We Still Have A Defense Here In Tampa

by robucs1 on Sep 2, 2009 2:48 PM EDT Comment 8 comments

Questions were abound on how the Buccaneers defense was going to perform this season. If this pre-seaon is any indicator the answer is, the Bucs will do very well.

Experts around the NFL had the Buccaneers defense taking a step back this season. Well I have something to tell those so-called experts. This defense isn't going anywhere.They were saying the tackles were too small for Jim Bates scheme. They had no one to replace future hall-of-famer Derrick Brooks. Rhonde Barber was just a zone coverage cornerback

Raheem Morris and Jim Bates experimented by bringing Jermaine Phillips down from his strong safety position to linebacker. Things were looking well until the NFL suspended Tanard Jackson for the first four games. With the play of Geno Hayes and Jackson's suspension, they decided to move Phillips back to his safety spot.

This defense is going to rely on speed, speed, and more speed. The scheme works with the linemen holding up the offensive linemen and letting the quicker linebackers making the tackle on running plays. On passing plays it is paramount that the linemen get pressure on the quarterback, occasionally bringing one of the linebackers or safeties on a blitz.

So far this pre-season things are looking well. The Bucs are 10th in the NFL in yards allowed. Tied for 2nd in sacks, 3rd in the NFL againist the run and 2nd on 3rd down percentage giving up a 1st down only 28% of the time.

One weakness i've seen this pre-season is their tendecy to give up the big play, Usually on a missed assignment. Those mental mistakes should be cut down as the players get more accustomed to the scheme.

If the Bucs want to have any sucsess this season these trends will have to carry over to the regular season. Which I believe they will. A great defense and a strong running attack will take you far in the NFL. Teams have been very sucsessful with this philosophy.

Hopefully the defense can keep up with what they are doing and surprise a lot of teams and prove those so-called experts wrong.

Editor's note: I jsut cleaned up some of the formatting for the front page move.

Poll

Where will the Bucs finish in total defense this season?

Top 5

27 votes

6th-10th

89 votes

11th-15th

74 votes

16th or worse

26 votes

216 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

Darn you RoBucs.

You made me put this down. I think we finish in the Top 10 and surprise even myself. I am scared to death of our schedule and depth, but so as long as we can stay healthy, i think the addition of Roy Miller and the development of Black and Hayes may help us.

It’s weird for me to say that, because if our defense is good and our offense is good we should win ball games. I just don’t forsee that being the case though. Now I’m completely un-confident in my own negativity.

"I have come that you may have life, and life to the max"

by UNFNOLE on Sep 2, 2009 3:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'm sure people in Atlanta we're saying the same thing last year

They were saying we not going to win with a rookie QB, new scheme, etc… We are in the same boat as the Falcon fans last year are they were writing the same things as I’m reading now about the Bucs. Except one major difference our defense is a lot better

by robucs1 on Sep 2, 2009 3:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Everything's still a great big question mark.

Atlanta and Miami proved last year that anything can happen. I’m not worried about the defense. They’ve got the talent (based on what we’ve seen so far in the preseason) to wreck pretty much everyone on the schedule.

Big questions that you really can’t answer in preseason action:

1) Can they avoid giving up too many of those big plays over the course of a game? it doesn’t look like our offense is built to be able to come back from way behind.

2) The run defense has looked very stout so far, but will the starters hold up over an entire game? If they wear down late, it’s going to be a very long year.

3) Will they have a consistent pass rush this year? A solid pass rush will take a great deal of pressure off the secondary, and could erase quite a few potential big plays. The D-Line has shown that they can absolutely terrorize the QB at times, but it’s been inconsistent at best.

by OfficerRodFarva on Sep 2, 2009 4:01 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Schedule

If the NFC east is the strong NFC east of recent years, and it looks like it should be, I think the Atlanta and Miami comparison is a bit too hopeful. We could be every bit as good as Atlanta was last year, and still have a worse record than they had last year.

by terp12 on Sep 2, 2009 6:47 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I think terp has a good point.

I’m thinking our defense will be 8-12 and our offense will be ranked pretty decent too, but a somewhat disatisfying record will result.

The bright spot is that I think we will end up playing real nail biters all season.

by miracles83 on Sep 2, 2009 7:09 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I too agree....

If the Bucs are going to end the season better than most people are giving them hope for then they will have to do it fighting every quarter of every game. If they can keep the games close then hopefully they can build confidence in what they are doing as they prepare for the next week.

"In life, you'll have your back up against the wall many times. You might as well get used to It." - Coach Paul 'Bear' Bryant

by Tye on Sep 2, 2009 10:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wonder............

Would you have written this post after watching the season opener? Frankly, if our defense plays like this all year we will suck worse than I thought we would. What the freak? I sack, no FF, no INT, 0 INT, not to mention we gave up 4 plays of 40 yrds or more. That’s more than what Monte’s D gave in a a whole year!

by TheUltimateBucFan on Sep 15, 2009 1:48 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs