Postgame remarks.
“Somebody has to make a play.” — Troy Aikman.
Joe swears the quote above will be on Troy Aikman’s headstone. The NFL analyst says this several times a game.
(OK Troy, what play should they make?)
Apparently, Todd Bowles believes Aikman’s cliche is what ails the Bucs’ defense.
Teams are getting chunk plays against the Bucs since the bye. Killing the Bucs. To hear Bowles in his postgame remarks yesterday, it’s players not making plays that is just part of the problem.
“You know, the effort was there, but playmaking was not,” Bowles said.
It wasn’t? Bowles is borderline obsessed by takeaways and he stresses this daily in practice. The Bucs had three takeaways yesterday! So Joe cannot swallow the lack of plays as the reason Josh Allen shredded the defense.
Of course, if the Bucs needed offensive mistakes to win the game as opposed to good fundamentals and smart defense, the Bucs would have needed six takeaways.
“Sometimes it’s cover[age], sometimes it’s pass rush,” Bowles said of big plays against his defense. “But at the same time it’s got to get fixed.”
What pass rush? Did you see a pass rush yesterday? Allen got hit once. Unless he was running with the ball, he never hit the turf of Ralph Wilson Stadium. Not once. Zero sacks.
Embarrassing for a professional team.
“We’re playing hard, and then we have lapses here, lapses there, and we give up a play, and that’s what happened in the second half,” Bowles said.
This is starting to sound to Joe that either Bowles and his assistants are failing his players or whatever he is coaching is either too complicated and the players aren’t getting it.
Whatever it is, it’s pretty clear it’s not working. First Drake Maye, then Josh Allen. And looky there boys and girls, here comes Matt Stafford! Joy!
“If we’re covering, we’re not getting to the quarterback, if we’re getting to the quarterback, we’re not covering long enough,” Bowles said.
Where exactly were the Bucs “getting to the quarterback?” Pressures? LOL Joe has long maintained they are a joke against good quarterbacks.
Joe hasn’t seen any pressure stats yet — and he isn’t really motivated to dig them up — because pressure is nonsense. Almost sack. Failure.
If the Bucs really were pressuring Allen, then yesterday’s game is Exhibit-A why pressures are worthless. Exactly how was Allen affected by pressure when he accounted for six touchdowns?