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Defense Works Within Complementary Football

After two weeks of the 2018 regular season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense has recorded beleaguered stats. They rank 31st in passing yards allowed with 376.5 yards per game and 27th in points per game allowed with 30.5 points per game. There is a panic amongst the Bucs fandom that the defense is in dire need of improvement as well as incessant call to fire defensive coordinator (DC) Mike Smith. Are these thoughts warranted?

End results often paint a binary encapsulation of the game played. Often, context is not involved these types of views. With such a terrible ranking, one would be lead to believe the Bucs are winless early in the season, but they are not.

Game 1:

Team A is ahead of Team B by 19 points at the start of the 4th quarter. Team A wins by 10 points, but gave up 28 points total.

Game 2:

Team A is ahead of Team C by 14 points early in the 4th quarter. Team A wins by 5 points, but gave up 37 points total.

Team A are the Kansas City Chiefs, Team B are the Chargers, and Team C are the Steelers. Kansas City ranks 32nd in pass yards allowed and 29th in points allowed average, both worse than Tampa Bay.

Did Tampa’s wins play similarly with Kansas City?

Bucs Game 1:

Bucs are ahead of the Saints by 24 points at the start of the 4th quarter. Tampa wins by 8 points, but gave up 40 points total.

Bucs Game 2:

Bucs are ahead of the Eagles by 20 points till nine seconds left in the 3rd quarter. Bucs wins by 6 points, but gave up 21 points total.

When teams possess large leads in the game, then the philosophy changes for both offense and defense. If a team also possesses a stout defense, then it can close doors on opposing teams. In the NFL, so many teams are very good and blowouts do not occur on a regular basis. Of course, there are some teams that are inept offensively.

In week 1, there were two blowout result games with Buffalo losing by 44 points and Detroit losing by 31 points. Arizona was held to only 6 points, losing by 18 points. For Week 2, there was only one blowout result game, Arizona lost by 34 points as they were held scoreless.

=== Week 2 ===

  • SF was up 17 points in the fourth quarter, 30 – 13. They won by 3 points, but gave up 27 points total.
  • Atlanta was up by 14 points in the fourth quarter, 24 – 10. They won by 7 points, but gave up 24 points total.
  • Chargers were up by 22 points in the fourth quarter, 28 – 6. They won by 11 points, but gave up 20 points total.
  • Jacksonville was up by 21 points late in the third quarter, 24 – 3. They won by 11 points, but gave up 20 points total.

These games are examples of a few teams who created a large lead, but still gave up points, and probably yards.

Complementary Football

When the Bucs offense is trying to score points, then the Bucs defense does show up. But when the Bucs offense goes conservative, then the Bucs defense also follows suit.

Game 1:

Tampa held a 48 – 24 lead in the fourth quarter. They won 48 – 40. Note, the offense failed to score any more points after securing a 24 point lead.

Game 2:

Tampa held a 27 – 7 lead late in the third quarter. They won 27 – 20. Note, the offense failed to score any more points after securing a 20 point lead.

The swashbucklers’ defense plays well when the offense is in scoring mode. This is complementary football. Yet, when the coaching staff wants to run the clock down and rely on the defense, the defense is not fully equipped to shutdown the opposition’s offense.

Before the season started, the Bucs were without their starting cornerback in Brent Grimes, first round selection of DT Vita Vea, and FA DT Mitch Unrein. Missing the defensive tackles matter in a Mike Smith defense because coaches like to rotate defensive linemen.

Snap Count Percentage, Defense

2016

  • Highest: DT McCoy 74.86%
  • Next Highest: DE Gholston 55.08%

2017

  • Highest: DT McCoy 76.11%
  • Next Highest: DE Ayers 55.43%

=== 2018 Snap Count Percentage per game ===

2018, Game 1 vs Saints

  • Highest: DT McCoy 92%
  • Next Highest: DE JPP 75%, and DE Curry 75%

2018, Game 2 vs Eagles

  • Highest: DE JPP 85%
  • Next Highest: DT McCoy 82%, and DE Curry 63%

There is a contrast of rotation between the first two seasons of a Mike Smith defense and this year’s version. The high snap count rate could be a reason why the defensive line is not fresh in the fourth quarter and cannot clamp down onto the lead. Missing DT Vea and DE Noah Spence not producing at the coaches’ liking are affecting the defensive line rotation and effectiveness in the fourth quarter of shutting down the opposition.

What is amiss is the fact the defense does play well enough to secure 20+ point leads in the first two games of the season. Without a great pass rush in the second half, teams can go into hurry-up mode to pass their way back into the game. All the Bucs’ defense can do when the Bucs’ offense stops trying to score is to prevent the opposing teams from scoring as fast as they can.

Will DT Vea help locked down leads? Will Spence finally turn things around to help lock down leads? Tampa’s defense has proven it can help create leads when it’s playing complementary football with its offense trying to score. The Bucs do have a glimmer of an opportunity to improve shutting down offenses in the second half with three defensive linemen yet to truly make their mark.

Then again, the Bucs were also forced to start two rookies in their secondary in the second game of the NFL season.



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