Breaking Down the Win over Dallas, Key Matchups with the Saints | Bucs Insider

you know, yeah, sure is. Obviously that was a defensive driven game and it was a dominant defensive performance, and that's where you should begin when describing how the Buccaneers won that game. But honestly, the biggest takeaway from me was that the offensive line performed a lot better than probably a lot of people outside the building anticipated that

it would. Now to be clear, there was plenty of confidence in that line inside the building, and particularly Jason Latt has been outspoken about how the Buccaneers have confidence, particularly in the two young guys Robert Hainsey and Lukettiki playing center and left card and we have talked, i think this show about how those guys were drafted to become starters. It was a third round pick on Hainzy.

They didn't know if they're gonna be able to resign Ryan Jensen, so they had anticipated him, you know, taking over at some point. And when they drafted Luke Getticky in the second round, they said, this guy's competing right now for the starting left guard job, which he won. The offensive line performed very well. They actually ran the ball extremely well. Leonard Fournet did to the left side behind Luke Ettickey and and um Donovan Smith and then

Josh Wells and tight ends over there as well. Both both of the rookie Titans did a great job blocking according to the coaches. And it was just a really encouraging performance by those guys. And I had Luke Getticky on our Salty Dogs podcast yesterday and he was he was saying that it was a huge boost of confidence for him and and that's good. He said that they

feel a lot better moving forward. They got that first game in it was against some pretty good defensive front and they not only held their own, they kind of dominated at times. To me, that's the biggest takeaway from the game. And in a broader perspective. I think it shows that while this team has been passing attack driven with Tom Brady the best passing attack in the league the last two years, and there's gonna be some huge

days for those guys, I have no doubt whatsoever. But this team might have a different formula some weeks for winning. And it's kind of harkens back the old buck in your days of really good defense and a really good running game. Yeah, and to know you can do that. And I agree with you about the confidence on the

old line. I mean, I think this game it had all the elements of what you want to feel confident that it's prime time and it's you know, the first game the season, and it is again it's a good defensive front. Where it's one thing to just have a game under your belt, it's another for it to have all those different elements of under the bright lights in the big moment, that you can do that against a good defensive front, that you're right that now it's like, oh, well,

what else could be thrown at us? Although again this week going to one of the loudest, hardest places, I do think it'll be a great test for not just their ability to play but their communication will be it will be a good test and we'll see if they can string some games like that together in a row.

But you know, they also only allowed two sacks of Tom Brady, and that's one of the things that's been a really good harbinger for sets for the Buccaneers in since Tom Brady got here, when they have allowed zero to two sacks in a game, look at that three and two. So keeping the pressure off of Tom Brady is paramount, and they did that. Brady appreciates it to Yeah, and now there's you can and they didn't. They only committed five penalties. That's been good. They had barely had

positive points off of turnovers. It was one each and we gotta field goal and they didn't. But still it counts. And then that run twenty one plus times. Now it is very true that that is not always causitive, but I didn't choose thirty plus runs. I chose twenty one, which is not a ton. I mean, that's that's a normal number. So you can get there without being game specific. You can run twenty one times in a game, whether you're ahead or behind or whatever. Fourteen and three. So listen,

if the Buccaneers can do this. I'm not saying it's gonna happen every week. I'm just saying we might win some games in a different way than we've been used to seeing the last couple of years. And I know I asked Todd Bowls about that on our radio show of is this a game plan that is the Odd Bowls ideal game plan? And he said, no, the Todd Bowls ideal game plan is what the game decides. That which I think is it speaks to either way that

it's there is not going to be one formula. But now the team knows that whether it is the deep ball passes, it is a past heavy game like Week one of last year we're growing fifty times, or it's this way, I think, And yeah, so we know that whatever it can be done in any way. And that that's what Bowls really seems to be. You know, harping on is that, Look, we're not just going to say

this is what we do, no matter what. Each game could be different, and now we know we can do it a bunch of different The key there is that if you have to do it that way, you're capable of doing which is going to be great and so now I know another area that doesn't always get the love,

doesn't always get the attention. But it was a storyline coming out of the preseason was the special teams that there were some games in the preseason where the performance, you know, whether it was the coverage or missing a couple of field goals or whatever it might be, wasn't what the team was hoping for, even the return game all of that. So what were the things that you felt like you a week one from the special teams front, coverage, return,

actual kick games. Well, it's not just the preseason. It dates back to the last year where there were some areas of the special teams that we're not up to what the standard, what the team wanted in in a game, especially in games like against the Saints, it was it was it was common that they would have a special team's edge because they would kick and they would cover

better than we would. And then yeah, and the special teams, there were some coverage issues and some long returns, but Todd Bowles explained that they were having Jay Camarta just blasted as far as he could. So they were trying specifically not to get fair catches because they wanted to evaluate a bunch of cover guys and then they did, and there was a lot of guys and not all of them are on the team right now, and so

it really isn't what we're doing now. The special teams in that game in Dallas probably wasn't the winning is because the defense was so dominant. We won by sixteen points, but if that game had been close, special teams might have been the edge right there. You know, Ryan stuck

Up made four of his five field goals. Jake Comarta lasted a sixty five yard or he had one off the scoreboard that didn't count, but overall his other two points were one was fair hot for like a forty something in our net and one was returned for three yards. And they have a really dangerous return man. So there were some numbers coming out of that game, like the kickoff drive start for the Cowboys, like where they started after the kickoffs on average was yards and that was

the best in the league. That was a lot better than what the Buccaneers were getting last year. So uh, I mean, here here's some of it right there. The kickoff drive start first average. Actually I made a mistake there. That punch drive start was not first it was fifth, but still pretty good. Sorry about the the typo there, but gross playing average, net, putting average and Kate dot

h three attack. He was blowing people up the special teams and kJ Britt also had two tackles, so there were a lot of nice performances on special teams and it came together into what could have been a winning edge. Had been a really close kid. That is amazing to see with Kaide because as we talked about his contributions to this team, I don't think we mentioned special teams.

I don't think I was thinking at any point. Yeah, I don't believe we thought that that was going to be where he could make some of his biggest contributions. So that's just icing on the cave. And Hey, before the game on the radio, Jason I was talking about all the rookies that were gonna make an impact. And this is a very veteran team. We have like fifteen guys or a thirty year older. But ka Dot awesome and special teams, very good blocking, Jake camarda Luke Gettick.

He had a great game. Shotwhite didn't get to play a ton, but he looked pretty good when he did. Um I'm probably forgetting with somebody. But I mean, yeah, I mean there's a lot there's a lot of different coach in there for well early on they all got in there. That's going to be so interesting. Well, how don't we take a look now at the Saints game and what are some of the biggest things that we know? This is a team we know very well. So this team this year, new head coach, a few new pieces.

What is going to be in your mind similar or different to the other matchups that and especially what we hope will be different is a win as compared to the last seven regular season matchups, but not the playoffs. Not the playoffs where you know, I'll segue into this by saying, have you seen our injury report this week? Yeah? I was. I was trying to forget. I think they should just put offense questionable, right you and are going to get called Potentially five of the seven receivers are

on the injury report for the Bucks. The reason I bring that up, not to bring this whole um, is that the Saints have a new look receiving corps and it's something that has me a little bit concerned in this matchup. Um Michael Thomas has it's most of the last two years and he's played seven games. Uh, he's back, and it was a sort of a question mark is he fully healthy coming in the season when I scored two touchdowns. They signed Jarvis Landry kind of late in

the offseason after the draft. You see the day that he had, and most of this was like in the fourth quarter, by the way, because they couldn't get their passing game going for the whole first half. And uh, and then Crystal Lobby is the guy. They took him eleventh overall, but that was after several trades. So the amount of draft capital they poured into getting Crystal Lovey was actually pretty huge. This is what they have now.

Last year it was no Michael Thomas. It was it was a bunch of guys that you had barely heard of. And it really they sunk to actually the worst passing attack in the league, thirty second in passing. I think they're looking a lot difference. Jameis Winston is back, He's he's healthy, and he's leading that band there and they have a treeo receivers that is going to test our guys. Now, our guys. Uh did a great job in coverage in the Dallas game. But Dallas had Ceedee Lamb and then

a bunch of guys that you haven't basically heard of. Well, it'll be a bigger test now. Carlton Davis and Jamal Deane were great in coverage. Antoine Winfield did really well in the slot, and I think there, I know they're up for the challenge, but it is a bigger challenge this week. Yeah. So speaking of that, we do have a Facebook question here. Um Kyle wanted to know why did Sean Murphy Bunty not get more time in the secondary? Well he didn't get any actual yes, yeah, well that

he kind of put that out of trying to make nice. Okay, Well, because Jamal Deane won the starting job, Antoine Winfield was in the slot, and and before we had three corners playing a lot because you're in nickel a lot in the third corner was on the field. With Antoine Winfield getting all the slots slot snaps in this game, there just wasn't a package that they needed Shawn and for. But coach Bowls has said they did ask some other things that would have involved Sean and maybe even Ken O'Neil,

who also didn't play on defense. They just didn't get to them because of what the Cowboys were doing and what the Bucks were doing was working. I mean, I think that's the key right there. Now we know we have a very good player and Sean Murphy Bunting available to play, and he didn't get a chance in this game, but in this particular name, what they were doing was working.

And if it is, you stick with every stick with it. Yeah, And we were talking about the wide receiver uh injuries here, Chad wanted to know now that Chris Godwin is out for a couple of weeks, would Julio be that number two? Then e Gauge, then Perriman or what do you see

as the order there? And also depending on the different injury situation, I think I think I'll answer the question on an assumption that everybody's healthy, and I don't think that's actually a valid assumption because I doubt that all five of those guys on the injury report are gonna

be fine for this game. But in terms of health, if Chris god wasn't there and everybody else is available, I think Julio Jones is probably your second outside guy along with Mike Evans and Russell Gauge is your primary slot guy. Now, maybe in just a two receiver set, it's probably a mixture of Russell Gauge and Julio Jones. But if you have three on the field, which you do what you do usually the snaps, it's probably Mike

and Julio on the outside and Russell Gage in the slot. Okay, And then Richard asked, what is going on with Kyle Rudolph that he was not active? I thought he would be a good blocker. Well, I mean probably would be. But the Buck Singers have been very happy with the way that Kate Dotton and co Keept in particular have been blocking. And both those guys did prove good in that regard in that game. But Coach Bull said yesterday that the difference was special teams and they stats there.

I mean, if you didn't have Kate Dotton on those coverage units, it might have been worse. Right, So, um, both of those guys contributed on special teams and they didn't really have a role for Kyle on special teams. And part of the thing here is A you're keeping up six receivers and B you got to name six guys inactive right there, isn't a whole lot of chaff

on that defensive side. You have four corners because I call him out, you got four safeties, You've got four outside linebackers plus one you elevated, and Genard Avery got four inside linebackers, and just you're looking to go where we're going to find an inactive from and you mostly have to take from offense. So we notably only kept three backs and three tight ends active. And they felt felt with the special team's contributions that Kate and Kyle

would make it made more sense to keep them up. Okay, and then we will close with this one, Christopher said. Or the Bucks looking to sign another offensive lineman since the Donovan Smith injury. Oh no, I don't think so. I don't think this is a long term thing at all. Um, we know how tough Donovan is, right, they called this a pain coach called it a pain Tons issue. Now, if he doesn't play, I don't want to sound like

we're calling out his toughness. He's extremely tough. He's missed one game since he was drafted in two thousand fifteen, and we know at times he's played through injuries to make that happen. So if it, if there's a player who can get through a pain tolerance issue, it's done and done it now. It could just be too bad that he can't play. We'll see later in the week, but I don't think this is a long term thing,

so I doubt they'll sign anybody. All right, Well that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Bucks Insider Live. Thanks as always for joining us, and we'll be back here next week, so make sure he's in your questions in mum hmm. Thanks up.