REAR ENTRIES: Slow News Day

May 11, 2009 at 09:35am by Scott   •  No Comments »

KEVIN SMITH IS INSANE: Kevin Smith (of the Lions, not Silent Bob) said in his blog that the Lions will make the playoffs this season. Not that they could or that they have the ability. They will.

I won’t make a prediction about how many games we’re going to win, but I will say this: We will definitely make the playoffs this season.

And that’s not even the crazy part. He doesn’t think his 0-16 team was too far from making the playoffs last season. Guess who’s going to play in the Crazy Bowl this year.

Believe it or not we weren’t far off last year. Almost every game we could have won, we were one play or one player short.

Just about every game that is lost is one play short. And that play is generally a touchdown run or pass that your shit team didn’t stop. Wow, it takes huge balls to tell the world that the worst team in NFL history almost made the playoffs. Why stop there? “We were this close to winning the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup and the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. We were just one chemist short.”

JERRY SPRAINS KNEE: I don’t know that this is indicative of things to come with Peria Jerry on the Falcons, but I do know he had a couple surgeries in college and missed the combine with a groin injury as well.

Jerry seemed to catch his cleats in the grass Saturday morning after banging his knees together during a drill, but he was able to walk off the field under his own power.

I was never a big Jerry fan, but this guy’s whole lower body just seems like a ticking time bomb. As opposed to mine, which is more of a rocket that explodes well before impact.

RUUD’S MOM: No jokes here, just a story about a dedicated mother who is gone too soon.

“I took her for granted,” he said. “I had no doubt she would be there until she was 90, 95 years old.” She was 52 and looked 42. She was healthy, a nutritionist who had published books on the subject. If Barrett counted on anything in his life, it was that his mother would always be part of it.

You just never know. You all called your moms yesterday, right?

Jim Bates Likes Man On Man

February 18, 2009 at 03:32pm by Scott   •  3 Comments »

Jim Bates spoke with the media today about his plans for the Buccaneer defense. All in all, not a lot is going to change. Here’s what I took from it:

- He will try to continue using the Cover 2 philosophy of rushing only the front four. But he’s prepared to blitz if necessary.
- No more over/under fronts. Just a straight four in a one-gap scheme.
- He does like bigger defensive tackles and wants to rotate the linemen a lot.
- Lots more man on man coverage by the cornerbacks. This is not good news for Ronde Barber.
- Safety play won’t change.
- Mentioned Barrett Ruud specifically. Says he’s very bright.

Here’s the best part. He’s speaking about defensive ends:

“So many guys come out of college and they’re speed guys and all they do is just rush off the edge. And in this league, you can’t do it. They have to have what we call different pitches. If you’ve only got a fastball, you better lookout because they are going to hit home runs against you. You have to have some changeups.”

Are you listening, Gaines? You can’t line up ten yards from the ball and expect to get to the quarterback with speed. I’m really looking forward to Bates giving Adams a new repertoire of pass rush moves and him exploding for double-digit sacks in 2009. That, all by itself, would be change enough. He also said he likes bigger defensive tackles, but could work with undersized ones. But if they’re not productive (as Jovan Haye was not in 2008,) why would he keep them? Look for a big time defensive tackle free agent signing or a high DT draft pick this year. Peria Jerry (Ole Miss) is starting to look like a very strong possibility.

He said other stuff about his time in Miami and how much he respects Monte Kiffin and blah blah blah. The bottom line is that not all that much is going to change except the cornerback play. That could be huge for Aqib Talib and Phillip Buchanon, who are more physically suited for bump and run. Barber won’t be released, but if this plan goes through as Bates wants it to, he’ll be phased out this year and probably released next offseason.

Now, can someone tell me why Bates is six years younger than Kiffin, yet he looks about 20 years older? That’s the kind of accelerated aging usually reserved for presidents and meth-whores.

Distant Early Warning: Defensive Tackle

January 21, 2009 at 12:00pm by Scott   •  6 Comments »

I covered the entire offensive line in one entry because the needs there were relatively few and the analysis was straightforward. The Bucs’ defensive line, though, is a different story. A sadder one. For example, if the offensive line was Lassie, the defensive line would be Old Yeller. Sorry, didn’t mean to make you think about dogs getting shot. Anyway, that’s why we’re splitting up the defensive line. Prior to Friday, I would have said that defensive tackle is definitely the biggest need on the team. But after all the personnel changes and the fact that we don’t know who the defensive coordinator is going to be or even what kind of scheme they’re going to run, it’s a little harder to predict what the team needs are going to be. Let’s assume for now that they’re sticking with a standard Tampa 2 as their base and go from there.

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