Smiling over Haason Reddick.
No matter how you slice it: use Jamel Dean for a punching bag, call out SirVocea Dennis for getting school two or three too many times, the defense getting only one sack. Still, at the end of the day, the Bucs defense only gave up 20 points.
Any game when the defense only allows 20 points, with the weapons the Bucs have, they should be in the game or winning.
So the defense, while it had warts, got the job done. And Bucs outside linebackers coach Larry Foote believes the defense revolved around one man last week.
That one man would be outside linebackers coach Haason Reddick.
“He was fast,” Foote said of Reddick last week. “We know he’s a mismatch for a lot of guys with his speed and his power.”
Reddick had three tackles, a sack (!), a tackle for loss, a quarterback hit. In other words, the Dixie Chicks felt Reddick on the field.
> “I’m impressed – he’s a little man, but he has power,” Foote said. “He did a good job, brings juice and energy, and I think guys are feeding off it.”
After self-scouting himself in Week 1, Reddick didn’t give himself as high of a grade as Foote seemed to.
> “Decent,” is how Reddick described his play in the Bucs’ win. “But there is always room for improvement which I am looking to do — everybody is looking to do with this week coming up.
>
> “Be better than we were in Week 1.”
Well, the Texans have a beat-up offensive line and it’s only the second week of the season. So if YaYa Diaby and Calijah Kancey and Vita Vea could chip in and Reddick matches his output of last week, that should help the Bucs in their quest to start the season at 2-0.