Game Review - Week 7

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, this was a game the Bucs basically could have walked away with. Instead they flubbed their way to a loss. So let's review how the team performed overall.

On Offense, the Bucs were able to consistently move the ball. In fact, Bidwell only punted twice. Graham was tearing the Lions' defense up all game long finishing with 191 total yards, with 92 on 19 carries (4.8 yards per), and 13 receptions for 99 yards. His effort, combined with Garcia's 37 of 45 (82%) for 316 yards, allowed the Bucs to put together a couple of very long drives and get the ball to within scoring range 4 times. Unfortunately, on one drive a bad penalty moved the ball back from within redzone where the Bucs would end up missing a field goal. They later had a very long drive that got down to the one yard line, only to cough the ball up on the Center-QB exchange. The Bucs also had another solid drive that had a fumble near mid-field on the hand off from Garcia to Graham. Hilliard had another strong game. Galloway had some nice intermediate catches. And Clayton had a nice 20 yard catch, only to get hit while being held down on his knee by another tackler. That hit is going to cost Clayton a couple of weeks with a high ankle sprain. Unfortunately, the blatantly unnecessary hit went unpunished on the field. Bennett came in and had a couple of good runs including the 18 yard burst that nearly went into the endzone. That run would have been better if he made it one more yard into the endzone, as the game turned for good when, on the next play, the previously mentioned fumble happened. Overall, the offense moved the ball very effectively and showed that this offense can really move it on the lesser defenses, and do so nearly at will. Unfortunately, when you make the mistakes that they made, you usually end up losing a game you could have won.

On Defense, the Bucs played passively again. I don't know what Monte is thinking, but the prevent seems to be en vogue with him this past 3 weeks. We saw this defensive style get us beat against the Colts, and the results were similar against the Lions. The Lions were able to run on us. A team averaging 72 yards per game was able to do what the potent rushing attack of the Titans could not. Why? When you decide to just keep your back 7 in the secondary for some unreasonable fear of Detroit's passing weapons, the middle is going to be soft because your Mike is backing up, and your safeties are staying deep. The Bucs have had much better success coming up tight with the LB's and bringing a safety up to pound the backs. Since the pass rush is still not where it needs to be, this strategy is death. Kitna completed 80% of his passes (16 of 20) with no picks. Now that just shouldn't happen. The Bucs gave him way too much time to throw. While the Bucs did manage 3 sacks on him (Haye 1, White 1, Hovan 0.5, Carter 0.5), they failed to consistently rattle his cage. And Kitna is a guy that you can rattle. It was frustrating to say the least. The result of the defensive scheme was pretty obvious. Even Ruud only had 4 tackles in the game. The gang tackling wasn't there due to everyone basically bailing into the secondary. Jackson and Phillips had pretty good games, as did Barber, but Buchannon had a bit of a hard time dealing with Calvin Johnson. What really epitomized this defensive scheme was the 93 yard TD drive that came after the Bucs fumbled on the 1. The defense got the Lions into 3rd and long, then backed off into prevent and allowed them to get a first down and get out of the hole. From there, the Bucs seemed to play prevent the rest of the way and the result was the game winning TD. If the Bucs defense had forced a punt there, the offense would have had excellent field position, and a much better chance of getting us back in the game. Overall, the passive scheme killed us once again, and it showed. Please Monte, for the love of God, shelve the prevent and STAY AGGRESSIVE!!

On Special Teams, Mark Jones was able to return a couple of kicks early before getting injured, which had an effect on our kick and punt return capabilities. The other guys didn't get the same results and field position starts suffered. The biggest plays that killed this unit were the blocked punt, which set up the Lions' first points, and the missed field goal which would have made it a 3 point game and could have been crucial to turning the game in our favor. That FG miss came after a very long offensive drive, making it all for not. The coverage teams only had to cover a couple of kick offs, and did OK, allowing a 27 yarder on one play, but only a 17 yarder on another. The one area that the Special Teams did good in was the onsides kick that was setup and executed beautifully. Bryant smash kicked it right at the Lions and the ball popped up into the air for Cox to recover. They tried a second one with a deep squib kick to Cox's side, but it was about 10 yards to deep, and Cox just couldn't quite beat a Lions player to the ball. Overall, it was a mixed afternoon. An executed punt, and a made field goal could have swung the game by 6 points, and who knows.

Coaching was solid on offense, as the Bucs came in with an excellent offensive game plan. Gruden's offense tore through the Lions consistently with the help of Garcia and Graham. But some of the worst penalties occurred on offense, and that hindered the Bucs ability to actually finish drives with scores. Monte's coaching was something I was not too hot on. The scheme implemented in this game, much like against the Colts, is too soft and passive. The Bucs have yet to show they can get it done playing that way, and I really don't understand Monte's thinking. Did he really fear the Lions that much? I mean, why we weren't blitzing Kitna on every pass play, and keeping the Mike in tight for run support, is beyond me. Let your guys play up on the line and use their speed to back off if it turns into a pass. Don't line them up 8 yards off the receiver and let the other team play catch! Special Teams were a mixed bag, and Bisaccia needs to correct the problem plays and keep the team running everything else well. Overall, the coaching was mixed. The one coach you usually depend on coming to the game with the right plan, once again had the wrong plan. Hopefully the Bucs offense can come to play again next week, minus the mistakes, and the defense can join them with some hard hitting physical play at the line.