Let's Cut The Bullshit

 

There are times, not many but a few times that I see something that I probably should comment on but instead I hold my tongue. One of those times came up last night when I read this article on TampaBay.com. It's about how the Bucs plan on making some changes to get their pass rush going. I don't have a problem with any of the things they are talking about doing (they sounded awfully familiar anyway), but some of the assertions made about WHY they are doing them were somewhat dubious. But I figured hey, no need to make a fuss about it as long as it gets fixed.

Then this morning I read this article over at TBO...

Now I'm going to tread lightly on this one but read that article then read my Bull Rush post from Monday and ask yourself if my suggestions and their suggestions don't sound an awful lot alike. I will just leave it there and let the readers decide for themselves.

But what actually compels me to blog about this isn't the fact that someone may or may not be reading my blog. What compels me to blog about this is that there seems to be a faulty premise being espoused by the Bucs at least publicly and if believe really believes what they are telling reporters then I still don't think the pass rush problems the Buccaneers are having will get fixed.

McCoy has drawn the biggest percentage of double-teams among the defensive front four this season. So Wash said the Bucs will try to move him around more in rush packages.

"We're going to do some more things to give him some freedom,'' Wash said. "Maybe it's not exactly, I wouldn't say sound, or worrying about a quarterback scramble. We're going to make sure he can get where he needs to get to rather than slow him down in the system. What happens is, if he's in the three-technique, the center slides to him. In the odd front, he had two knockdowns.

That's from the tampabay.com column

"And how do you become productive? Well, technique and opportunity have to meet. So we'll have the different combinations, the different use of guys around him, and see if we can find that right combination.'' The previous combinations often resulted in McCoy facing two or even three blockers. That created a lot of opportunities for sacks for other players, but in most cases they failed to capitalize on them.

That's from the TBO column.

Here's the truth, Ive watched every game and I don't think any team has changed their pass protection rules because of McCoy. In fact I'm about as close to being sure of it as you can get next to sitting in the offensive line meeting rooms of the opposing teams. But if you don't know what the opposing team protection scheme is and you keep sending McCoy to the side where the center is already supposed to slide, then yeah I guess he WILL keep getting double teamed.

Let's talk about the Falcons game for a moment. I went back to chart where the center slid when the Matt Ryan was either in the shot gun or it was 3rd and medium to long. There were 25 plays that fit into that category out of the 36 passes Ryan threw. Want to know how many instances there were out of 25 where the center slid in a different direction than where the formation dictated?

3

Three times out of twenty five.

But here's the kicker. Of those three times, Gerald McCoy was still away from the slide twice AND on the third he was lined up as a nose in a three man line.

It is clear that while the Falcons may have been concerned about McCoy's pass rush, they stayed consistent to their protections rules during the game.

And that's true for most teams the Bucs have faced thus far. But the what the problem ACTUALLY is comes back to McCoy being lined up to the center slide even when its predictable. That along with how much we went back to going with a 3-3-5 again after two games where it had been used sparingly.

McCoy lined up 4 times to the slide in a four man line when the Bucs should have known the slide was going that way against the Falcons. That doesn't sound like a high number until you realize that of the 25 clear passing situations the Bucs used a three man line 10 other times. So on the flip side there were 9 times during the game where it was an obvious passing down and McCoy lined up correctly based on the formation and had a one on one pass rush opportunity.

What happens if he gets 5 more bites at the apple? How about 10 more? Think he might be more productive if put in a better position to be so?

But let's be real here for two seconds. Ndamukong Suh is looking like a monster out there with 6.5 sacks already but teams aren't sliding to him on every pass. Are you really going to try to convince everyone that teams are showing more respect to McCoy who doesn't have ANY sacks?

GTFOHWTBS

If the Bucs really think the problem is that McCoy is being double teamed too much then they need to ask themselves why in the hell they aren't telling him to line up away from the center slide on definite passing downs.

I actually went back and watched the first Panthers game last night. And while they weren't consistent in their pass protection according to formation, they WERE consistent in having the center slide to the 1 technique. It just so happened that for that game the Bucs decided to have McCoy at the 1 technique quite a bit. But whether he was there or someone else was, all but one time the center slid to the 1 technique on obvious passing situations.

But, and here's is really the most damning indictment to me, even IF teams were sliding to McCoy all the time instead of following their normal protection rules, that kind of predictability should be something the Bucs have taken advantage of by now. Up above you will see two versions of a simple ass TOM pass rush game with the two defensive tackles. About the only time a TOM game won't work is when the center either sets in the middle and just looks for traffic, or he isn't consistent with where he slides.

If its a fact that the center is sliding to McCoy every time then the easiest thing in the world is to run a TOM game where the defensive tackle opposite McCoy gets penetration to the center's back and shoves him while McCoy takes a quick step up field to set it up then loops around the guard on the opposite side almost assuredly coming unblocked to the quarterback. And the great thing about that particular pass rush game is that it gives McCoy a chance while he is looping to notice if it might be a screen.

But have we run any TOM games so far?

C'mon Son!

So here is my thing, I think Dekoda Watson has a bunch of natural pass rush ability and so does Quincy Black. If the Bucs want to use them as actual defensive ends on passing situations then by all means feel free. But the truth is this, if all they are gonna do is continue to use them in a 3-3-5 alignment then to me it will still be more of a gimmick than a fix. To actually fix what ails the pass rush the Bucs need a left end that can pass rush on all 3 downs and they need to keep McCoy away from the center slide as much as can be predicted. And if in fact teams are sliding to McCoy regardless of where he lines up then after a drive or two that should be sniffed out and taken advantage of.

All this other stuff is just Mickey Mouse bullshit that looks pretty on paper but ain't worth a damn on the field. Get four guys who can pass rush, teach them protections, line up and let them whup people's ass.

That's the formula. Hopefully someone at One Buc starts using it.

Did Gerald McCoy Get Manhandled?

Soooooooo

This afternoon I was on with J.P. Peterson here locally on 1010 AM to talk about the Bucs. As we were discussing different situations and different players of course Gerald McCoy came up. I gave my opinion about how McCoy has been playing but then J.P. brought up the fact that McCoy didn't have a lot of reps on bench press at the combine (again) and said it looked like he was getting manhandled. I struggled to hold in a chuckle while I explained that McCoy hasn't been getting manhandled but that he does need to work on his technique and that if anyone has been getting pushed around it has been the starting nosetackle, Roy Miller.

Well J.P. brought up a play where he said McCoy got pancaked. It was the touchdown run by Larod Stephens-Howling in the second half of the Arizona game. I didn't have my notes in front of me and obviously I didn't have the game cued up so I wasn't sure about the particular play but I was sure that McCoy wasn't getting pushed around against the Cardinals. So we went back and forth about it and after the interview was over I decided to watch the play again on my DVR and go back over my notes. Before I could even watch it again or check my notes though, I got a message from a fan who basically repeated what J.P. had said word for word (with the added caveat that he thought it was McCoy's worst game and that he "gave up" in the second half")

Now I was really curious to see this play. So I pulled it up on the DVR and broke out my notes and...

Sure enough McCoy got pancaked.

And in my notes I even made a note that he got pancaked.

So was I wrong and J.P. and this other fan right?

Uhh, no.

Here is the thing about that particular play. Arizona was facing a 3rd and 1 from the Bucs 36 yard line and they lined up in shotgun with Stephens-Howling in the backfield. Its important to note here that LSH only had 9 carries total for the season going into our game. I'm not sure but it appears that the Bucs took all of that into account and instead of lining up defending the run, the defensive line was in pass rush mode.

Both McCoy and Miller lined up in three techniques with both A gaps open and the ends were in wide 5 techniques outside of the offensive tackles, getting up field on the snap of the ball. Now I personally didn't and don't believe that was a sound approach with a little over a minute to go in the 3rd quarter, but never the less it IS what the Bucs did.

So McCoy comes off the ball about to make a pass rush move and instead he gets double teamed by the guard and the tackle. And yes he gets crushed right onto his back. But it is what it is, the guy didn't know what hit him basically.

In the end it wouldn't have mattered because as I said both A gaps were open and had he stayed up LSH would have still had a hole big enough to drive a truck through to get the first down.

But more importantly than that, this one play was not close to being indicative of how McCoy played the rest of the game. And since everyone seems to have recorded the game and are now knowledgeable about defensive line play, let me give you a few other plays to take a look at so you can watch it for yourself and decide whether or not McCoy's low bench press numbers mean anything at this point.

11:03 in the 1st quarter: McCoy makes an inside move swatting the offensive guard to the side and ends up beating both the guard and the center to get a hit on the quarterback.

10:59 in the 2nd quarter: McCoy stands the guard up and pushes him back basically with one hand and uses his free hand to make the tackle. (By the way, that's six time All Pro and 9 time Pro Bowl guard Alan Faneca just FYI)

5:30 and 4:52 in the 2nd quarter: On consecutive plays McCoy splits a double team and makes a tackle.

4:29 in the 3rd quarter: McCoy pushes the guard two yards back in the backfield and makes the running back cut back laterally.

2:15 in the 4th quarter: McCoy again swats the guard by and beats both the guard and the center to get a good rush on the play where Derek Anderson throws the interception to Aqib Talib that all but sealed the deal.

Now understand that these weren't the only plays where he did something good. These were just plays where he showed some strength and physicality. The truth is the Bucs ran at least 10 Pirate stunts so its not like McCoy was stationary all the time taking on double teams, and considering the fact that the Cardinals only ran the ball 21 times its not like he had a lot of opportunities to show his mettle against the run. But aside from that one play where he got caught slipping, McCoy played the run very well on Sunday. Any suggestion to the contrary simply isn't based in fact and just as I extended an invitation to J.P. if there is anybody who believes that McCoy has been getting pushed around based on that one play if you like we can sit back and watch the recording or the replay of the game together and I will point out just how wrong you are.

In the end I am sure that this particular line of thinking won't go away any time soon. For some people McCoy's bench press numbers define who he is and will be as a player. As wrong headed as that is, I know that I won't be able to convince everyone that's hell bent on believing that, that it isn't true. But all I can do is inform people of the truth.  The reason behind the name of this blog is I feel compelled to share the information that I have with fans who may not know any better, particularly when they are hearing a lot of the wrong information from the media.  Its my intention to "pass on the game" that I have picked up over the years both playing and briefly coaching the game in hopes that not only will the people who read this blog be more knowledgeable, but that they will in turn be better able to teach the people they know about football as well.

So whether people ever drop this bullshit talking point about McCoy's bench press numbers or not, I feel good just knowing that at least the truth is out there if they ever want to find it.

It is what it is.

(P.S. Its generally accepted that Cardinals Pro Bowl defensive end Darnell Dockett is one of the stronger guys in the NFL. Just for shits and giggles watch the game again and focus on how many times James Lee put him on his back. I counted 3 times but I might have missed a few)

In Which I Totally Disagree With Coach Morris On Gerald McCoy

Someone, I think it was Roy Cummings but I can't be sure, finally asked Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Raheem Morris about the possible negative effects of moving Gerald McCoy around so much on his development as an undertackle. I'm not big on transcription but you can look at the video for yourself here (unfortunately the Bucs don't provide embed clips) and the guys over at Pewter Report did a partial here which I will be excerpting.

Here are the relevant parts of his answer.

“I think it helps him because they can’t find him a little bit,” said Morris. “It helps to get him in different spots where he is able to make disruptive plays. He has two tackles for a loss and a bunch of tackles for us. The sacks will come; we just have to continue to rush. … So we’ll do some different things up there and search for different answers.

First off no offense to Gerald McCoy but at this point he hasn't done anything that would warrant opposing offenses looking for him pre snap. I've watched all the games and as of yet nobody has broken their regular protection rules to try to double team him. Any time he has faced a double team in pass protection it was because he was lined up to the side the offense would normally slide the center regardless of whom was there. And the fact of the matter is in the kind of defense that Tampa runs there is no more disruptive place to play than the undertackle position.

Understand that for me this isn't about sacks. I know that sacks come in bunches as long as you are rushing well. The problem is from my perspective McCoy's pass rush has regressed each week so far. He went from making some really good moves against the Browns to trying to run right down the middle of guys in the Steelers game. But that's what happens when one play the guy is rushing a guard and the next play he's rushing an offensive tackle or maybe even a tight end. Its a whole different ball game rushing from inside or outside and McCoy is still trying to learn how to rush from there on the NFL level. Asking him to try to do both isn't helping him in any sense of the word and it certainly isn't hiding him.

I'll have some fun with the next quote.

“Yeah, it is helping him because he is flushing guys out and Quincy (Black) is capping guys off,” said Morris. “It’s not about the sack numbers. It’s did you affect the quarterback’s throw? Were you able to knock the pass down? Did you make the quarterback run outside the pocket so that he couldn’t see his wide open receiver? All those things happen when you talk about one-on-one rush. But the sacks will come.”

First off one of the things that was frustrating about watching and listening to this exchange was that Coach Morris focused almost solely on the times when McCoy is lined up at end in a 3-3-5 and Quincy Black rushed on McCoy's side. Well in the first three games McCoy has ALSO played defensive end in our regular 4-3 alignment when opposing offenses have put in heavy personnel like two tight ends with or without a fullback. And as I said in my Bull Rush column, you can't tell me that we don't have other defensive ends who could hold up just as fine in that situation while allowing McCoy to stay at undertackle where he is needed.

Also even when we do run the 3-3-5 personnel Quincy Black doesn't always pass rush and even when he does he doesn't always pass rush to McCoy's side. If you listen to the presser Coach Morris almost makes it sound as if Black is leading the league in sacks or something. The sack he notched against the Panthers was impressive but it was off a pass rush game. It wasn't because McCoy flushed the quarterback. He rushed the double team well I'll give him that but had Kyle Moore, Tim Crowder or any other defensive end been over there they would have also been double teamed. Hell Black rushed on Stylez White's side against the Steelers and White got double teamed in exactly the same fashion. As for me I don't remind the occasional Redskin call with Black coming. But what about the times we run Redskin and he DOESN'T come?

Has anyone seen Gerald McCoy get a pressure rushing as a defensive end with a 3 man rush out of Redskin?

I know haven't.

Oh and to answer those questions Coach Morris asked, no, no and no.

I don't get to watch the coaches film unfortunately so I can't see all the angles of every play. But even from the TV copy or watching it online its apparent that McCoy's rush went backwards the last two game a little bit more each week. That's not a hypothetical, that's a fact.

Now we come to the most revealing part of what Coach Morris had to say and also where he and I have the biggest disagreement.

“If I was thinking selfishly for McCoy, I probably would say, ‘Yes,’ but thinking selfishly for a defensive standpoint, that makes us better,” Morris said. “If he was a selfish player he would come to me and say, ‘Hey just leave me at this one position so I can get better at it,’ but does not have that in him. Our defense needs him to move around to be productive and be smart, and be sharp, and be wise beyond his years so to speak..."

It is with that opening line that Coach Morris admits that, yes the moving around IS stunting Gerald McCoy's development at undertackle. He does it under the cloak of "selfishness" but he admits it nonetheless. And that's where the rest of what he says becomes moot to me.

I've seen what a disruptive undertackle can do in this scheme. I played with probably the best undertackle that has ever played the game in Warren Sapp (who oh by the way agrees with me). And if its not him then I watched film on the only other guy that could give him a serious run for his money in recent Hall of Fame inductee John Randall. I'm not saying Gerald McCoy will ever become either of those guys, but if he is at least a reasonable facsimile he can wreak enough havoc from just that one position to make everyone and I do mean EVERYONE around him better. A good to great undertackle can be the force element of a defense versus running plays to his side. A good to great undertackle can force so much attention upon himself that the three other defensive linemen all end up with one on one opportunities. A good to great undertackle can allow a defensive coordinator to have a much smaller playbook because they bring so much pressure on any given play that there isn't much of a need to blitz, especially in 2 minute situations.

But McCoy will either take longer or never develop into a good to great undertackle if he is also trying to be a decent defensive end on either side as well as part time nose tackle as well. It's just not going to happen.

And the reason why I'm being so vocal about this is because it reminds me so much of the way Gaines Adams was mishandled may he rest in peace. I don't care who I piss off I'm going to keep talking about it either until it changes or the season ends. I may end up looking like Ahab screaming at the sea but I really don't care. I know what kind of undertackle Gerald McCoy can be. I watched him in college, I saw him in the preseason and I saw glimpses in the first game against Cleveland. Its not selfish to want to see more of that, its smart. You don't draft a guy number 3 to be a utility man, you draft a guy that high to be a dominant force AT ONE POSITION.

Maybe in 3 years when McCoy has established himself and has some game experience under his belt he will be able to dabble a little more at end keep his productivity up at undertackle but I don't see it happening as a rookie. And the thing of it is the defense doesn't "need" him to move around. That's just not true. We have enough talent on our defense to not have to use gimmicks and trickem dickem stuff. That defense can line up and whup people's ass if they are put in a position to do so. Last year I could understand trying to fool people to victory but not now. Not with the talent we have on this defense.

I don't know how McCoy feels about this because I haven't talked to him nor have I talked to anyone close to him about it but like I always say I go by my experience and by what my eyes tell me. You will never get me to believe that making McCoy a jack of all trades but master of none helps him or our defense overall. If the implication is there are holes at other spots that need to be filled then as Eddie Robinson is quoted as saying "Get a player better, or get a better player!" but don't use that as an excuse to have smoke coming out of McCoy's ears with little to no benefit to show for it.

In closing I would like to give props to whomever asked the question today. I get on the media at times when I think they have done something wrong but I will also show love when they get it right. That was the most astute question I have heard so far in all of Coach Morris' press conferences since the regular season started and if nothing else now more people will be watching to see how this all plays out and that is a good thing.  On another note it was also good to hear Coach Morris mention Michael Bennett as a guy they might take a look at to upgrade the pass rush. Why it has taken 3 games is anybody's guess. But hey, its a start at least.

Now if only somebody can start asking about why Kyle Moore is in on third and long with our four man rush instead of Brian Price then we will be cooking with fish grease...

The Legend Of Gerald McCoy

So I'm minding my own business this evening and I happened to see that TBO had an article up about Gerald McCoy. Obviously anything about our defensive linemen is going to pique my interest so I pulled up the story. It was pretty good stuff explaining how McCoy has been playing well even though the stat sheet may not reflect that to some people and even though he hasn't made a lot of splash plays so far. That is pretty much the same assessment I've made about McCoy after two games so it wasn't all that surprising.

Then I got to this graf:

Finally, on that critical fourth-and-goal play from the Bucs' 1-yard line in the fourth quarter, McCoy occupied three blockers yet again, this time allowing linebacker Geno Hayes to knife through and stop Jonathan Stewart for a 1-yard loss.

I literally let out a chuckle.

But to make sure I wasn't tripping I went back to the DVR copy of the game to make sure. And sure enough there was McCoy on the side AWAY from that play and instead of three guys blocking him he got cut by the guard and the offensive tackle to that side tried to block him high. He actually did a good job of not getting taken to the ground but on that particular play he had no role in the outcome. The guy who DID get the penetration was Brian Price who was lined up on the opposite side and who cleared the way for Geno Hayes to come in and make the play.

It's not a capital crime or anything but at this point I have to wonder who is feeding these kinds of stories to the media. For one I don't think that McCoy needs anybody giving him credit that he didn't earn. And for two I imagine Brian Price might not be too happy about not getting the credit he deserves.

I realize that many beat reporters simply don't have the time to go back and watch the tape to verify their information but I would say that they might at least attempt to so to insure that these kinds of mistakes stop.

It is what it is.

A Dominant Defensive Tackle's Impact On Pass Protection

I probably should have written this post back when the Bucs drafted Gerald McCoy and Brian Price in the first and second round respectively in April. Inevitably when two guys at the same position are drafted that high people are going to speculate about their potential impact. And while most of it is very reasonable, some of it comes close to hyperbole. I think its mostly because a lot of people, including some in the traditional media, aren't really sure about how to measure the impact of a defensive tackle. So invariably someone says something and people start repeating it which becomes an echo chamber. After awhile it has been repeated so many times that it becomes accepted as fact even if it isn't and that's not really a good thing.


So let me get this out of the way upfront, a defensive tackle drawing a double team from the center and guard on a passing play is not all that uncommon or impressive.


What actually motivated me to write this post was a comment Buccaneer head coach Raheem Morris made on the side line during the Miami game this weekend when he was asked about Gerald McCoy. He had plenty of good things to say about him but then he said (paraphrasing) that when Michael Bennett got his sack, some of the credit should go to McCoy for drawing a double team.


Well first of all McCoy wasn't even on the field for that play. I know because I watched both the local broadcast and the NFL Network broadcast which has the clearer view, and the 2nd team defensive line was in with Ryan Sims and Dre Moore inside. McCoy came on the field the next play because it was a third down.


Second of all while Moore did draw a double team it obviously had nothing to do with his reputation as a pass rusher around the NFL (which I will go out on a limb and say at the moment he has none) and everything to do with the Dolphins' normal pass protection.

And third of all even if McCoy had been on the field his presence wouldn't have had any impact on the fact that Bennett made a nice quick inside move and sacked the quarterback.  That was just a great individual play by Bennett.


Here's the deal, there are generally 3 basic pass protections. You have slide protection where the center decides presnap to slide right or left based on their offensive formation and helps out the guard and tackle to that side. You can have an M set where the center sets straight back and looks both ways and then slides to whichever side needs it most. Or you can have kick protection where the whole line slides either left or right leaving the end man on the line of scrimmage free for the back or tight end to block.


Now there are variations of these protections when offenses keep backs and tight ends in to help with the blocking, but those are the three basic protections you will see most often.


Most plays one of the two inside guys are going to be double teamed by the center and guard because of the slide or the M set. The slide is more prevalent though because few centers are quick enough to decide on the fly which side to slide to. And because slide protection is based on the offensive formation, it usually matter's little who on the defensive line is lined up where. If their formation calls for the center to slide to the left it won't matter if the worst pass rushing defensive tackle in the NFL is lined up over there, they are going to get the double team.


So then what is it that dominant pass rushing defensive tackle's do that help the rest of their line mates so much?


Well first of all they push the pocket which helps the defensive ends. Back in the day quarterbacks would take these 8-9 step drops in the pocket on passing plays and they would be sitting ducks for fast defensive ends. The problem for the offense is that when a quarterback drops back they put the offensive lineman at a disadvantage because they now have to try to catch up to a guy running around them with almost a straight line to the QB. Eventually offensive coaches wised up and realized that it would help their offensive line and keep their quarterback healthier if they stopped dropping back as far AND started sliding up into the pocket to buy time for the receivers to get open.


It sucked for smaller faster defensive ends though because now if they ran around the offensive tackles, even if they beat them clean, they would be running past the level off the quarterback. Everyone had to start learning how to use at least some power in their speed rushes in order to try to cut that corner down. But even that doesn't work if you have defensive tackles inside who get stuck at the line of scrimmage.


If the quarterback can just step up into the pocket whenever a defensive end tries a speed rush then its hard to get pressure on the quarterback without blitzing. But when a dominant pass rushing defensive tackle gets penetration and pressure on the quarterback, not only can they not step up, lots of times they end up continuing to go backwards which gives the speed rushing defensive end a much better chance of success.


Now the truly great pass rushing defensive tackles, of which there have only been a handful, can help in other ways as well.


I played with one of the greatest if not the greatest pass rushing defensive tackle in Warren Sapp. But in addition to the great individual rushes Sapp was so successful with, he was also deadly in running our favorite pass rush game back then, a TEX. I have never and don't think I will ever see any defensive tackle be any better or more effective at running this game. For those who aren't familiar, a TEX game is where the defensive end gets up the field as if he is running a speed rush. The defensive tackle on the outside shoulder of the guard to the same side, also comes off the ball like he is speed rushing the guard but then turns to the tackle and tries to get to his back as he is going back in his pass set. Once the defensive end feels and or sees the defensive tackle with his hands on the offensive tackle, he plants and loops inside the guard.


The effect, when run well, is a two on one situation where the guard has to decide whether to keep trying to block the defensive tackle or let him go free and come off inside to block the defensive end. Sapp was so quick off the ball and so good with his hands that when we ran that game most of the time it was like money in the bank as long as the defensive end set it up well.


But it wasn't just when he ran the game that he helped the defensive end on that side. We were so successful at that game that after awhile the offensive tackles were paranoid. If you go back and watch some of our games you will see the offensive tackle reaching their inside hand out trying to protect themselves just in case the game was coming. Well obviously this had a positive effect for the defensive end on that side because its had for any offensive tackle to block one guy when his attention is also on another.


Now there is a way that you can determine a defensive tackle is impressive by the fact that the center and guard double team them. And that way is when you know going into a game the way a team's pass protection is set up for certain formations but they end up altering or breaking their rules altogether to accomodate blocking that guy. I am again aided in this knowledge by having played with Sapp. You see our coach and the rest of the guys on the defensive line studied protections intensly so we could know which way the center was going to slide in most passing situations. The reason was we wanted Sapp to be able to line up away from the slide most of the time and get a one one one with the guard if possible and or we wanted to make sure when we ran a pass rush game that we ran it to the side away from the center slide. But when teams started figuring out (and it didn't take long) that most of them didn't have a guard who could block Sapp one on one you would see centers totally abandoning the things we had seen on film and just sliding his way. Many times you would even see a back stay in just to chip him because he was so quick off the ball.


And he usually STILL ended up getting pressure. Now THAT'S impressive.


Now understand that I'm not trying to downplay Gerald McCoy. He did pretty well for his first live action and he really did get double teamed several times on run and pass. And I totally understand why Coach Morris is talking him up. He was the 3rd pick in the draft and he is going to start for us this year and after a 3-13 rookie season Coach Morris has to be as much of a salesman as he is a coach.

The only point I'm making is that had it been Ryan Sims or any other undertackle on the team they would have gotten double teamed on the same plays too. So the double teams in and of themselves were not all that impressive.


I will say this though, if McCoy DOES eventually become a dominant pass rusher, the Bucs might consider moving him around instead of just keeping him on the right side all the time like he was on Saturday. Otherwise it will be pretty easy for other teams to game plan for him when or if that day comes.

*diagram above is slide protection

Update: Whoops Looks like Joe Henderson needs to be reading Passing On The Game ;)

Bad Timing

Funny thing about emergencies, they never happen at a good time do they? Well I have been dealing with some things and evidently the world didn't stop in my absence. So I'm very sorry that I missed weighing in on the Bucs signing both Donald Penn and Gerald McCoy in time for the first practice but I don't think Bucs fans could have asked for better news. I said all along that if anybody was going to give in the Penn situation it would probably have to be the team and having McCoy on day 1 will help his development tremendously. Of course I'm sure the conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the fact that it wasn't until the Bucs knew how much they were going to have to spend on McCoy that they offered Penn a deal with $20 million guaranteed lol. Either way all that matters is that Penn is here to be Josh Freeman's bodyguard on the blind side and I bet nobody is happier about that than Freeman himself.

I don't have a lot of time so that's it for now but I wanted to let you know that I will be at the Bucs practice tomorrow morning as a fan just like everyone else so if you see me be sure to come by and say hi. I should be back up full go starting early this week with my blogging so hang on to your hats!

Bull Rush

My latest edition of Bull Rush is up at joebucsfan. This time I talk about how we can maximize the abilities of our newly drafted defensive tackles, Gerald McCoy and Brian Price, along with second year guy Roy Miller. Go check it out and let me know what you think!

Curb Your Enthusiasm

2009

Tyson Jackson - 0

B.J. Raji - 1

Peria Jerry - 0

Ziggy Hood - 1

2008

Glen Dorsey - 1

Sedrick Ellis - 4

Kentwan Balmer - 0

2007

Amobi Okoye - 5.5

Adam Carriker - 2

Justin Harrell - 0

2006

Haloti Ngata - 1

Broderick Bunkley - 0

John McCargo - 0

2005

Travis Johnson - 1

Marcus Spears - 1.5

Luis Castillo - 3.5

Mike Patterson - 3.5


Source

I was talking to some friends recently and I remarked to them that the biggest problem the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had last year was a PR problem. In my opinion the Glazers knew that they were about to blow up the team to try to rebuild it last spring. I don't care if it was because of them owning Man U, or if they truly were just moving in a different direction philosophically any reasonable football person would have taken a look at our roster right after Derrick Brooks was let go and said we would be lucky to win 6 games, especially with our schedule. But instead of the Glazers getting in front of the story, they sat back and left fans to their own devices for the most part. Now I keep pointing to the Glazers because I don't think you could have reasonably expected the Coach and or GM to come out and say it without the say so of the owners even if they also knew it to be true. Now if you know fans like I know fans, they not only want a Superbowl every season, they also think their team is the Superbowl winning team before any games are played every season. So even though we had what in my estimation was one of the toughest schedules in the league, many average every day fans thought we were going to contend for the playoffs. When you have that mindset going into a season then a 3-13 record is even worse than it might have been otherwise. And to make it worse fans then assume rightly or wrongly that they have been lied to about the team, about the head coach, about the financial situation, pretty much everything. At that point its hard to get them bag on the bandwagon and I think you are seeing that played out in the fact that Joel Glazer came out at the coaches meeting and admitted that the season ticket holder list was so low that we would probably experience blackouts here during the season for the first time since they owned the team.

Well at this point at least everyone is admitting that we are rebuilding which should bring at least a few die hard fans back in the fold. But I fear another PR debacle is right around the corner and that is with our draft. Specifically I am talking about our upcoming 1st round pick. Now I have been and still am of the opinion that two ex defensive coordinators in Steve Spagnulo and Jim Schwartz are not going to let the top two defensive tackles get passed them no matter what people are saying about Sam Bradford. But there is the chance that one or both of them might. There is talk now of the Lions potentially taking an offensive tackle to help protect their first round quarterback from last year, Matthew Stafford. So the Bucs could potentially have their pick between Gerald McCoy and Ndamukong Suh but here is whether the problem lies.

The media has hyped both players up to such heights that most fans are probably of the opinion that if we get one of them all of our problems on defense will be solved. Unfortunately up until this point the Bucs have done nothing to try to dampen those fantasies and so if we do end up picking one of them I fear that the Bucs will fully embrace the narrative and put unrealistic expectations for them on their shoulders. Imagine for a second that after a 3-13 season fans we get Suh and fans start thinking maybe 9-7 is attainable and instead we only win 6 games. That have and even greater effect on discouraging the fan base than this past season did.

Check out the list above. Those are all of the defensive tackles or defensive ends in a 3-4 scheme that would be tackles in a 4-3 scheme taken in the 1st round in the last 5 years and their sack totals for their rookie season. Notice that out of 17 draftees only 4 had more than 2 sacks in their rookie season. Notice further that Amobe Okoye was the tops on that list with 5.5 sacks his rookie year, a full sack less than what Gaines Adams, God rest his soul, had his rookie season when fans here were calling him a bust. Now there is no doubt that every player is different but again ask yourself a question. If we are lucky enough to draft Suh or McCoy and they get 5.5 sacks but we only win 6 games do you think fans will consider them to have lived up to their billing or that they will figure they are a bust?

Now I still think its far fetched to think both guys will still be on the board when we pick at 3. But if one or both of them are I hope the powers at be over at One Buc realize the reality of the situation and go to the media early and often to soften expectations. If they can perhaps get fans to have lower expectations heading into their rookie season then if they go out and shine they look even better. And if they're average then at least some fans might be more willing to be patient with them. To me that's the ideal situation you should want for your 1st round pick regardless so they can go out and perform without the worry that every mistake they make will be under a magnifying glass. Its worth a try at least.

And of course I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Warren Sapp only had 1 sack his rookie season. And he didn't turn out so bad for the franchise did he?

Yeah, But Whose Gonna Coach Em?

For months now there has been speculation about which defensive tackle the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might select with the 3rd pick in the draft. While early on it looked as if they wouldn't get the chance at Ndamukong Suh or Gerald McCoy, here lately with reports that the Rams or a trading partner of theirs might take Sam Bradford with the 1st pick in the draft, the prospect of having one or both guys still on the board at 3 is looking a lot more realistic. Now most pundits have gone back and forth with each guy, some thinking Suh is just too talented to pass up while others noting (rightly in my opinion) that McCoy is a better fit for our defense. But here's the thing, while the anticipation grows as draft weekend approaches, there is a question that Buccaneers fans should have in the back of their mind in addition to which defensive tackle we will take. And that question should be "who is going coach them"?

It seems like a simple question, and a quite important one to boot, yet I don't know about you but I haven't heard many pundits in the Tampa Bay area asking it. I guess the assumption is that if you draft Suh or McCoy they will just magically turn into Pro Bowlers without any coaching. Of course we know that history has shown us that's hardly ever the case. So who IS going to coach them and how much should it matter?

Well the first part of the question is pretty simple. Todd Wash is the Buccaneers defensive line coach, you can see it right there at their website. And who is Todd Wash? Well from his bio it appears that he was a pretty good linebacker in college and he is pretty smart too as he has two degrees. Also from his bio we see that he started his coaching career in 1996 and worked his way up in the college ranks before becoming a quality control coach here in 2007 and then working his way up to head defensive line coach last year and sole defensive line coach going into the 2010 season.

The first thing I noticed when reading up on Wash is that this is his first NFL job. Nothing wrong with that of course, Rod Marinelli got his first NFL gig here in Tampa as well after all. But the fact that he has been in coaching at all just a bit over 10 years combined with the fact that this is his first NFL job is a bit worrisome to me. I don't want to make it seem as if I am throwing Wash under the bus because I don't know him and I have personally never seen him in action at practice or during the game but there are some things that can't be ignored. And the biggest fact that gives me pause is that we haven't had a defensive lineman have double digit sacks in the 3 seasons that he has been here.

Now I would try to give him a pass on that first season since after all he wasn't a position coach but a quality control guy. However in his bio he takes credit for Gaines Adams getting 6 sacks that year as a rookie and so I feel like that year is fair game as well.

So what's the closest a defensive lineman has gotten to double digit sacks during his tenure?

That would be the 8 that Greg (Stylez) White got in his first season as a Buccaneer in 07.

The most by a defensive tackle?

That would be the 6 that Jovan Haye got ALSO in 07.

In the last two years the most sacks any defensive end has gotten in a season is 6.5 and the most any defensive tackle has gotten is 2.

And please keep in mind that this will be Wash's first stint coaching the entire defensive line by himself. Last year he handled defensive ends while the now departed Coach Robert Nunn handled the defensive tackles.

Now obviously after the way our defensive tackles performed most of the year I don't think anybody is shedding many tears over Nunn's departure. But what does it say about the Buccaneers that they didn't even attempt to replace him going into what may be the most important draft in team history looking to draft a franchise defensive tackle?* Considering how important most people think it will be that draft Suh or McCoy, why hasn't anybody asked this question before now?

Listen, for all I know Todd Wash is going to turn one of those guys into the next Reggie White next year and erase any doubt about his prowess as a defensive line coach. I for one would be the first to salute him if he does. But what has he shown in his career thus far that would inspire that kind of faith in him and his abilities? You can discard last year's performance all you want but then you still have to acknowledge 2008 where Ryan Sims led all defensive tackles with 1.5 sacks on the season and Gaines led all ends with 6.5. I don't know that Coach Marinelli EVER went through a season where the highest sack total for one of his interior lineman was 2 or less let alone allow that for two years straight, and he is the type of guy that Wash is going to need to try to emulate.

I saw enough head scratching calls on the defensive line this year to further make me skeptical of what we are going to get from Suh or McCoy if we draft one of them. Time and time again we either didn't run any pass rush games or the ones we ran were harry high school type stuff. Not only that but to this day I am still trying to understand why in the game where White was hurt we moved Jimmy Wilkerson from his starting position at left end over to right end, and then allowed Tim Crowder who backs up both starts to start at left end which didn't take advantage of either of their strengths.

You put that all together and you have a recipe for disappointment. Again I could be wrong and I hope I am, but put me on record right now saying that if we draft Suh or McCoy neither guy will have more than 5 sacks next year. That's not hating that's being realistic based on the evidence at hand.

Just one more thing for you to consider heading into next season.

* I don't really wanna have to go there but did the Bucs let Nunn go without replacing because they had so much faith in Wash, or was it just another instance of them trying to save money? Its not an easy question and I don't have the answer but I think it has to be asked and addressed

Combine Bench Press

One of the top prospect for this year's NFL draft, Gerald McCoy had a disappointing day in the weight room yesterday. While his main competition for the top spot, Ndamukong Suh, was busy tossing up 225 pounds 32 times, McCoy only manged to get the same weight up 23 times (a report on NFL.com's blog of 26 reps was evidently erroneous). Of course this has sent all of the draftniks into a tizzy and now people are openly questioning McCoy's work ethic.

Well I don't know if McCoy has been sitting on a beach every day sipping pina coladas or if he has been locked up somewhere with dumbells and hot sauce all day. What I do know from personal experience is that the combine bench press can be deceiver, both on the positive and negative side. If you google "Gerald McCoy" and "work ethic" you get tons of articles about people raving about how hard he works. But with one bad showing on his bench press he has opened himself up to people questioning what had been one of his biggest selling points.

McCoy wasn't the only highly rated prospect to fall short in the bench press either. USF's Jason Paul-Pierre, a guy some think may go as high as 3 to the Bucs (which I already thought was crazy) only managed to get the weight up 19 times. Now its a kind of unwritten rule for defensive linemen. You want to get the weight up 25 times or more so you can be one of the leaders in that categor, but to not be seen as too weak to play in the NFL you want to at least get the weight up 20 times so as to not raise any red flags. For a guy like JPP whose rise up the draft boards has been driven more by potential than production, only putting the weight up 19 times may have some serious consequences.

I am a long time proponent of film over workouts anyway. I think that you will always have guys who look average on film who put up great numbers at the combine. But being a great athlete doesn't always equal being a great football player and coaches and GMs should always be aware of that. I will say however that plenty of teams use the combine numbers for question marks. What I mean is if a guy looks good on film but there are some nagging questions about them, many times teams will use combine numbers to answer them. If a guy looks good but might be a tad slow then the 40 numbers are brought into play. If a guy looks fast in a straight line but maybe not very quick in changing directions that's when the cone drill numbers come into play. And if a guy looks good but maybe gets pushed around a bit, that's when the bench press numbers get pulled.

Now I don't know for sure if teams have questions about McCoy's or Paul-Pierre's strength, but if they did before the combine, its going to be even worse now.

Its at this point that I want to make an observation about the process and also to give a personal anecdote.

First, I think its ludicrous that defensive linemen and offensive lineman are still being made to life 225 pounds for reps. It makes sense for the smaller guys because by and in large they probably rep out with 225 on a regular basis. However for most big guys this is some thing that they rarely if ever do aside from at the combine or at their pro day at their school. To be honest with you doing 225 for reps is more about endurance than strength anyway. There are some guys who can do 225 pounds 30 times or more but couldn't shed a blocker to save their life. There are other guys who can barely get it up 20 times but can rag doll an offensive lineman. That's because there is never going to be a time in any game where a guy has to do 30 bench presses in a row but there WILL be a time when a 325 plus pounder will try to lock on to them and they need to be able to get that guy up off of them.



For most big guys this means that you train with heavier weights for lower reps most of the time. I for one would much rather see an offensive or defensive lineman rep out with 275 pounds than 225. For one 275 pounds is closer to the weight they will have to push around when they face off with an opponent in football, and for two you would get to see how well they handle heavier weight consistently. I would be much more impressed with seeing guys do 275 15 or 20 times than watching them do 225 25 times or more.

But hey, that's just me.

As for my story....

I was a guy who played for a high school team that didn't have a weight lifting program to speak of. For that reason when I got to college at UT I was behind most of the guys in my class. I worked my butt off in the weight room the whole time I was there but even though I got stronger every year it seemed like I could never catch up to some of those guys. I believe I ended my career at UT having maxed out with heavy weight for reps that was the equivalent of a little over 400 pounds. Not bad, but certainly not as good as some of my classmates who had maxed out at 450 and above.

Well thankfully for me I hooked up with a guy by the name of Dean Lotz (rest in peace) who had formerly been the strength coach at several colleges, most recently at that time the University of Memphis. The one thing he did in training me to get ready for our pro day at UT (I wasn't fortunate enough to get invited to the combine even though I had 9 sacks as a senior in the SEC, go figure) was to explain to me the why we needed to train certain ways for the testing that were different from how I had trained at Tennessee. Specifically while we would be working on trying to build up my strength for sure, he was more concerned with building up my endurance for the bench press test.

At first I have to admit that I wasn't convinced. Instead of doing 225 on a regular basis, instead every week he would have me max out at least once with 185, a 90 pound difference. He explained to me that I would be plenty strong enough to lift the 225, but I had to get used to the breathing and timing of doing a lot of reps. The most we used to do with heavy weights at Tennessee, like I imagine it is at most schools, was 10 reps and that was just every blue moon. The scouts, as I said before, want to see you do 20. So the first day I was with him I tried to max out with 225 and I ended up getting in about 14 or 15 reps. After that I didn't max out with 225 again for two months. Instead we worked really heavy weight for low reps most of the week and then every Friday I maxed out with 185. It got to the point where I could easily do 30 reps with 185 so I started feeling somewhat confident. Finally a week before it was time to go do my pro day we tested again with 225. This time I got it up 26 times with relative ease and I have to say I shocked myself. I should note that while we were still lifting heavy most of the week, my low rep bench max hadn't gone up more than 10 pounds.

So off I went to my Pro Day and many of my classmates were there as well. I ended up doing 24 reps that day which was less than I hoped for but still pretty good for me. By contrast some of my teammates who had always been stronger than me through out our time at UT ended up with several reps less than me. I don't doubt that they could still bench more than me if we had gone to a higher weight, but what was apparent to me is that they didn't have someone training them properly to get ready for the endurance part of repping 225.

I say all that to say this, a guy not putting up big numbers on the bench press COULD be a sign that they haven't been working out, but it COULD have also been that they weren't trained properly. I can't say which is which quite honestly and I wouldn't want to unless I was sure. But I will say that the way to try to decide on something like that is to watch the rest of their workout. Guys who haven't been training will end up gassing out when its time for position drills. In most of the timed drills their second time will always be slower than their first time. And the last thing to look for is pulled muscles as that is usually a sign that either a guy isn't flexible, and or they aren't in good enough shape to finish all the drills.

And for any future NFL prospects, please be sure to train properly for the combine bench press. If you don't you might be one of the strongest prospects there but end up having folks question your strength and work ethic. And trust me, nobody wants to have that happen to them.