Tampa Bay fans can remember a bitter and disappointing start to this franchise as they continue to lose every year. Tampa is now again in that very uneasy position without a win this season and facing a hot Cam Newton who in the last two games has an 81 percent completion rate.
So what’s wrong with the Buccaneers? I’ll chime in with my opinion which are many. First of all it starts in the draft the Bucs drafted Josh Freeman who seemed to be the answer and started improving his second year. But with change in coaches comes change in players and the way they play and perform. For Freeman Schiano coming in from Rutgers meant eventual doom.
Freeman now the Vikings starting Quarterback with not much success at all. But give him a little break since he just got to Minnesota and they expected him to run the offense and not run the offense through a guy named Adrian Peterson.
But getting back to the Bucs. There is no continuity. No solid teaching that has success. And since viewing this Thursday night game I see a few things the Bucs have going or should I say not going there way.
On offense Glennon is tall 6-7 he looks good but he is not a quick throw guy but he’s accurate. The running back runs into the back of his own lineman means that the vision and the reaction to make moves is limited. But the offense doesn’t move the ball with any type of rhythm or pace.
Schiano is under fire and rightfully so. He’s done 0. Winning is the goal of teams that compete. No W’s and no matter how much fire Schiano had when he came in the buy in to the schemes and the teaching of this guy has long been gone. Now it’s turned in to doubt and indifference.
Now to the meat of my observation. Tampa Bay has a hole in the defense and you can exploit it anytime you want. Mike Tolbert ran for 26 yards on the left side of the Carolina offensive line the right side of the Tampa Bay defense. The problem is the alignment when you don’t have a player who is responsible for outside contain on every play and you send blitz’s that don’t have the outside contain in mind then once you clear the initial pressure you can make a big play any time you want. Carolina is going to use this the entire game.
Another aspect of the defense is do you have the right scheme in place related to the talent that you have. The answer is the Tampa Bay Bucs should be more man coverage once they’re in zone they get beat and taken advantage of. Darrell Revis should be in man. He’s a shut down cover guy. Not a stand in space and be a spectator. I’m not saying don’t line up in zone but you can mix and match the defense. Revis can make plays in man. He can’t make any plays in zone except for a tip or an errant pass.
Greg Schiano keeps losing he’ll not make it to the end of the season.
One glowing sign that Tampa Bay is in need of wins, the fans on camera looked like they are in shock. No groups of fans jumping in the camera just sitting and staring with one guy looking like a normal NFL fan.