Will the Bucs defense improve?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have no shortage of things to work on as they are in the midst of a bye week and get ready to get back in action against the Atlanta Falcons a week from Sunday.
Let’s start with the defense. Mike Smith will not be going anywhere. Dirk Koetter is going to sink or swim with Mike Smith. The Bucs defense is on pace to give up the most points ever in the history of the NFL. 34.5 points a game or 559 points.
I’m sorry you will not win many games with this performance on defense. The problems are many. The revamped DL can’t get consistent pressure on the QB. Jason Pierre Paul has been their best player so far getting four sacks, and at this pace he will be the first DL to have double digit sacks since Simeon Rice in 2O07.
The DB’s have been awful. I know about the injuries, but as Koetter has opined on many occasion these are the best players in the world and these players were chosen to play for the Bucs. Koetter and Licht wanted them on the team.
And this is what we’ve got.
Guys that can‘t cover receivers, can’t tackle (Brent Grimes awful effort last Sunday in Chicago), and overall they defend the pass very poorly.
Mike Smith’s scheme seems to be either outdated, or the opposing team knows exactly what defense the Bucs are going to be in. In all of my years of watching football I don‘t know that I’ve seen a defense regress so much during the season and play so poor year after year,
Don‘t forget Bucs fans we saw this movie play out last year and it didn’t end very well. With games against Atlanta, Cleveland, Carolina and Cincinnati coming up, I don’t hold out a lot of hope that this defense is going to rise to the occasion and suddenly have a major transformation into a top notch defense.
I am worried about the lack of a running game. Peyton Barber has been a disappointment so far, and Ronald Jones can‘t even get on the field on a consistent basis. I’m sorry but if you are a second round pick, you should be at least making a contribution in the running game or pushing for a starting job.
The defense stinks, the running game is non-existent and yet the Bucs are 2-2 and one game out of first place in the division. if you would have told me that the Bucs would be 2-2 after four games with three of those games without the starting QB in Jameis Winston, most of us would have signed up for that.
But after a 2-0 start, most of us are disappointed in the way that the Bucs have played the last two games to get to that 2-2 mark at the quarter mark of the season.
Can the Bucs Improve the defense and the running game? Sure they can. The question that needs to be asked is will they improve? Don’t bet the lunch money on it. My feeling is that the defense will improve, but not enough to really to make much of a difference in games.
The running game will continue to be A non threat. That will prevent the Bucs from winning games late in the season when they need to rely on the running game to run the clock and seal the win.
I would love to be wrong. I hope the Bucs prove me wrong. I want the Bucs to win. But I’ve seen this show to many times before and when the problems and the mistakes are so glaring like they are, and the coaches can’t seem to fix the issues, you almost have to blow the whole thing up an start over. And that would be very painful for Bucs Fans everywhere.
