| Trouble With the 3-4, Guys? Check the Playbook |
NFL Week 3 Bucs / Cowboys – That Was
Pathetic
The Tampa Bay
Buccaneers showcased a feeble, non-imaginative, and just unwatchable display of
offensive football in falling to the Dallas Cowboys 16-10, in Irving, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. They wasted a great effort by the
Bucs young defense, who limited the Cowpokes to 296 yards and rendered DeMarco
Murray pretty useless and sacked Romo four times. The positives--the Bucs defense will keep
them in a lot of games this year; they are fast and aggressive, and force turnovers. They’ve done that all season. The negatives, though are overwhelming; when
Troy Aikman (hardly a signal caller in an innovative offense) berates a lack of creativity on offense, then you know something is
terribly wrong. It seemed Tampa Bay ran and was content running the ball on first and second downs, gaining maybe two or three, and then
incomplete pass on 3rd. At one point, they punted seven straight
times. They were 1 for 9 or something
like that on third down. The Bucs inexplicably ran the ball on third and 9 down
by two scores right before the two minute warning. LeGarrette Blount runs twice for 12 yards and
then is put back on the shelf. Vincent
Jackson, thrown to seven times or so, only manages one catch for 29 yards. But I lay this one at the feet of two men;
Josh Freeman who regressed badly in this game (nice word for sucking) and offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan. The defense played well most notably the front seven, holding DeMarco Murray to under 40 yards; I'm going to whine and complain about the Bucs offense because they shouldn't be looking like SteveDeBerg, Lawrence Dawsey, and a washed-up Gary Anderson, for any Bucs fans who used to run with Tampa Bay on Madden--in 1993. Jeez.
| Where's the aWAREness? |
First Josh
Freeman; he was 10 for 28. This is not going to cut it. Madden hadn't invented "awareness" on players until around 1997 or so; Josh's was a 35 (out of 100) for my non-gamers in this game. His mechanics weren’t the problem but he simply was an oblivious statue
in the pocket and didn’t get into a rhythm all game. He acted like DeMarcus Ware wasn’t on the
other side several times; the Bucs quarterback got smashed numerous times on
the blindside and fumbled ala 2011, and the Bucs were extremely fortunate to
recover both times. The interception was
another Ware’s—D.J.’s which, if Doug Martin is a first-round pick and can be a third
down back then why is D.J. Ware in?) Freeman
had guys open and missed them badly; he couldn’t feel the pressure and had
problems getting the snap off in time—all shades of last year. This will not
work. I don’t think Schiano could have imagined his offense performing so
poorly.
| We'll Run it Again With Martin |
Now my man Mike
Sullivan, who I, before the season thought would bring Freeman and Co. some new
looks in the passing game, completely you-know-what-the-bed in this game as the
Bucs struggled to get 100 yards TOTAL.
Things started well, just like the Giants game—Aqib Talib picks Romo, a
great pick like in 2010; he did something very similar to Joe Flacco. The first
drive the Bucs went playaction on first and goal and then abandoned playaction
the rest of the game, preferring to run Martin behind Nicks every play. All the playaction rollouts to Lorig in weeks
previous, just to get those short second downs—nowhere in sight. I did see Lorig lined up in the slot, however. A lot of single-back three-wide looks; the
offensive line was getting pummeled as the Bucs ran Martin on a delay handoff out
of this formation time and time again, it seemed. Perhaps for good reason, running to the right
has been completely ignored. Tight ends
Stocker and Clark don’t factor in this offense or aren’t getting separation. The Giants weren’t really a tight
end-featured offense, anyway.
Mike Clayton- I
mean, Mike Williams, doesn’t seem to betting separation this year (unless it’s the and
Brandon Carr blanketed VJax all day so the Bucs probably figured to stick to
the run. So much so, that two scores down they go with a draw to
Martin on third and nine, gaining negligible yardage and then lineup to punt? Like what the heck? I thought we
played to the whistle? Fourth and 11, they reconsider after the two-minute
warning, and lineup four or five-wide and lo and behold, Freeman guns one to
VJax for 30 yards just like that. I saw
this plenty of times last year with Raheem Morris, where the Bucs would loaf
for 55 minutes and then get frantic and focused, as the Bucs did yesterday for
their only real scoring drive besides the turnover-induced drive in the first
quarter. There are similarities in what
we saw last game against the Giants with another near Freeman comeback. I’ve seen it too many times to think Freeman couldn’t
be successful if the offense was tailored to his strengths, but at some point
he is going to have to make a play in the first half.
| Schiano has to let Free be Free (Agent)? |
Schiano, I saw, was furious a few times, and
special team gaffes by Jordan Shipley (who some folks on the Tampa blogs like
to think is Steve Largent or something, and Myron Lewis, who committed a
personal foul after the Bucs forced a punt).
I can bet this team got a serious tongue-lashing after today’s effort
including Freeman. I would be surprised
if these professionals go out and lay and egg against the suddenly gracious
Redskins defense. The Bucs, I think,
have the personnel to confuse RGIII enough to win the game but this team needs
to figure out some damn plays besides this 1993 Madden offense their running
now.
The silver
lining is this year, even though I predicted 8-8, is still a rebuilding year,
you don’t know if the Giants or Cowboys are really good yet and this where you
figure out what you need to get the pirate ship turned around. Games like this make it easy—you need at the
very least a RT, a DE, a TE, another CB, and a RG. I still say 8 and 8. Look
for Blount to be more involved in the running game, as the novelty of Doug
Martin has worn off. 3.6 is still 3.6
(yards per carry); Errict Rhett pulled it off for a couple years (1994 and
1995) and we went 11-21. This team is
infinitely more talented.
Sullivan needs
to get some creativity with the play calling and I suggest they go back and
look at tape of the last three years of Freeman in the fourth quarter and
figure out, whether it be going no-huddle, how to get that guy all game long.
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