Welcome into Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon Casey Phillips here a senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And it is finally football weather here in Florida. I'm gonna pretend it's gonna last till Sunday where we can wear this kind of gear. Don't kill my joy, don't kill my hope. For everybody that's living in the Tampa area, you know what I'm talking about. Right now, it finally feels like football weather outside.
We're going to hope it stays here.
But man, I know this last week definitely not the outcome the team was hoping for. And now with the Panthers comeing in, I mean, that's going to be an incredibly important game in terms of now everything is about these division games for the most part.
But what are some of the big.
Takeaways from this Colts game that you feel that the team can learn from and apply to these next games, knowing how basically every game now is so crucial.
I think my takeaway is probably pretty similar to players, coaches, and fans. It's frustrating because every game I feel like the Buccaneers are making progress in certain areas that should turn this losing streak around, but then something else happens that's not good.
So, for instance, Bucks ran the ball great in that game.
That's been a problem for the Bucks all year, not being able to run the ball efficiently one hundred and twenty five yards six point six years per carry. They played great third down defense two of eleven. Those are two of the major problems that the Buccaneers were experiencing earlier in the season. You resolve those and you think, okay, now we're gonna get the results we want. But then other stuff happs, like now you're struggling to score points in the red zone.
Things like that. It just this is when you.
Hear coach Bowles talk after a game or on Monday, it's this is what he's talking about when he says it's it's just something different all the time, and they don't understand. It's hard to understand because when they practice they do fine, and then then the games, one person here, one person there does the wrong thing and it doesn't work out. And so this is still a team that
totally believes. You can tell after every game, even after the losses in the locker room, this is a team that totally believes that it can win every game, but it's just not getting it done, so you know, it's still out there in front of him. It feels weird to say they're only a game out of first. I mean, you don't like to keep saying that after every loss.
But it's true.
They're only a game out of first, and there's six games to go, including four against division opponents, including two against the one that dhim Panthers.
And starting this week.
So it's all still in front of the Buccaneers. But at the moment, I think there's a lot of frustration that they can't get it all right on the same day.
Yep. Yeah, that makes complete sense in terms of the game. We've joked on this show every week that we might as well have a Levante and Mike Evans segment every week. Well, unfortunately we're not gonna be able to have a Levante one since he had to miss the game. We do still have Mike Evans one because again, every week he's just given us stats, he's given us things to talk about, and has given us just reminders of what a all time great player he is.
Yeah, he scored two touchdowns to get to nineties, just the fifteenth player in the history of the NFL to have ninety or more touchdown catches. He has more two touchdown games than everybody except DeVante Adams among active players. And if you look at that, that a one yard touchdown pass he just scored. An interesting note about that play, if you look at see how.
Wide open he is, that was crazy.
The closest defender to him, according to NFL next Gen stats, and here we'll see next Gen sort of showing you with the dots, the closest defender to him when he caught the ball was seventeen point one yards away, and you could see why because two defenders jumped on paying Durham running that very shallow slant and Mike, who kind of faked in for a second and then went.
Out, was just wide open.
Weirdly, they've been tracking these things since twenty sixteen. That's the most separation, So the most open that a player catching a pass in the end zone has ever been since they've been tracking into that.
That's crazy.
And of all people, I don't feel like Mike is ever that open because teams focus on him so un and frankly, he doesn't even need to be that open because we know that he can make all those contested catches. I'm sure to him it was probably like, what is happening right now?
You wonder when you're too open to Oh.
My god, I remember feeling that way in basketball. I hated being that open for a shot. You're like no, no, no, no, no, someone come guard.
Here's I was talking about before nineteen two touchdown games or three multiple touchdown games.
But in this case too, only Devanta Adams has more.
Again what a list?
Yeah, look at those names and.
He is at number two, which is incredible.
So that obviously was not one of the failed red zone no attempts. That one went pretty dang well, but there were a few others that ended up making a pretty big difference in the game. What does it seem to be in terms of the red zone? What are some of the things maybe they're focusing on, or what do we think is leading to some of these being three instead of seven?
Or well sometimes it's penalties in this that happened in this last game.
That game started so well, couldn't start better.
Had the ball first or right down the field and no problem, got the first goal at the one you usually scored touchdown when you're first and goal at the one.
Unfortunately, they tried to Baker Mayfield sneak.
It didn't work and he injured his ankles, so he came out of the game for a couple of plays. And then critically, there was a false start penalty. So now instead of being able to just bash it in from the one, because the Bucks have been actually been pretty good on goal to go this year, especially that close, they've been able to get the ball in off and sometimes were shod White. But now you're second and six,
you run Rashid White. Now he gets three yards. That would have been great from the one yard line, but it wasn't so helpful from the six. And then and incomplete pass on third down, and then another time there was a sack, So protection issues and ill time penalties, and that's what I was saying. Before other things get fixed and then something else crops up. And so from that point on, you go all the way down the field. You get first and goal on the one on your
first drive, that seems like a great situation. Then you have to settle for three and then they score the next seventeen points and the momentum.
Has swung a lot. Now after that, the Bucks did rally and had a chance great at this year they have. They fought to the end, Yeah, every time.
And I know we talked about how there were definitely plenty of things that we know the team didn't do the way they wanted to, things that didn't go the Bucks way. And as you talked about though, there's also each week something that is really encouraging that happens on the other side.
Of the coin. And this week that was Rashad White in the run game.
And because it's been Rashad White in the receiving game, it's been him in the screen game. This game, it was like, this was Rashad White, the running back getting one hundred yards rushing on the dot one hundred yards rushing. What did you see in terms of and also his career long run we're watching right now. Yeah, And so I feel like that was just such a great game. It was, you know, the best rushing game he's had since well Germany last, you know, last time.
So I look at the hole and that play, I mean, they gave him some seems to run, some lanes to run, and he hit him hard and we had five explosive runs in that game, which is runs of more than ten yards and that's mostly had in any game. So he actually he had the thirty eight one, but he also had like fourteen and eleven. Chase Edmonds had an eleven. Baker Mayfield had a fourteen yard scramble that was pretty entertaining where he kind of ran over the guy at the end, but as you can see, he's.
Just on that one.
He bounced it around the end, and I got to believe there was some kind of issue with the cult Stephen's on that one because it shouldn't have been that wide open around the end.
But he recognized the way to go.
Yeah, you know that's part of eight blocked by standing on that one too.
So the run blocking was good, the lanes were good, he hit them well, he recognized when he should bounce that one with the outside. It was just how the run game is supposed to work. And that's encouraging going forward.
Yeah, I think it's a great sign.
And another encouraging thing is, man, we got some talent that is young in terms of pass rush. Yeah, Elijah Knsi Ya Yadyabi are putting up some incredible numbers for how especially how many games, how many snaps they've had. You know, ya Ya was coming off the bench Calida. It was hurt a lot. And they're still leading rookies in a lot of these sack, tackle for loss QB, pressure type stats. It's just to me, this is such ancouraging thing thinking about the future of this Bucks pass.
Right, especially because it's both of them. I mean, I guess you sort of expected the nineteenth overall pick to have an instant impact, but finding impact edge rushers in the third round is not common. Now there's Collide' getting his sack. Yaya didn't have a sack in this game, but he has been making impact plays one or the other, and sometimes both of them make very noticeable impact plays
every game now. And one thing to note is that Yaya actually started this game, and on the new depth chart this week, he's listed as a starter ahead of Joe Tryan Shayanka. Now here's what you were talking about. The tackles for loss. You know that includes sacks, but it's not all sacks. And Clide just tied for first even though he missed basically four games, and Yaya's tied for third, and they're making a lot of plays in
the opposing backfield. But as I was saying before, Yaya actually started, but it was a three outside linebacker formation, which was unusual, and Logan Hall wasn't in the game, but Joe trying should go. Shaq, Barrett, and Yaya were all in on the first play, in the first couple plays, and so that was kind of a new wrinkle that we saw. And you know, they David wasn't in the game, so they actually started with just one off ball linebacker
and an extra defensive back. It was kind of an interesting, yeah, interesting sackage. So I think that was all part of like how do we deal with the guys that were missing and doing some interesting new things. But in terms of going forward on the depth chart, it now says Shaq and ya Ya are the starters.
It's going to be interesting to watch for sure. And part of this, you know, the Buck's recent success on third down is thanks to the guys like that making some big plays when it's a more obvious.
Pass rush down.
And we saw earlier in the season that was a stat that was killing the Bucks in some games, was the conversion rate on third down, and especially also third and long was just so out of character for this defense. And then now it feels like that's another area is, to your point, that has been improving and cleaned up a little bit.
Yeah, if you look at this, I mean after seven games, and we noted this all the time because it was just glaring that the Bucks third down defense, and we don't know, I don't have the numbers for a third and long here, but I think anecdotally we can recall that we were getting up lots of third and long conversions and in the last four games that really haven't been any And in terms of overall third downs thirty one point nine percent over the last four games, that's the sixth best in the league.
So that's a huge.
Fix, yep, from one of the main things that was hurting the Buccaneers. And that goes into so many things because you're talking about extending drives, you're talking about time and possession, you're talking about not getting off the field and not getting the ball back to your offense. All kinds of things come out of how well you were doing third downs. So the fact that doing so much better defensively on third down is encouraging.
Put it all together.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Now we're going to look ahead to this game against the Panthers, and I feel a little deja vus here, as I say, the Panthers just fired their head coach. The Bucks will be facing an inn aroum because this was exactly the situation that we were in last year. Now, last year, I think we were the second game out. After this year, we will be the first game after they've fired their head coach. Of course, I think that's always an interesting wrinkle that throwes in that we've seen.
There's a lot of times that teams, you know, for whatever reason, a head coach gets fired in that team, maybe that next week has a little extra home for some weeks. Yeah, with the you know, the Raiders this year, some other teams. And also it throws a wrinkle unto you don't know what changes are going to be made. That's probably not going to throw out the whole playbook, but you never know. You know, now you've been scouting a team led by this guy, now they're led by somebody else.
It's an interesting wrinkle, particularly late in the season.
Yeah, there's there's kind of one thing that's sort of concrete and one that's not so much. And that latter one is what you were talking about, the new coach bounce, Like the Raiders got when they fired Josh McDaniel's and won their next two games. You do sort of see that from time to time, that they make a coach and change, at least in the short term. It maybe galvanizes a game or brings them together or gives them something to fight for.
Like I said, that's not real concrete.
What is concrete is Now there's gonna be a new play caller because Frank Wright had been calling the plays and then about five weeks ago he turned it over to Thomas Brown, their first year offensive coordinator, who came from the Rams, but after three games, Frank Reich took it back, so until he was dismissed, he was the
play color bone. Now Thomas Brown is going to go back to calling the plays because the interim head coach is their special teams coordinator, which Rodney Barber made a good point to me yesterday, is like, other than the head coach, the one guy who deals with everybody on the team is the special teams coordinator, So it makes sense to make him the interim coordinator. And then you still have your two offensive and defensive coordinators and Thomas
Brown now will be calling the place. So what that means to what they do is hard to say, but it is a concrete change in what the Bucks would be seeing this.
Week, all right.
And then now also looking at the knowing that they are the people that had the first overall pick Bryce Young quarterback, what are we going to be seeing first time getting a look at this new rookie.
Well, Bryce Young has had the ups and downs that you would expect from a rookie quarterback.
You know, we see CJ.
Stroud doing amazing and we saw it first hand in Houston, and you know, you're tempted to compare them, but the fact is Stroud.
Is the exception, right.
They don't usually just fall into the league totally top ten quarterback. You know, they have their they take their lumps, and they have their ups and downs, and that's certainly been the case for Bryce Young. He's got nine touchdowns to eight interceptions. Neither number is particularly remarkable, but you want a better ratio than that, and I think they're only averaging he's only averaging five point four yards per temp, which.
Is pretty low.
So they're not really getting the ball downfield much. And Adam Thielen is their leading receiver. He's got seventy seven catches, which is a lot, but he's only averaging a career low nine point five per catch, so again, they're not getting the ball downfield. It's more of a possession type thing.
And then the next leading pass catcher only has twenty eight receptions, so they don't They haven't necessarily found or developed a second guy like Chris Godwin, so you know, it's been a bit of a struggle for them offensively, to be honest.
Yeah, it's going to be an interesting but he's a.
Very talented player. Yes, so you never know what to expect.
Yeah, And I mean, of course you never want to take a team or their record lightly, or knowing they have a rookie quarterback, all those things that Thankfully, I don't think the Bucks start in a position to do that because they now know what these what these division games mean. So I don't think that you're worried at all about them taking a one and ten team lightly.
Well, and we need this.
Coach Bowls is like when this kind of topic was thrown at him on Mondays, like, none of that matters to us.
We have to fix us.
And if they could be twelve and h we wouldn't make a difference, So the Bucks are definitely not looking at this as an easy win.
Yep. Yes, it's interesting.
Also, this game is going to be my cause my cleats game always one of my favorites every year, so I encourage everyone to make sure they're going to buccaneers dot Com to learn about all the different causes that everyone will be supporting on their cleats. And shameless plug it's not out yet, We're going to have a video that I did with Dee Delaney and Devin Tompkins. They both have a kid who has down. We took them to a place called Gigi's Playhouse. They're both doing that
on their cleats. So whenever that video comes out, highly recommend, very very sweet and endearing and they just both.
Are such great guys.
And I also want to remind everybody Pro Bowl voting is open, so make sure you go find that to vote all of your top Buccaneers in.
There's four suggestions suggest there's just a few suggestions.
For definitely vote for all of them, yep, so.
Make sure you go do that see as many of them. Even though it's not the same way that the Pro Bowl has been in the past, it's still going to be a fun thing to watch your guys participate in, so make sure you go send those votes in right now.
That's going to do it for us on Bucks Insider. We'll see you next time.