Speaker 1: Welcome into Bucks Insider, presented by Verizon Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: a senior writer and editor Scott Smith. And it is
Speaker 1: finally football weather here in Florida. I'm gonna pretend it's
Speaker 1: gonna last till Sunday where we can wear this kind
Speaker 1: of gear. Don't kill my joy, don't kill my hope.
Speaker 1: For everybody that's living in the Tampa area, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about. Right now, it finally feels like
Speaker 1: football weather outside.
Speaker 2: We're going to hope it stays here.
Speaker 1: But man, I know this last week definitely not the
Speaker 1: outcome the team was hoping for. And now with the
Speaker 1: Panthers comeing in, I mean, that's going to be an
Speaker 1: incredibly important game in terms of now everything is about
Speaker 1: these division games for the most part.
Speaker 2: But what are some of the big.
Speaker 1: Takeaways from this Colts game that you feel that the
Speaker 1: team can learn from and apply to these next games,
Speaker 1: knowing how basically every game now is so crucial.
Speaker 3: I think my takeaway is probably pretty similar to players, coaches,
Speaker 3: and fans. It's frustrating because every game I feel like
Speaker 3: the Buccaneers are making progress in certain areas that should
Speaker 3: turn this losing streak around, but then something else happens
Speaker 3: that's not good.
Speaker 4: So, for instance, Bucks ran the ball great in that game.
Speaker 3: That's been a problem for the Bucks all year, not
Speaker 3: being able to run the ball efficiently one hundred and
Speaker 3: twenty five yards six point six years per carry. They
Speaker 3: played great third down defense two of eleven. Those are
Speaker 3: two of the major problems that the Buccaneers were experiencing
Speaker 3: earlier in the season. You resolve those and you think, okay,
Speaker 3: now we're gonna get the results we want. But then
Speaker 3: other stuff happs, like now you're struggling to score points
Speaker 3: in the red zone.
Speaker 4: Things like that. It just this is when you.
Speaker 3: Hear coach Bowles talk after a game or on Monday,
Speaker 3: it's this is what he's talking about when he says
Speaker 3: it's it's just something different all the time, and they
Speaker 3: don't understand. It's hard to understand because when they practice
Speaker 3: they do fine, and then then the games, one person here,
Speaker 3: one person there does the wrong thing and it doesn't
Speaker 3: work out. And so this is still a team that
Speaker 3: totally believes. You can tell after every game, even after
Speaker 3: the losses in the locker room, this is a team
Speaker 3: that totally believes that it can win every game, but
Speaker 3: it's just not getting it done, so you know, it's
Speaker 3: still out there in front of him. It feels weird
Speaker 3: to say they're only a game out of first. I mean,
Speaker 3: you don't like to keep saying that after every loss.
Speaker 4: But it's true.
Speaker 3: They're only a game out of first, and there's six
Speaker 3: games to go, including four against division opponents, including two
Speaker 3: against the one that dhim Panthers.
Speaker 4: And starting this week.
Speaker 3: So it's all still in front of the Buccaneers. But
Speaker 3: at the moment, I think there's a lot of frustration
Speaker 3: that they can't get it all right on the same day.
Speaker 1: Yep. Yeah, that makes complete sense in terms of the game.
Speaker 1: We've joked on this show every week that we might
Speaker 1: as well have a Levante and Mike Evans segment every week. Well,
Speaker 1: unfortunately we're not gonna be able to have a Levante
Speaker 1: one since he had to miss the game. We do
Speaker 1: still have Mike Evans one because again, every week he's
Speaker 1: just given us stats, he's given us things to talk about,
Speaker 1: and has given us just reminders of what a all
Speaker 1: time great player he is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he scored two touchdowns to get to nineties, just
Speaker 3: the fifteenth player in the history of the NFL to
Speaker 3: have ninety or more touchdown catches. He has more two
Speaker 3: touchdown games than everybody except DeVante Adams among active players.
Speaker 3: And if you look at that, that a one yard
Speaker 3: touchdown pass he just scored. An interesting note about that play,
Speaker 3: if you look at see how.
Speaker 4: Wide open he is, that was crazy.
Speaker 3: The closest defender to him, according to NFL next Gen stats,
Speaker 3: and here we'll see next Gen sort of showing you
Speaker 3: with the dots, the closest defender to him when he
Speaker 3: caught the ball was seventeen point one yards away, and
Speaker 3: you could see why because two defenders jumped on paying
Speaker 3: Durham running that very shallow slant and Mike, who kind
Speaker 3: of faked in for a second and then went.
Speaker 4: Out, was just wide open.
Speaker 3: Weirdly, they've been tracking these things since twenty sixteen. That's
Speaker 3: the most separation, So the most open that a player
Speaker 3: catching a pass in the end zone has ever been
Speaker 3: since they've been tracking into that.
Speaker 2: That's crazy.
Speaker 1: And of all people, I don't feel like Mike is
Speaker 1: ever that open because teams focus on him so un
Speaker 1: and frankly, he doesn't even need to be that open
Speaker 1: because we know that he can make all those contested catches.
Speaker 1: I'm sure to him it was probably like, what is
Speaker 1: happening right now?
Speaker 4: You wonder when you're too open to Oh.
Speaker 1: My god, I remember feeling that way in basketball. I
Speaker 1: hated being that open for a shot. You're like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: someone come guard.
Speaker 3: Here's I was talking about before nineteen two touchdown games
Speaker 3: or three multiple touchdown games.
Speaker 4: But in this case too, only Devanta Adams has more.
Speaker 2: Again what a list?
Speaker 4: Yeah, look at those names and.
Speaker 2: He is at number two, which is incredible.
Speaker 1: So that obviously was not one of the failed red
Speaker 1: zone no attempts. That one went pretty dang well, but
Speaker 1: there were a few others that ended up making a
Speaker 1: pretty big difference in the game. What does it seem
Speaker 1: to be in terms of the red zone? What are
Speaker 1: some of the things maybe they're focusing on, or what
Speaker 1: do we think is leading to some of these being
Speaker 1: three instead of seven?
Speaker 3: Or well sometimes it's penalties in this that happened in
Speaker 3: this last game.
Speaker 4: That game started so well, couldn't start better.
Speaker 3: Had the ball first or right down the field and
Speaker 3: no problem, got the first goal at the one you
Speaker 3: usually scored touchdown when you're first and goal at the one.
Speaker 4: Unfortunately, they tried to Baker Mayfield sneak.
Speaker 3: It didn't work and he injured his ankles, so he
Speaker 3: came out of the game for a couple of plays.
Speaker 3: And then critically, there was a false start penalty. So
Speaker 3: now instead of being able to just bash it in
Speaker 3: from the one, because the Bucks have been actually been
Speaker 3: pretty good on goal to go this year, especially that close,
Speaker 3: they've been able to get the ball in off and
Speaker 3: sometimes were shod White. But now you're second and six,
Speaker 3: you run Rashid White. Now he gets three yards. That
Speaker 3: would have been great from the one yard line, but
Speaker 3: it wasn't so helpful from the six. And then and
Speaker 3: incomplete pass on third down, and then another time there
Speaker 3: was a sack, So protection issues and ill time penalties,
Speaker 3: and that's what I was saying. Before other things get
Speaker 3: fixed and then something else crops up. And so from
Speaker 3: that point on, you go all the way down the field.
Speaker 3: You get first and goal on the one on your
Speaker 3: first drive, that seems like a great situation. Then you
Speaker 3: have to settle for three and then they score the
Speaker 3: next seventeen points and the momentum.
Speaker 4: Has swung a lot. Now after that, the Bucks did
Speaker 4: rally and had a chance great at this year they have.
Speaker 4: They fought to the end, Yeah, every time.
Speaker 1: And I know we talked about how there were definitely
Speaker 1: plenty of things that we know the team didn't do
Speaker 1: the way they wanted to, things that didn't go the
Speaker 1: Bucks way. And as you talked about though, there's also
Speaker 1: each week something that is really encouraging that happens on
Speaker 1: the other side.
Speaker 2: Of the coin. And this week that was Rashad White
Speaker 2: in the run game.
Speaker 1: And because it's been Rashad White in the receiving game,
Speaker 1: it's been him in the screen game. This game, it
Speaker 1: was like, this was Rashad White, the running back getting
Speaker 1: one hundred yards rushing on the dot one hundred yards rushing.
Speaker 1: What did you see in terms of and also his
Speaker 1: career long run we're watching right now. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: I feel like that was just such a great game.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, the best rushing game he's had
Speaker 1: since well Germany last, you know, last time.
Speaker 3: So I look at the hole and that play, I mean,
Speaker 3: they gave him some seems to run, some lanes to run,
Speaker 3: and he hit him hard and we had five explosive
Speaker 3: runs in that game, which is runs of more than
Speaker 3: ten yards and that's mostly had in any game. So
Speaker 3: he actually he had the thirty eight one, but he
Speaker 3: also had like fourteen and eleven. Chase Edmonds had an eleven.
Speaker 3: Baker Mayfield had a fourteen yard scramble that was pretty
Speaker 3: entertaining where he kind of ran over the guy at
Speaker 3: the end, but as you can see, he's.
Speaker 4: Just on that one.
Speaker 3: He bounced it around the end, and I got to
Speaker 3: believe there was some kind of issue with the cult
Speaker 3: Stephen's on that one because it shouldn't have been that
Speaker 3: wide open around the end.
Speaker 4: But he recognized the way to go.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know that's part of eight blocked by standing
Speaker 2: on that one too.
Speaker 3: So the run blocking was good, the lanes were good,
Speaker 3: he hit them well, he recognized when he should bounce
Speaker 3: that one with the outside. It was just how the
Speaker 3: run game is supposed to work. And that's encouraging going forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's a great sign.
Speaker 1: And another encouraging thing is, man, we got some talent
Speaker 1: that is young in terms of pass rush. Yeah, Elijah
Speaker 1: Knsi Ya Yadyabi are putting up some incredible numbers for
Speaker 1: how especially how many games, how many snaps they've had.
Speaker 1: You know, ya Ya was coming off the bench Calida.
Speaker 1: It was hurt a lot. And they're still leading rookies
Speaker 1: in a lot of these sack, tackle for loss QB,
Speaker 1: pressure type stats. It's just to me, this is such
Speaker 1: ancouraging thing thinking about the future of this Bucks pass.
Speaker 3: Right, especially because it's both of them. I mean, I
Speaker 3: guess you sort of expected the nineteenth overall pick to
Speaker 3: have an instant impact, but finding impact edge rushers in
Speaker 3: the third round is not common. Now there's Collide' getting
Speaker 3: his sack. Yaya didn't have a sack in this game,
Speaker 3: but he has been making impact plays one or the other,
Speaker 3: and sometimes both of them make very noticeable impact plays
Speaker 3: every game now. And one thing to note is that
Speaker 3: Yaya actually started this game, and on the new depth
Speaker 3: chart this week, he's listed as a starter ahead of
Speaker 3: Joe Tryan Shayanka. Now here's what you were talking about.
Speaker 3: The tackles for loss. You know that includes sacks, but
Speaker 3: it's not all sacks. And Clide just tied for first
Speaker 3: even though he missed basically four games, and Yaya's tied
Speaker 3: for third, and they're making a lot of plays in
Speaker 3: the opposing backfield. But as I was saying before, Yaya
Speaker 3: actually started, but it was a three outside linebacker formation,
Speaker 3: which was unusual, and Logan Hall wasn't in the game,
Speaker 3: but Joe trying should go. Shaq, Barrett, and Yaya were
Speaker 3: all in on the first play, in the first couple plays,
Speaker 3: and so that was kind of a new wrinkle that
Speaker 3: we saw. And you know, they David wasn't in the game,
Speaker 3: so they actually started with just one off ball linebacker
Speaker 3: and an extra defensive back. It was kind of an interesting, yeah,
Speaker 3: interesting sackage. So I think that was all part of
Speaker 3: like how do we deal with the guys that were
Speaker 3: missing and doing some interesting new things. But in terms
Speaker 3: of going forward on the depth chart, it now says
Speaker 3: Shaq and ya Ya are the starters.
Speaker 1: It's going to be interesting to watch for sure. And
Speaker 1: part of this, you know, the Buck's recent success on
Speaker 1: third down is thanks to the guys like that making
Speaker 1: some big plays when it's a more obvious.
Speaker 2: Pass rush down.
Speaker 1: And we saw earlier in the season that was a
Speaker 1: stat that was killing the Bucks in some games, was
Speaker 1: the conversion rate on third down, and especially also third
Speaker 1: and long was just so out of character for this defense.
Speaker 1: And then now it feels like that's another area is,
Speaker 1: to your point, that has been improving and cleaned up
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you look at this, I mean after seven games,
Speaker 3: and we noted this all the time because it was
Speaker 3: just glaring that the Bucks third down defense, and we
Speaker 3: don't know, I don't have the numbers for a third
Speaker 3: and long here, but I think anecdotally we can recall
Speaker 3: that we were getting up lots of third and long
Speaker 3: conversions and in the last four games that really haven't
Speaker 3: been any And in terms of overall third downs thirty
Speaker 3: one point nine percent over the last four games, that's
Speaker 3: the sixth best in the league.
Speaker 4: So that's a huge.
Speaker 3: Fix, yep, from one of the main things that was
Speaker 3: hurting the Buccaneers. And that goes into so many things
Speaker 3: because you're talking about extending drives, you're talking about time
Speaker 3: and possession, you're talking about not getting off the field
Speaker 3: and not getting the ball back to your offense. All
Speaker 3: kinds of things come out of how well you were
Speaker 3: doing third downs. So the fact that doing so much
Speaker 3: better defensively on third down is encouraging.
Speaker 4: Put it all together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to look ahead to this game against
Speaker 1: the Panthers, and I feel a little deja vus here,
Speaker 1: as I say, the Panthers just fired their head coach.
Speaker 1: The Bucks will be facing an inn aroum because this
Speaker 1: was exactly the situation that we were in last year. Now,
Speaker 1: last year, I think we were the second game out.
Speaker 1: After this year, we will be the first game after
Speaker 1: they've fired their head coach. Of course, I think that's
Speaker 1: always an interesting wrinkle that throwes in that we've seen.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of times that teams, you know, for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, a head coach gets fired in that team,
Speaker 1: maybe that next week has a little extra home for
Speaker 1: some weeks. Yeah, with the you know, the Raiders this year,
Speaker 1: some other teams. And also it throws a wrinkle unto
Speaker 1: you don't know what changes are going to be made.
Speaker 1: That's probably not going to throw out the whole playbook,
Speaker 1: but you never know. You know, now you've been scouting
Speaker 1: a team led by this guy, now they're led by
Speaker 1: somebody else.
Speaker 2: It's an interesting wrinkle, particularly late in the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's kind of one thing that's sort of
Speaker 3: concrete and one that's not so much. And that latter
Speaker 3: one is what you were talking about, the new coach bounce,
Speaker 3: Like the Raiders got when they fired Josh McDaniel's and
Speaker 3: won their next two games. You do sort of see
Speaker 3: that from time to time, that they make a coach
Speaker 3: and change, at least in the short term. It maybe
Speaker 3: galvanizes a game or brings them together or gives them
Speaker 3: something to fight for.
Speaker 4: Like I said, that's not real concrete.
Speaker 3: What is concrete is Now there's gonna be a new
Speaker 3: play caller because Frank Wright had been calling the plays
Speaker 3: and then about five weeks ago he turned it over
Speaker 3: to Thomas Brown, their first year offensive coordinator, who came
Speaker 3: from the Rams, but after three games, Frank Reich took
Speaker 3: it back, so until he was dismissed, he was the
Speaker 3: play color bone. Now Thomas Brown is going to go
Speaker 3: back to calling the plays because the interim head coach
Speaker 3: is their special teams coordinator, which Rodney Barber made a
Speaker 3: good point to me yesterday, is like, other than the
Speaker 3: head coach, the one guy who deals with everybody on
Speaker 3: the team is the special teams coordinator, So it makes
Speaker 3: sense to make him the interim coordinator. And then you
Speaker 3: still have your two offensive and defensive coordinators and Thomas
Speaker 3: Brown now will be calling the place. So what that
Speaker 3: means to what they do is hard to say, but
Speaker 3: it is a concrete change in what the Bucks would
Speaker 3: be seeing this.
Speaker 2: Week, all right.
Speaker 1: And then now also looking at the knowing that they
Speaker 1: are the people that had the first overall pick Bryce
Speaker 1: Young quarterback, what are we going to be seeing first
Speaker 1: time getting a look at this new rookie.
Speaker 3: Well, Bryce Young has had the ups and downs that
Speaker 3: you would expect from a rookie quarterback.
Speaker 4: You know, we see CJ.
Speaker 3: Stroud doing amazing and we saw it first hand in Houston,
Speaker 3: and you know, you're tempted to compare them, but the
Speaker 3: fact is Stroud.
Speaker 4: Is the exception, right.
Speaker 3: They don't usually just fall into the league totally top
Speaker 3: ten quarterback. You know, they have their they take their lumps,
Speaker 3: and they have their ups and downs, and that's certainly
Speaker 3: been the case for Bryce Young. He's got nine touchdowns
Speaker 3: to eight interceptions. Neither number is particularly remarkable, but you
Speaker 3: want a better ratio than that, and I think they're
Speaker 3: only averaging he's only averaging five point four yards per temp, which.
Speaker 4: Is pretty low.
Speaker 3: So they're not really getting the ball downfield much. And
Speaker 3: Adam Thielen is their leading receiver. He's got seventy seven catches,
Speaker 3: which is a lot, but he's only averaging a career
Speaker 3: low nine point five per catch, so again, they're not
Speaker 3: getting the ball downfield. It's more of a possession type thing.
Speaker 3: And then the next leading pass catcher only has twenty
Speaker 3: eight receptions, so they don't They haven't necessarily found or
Speaker 3: developed a second guy like Chris Godwin, so you know,
Speaker 3: it's been a bit of a struggle for them offensively,
Speaker 3: to be honest.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's going to be an interesting but he's a.
Speaker 4: Very talented player. Yes, so you never know what to expect.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean, of course you never want to
Speaker 1: take a team or their record lightly, or knowing they
Speaker 1: have a rookie quarterback, all those things that Thankfully, I
Speaker 1: don't think the Bucks start in a position to do
Speaker 1: that because they now know what these what these division
Speaker 1: games mean. So I don't think that you're worried at
Speaker 1: all about them taking a one and ten team lightly.
Speaker 2: Well, and we need this.
Speaker 3: Coach Bowls is like when this kind of topic was
Speaker 3: thrown at him on Mondays, like, none of that matters
Speaker 3: to us.
Speaker 4: We have to fix us.
Speaker 3: And if they could be twelve and h we wouldn't
Speaker 3: make a difference, So the Bucks are definitely not looking
Speaker 3: at this as an easy win.
Speaker 2: Yep. Yes, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Also, this game is going to be my cause my
Speaker 1: cleats game always one of my favorites every year, so
Speaker 1: I encourage everyone to make sure they're going to buccaneers
Speaker 1: dot Com to learn about all the different causes that
Speaker 1: everyone will be supporting on their cleats. And shameless plug
Speaker 1: it's not out yet, We're going to have a video
Speaker 1: that I did with Dee Delaney and Devin Tompkins. They
Speaker 1: both have a kid who has down. We took them
Speaker 1: to a place called Gigi's Playhouse. They're both doing that
Speaker 1: on their cleats. So whenever that video comes out, highly recommend,
Speaker 1: very very sweet and endearing and they just both.
Speaker 2: Are such great guys.
Speaker 1: And I also want to remind everybody Pro Bowl voting
Speaker 1: is open, so make sure you go find that to
Speaker 1: vote all of your top Buccaneers in.
Speaker 2: There's four suggestions suggest there's just a few suggestions.
Speaker 4: For definitely vote for all of them, yep, so.
Speaker 1: Make sure you go do that see as many of them.
Speaker 1: Even though it's not the same way that the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl has been in the past, it's still going to
Speaker 1: be a fun thing to watch your guys participate in,
Speaker 1: so make sure you go send those votes in right now.
Speaker 2: That's going to do it for us on Bucks Insider.
Speaker 2: We'll see you next time.