What Challenges Do the Chiefs Present? | Bucs Insider

Hall of Fame that came out yesterday. Yeah, this is the time of year when they pair the field down from the original nominations I think thirty of them to semifinalists. It didn't come as a shock really, but both John Lynch and Randee Barber made that cut. It's the ninth straight year that John Lynch is a semifinalist. He's also been a finalist for seven straight years, and then Rodney Barber has been a similar semifinalists for four years now.

I'm hoping this is the year he breaks through to the finalist stage, which is fifteen players, and that will happen somewhere around mid January. Uh, you know, we know how close John Lynch has come over and over and again. We always hope that this is going to be the year. Um Ran Day, I think is what hell deserving being a finalist, and I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened yet,

So hopefully it's this year. Yeah, And I know we usually talk about it in terms of who the other people are on the ballot, and especially if there are people at the same position, because we know they don't tend to like to put in a lot of people in the same position each year. And so there have been times that we've looked at John Lynch and then

there's been other really great safeties that same year. Looking at the field overall, and and the people that are first time ballot people, how how likely or not are there certain people we think of as threats to their cause? How comfortable do we feel, Well, there's always two or three guys Almost every year, there's two or three guys that you think our first ballot guys, and you just have to account for that. Um And obviously Peyton Manning is on the ballot. Uh be ridiculous for him not

to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Charles Woods and strikes me as the same. Jared Allen may not strike some people as a first ballot Hall of Famer, but his stats are essentially the same as Jason Taylor's. And I think Jason Taylor made it in and in

his first year. So there's always that obstacle. But the first step is making that cut to fifteen, and the fact that there's a couple locks, probably for the class one, doesn't really make it that much harder for John or Rondi to make it at least to that next cut, and then we can start talking about their chances to actually be in the Hall of Fame. Okay, And just a reminder of the people tuning, and now we are taking your questions over on Facebook in the live video

comments section. That's where I'll find all of your different questions. UM. I wanted to hear your thoughts on second game in a row without Alan Mark pett in at offensive line. They had to move some things around, and then even Donovan went down for a little bit and a Q Shipley went down. There was there was several different combinations used in that game. And you know, we knew that

that Rams defensive line was was a potent one. So I wanted to hear um, how you felt like they handled that channel inge, what we know about that offensive line and and the the impact that Ali Marpett has and how they've been able to sort of try to pick up that slack. Now, we're all very eager for Ali to feel better, um A first of all, and then once we feel good about that, will be eager

to get him back in the lineup. But you can't say enough about how well Ryan Jensen and a Q Shipley have responded to this challenge of Ryan moving to left guard to replace Ali and a Q Shipley stepping in there at center. I think the biggest thing you can say about those two and the rest of that line is, um, look at the defensive stat sheet from that game and try to find Aaron Donald's name. It's not on there. Can you imagine before that game thinking

Aaron Donald wouldn't record a single tackle, sack, quarterback, hit, anything. Um, he's the most gun the third game and his whole career that he's done that. That's incredible. I mean, he's the most dominant defensive lineman in the game and this doesn't change that, but in this particular game, the Buccaneers handled him very well, and I think uh Tom Brady was act once and hit five times. I'll take that out of a game against the Rams. It really wasn't

the protection. That wasn't the issue when it comes to how the Bucks came up a little bit short. And we had a few different questions about the run game and why it wasn't more successful, especially after such a huge performance against the Panthers uh the week before, and and the fact that how they were using Rojo versus

for net Um, you know, third down catches. Just kind of overall the way that the running backs were used, why the running game didn't work as well um, and then especially getting them involved in the in the passing game and some of the struggles there. Well, the first thing you have to look at is the Carolina defense versus the Rams defense. I mean, Carolina's defense was much more susceptible to the run. The Rams have one of

the best run defenses in the league. And it was pretty clear early on, and this is actually true on both sides. It was pretty clear early on that the running game wasn't working. And you can say, I want to establish the run. That makes our play action better. Etcetera, etcetera. But if it's not working, at some point you stopped bashing your head against the wall and you you turn to the things that you know, you think you can

be more successful with. And that's why the Buccaneers ran many, many more plays, a much higher percentage of plays and three and four receiver sets in this game, as opposed to the Carolina game, where it was pretty much an even split between that kind of offense and too tight end offense, because that's what was working against Carolina, and they thought that would work against Carolina. Um, nothing really was working in the running game, whether it was Jones

or for net. As for the passing game, obviously, there were well publicized struggles with passes that were incomplete to both of those guys, and and Bruce Arians spoke about that yesterday and said, you know, he kind of broke down each one. Some of them weren't weren't perfect throws. Some of them, Uh, the play broke down a little

bit like the screen pass to Ronald Jones. Just the throw came much sooner than it's designed to because there was a free runner left on the other side of the formation, and and Britty had to get rid of the ball more quickly. So there's many reasons why those plays can break down, and sometimes they are just straight up drops, but in this case it was a bit

of a mix. So you know, I know that um that Bruce arians still remains very uh comfortable with Leonard Fournande in particular in the passing game, and he's for the most part, caught the ball very well this year. And we had a question about it seems like we haven't heard Anton Winton Jr's name as much. Does that mean he isn't playing as well or just hasn't made the kind of plays to get his name set as much. Yeah,

that's it's actually true. I've noticed that in the stat sheet because it's been fun updating his game by game stats this year because almost every game for a stretch there, he had some kind of big play, and the last few games his stats have been pretty minimal. But I think that's what happens, just sometimes with the safety. I mean, you know, sometimes the players are coming your way, the

ball is coming your way. Sometimes it's not. But I don't think there's been any lacking in his play, just hasn't been the opportunities for him to to rack up a bunch of tackles or or I guess also the opportunity to rush the quarterback. I'm not sure that we've sent him on blitz is that much in the last couple of games. So, you know, stats aren't the whole story, as most fans know. And Winfield hasn't had two bad games.

He's just had two games with very little stats. And I saw a question about how I think the phrase was, how we've been dinked and dunked on a lot this year, that these short little passes. We saw that a lot from the Rams. I think Bruce said in his postgame press conference that they didn't even attempt to pass more than ten yards all first half. Um, what are some

of the anecdotes to that on defense? You know now that we saw that that was pretty helpful, you know, the way the Rams did it for them, that it proved to be problematic for the for the defense, What are some of the strategies there and just maybe the strengths and weaknesses you've seen with this defense of the type of offense that they're really good against. Yeah, I mean, in today's NFL, if if a opposing team wants to get rid of the ball quickly and throw a lot

of short passes. They can generally succeed in at least completing those passes. The problem for the Buccaneers was two things. Really. Um, the tackling wasn't very good in the secondary, so there were plays that should have been stopped or drives that should have been stops that that weren't because short passes turned into longer gains and than they normally would. And then also the Rams did a good job, and this

is what they do when their offenses going well. They did a good job of disguising plays and having misdirection in their their shifts and their motions and just getting especially those two guys Woods and Cup really wide open. And you know, it's a tough thing to defend. The Buccaneers knew that going into the week. There was a lot of talk about I discipline, which means basically reading your keys and and figuring out what the opponent is going to do to you. And sometimes even with that,

the other team wins. And the Rams have an offense that can do that on occasion, and it hurt the Buccaneers. They didn't handle it very well. And and that at least for a good portion of the game, and that's an issue going into the next name because the Chiefs can do a lot of different things. To you. I mean, that offense is the highest scoring in the league, and they have Patrick Mahomes and and all those incredible weapons, but they also do shifts and motions quite a bit

and and can disguise things. So it's another week that the Buckaneers will have to prepare for that, and it's a very tough challenge. Jim asked, what do you think about the overall utilization of our tight ends so far and then the red zone and in particular overall. I mean, I think it's been pretty good. You've seen Cam break getting involved um the last couple of weeks. I like that He's he had a couple of big third down catches.

I think we had a little bit more trouble getting the ball to Rob Gronkowski in this last game, but we're trying. Um, you know, I think the tight end position has never been one it's been terribly prolific in Bruce Arians' offense. But the two tight end set worked very well against Carolina, and I think we're getting the ball to those guys a decent amount of times in the red zone. Uh, you know, m um Gronkowski had

a touchdown passing the red zone last week. Cam Brad also, I believe was that that game or was that two games ago? He had the catch right along the goal line. So we've got so many red zone weapons that you can't expect those guys get touchdowns every week. But I think they're utilizing them enough in the red zone. And then we'll close with this. Somebody asked about Scotty Miller and the fact that he hasn't been used as much since Antonio Brown was brought on, and just the overall

way each of the wide receivers is being used. And do we think we maybe need a little more Scotty Miller to try to have some of those deep balls when he seems to be the one that Brady had the best connection with for those Yeah. Yeah, and they did try. I mean they threw onto him that might have been completed, but it did draw like a thirty yard pass interference penalty. Scotty was on the field more in this past game, uh, in some three and four receiver sets than he had been that week a couple

of weeks before. But I think it's probably pretty undeniable that the arrival of Tony Antonio Brown has eaten into his snaps a little bit. Uh, the deep passing game, and it struggles have a lot more to do than just with how Scotty Miller has been used in recent weeks. It's been good three or four games now that the Buckaneers simply haven't been able to hit any deep balls, and that was something that had been a strength for the first I don't know, six or seven weeks. We

hit a lot of them. I remember the the incredible back corner passed from Brady to Scotty Miller in the back of the end zone in Las Vegas. I mean at that point we were talking about how he was just so accurate still on deep balls, and it was it was one of the big storylines of the early season. And it's been a struggle for the last three or

four games. So I don't know if it involves getting Scotty millermore involved, but somehow our know that the Buccaneers have to reconnect on those deep passes because that's a big part of bruce Arians approach to offense. Al Right, Well, that's gonna do it for us. On this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lite. Thank you so much for joining us, Thanks for those great questions. We'll see you next week and have a great Thanksgiving