All-Twenty Tuesday: Bucs Defense

The focus on Sunday for the Bucs defense just wasn’t there.

You can tell things are a little different. There are players who are flying around at full speed, but it’s not with the right anticipation, and when it comes to finishing plays, boy, does that not exists.

I get that Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey is good, and I’ll even give cornerback Carlton Davis a pass because he went for the tackle and just got worked by a spectacular hurdle. But Ardarius Taylor, whose man seemed to be McCaffrey on the play, got absolutely fooled and couldn’t get anywhere back in the play once McCaffrey received the screen.

I said during the game that the Panthers looked creative and the Bucs looked confused. This play proved it.

This was another example of the Panthers offense being one step ahead of the Bucs defense.

With Brent Grimes, the corner at the top of your screen, paying so far off in Cover 3, the Panthers knew he wouldn’t rotate or follow the wide receiver as he came behind the line of scrimmage. With every other play going right for the play action, giving the ball to Moore going the opposite way left nothing but green grass due to a zone assignment on him.

That mean safety Jordan Whitehead had to try to sprint up to the line to stop him, and when he got there he totally whiffed on the tackle.

Not only were they out-smarted on that play, they didn’t have the discipline to make the play to even recover when they got there. Total domination – mentally and physically.

Just total confusion. It’s a joke.

Devante Bond and Jason Pierre-Paul totally fell for the first reverse and didn’t keep contain to the outside. Vita Vea and Beau Allen ran into each other in the middle. Carlton Davis and Brent Grimes ran into each other trying to cross their assignments in the back.

The Panthers knew exactly how to manipulate both the outside linemen on contain and Davis, who they knew would be in man coverage, and follow the decoy. It was just another example of how Carolina was one step ahead.

The Bucs are so limited in their defensive personnel that teams know what they’re going to do most of each week. Davis is going to play man coverage with Grimes in off zone Cover 3 on the other side. Once they know that, they can uses movement at the line to get the safeties to move exactly where they want them to attack the sidelines as they wish.

That’s just bad, man.

Jordan Whitehead and Justin Evans with whiffs on tackles. Just can’t have it. You have to make the play when it’s in front of you. Lavonte David comes flying in but gets on the wrong side of his block and doesn’t spill the play back inside where his help is. Instead he gets pinned inside and McCaffrey breaks contain.

Last one of the week so I don’t sound like a broken record. This one speak to the lack of turnovers the team has.

This catch by Greg Olsen was amazing. I’m not taking anything away from him. I’m just pointing out the surround that, if played differently, the Bucs could’ve forced a different outcome. Whitehead comes flying in late towards the middle, but, as you can see, he never he makes a play on the ball. He has to. There is no other option here. I know Olsen grabbed it the opposite way, but Whitehead should have already been going for some kind of contact to knock that catch loose no matter what. He didn’t even affect Olsen at all. He just watches him catch it.

When the ball is in the air, the Bucs players have to believe they have every right to it. In fact, they have to think that anytime an offensive player doesn’t have his hands on it, it’s theirs for the taking. They don’t play that way right now and it’s killing this defense.