Recapping Loss in Pittsburgh, Antoine Winfield Jr. Getting Sacks | Bucs Insider

those later in the show. So for now, let's just start with the takeaways on this game of Now that we've had a few days to digest the unfortunate outcome, what are some of the big things that stand out to you? Well, Casey, it's just most a lot of NFL games come down to one score or just a few points, and no matter who is favored or by how much, it's still a lot of them come down

to that. And that means that a lot of these games come down to a handful of plays one team makes, some one doesn't, and a lot of times those key plays are and what coaches like to call situational f ball, third downs, red zone, short yardage, two minute drills, and short yards including two point conversions, and the Buccaneers have already lost two games by two points in which they could have tied the game with a two point conversion

and did not. The Buccaneers just simply didn't make the plays in those key moments, and the most glaring of those, obviously were the third and elevens and longer four of them almost consecutively that Mitchell Drabinsky and the Steelers were able to convert, and Coach Bull said on Monday that he knows exactly what happened, of course he does, after watching the film on each of those four plays, and in each one of them it was a different player

who made the critical mistake. Uh. It's disappointing, obviously, and the Buccaneers certainly expected to win against a one in five team that had a secondary depleted by injuries, but they did not make the plays in those key moments in situational football, and that is probably what has to change for the Buccaneers to get back on track. Three and three first place in the NFC South. That's obviously the optimal stick way to look at it, but they've also lost three of their last four games, and a

couple of those I felt like they were very winnable. Yeah, and I know that in particular, we talked going into the game about how depleted that Stealers secondary was, and I think we assumed this could be a get right game for the Buccaneers offense that has so much potential and we've seen it with you know, a lot of the same people put up thirty plus a game pretty consistently, and to see the especially the struggles early on getting that going. And so what did you see happen this game?

And not only not maybe being able to take advantage of the secondary that was pretty depleted, but even some of your more go to guys like Chris Godwin, we saw I think he was only one of six in terms of the early targets to him. So what did you see happening from the passing game and particularly the longer passing game that wasn't clicking. I don't think it was the best game for some of those guys, including

Tom Brady. Um, Tom Brady has been awesome and actually the the the uh passing game was sort of getting right before that game through Tom Brady through for three and eighty one yards and three touchdowns. Against Kansas City, he threw for another three fifty and the win against Atlanta had just the one touchdown. Because red zone has become a problem in the last couple of games and

was again here, so it was surprising. I would say that they were unable to make these connections even if the Pittsburgh defense was playing a sort of game that was intended to try to take away the big plays. And I think that's why Tom Brady kept trying to go to Chris Godwin early on and they just couldn't hook up, which is uncharacteristic because those two over the time Tom Brad's been here, have had a great connection and I think they will continue. I'm not worried in

the long run that that's not gonna work. And in fact, Chris ended up catching six catches for yards, which would normally seem like a good day, but he was targeted twelve times, so that's not great efficiency. But Tom Brady to Mike Evans to Chris Godwin is still what this offense is all about and what is going to carry

us forward. I believe in The amazing thing about this is it's hard to believe that we're watching these two guys at the same time together on the same offense for so long, And if you look at this list here, obviously we know Mike Evans is the leading receiver in franchise history by a long shot. Chris Godwin is about to become number two, number one of everybody that's not named Mike Evans. He only needs thirties six more yards to pass a buccaneer legend and Kevin House and six

more to pass Mark Harrier. And the only guy who would have more yards than him in team history is his teammate Mike Evans, Which I think it kind of snuck up on me a little bit that we have one in two. Are we're as soon gonna have one in two in franchise instory? Yeah, that means it's been a fun time to be a buck stand two watching

all of these receiving yards. Yeah. Um, I know that Antoine Winfield Jr. Has definitely been a bright spot on this team in this defense, no matter what has been going on with the games or how many points allowed or anything that he has seemed to me maybe the most consistent player on defense is Yeah, you would agree with that, So tell me what you've seen from him, and the fact that we can be saying that about a guy that's essentially having to play a new role

and is still such a young player is amazing to me. Well, I think the most telling thing about this is that with Logan Ryan out and then Mike Edwards out, the what they didn't Okay, So when we had both those guys, Antoine Winfield and Mike Edwards would start at safety and base packages and then in sub packages like the nickel, which you usually are in about seventy percent at the time,

so it's almost your really your base defense. Antoine Winfield goes down to become the slot corner and Logan first Logan Ryan and then Kean O'Neill came in to be the third safety. With Logan Ryan and Mike Edwards out, they didn't take Antoine Winfield back and make him a safety the snaps and put in a third quarterback into the slot. They kept winfielding his role and put the

very inexperienced d Delaney a cornerback at safety. That is because they did not want to mess with what was happening with Anton Winfield and they had this new role for him where he's a safety and a slot corner, and he is making impact plays every single game, including a sack in this last one, and you just want to keep him in that role. Look at this over. He's the only defensive back in the NFL, by the way,

including all these three guys. Here are five guys here who has double digit sacks in each of the last three seasons, which which for him, are his only three NFL seasons. But here's another thing in addition to this that might amaze you. He's got eight point of sacks. How far away do you think that Antoin Winfield is from being the Bucks all time leader among safeties and sacks. Well,

if you're asking, probably pretty close, right, he's already got it. Whoa, he's that's the most sacks any Buckaneer safety has ever had in his career. That's two years and six games. That is incredible, what a statistic. Like. John Lynch was an amazing player. He's in the Hall of Fame. He used to have the record at six because they just didn't blitz him. All right. That's the best part of it is the role he's being put in the way that bowls sets them up, and that's what the guys

talk about about why they love Bowls scheme. It sets them up to make so many of those splash plays at all different positions. And I think was it Larry Foote who was saying the other week about how they look for Tursday mornings, like, is my name gonna get called?

I want? I want to be the guy? Yeah. Probably the better comparison for Antoine than the other safeties in the league is Randey Barber, because Randey Barber played that slot role and they blitzed him a lot, and obviously he had a billion sacks I mean his I think,

and just an amazing number for a defensive back. That's more what Antoine Field is chasing, right, Yeah, And I think I saw that he's tied among all defensive backs in the league this year for Secon Yeah, for three and we're six games in, so it could be five, it could be six by the end of the season. And if he can add a couple of picks to that as well. He was already a pro bowler last year.

But I've made the prediction on our Salty Dogs podcast before the season that I thought antro Winfield would be a first team APL PROB. Yeah. I think hes got to have counting numbers for for the voters to vote for you, So he needs more sax and a few more picks and they'll have a shot. Okay, And then you kind of mentioned this earlier in the show, But um, I know that you know football fans, They're passionate and that occasionally can mean a bit of a skies falling mindset.

It's fair, it's understandable. Nobody likes to lose. And uh, I know that this is at three and three, maybe not where the Bucks wanted to be or hoped to be at this point in the season. What do you see as what this means for where we're at and moving forward of can they still accomplish what they want

to accomplish at three? Aid? Like I said before, three and three and three doesn't feel great because you're one in three in your last four and a couple of games there that you really felt like you probably should have won. That being said, if you want to take the glass half full, look at it. They are tied for the division lead with Atlanta, who looks to be better than you expect. But we already have a win over them. We already have a win over New Orleans, and we have a shot to make it a first

half sweep in the division this weekend against Carolina. And there's a lot of different sites that have NFL playoff odds on them. One of the most prominent five thirty eight. They often they do a lot of election stuff too, their playoff odds or i'm sorry, their division winning odds. For the Buccaneers, they still have US at and that's the third that's the third best of all the eight division leaders. Because some of these quite frankly, some of

these teams have a lot more competition. I mean, the Eagles are six and oh and their record, their their playing fids are below us. Because Giants are five. One in Dallas is four and two. It's got to be frustrated. So I'm not saying anything about the other teams in the Bucks Division, but by record at least there it isn't the toughest division in the league. And the Buckneers already have a two and old record against division opponents.

Now they're about to play a Carolina team that recently fired its head coach and has tons of injuries at the quarterback position. You obviously cannot go. They're expecting to win just because of that because we just saw what happened in Pittsburgh. That being said, if the Buccaneers can fix a few things, they should have a good shot at going three and old in the division this weekend.

So tell me what those things are in your mind that you most want to see this weekend against Carolina and and maybe the chances of being able to fix them in essentially one week that there's, you know, the idea of what they know they need to do, but can it actually happened this weekend. Tempted to say running games, since the Buccaneers are last in the league in the arts per game, and I'm not sure they've really need

to be a great running team in order. They really haven't been a great running team the last couple of years, but still had the highest scoring offense in the league. One of the things I would say is probably red zone. In the last few games, the Bucks are I think three of nine or three of eight and something like that in the red zone if that means scoring touchdowns. We got to score touchdowns. The Buccaneers had the ball about six inches from the goal line in that game.

The second of one brought into power package lost three yards third down. Tom Brady got sacked your six inches from the end zone and you settle for three points and you lose the game by two. Kind of easy to connect the dots there, So red zone would be

a big one. The other thing that's confounding is I don't know about you, but sometimes you're watching a game and it's not going exactly how you want, but you're like, this has got to turn around, and you say, somebody always says, boy, this would be a good time for a for an interception. Where are the takeaways? The Buccaneers have not had it. They've had one takeaway in their last three games. And this is a Todd Bowles defense that is among the league leaders in takeaways since he

got here. It's it's part of the DNA of this defense. Where are they They're gone, there's no takeaways. It's it's a weird note and it's partially positive. But the last two games, neither team has committed a turnover in the box. That's only the second time in team history that the Bucks have gone two straight games in which neither team committed a turnover. So it's weird, and obviously you like the fact that the offense hasn't turned the ball over,

but where are the turners and defense? So give me some, give me, give me a little bit of success and red zone, which I think they can fix by self scouting and seeing what's working best and what's not. And then I don't know how you you can't really coach turnovers, but we need to get some more. Turnovers are so interesting because sometimes they're fluky, right that there was the forced fumble, but then they fell on it, you know, And it's sometimes a tipped pass that you could have

intercepted if it hadn't been tipped. You know that there's just some weird things about it. But then I know that they wouldn't say that that's acceptable because that's always the case. And they've gotten more, you know, turnovers and takeaways in the past. The Bucks are about I think tied for fourth something or like that in terms of takeaways with nine, but five of those came in one game in New Orleans and four of them were in one quarter, so they definitely come in. Bunches were in

a drought. Now we need to go from drought to bunches, all right, Well, that is going to do it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers, Insider Live. Thank you so much for being with us. Enjoy the game this weekend. We'll see you next week. M