Blame The Defense, Not The Call

November 16, 2009 at 11:16am by Scott   •  9 Comments »

I guess we might as well start with the call. When I first saw it happen, I was pretty sure it would be overturned on review because it seemed obvious that Michael Clayton‘s back had hit the ground before the ball came out. And when it wasn’t, I knew there had to be something I wasn’t seeing. Unlike SEC officials who can be PURCHASED AT ANY 7-11, NFL officials almost always have a legitimate reason for their calls after review, even if the rules they are following suck. And that’s what happened here.

The referee basically just re-iterated the rule in his explanation of the call, but go back and watch the play. Clayton’s left foot never hits the ground before he’s hit. John Lynch mistakenly says, “One foot down, two feet down” as he’s watching the replay, but that left foot never touches. I believe if he had had both feet down before he was hit for the first time, he would have been ruled down by contact. But since he had not yet “caught” the ball by having both feet on the ground, he had to maintain control all the way through the fall, and he didn’t. If two feet down means a catch, he legitimately lost control of the ball before he caught it, so there you go.

All that said, this rule about maintaining control to the ground has been a huge sore spot for several teams all season long and will definitely be looked at in the offseason. The ruling on Clayton’s interception doesn’t pass the eye test. It looks like a catch, and if you were to ask 100 random people about it, they would say it was a catch, too. Instant replay is great, but it has caused us to have to dissect too much shit and view the game in terms of milliseconds and make rules accordingly. It’s kind of taking some of the fun out of watching the game. It’s one of the things that John Madden would go on about that I totally agreed with. Officials would spend ten minutes looking at a player’s knee and exactly how much the ball was moving and where it was and whether he was switching hands or not to determine if it was a fumble and Madden would look at it in real time and say, “Of course it was a fumble! He dropped the ball before he hit the ground.” Sometimes we overthink shit.

I guess other things happened during the game as well. Josh Freeman has started a pattern of starting off slow and then picking his game up in the fourth quarter. He is also establishing a reputation as a fumbler. In two games plus a piece of a third, he has fumbled four exchanges from center and lost the ball three other times while scrambling. He has no clock in his head yet that tells him he needs to get rid of the ball whether or not someone is open, and that should develop with time. He needs to hold onto the ball regardless, but when a defensive end chops the ball out of his hand from behind while he’s scanning the field, that can be forgiven as a rookie mistake. But losing the snap from center — once even in his preferred shotgun — is inexcusable. Greg Olson the offensive coordinator needs to revert back to Greg Olson the quarterbacks coach for a little bit and help Freeman get this shit straightened out immediately. Once Freeman is outed as a fumbler, defensive ends and linebackers are going to be all over his shit trying to strip that ball away. This has to end now.

The good news about Freeman is that he’s making some nice passes and some decent decisions. He made a couple clutch throws to Kellen Winslow, a beautiful touchdown pass to Maurice Stovall, and another one to Stovall that he should have had, but dropped. The interception on his record (the Clayton call) totally wasn’t his fault, and if you take that away, he walks out with a 90.8 passer rating. Not too shabby. But most of all, he doesn’t get flustered when the team is trying to come from behind and keeps making his reads down the field.

Something that would help out Freeman is if Olson would call shorter-developing plays where the receivers can make quick breaks to get open. Let’s face it, the Bucs don’t exactly have burners for receivers. They’re not going to run away from anyone, so on these long-developing plays, they tend to get blanketed by the corners. These guys can be loosened up with some simpler plays to start out with. The receivers are quick enough in breaks to shake cover across the middle for a second and Freeman has a strong enough arm to drill the ball into tight windows. Let Clayton catch a pass and use his physicalness to gain a few extra yards. Set up the secondary for double moves later on in the game where the receivers can get better separation. When Freeman gets more confident in himself and in his relationship with his receivers, they won’t need to be as open for him. But for now, he needs that extra help and it’s up to Olson to provide it.

A solid running game would also help Freeman. The Bucs had a total of 84 rushing yards by the running backs, and it got to the point where the linebackers would wait until they actually saw the ball in the back’s hand before they played the run. Every week, the team has gotten further away from the zone-blocking scheme that they practiced all summer and begun playing more power blocking. Olson must think that the linemen are more suited to this style of play, but if you take away quarterback runs, the only 100 yard rushing game they’ve had is the first one where they played significantly more zone. Cadillac Williams is still running hard and breaking tackles, but runs that used to go to for 30 yards are being stopped after 9, and it’s not because the box is being stacked at the line all the time. The offensive line is flat getting beat a lot on run-blocking.

The game would have been a complete wash-out for the line if they hadn’t picked up their pass-blocking in the second half. They were miserable in protecting Freeman to start with and gave up three sacks in the first half. But FINALLY, a positive adjustment was made at halftime and they came out in the second half with much better protection, not giving up a sack.

The same can’t be said of the defensive line that had a total of seven tackles and no sacks. This defensive line is getting no pressure, can’t seem to stop the run, and is pretty much a huge damn mess. Is Greg White that much of a factor that his absence causes the rest of them to completely lose their shit? Tim Crowder made a couple nice plays and Chris Hovan made a couple decent tackles, but this is an embarrassment.

I lay equal blame on Jim Bates for not sending more blitzes when it’s obvious that the defensive line can’t get pressure on their own. Geno Hayes and Quincy Black are both athletic enough to get to the quarterback and cause some problems. This is Chad Henne we’re talking about, not an elite quarterback who will make you pay for blitzing. Send the fucking house once in a while. Hell, send Sabby Piscitelli. It’s not like he’s doing anything else.

I think I broke an ankle jumping off the Sabby bandwagon. That guy can go fuck a bowling pin as far as I’m concerned. Do they not teach geometry at Oregon State? Attack where the runner is going to be when you make your crazy dive, not where he is. Of course, if you wouldn’t leave your feet every time you try to make a tackle, it wouldn’t be as big a deal. You could always make a quick adjustment and limit the runner to a couple yards. Holy shit, I’ve never seen such poor tackling. Remember that 45-yard Ronnie Brown run? Brown doesn’t make that if Piscitelli does his job. Thanks for the forced fumble and knocking Brown out of the game, but it doesn’t make up for all the shitty tackling and overpursuits and late-arrivals to pass plays. You’re a great athlete, but that’s not enough. YOU CAN’T LIVE ON PERFECT ABS FOREVER, SABBY!

Let’s take a moment to congratulate Connor Barth, the guy I said wouldn’t make a difference and had a weak leg. Barth kicked three field goals, all for 50 yards or more. And they weren’t even close to being bad — all of them were straight down the middle with plenty of room to spare. And I don’t know if it was his or Rich Bisaccia‘s idea, but that rolling kickoff after Winslow’s penalty pushed them back to the 15 was brilliant. You’d think that ball was made of nuclear waste or dog shit or something the way the Dolphins were avoiding it. So, Connor, I was wrong. Keep it up.

The Bucs had a chance to win this one in the end, but when the defense was called on to secure the lead, they couldn’t keep Ricky Williams from running down their throat. Again, this season is now all about who is going to stay and who is going to be shown the door. And if today is any indication, there are going to be a lot of vacancies on the defensive line to fill this offseason.