Bucs Get Run Over In The Fourth Quarter

October 19, 2009 at 11:52am by Scott   •  8 Comments »

I was hoping Josh Johnson would take another step forward like he did last week, but his game against Carolina was really exposed him as the virtual rookie that he is. He had a couple more excellent passes (Sammie Stroughter and Antonio Bryant come to mind) and a couple that he had no business throwing (the third quarter interception) but more than anything, he was a guy who looked like he didn’t know what to do with the ball. It’s obvious that he doesn’t see the whole field yet because he had open receivers on several occasions where he chose to pull the ball down and scramble. One time on Michael Clayton‘s only catch, he kept his eyes downfield to make a throw on the run.

And ball protection! How many times did Johnson put the ball on the ground? Three? There’s a lot of stuff I can forgive with a young quarterback and if you get knocked the fuck out by a hit, I can see fumbling. But these were silly fumbles caused mostly by lack of awareness and any coach will pull a quarterback who can’t hold onto the ball. This game was Johnson’s last, best hope for staying on after the bye. Lack of improvement and ball security have pretty much sealed his fate. Oh, and the money they’re paying Josh Freeman. That, too.

The offensive line… what can you say? Four sacks, several occasions of flushing Johnson out of the pocket (granted, it doesn’t take much), a few holding penalties, and 79 rushing yards by running backs. The sad part is that you could actually see the improvement with Jeff Faine back in the lineup. But the Carolina defensive line consistently pushed the line of scrimmage back into the backfield. And it wasn’t a lot of exotic blitzes or anything. I think they’re just physically stronger than the Bucs.

Sammie Stroughter had a career day against the Panthers. His 65 yards receiving were more than double the next-highest receiver and he returned a kickoff for a touchdown. Antonio Bryant looked healthier and snagged a nice pass for 29 yards, but Johnson missed him running open downfield a couple times. It could have been a much more productive day for both Bryant and Kellen Winslow, but again, Johnson can’t look downfield and process what he’s seeing fast enough yet. I would take this opportunity to bitch that Michael Clayton only had one catch for nine yards, but even when he was open, Johnson chose to throw the ball elsewhere most of the time.

I thought this would be a coming out party for Cadillac Williams, since the Panthers have had trouble stopping the run this season. And for the first quarter, it was looking promising. Williams had 30 yards in rushing in the first four minutes of the game and 42 yards by the end of the quarter. But the Bucs got away from using Williams in the second quarter, going with Derrick Ward who finished the day with one run for two yards. When they went back with Williams in the third quarter, he broke off runs of 5, 8 and 20 yards. Overall, the team had 25 rushes for 124 yards and a 5.0 average, which sounds great. But when 45 of that is the quarterback scrambling on designed throws, you know those are desperation yards that could have been so much more if Johnson had been able to find open receivers.

The defensive line looked decent in spots, but when the other team runs for 267 yards, how good could they have been? Greg White was the closest thing to a consistent player yesterday. He had eight solo tackles and the only sack of the game, so right away you know the Gaines Adams trade was probably a good idea. But besides that, it was a pretty piss poor day for the line. Chris Hovan never showed up on the stat sheet despite being right in the line of fire for all those runs up the middle. Ryan Sims and Roy Miller got pushed around in the fourth quarter and were plainly beaten by strength.

Oh, that fourth quarter. For over 11 minutes, the Bucs were fucking pounded. Twenty runs and two passes by Carolina. Nowhere in that span was a Panther tackled for a loss. Only once were they held for no gain. Seven first downs and a touchdown. It was a show of strength, a challenge of manhood and the Bucs lost. It was a lot like what happened last year. Raheem Morris can talk all day long about practicing hard and being a violent team, but it does not hold up against the Panthers. As shitty as their record is, they are a tougher team physically than the Bucs. Period.

Oh, and since we’re talking about the final drive, I might as well bring this up. I know you can’t just tell players to allow a score. They take it as a sign of disrespect, and I understand why. But when the opposing team is already in field goal range and they are running the ball at will on you with less than two minutes left to go, from a coaching standpoint, wouldn’t you want them to score as quickly as possible? Raheem Morris took the approach that they were going to stop the Panthers short of the goal line, force a field goal and then block it. Hey, they blocked a field goal earlier in the game, so why not, right? But if you were looking at it completely analytically, you’d never take those odds. You’d just allow them to walk into the endzone and save the time to come back and tie the game, ESPECIALLY when they were able to get a first down just short of the goal line and burn even more time. I’m not saying Morris should have done anything different. How could you look your players in the face after telling them to do the one thing they’ve been training not to do all their lives? But it’s interesting that there are some things you won’t do, even if it increases your chances to win.

Barrett Ruud was, as he always is, productive and opportunistic. Three passes defensed for a middle linebacker is pretty damn good. Quincy Black and Geno Hayes are probably both superior athletes to Ruud, but neither are close to being as consistent as he is. Both Black and Hayes made a couple splash plays yesterday (Black tipped a pass to Ruud and Hayes blitzed Jake Delhomme to force an interception to Tanard Jackson.) Ruud’s name was mentioned as possible trade bait last week (although that was entirely speculation). I’m telling you now, if Ruud gets traded, it’s gonna get brutal on defense. Teams won’t have to bother dressing their wide receivers because they won’t have to pass.

It’s so damn frustrating that Sabby Piscitelli leads the team in tackles. He had a shit day by being out of position several times, missing tackles and then celebrating like a jackass when someone else cleaned up his mess. I like Sabby and I appreciate that he is having to make up for a lot of the defensive line’s shortcomings, but I wish he would show more discipline.

What a breakout year for Aqib Talib. Three interceptions two weeks ago and then these last two weeks he had two passes completed against him total. Steve Smith was a non-factor and that’s because Talib was stuck on him like Velcro all day long. Some of the best corners in the league get burnt by Smith, but Talib only allowed four yards against him all day.

Overall, this was a beatable team that the Bucs couldn’t beat. I admonished people after week one for invoking the winless season because it sounded ridiculous and the chances of it happening were so small. But looking at where the other teams on the schedule are and how they’re doing, you can’t help but wonder a little. Seattle looks like they can be beaten, but the game is in Seattle which is an awful place to play. And the Jets looked like they were trying their hardest to throw that game against the Bills away (which they finally did), but how can either one of the Bucs’ potential quarterbacks for that game stand up to a Rex Ryan defense?

So, New England won 59-0 yesterday. Anyone want to set the over/under for the London game?