Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Think of all the wonderful plays made by opposing offenses against the Bucs, close your eyes and you can just see it.
You can just see lousy Lovie Smith and if you listen closely, you can hear him talking about being “Tennessee-ready.”
Concentrate a little more and you can see Mike Smith up high in a press box screaming into his headset about… hell, the way his defense played, he might as well be screaming for an intern to fetch the bowl of bananas foster that Ira passed on.
(The Sage of Tampa Bay sports is not a fan of bananas foster — nor is Joe.)
Didn’t last Sunday night give you flashbacks of Julio Jones roasting poor Ryan Smith? Joe is pretty confident the poor guy never recovered from that dreadful afternoon in Billy Sherman’s favorite city.
The Bucs defense since the bye has played like they are still enjoying the bye in their old college towns pounding shots with cheerleaders. Meanwhile, opposing offenses have been pounding the Bucs.
So what is the Bucs’ defensive coordinator going to do about it? The Bucs head coach, Todd Bowles, also the defensive coordinator, explained this week.
> “You’re always thinking about schematic changes,” Bowles said. “Personnel changes, we don’t have to think about it. It’s been a different guy here and there. It hasn’t been everybody at one time.
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> “You can’t have 10 guys playing well and one guy not playing well on any given week – that has to stop. I thought for the most part the big plays stopped. We didn’t create any big plays last week, but the big plays, for the most part, have stopped.”
The big plays have stopped? Well, that’s a discussion for another day, but the bleeding hasn’t stopped.
If Bowles is thinking of “schematic changes” the time is now to instead of thinking about it, acting upon it. Maybe drum up a scheme that best suits the talent available. Coach them up.
Joe thinks it is pretty safe to guess that teams know SirVocea Dennis’ weakness(es). Try putting him in position to minimize his weakness(es).
The edge rush … aw, skip it.
Good coaches find a way to stop the bleeding. Good coaches find ways to coach up their players and put them in position to make plays.
Too much more thinking and before you know it, folks may have to start thinking of updating their resumes.
The Bucs are 6-5 and playing bad football like we haven’t seen (thankfully) around these parts in a while. The season is teetering.