go that conservative.
Yup
