Rather than go position by position I am just going to do offense and defense because I have quite a bit to say but only a few players that need to be mentioned by name.
Offense:
I thought the offense actually played relatively well. Sean Mahan was the weakest link on the offensive line but he didn't make too many obvious mistakes and for the most part the pass protection held up and the run blocking was better than average. Byron Leftwich showed the best and the worst part of his game. When he stood tall in the pocket and threw the ball down the field he looked outstanding. But when he got pressure on him then he got exposed as he did when he threw the pick six. Leftwich ended up with just under 300 yards passing and 3 touchdowns which isn't bad at all on the road in a hostile environment. We only had 57 net yards rushing but because we were down early the team only ran the ball 19 times. I thought Derrick Ward and Earnest Graham looked good running but Caddy's timing seemed to be a little off. If one person stood out on offense it was Kellen Winslow Jr who had 7 catches for 90 yards and a touchdown.
The most encouraging thing to me was that the offense fought its collective ass off all the way up till the last seconds of the game. Even when the game was all but over they were all still giving maximum effort. Which brings me to the...
Defense:
Frankly the defense should be embarrassed about their effort yesterday. In football when a player doesn't run their hardest to get to a play or you see a change of speed on film, that is what is known as a "loaf". There were so many loafs watching the tape of the game that I couldn't even count them all.
Now I hate to pick on the guy because I feel he has gotten a bad rap since he has been here, but yesterday was an all around terrible game for Gaines Adams. It is one thing not to get any sacks, but I did not see him get even one good rush all game. Not only that, he had at least two penalties and should have had a third. Then at the end of the game when we desperately needed the ball back I didn't see any sense of urgency from him. Now Greg White wasn't perfect either but there is just a big gap between the two of them right now when it comes to pass rush. With Greg at least you see him getting into a move and turning the corner or countering and coming underneath. The majority of times with Gaines all you see him do is run into the guy and then go side to side.
At some point the defensive coaches are going to have to address this because everybody on defense sees the same film. And if one guy is obviously outperforming the other but doesn't get to start then the coaches will start to lose credibility.
Jimmy Wilkerson actually had a pretty good game yesterday and had a sack and several other really good rushes. Which reminds me again that because the Bucs just HAVE to have Gaines in on third down then Wilkerson has to move inside where he is much less effective. I can promise you this much, the rest of the teams the Bucs face this year would much rather have Gaines and Greg in at end than Jimmy and Greg, that's for sure.
This isn't hate because I happen to like Gaines as a person and I still think he has a lot of potential. But this in the NFL and you have to frikkin perform when your number is called and right now he just isn't getting it done.
I thought Ronde had an outstanding game other than the long touchdown he gave up to Lee Evans which brings me to another topic. Our scheme absolutely sucks. I had my reservations when I saw it in the preseason and my impression has only gotten worse. First of all when you are a coordinator, whether offensive or defensive, you play to your players' strengths and you design the defense or the offense in such a way as to show case their skills. Now on a handful of blitzes with Ronde this has been the case, but for the most part the rest of the time its like Jim Bates is tryingn to put a bunch of square pegs in some round holes.
The Bucs ran the same blitz in the first game and the second game where the defensive end loops inside and the slot corner/nickelback blitzes off the edge. I have yet to see this blitz work or even come close to working. Not only that, but yesterday it was apparent that someway somehow the Bills always, and I do mean ALWAYS knew when we were blitzing. And each and every time their adjustment was to go over the top because we kept playing our corners up in bump and run. The reality is we were damned lucky to only get hit on two long bombs.
Not only that but its rare to see our defensive line do any stunts on early downs. The reason this is a major problem is because it gives the offense stationary targets. Even if we only do a handful of line stunts a game the result is that now the offensive line can't step off as confidently in the run game and may hesitate coming off the ball. It also helps to get defensive linemen into a pass rush game versus play action pass.
Needless to say I haven't been impressed with Bates so far this year. But we shall see if it gets any better from here on out.
One of the major problems we had yesterday is something we have to get fixed immediately and that is piss poor tackling. I don't know what in the hell was going on but it seemed like guys just took turns not wrapping up or just totally wiffing on the Bills' running back Fred Jackson. There is no reason earth that this guy should get 160+ yards on our defense. Most of it came on yards after contact too.
Now I am always going to ride with the Bucs because I have blood sweat and tears invested in that team. But I will be damned if I hold my tongue when they put that kind of product out on the field. We put in too many long hours and too much effort into building the brand up to respectability to have it ruined by some guys who don't seem to have that much pride. Now to be sure I am not talking about every guy on defense, but the ones I AM talking about surely know who they are.
Get this shit together Bucs and lets get a win next week!
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