Bucs coach Todd Bowles speaks.
This is a big reason why Joe cringes so much when hearing defensive coaches whine about how they lost a game because they didn’t get takeaways.
For the have-to-have-takeaways-to-win crowd, keep in mind the Bucs won an NFC title game on the road facing a Hall of Fame quarterback despite their own Hall of Fame quarterback throwing three picks.
How did that happen? The Bucs defense played strong, fundamentally good defensive football, that’s how.
Oh, and the Bucs scored points, too.
(Yes, Joe knows perhaps the second-greatest play in Bucs history would likely have never happened unless Sean Murphy-Bunting got a pick at midfield late in the first half.)
Yesterday at the owners meetings at the swanky Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Bucs coach Todd Bowles reflected on the loss to Washington in the playoffs.
All too predictably, Bowles blamed a lack of turnovers.
(That loud groan you hear is from Joe.)
“The turnovers [weren’t] there,” Bowles said during the NFC coaches breakfast. “Defensively, they didn’t kill us, but they kept getting in third-and-3 and third-and-4 and we were missing plays.
“Either we missed the tackle the last time on the bootleg, or we had a two yards wider zone drop than we normally have.”
Bowles then went on to repeat how they needed turnovers to win, yet Bowles himself mentioned missed plays by his defense and missed tackles.
Joe cannot sit with a straight face and suggest a team lost because it couldn’t get turnovers when it was the very same defense that couldn’t force Washington to make one stinking punt.
If someone claims a team lost because it couldn’t force a turnover when it couldn’t even force one punt, then the priorities are all screwed up. That’s lousy Lovie Smith ball.
One could argue a punt is a turnover, too. You’re forcing a team to give up the ball, right?
Joe believes in fundamental football, not banking on accidents. And turnovers are often accidents. As Bill Walsh used to say, play good fundamental football and everything falls into place.
That usually sees a defense force a punt or two in a game, maybe more. Imagine that?
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