How Lavonte David & Devin White Stop Christian McCaffrey | Bucs Insider Live

to actually start asking some of the questions. Um, we know that that was the not the way the team wanted to start the season for sure. Um, what were some of the big takeaways that you got that that especially we could see where they could have it already, you know, potentially even turned around before Thursday. Is it is this stuff that's easily fixable? Is it a little bit longer term? Just kind of your initial thoughts on on what that game is. I don't. I don't think

anything's easy in the NFL. The good things to build on was that the offensive line played pretty well. I know there were moments where James was under durest, but a lot of those were with the ball held for a decent amount of time. And I think the biggest problem for the Bucks offense in that game, and it's it created a bunch of ancillary problems, was the past catch is really weren't getting a lot of separation. UM. I don't exactly know how you fix that other than

to play better, run routes better or whatever. But considering what we think of our past catching corps, our receivers and our tight ends and even our running backs, I wouldn't expect that to be a persistent problem. Can you would you expect us to have trouble getting separation with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and O. J. Howard and all that. So it didn't seem like there are hardly any times, even with play action, when Jamis was throwing to just wide open guys, which you tend to get

from time to time during the game. I watched other games last night, and you see that from time and time, and I didn't see a lot of that. So there were a lot of Jamis holding the ball, Jami's having to throw into tight windows, and sometimes that worked out and sometimes it didn't. UM. Obviously, the biggest problem in the game, as everybody knows, was the turnovers. Uh, And you want to your menia reaction, it's fair is to say this is what we were trying to get out

of Jamis Winston's game. This is the big thing. You look at it. You don't want to make excuse is. But one of the interceptions went right through a person's hands, and another one, according to coach Arians, and he would know better than I would, was a perfectly thrown ball right to where it was supposed to be. That was the one that Richard Sherman took the house because Peyton Barber apparently ran his route about two yards too deep.

And you see that he turns around late and too far, and the ball is in front of him, and Richard Sherman, because he has his eyes on the quarterback, sees where the pass is going in the pass catcher doesn't and ends up being an easy pick six. And you think James just threw one right to the other guy. Now, the last one was his fault according to Bruce Arians,

and it was just a bad decision. He thinks he was trying to throw it away when screen pass just didn't work and he needed to find a better way to get rid of that ball, so live to find another day. So that's the one. And is that easily fixable? Well, I don't think anything like that is easy. Playing quarterback isn't easy, but it's certainly something you can stress. Yeah,

that's a really great point. And then the defense, Um, that was something we were really excited to see coming into the game, just because again, they we know they hold a lot back in preseason, you know, they don't want to show their whole hand, and we had this whole new scheme with Todd Bowls coming in and and then they really I mean, if you looked at just the score and didn't watch the game, you'd say the

defense played terrible. But I feel like it's really important to stress, you know, how well they played and how some of those things weren't there. Well, I mean it's right there in the numbers. The defense played great. They gave up one touchdown that was after a third and ten past interference call on a deep ball deep down the middle of the field where the ball was well overthrown. Um,

here's another thing. The penalties were a problem, and they were a problem for the defense, and they kept him from getting out the field. Several times, and you do want to harp on them, don't do certain things. But penalties are a little bit hard to control because sometimes you get calls that you don't necessarily agree with. So did you did you do something wrong? We had two touchdowns to Cambray called back on penalties to Damar Dotson. Now,

the officials are right there on the field. They know better than I do. But to the naked eye, it certainly looked like that was just a really good play by DeMar. He's supposed to kick out on that play and that guy and it looks like he just drives him and that's it, and it worked. Cambridge scores. He gets by that guy in the first second and and and uh, DeMar keeps pushing his guy. I didn't see a hold there. But again, the officials are there, so

maybe they know better than me. But that's what I'm saying. You want to say, man, they really hurt themselves with penalties offense and defense. And it's true, but how much of that could you really help? If dMar actually did what he was supposed to do there, how could you really help that? Um? But the defense, as you asked, I think two sixty four yards allowed. Here's one big thing, and this is a problem. Last year oh for three

in the red zone. We were the worst red zone defense in in the league last year, and it seemed like anytime a team got there, they scored um a touchdown. I mean to say, oh for three is fantastic. I went back three years. It took me back to the first game of two thousand sixteen or the second game to find another game where we held an imponent to no touchdowns and at least three red zone trips. It's

it's a big thing. Uh. The pass rush only generated one sack and one other quarterback hit, but Todd Boll said he was happy with the pass rush considering how the game went. There was a lot of quick throws and a lot of running place. So um, really, there's not a lot bad to say about the defense. They look good, Yeah, which is great. Um. Francois asked do you think Rojo would be starting moving forward? I knew that question is come and I would have bet anything,

and we're gonna get that. You know, it could just be a matter of time if he continues to play like that. I don't think they make that decision one week that That's an interesting question though, because coach Arian said several times during the offseason in training camp, when Royal Jones was looking really good, he said, if somebody has the hot hand, we will stick with him, and

that clearly happened. Uh. Peyton Barber started the game. At one point in the third quarter, he had maybe eight carries, nine carries to four for Rojo, and then the rest of the game, Rojo got all the carries and he got hot. You know, he's ripping off eleven and sixteen yard runs. They were all up the middle practically, because he's a bigger guy now, he's got more muscular, he's he was breaking tackles. So he's stuck with a hot hand in that game. Does that strategy also apply across

from one game to the next. You say Ronald Jones is the hot hands, the start him in week two, it's probably a little bit too soon. That's probably a quicker reaction than I would expect. But if he keeps playing like that, it's just a matter of time. Yeah, that's a great point. Jay had said, I'm happy the defense is playing better. How do we improve our red zone scoring? Though? So we talked about how we held

the other team in the red zone. But then we struggle a little bit, which is it's hard to say because yes, because the penalties, but technically it's like Cambraid gout to red zone touchdowns back to back. So we clearly have the plays that will work in the red zone. Is that's sort of the optimism there, But then the penalties. Yeah, Donald Donovan Smith was asked this exact question yesterday and he just said two words and then went on the

next question. He said, execution, execution. So they, like you said, they think they have the right strategy, they have the right plays, they had the right place called on several occasions, they just didn't execute again twice on penalties on plays that did work. Um, the fourth down play, remember that

Chris Godwin, it was almost intercepted. Apparently according to Bruce Arians, that was a player where Chris Godwin is supposed to stop a little sooner, and if he had, then Jamis wouldn't have been dragged into throwing the ball into danger like he did. Now that's as to say it was a good decision to throw that ball because the safety jumped it and could have gone about one yards. But um,

so little things like that. Now, Chris Godwin had a good game and he made a nice touchdown catch and all, but apparently he was supposed to stop a little sooner. That That's the thing you see in practice. You'll see, uh, the receivers running routes and the coaches will say zone or man, and they're supposed to They're supposed to react based on if they see that the defense is zone

or man. And if it's zone, oftentimes you stop and sit down in a in an open area, and if it's man, you keep going because you're trying to beat your man. Right. Yeah, that's a great point. Um. Another area that I wanted to talk about with special teams, very much a mixed bag there in some ways. But um, first of all, let's talk about Matt Gay. That I feel like that's that's got to be something that fans

are excited about. So what you've seen from him and then some of the struggles on the special team side of a blocked punt and you know, the return game never really got going to overall that that whole unit, How would you kind of grade the game and where you feel like they could go movie, Yeah, I mean Matt Gay didn't have any really high different high level of difficulty kicks, but he made all what three he made two extra points and I think a thirty one

yard or so. They're all about the same range of kicks, but he made him. I mean, you know, that's his first game as rookie. He didn't seem like a guy in the preseason that was bothered by jitters. But you never know. First game that actually counts, first kicks that are really really important. Although I suppose the preseason kicks were important to him because he was fighting for a job. Right, Um, so that was fine, there's nothing, nothing bad to see.

We still haven't had a chance to see him kick a long one, but I'm sure that he will. Um the punt obviously, getting the punt blocked deflected, I guess it's technically a deflection because the ball went forward about three yards, but we all know it was a punt block. That's bad. Um. It looked like one guy got run over on the play. Um And yeah, the return game was kind of man, but that we're kind of used to that at this point. We'd like to see some

breakout there, right. We had a few different questions about Um injury updates. People asked about how Blaine Gabbert's doing. Justin Evans I saw a few more so overall, Um, what do we know about injury situations? And when will we know a little bit more for the Thursday. This is the week where you actually get information early. Since we're playing on Thursday. We actually had an official injury report on Monday, didn't have to wait until Wednesday. Well,

Justin Evans is done. He's on I R now. I suppose with today's roles he could come back at some point if he's designated to return. But they put Justin on i R yesterday with that Achilles problem. It's just been a long rule back for him. Um, Blaine Gabbert still is not practicing as of yesterday, so one would suspect that for at least one more week. Ryan Griffin is still your number two and then when Blaine's healthy, they'll have to make a decision. Other than that, though

the teams in really good shape. There wasn't a single other person who was even limited in practice yesterday. You know, the guys that were sick are better now, and there was some You're not going to come out of a game without some bumps and bruises. So you had guys like O. J. Howard with an ankle and Ronald Jones with a toe injury, but they practice without problems. So yeah, and market asked, is Mike Evans percent healthy. Yeah, he just had like a twenty four hour bug, right, which

is a lot better. So for you looking at I think he was a little affected by it though. Yeah. I have to imagine because especially with it being so incredibly hot down on the field, that even if you're over it, like you're not having the symptoms anymore. I mean, everybody knows when you've been saying, yeah, you don't feel hard to say exactly. Yeah, you're probably lesson in jetty.

Yeah you aren't completely hundred percent in just one day. Um. I know they do a great job with the training staff and everything, getting them, you know, ready to go. But there's a shame because he loves Richard Sherman. He loves going against Sherman, and he actually had a couple of really good games against Richie. Yeah, that is when Mike tends to be at his best. I mean he

is one of the most competitive people. Well, this week should be good then, because James Bradberry has had some good games against him, and now he's got another shot at him, right, and that was gonna actually be So the next question I was gonna ask, is this matchup on Thursday. I think it's an interesting point that Um, Dave Moore actually made on the radio show that we had last night, how normally you talked about a short

game week and it's hard to prepare. And I was like, well, you know, at least it's a more familiar opponent in Carolina, But normally people would just say, well, they're familiar with us too, so it's not really advantage. But he pointed out, well, we're the ones with new schemes, new coaches and all of that, So do you feel like there could be some advantage there in terms of preparing for that game?

Familiarity our end? Right, they have a lot less of Todd Bowls as tape to work with, although they can go back and look at former Todd Bowls teams and bigot an idea of his schemes, and they I'm sure they will do that. We probably did a short week. They knew that preparing, so they probably did some preparation ahead of time. Um, yeah, I could see that being a slide advantage. Another thing. Last year, Carolina's offense was new with Norv Turner. Now it's the second year and

they had a lot of misdirection stuff. Remember some of those plays right and thens and things like that that really got ye, they really got us in. Um Vidave was asked about that yesterday and he said, well, yeah, we're preparing for that. But also we're a different team. It's like we've got a totally different scheme. Uh, you know,

we'll be approaching this in different way. So one can hope that that the defense is better equipped to handle those plays now, because that's a problem, and Christian McCaffrey is a problem, right, yeah, as always, So for you looking at Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey especially first and foremost, who on our defense will most have to step up to contain them? And how does this new scheme match

up against that? Carolina? I think you saw it with George Kittle, And I know that George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey are played different positions, but both of them are are non wide receivers who are the obvious focal point of their team's passing attack. And when you have somebody in the backfield or a tight end on the line becoming you know, going out and running routes and becoming a focal point of the past attack. You generally don't

have just one guy you don't take. You know, you could say Richard Sherman's gonna cover Mike Evans the whole game. You don't. You can't do that with a tight end or especially a running back. Uh, it's going to be so Christian McAffrey is going to stress various parts of this defense, all of it at some point during the game. But I do think that the linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White are gonna be the most important players and stopping him particularly run. You saw Lavonte David, I assume

you saw it too. He looked like he was a great fit in this defense. I mean, especially in the first half. He was free to fly around. He made five tackles, I think all of them are most of them were in the first half on running plays, and those plays gained one yard, zero yards, Negati tive yards,

one yard and four yards. So he he's free to run around clearly, and we all know he diagnoses plays quickly and gets there quickly, and so he's the guy that in the running game with McCaffrey, him and Devin White are gonna probably be the most important players when it comes to stopping in the passing game. It could just it could be just about anybody. Um France while had also asked, is there any update on the new veteran offensive tackle that was signed. Does he seem like

he could be a contributor? Well? Yeah, he I think the problem he had in Jacksonville is he was injured. He had some bad injury luck. He went on the i R like four times in three years, which doesn't seem possible, but he came back once and then went back on i R. So he did when he was on the field. He did start nine games the last two years for Jacksonville. Um, so that's an experienced guy,

has been in the league five years already. It's it's a guy that has a lot of experience and starting experience. And so I think that is a nice edition. Yeah, and we'll close on this. We had two questions almost backed back about the offensive game plan essentially where Brian had asked, with the defense playing better than the offense in that first game, does that mean you game plan differently? And then Rodney had asked, do you think it was

a balanced offensive game plan last week? Or should they have run the ball more? No, we ran the ball twenty six times. I think that's and there weren't a ton of plays. I think we had around sixty alan sixties, so sixties sixty two something like that, so that that was pretty balanced. We ran. I noticed that we ran on first and ten quite a bit, especially in the early going. Now at the very end you're down one touchdown with not much time, and then of course two touchdowns.

So to throwing the ball. It's before we had to throw the ball on virtually every snap the last few drives. It was a really balanced attack, so and that's a good thing. So it's a good question. But no, I think we're already balanced. And no, I don't think you changed the game plan because you think we're a defensive lead team. Now. You don't expect your offense to struggle again.

You plan to succeed, and I think that they will plan to succeed and hopefully we'll see a better output on that part of that side of ball this week. All right, Well, thanks so much for joining us, and we'll be back next week and hope you guys enjoy watching the game in Carolina. We'll see you then