Speaker 1: I've been learning. Good Morning Bucks fans, Welcome into Buccaneers
Speaker 1: Insider Live, presented by Miller Lyte Casey Phillips. Here was
Speaker 1: senior writer and editor Scott Smith. This is where we
Speaker 1: answer all of your questions. If you're not already watching
Speaker 1: on their head over to Facebook. You can leave them
Speaker 1: in the comments section of the live video. That's how
Speaker 1: I will be finding all of the questions to ask
Speaker 1: as we give people a chance to start asking some
Speaker 1: of those. Figured we'd start with the news about the
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame that came out yesterday. Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: the time of year when they pair the field down
Speaker 1: from the original nominations I think thirty of them to semifinalists.
Speaker 1: It didn't come as a shock really, but both John
Speaker 1: Lynch and Randee Barber made that cut. It's the ninth
Speaker 1: straight year that John Lynch is a semifinalist. He's also
Speaker 1: been a finalist for seven straight years, and then Rodney
Speaker 1: Barber has been a similar semifinalists for four years now.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping this is the year he breaks through to
Speaker 1: the finalist stage, which is fifteen players, and that will
Speaker 1: happen somewhere around mid January. Uh, you know, we know
Speaker 1: how close John Lynch has come over and over and again.
Speaker 1: We always hope that this is going to be the year.
Speaker 1: Um Ran Day, I think is what hell deserving being
Speaker 1: a finalist, and I'm a little surprised it hasn't happened yet,
Speaker 1: So hopefully it's this year. Yeah, And I know we
Speaker 1: usually talk about it in terms of who the other
Speaker 1: people are on the ballot, and especially if there are
Speaker 1: people at the same position, because we know they don't
Speaker 1: tend to like to put in a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the same position each year. And so there have
Speaker 1: been times that we've looked at John Lynch and then
Speaker 1: there's been other really great safeties that same year. Looking
Speaker 1: at the field overall, and and the people that are
Speaker 1: first time ballot people, how how likely or not are
Speaker 1: there certain people we think of as threats to their cause?
Speaker 1: How comfortable do we feel, Well, there's always two or
Speaker 1: three guys Almost every year, there's two or three guys
Speaker 1: that you think our first ballot guys, and you just
Speaker 1: have to account for that. Um And obviously Peyton Manning
Speaker 1: is on the ballot. Uh be ridiculous for him not
Speaker 1: to be a first ballot Hall of Famer. Charles Woods
Speaker 1: and strikes me as the same. Jared Allen may not
Speaker 1: strike some people as a first ballot Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: but his stats are essentially the same as Jason Taylor's.
Speaker 1: And I think Jason Taylor made it in and in
Speaker 1: his first year. So there's always that obstacle. But the
Speaker 1: first step is making that cut to fifteen, and the
Speaker 1: fact that there's a couple locks, probably for the class one,
Speaker 1: doesn't really make it that much harder for John or
Speaker 1: Rondi to make it at least to that next cut,
Speaker 1: and then we can start talking about their chances to
Speaker 1: actually be in the Hall of Fame. Okay, And just
Speaker 1: a reminder of the people tuning, and now we are
Speaker 1: taking your questions over on Facebook in the live video
Speaker 1: comments section. That's where I'll find all of your different questions. UM.
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear your thoughts on second game in
Speaker 1: a row without Alan Mark pett in at offensive line.
Speaker 1: They had to move some things around, and then even
Speaker 1: Donovan went down for a little bit and a Q
Speaker 1: Shipley went down. There was there was several different combinations
Speaker 1: used in that game. And you know, we knew that
Speaker 1: that Rams defensive line was was a potent one. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to hear um, how you felt like they
Speaker 1: handled that channel inge, what we know about that offensive
Speaker 1: line and and the the impact that Ali Marpett has
Speaker 1: and how they've been able to sort of try to
Speaker 1: pick up that slack. Now, we're all very eager for
Speaker 1: Ali to feel better, um A first of all, and
Speaker 1: then once we feel good about that, will be eager
Speaker 1: to get him back in the lineup. But you can't
Speaker 1: say enough about how well Ryan Jensen and a Q
Speaker 1: Shipley have responded to this challenge of Ryan moving to
Speaker 1: left guard to replace Ali and a Q Shipley stepping
Speaker 1: in there at center. I think the biggest thing you
Speaker 1: can say about those two and the rest of that
Speaker 1: line is, um, look at the defensive stat sheet from
Speaker 1: that game and try to find Aaron Donald's name. It's
Speaker 1: not on there. Can you imagine before that game thinking
Speaker 1: Aaron Donald wouldn't record a single tackle, sack, quarterback, hit, anything. Um,
Speaker 1: he's the most gun the third game and his whole
Speaker 1: career that he's done that. That's incredible. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: the most dominant defensive lineman in the game and this
Speaker 1: doesn't change that, but in this particular game, the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: handled him very well, and I think uh Tom Brady
Speaker 1: was act once and hit five times. I'll take that
Speaker 1: out of a game against the Rams. It really wasn't
Speaker 1: the protection. That wasn't the issue when it comes to
Speaker 1: how the Bucks came up a little bit short. And
Speaker 1: we had a few different questions about the run game
Speaker 1: and why it wasn't more successful, especially after such a
Speaker 1: huge performance against the Panthers uh the week before, and
Speaker 1: and the fact that how they were using Rojo versus
Speaker 1: for net Um, you know, third down catches. Just kind
Speaker 1: of overall the way that the running backs were used,
Speaker 1: why the running game didn't work as well um, and
Speaker 1: then especially getting them involved in the in the passing
Speaker 1: game and some of the struggles there. Well, the first
Speaker 1: thing you have to look at is the Carolina defense
Speaker 1: versus the Rams defense. I mean, Carolina's defense was much
Speaker 1: more susceptible to the run. The Rams have one of
Speaker 1: the best run defenses in the league. And it was
Speaker 1: pretty clear early on, and this is actually true on
Speaker 1: both sides. It was pretty clear early on that the
Speaker 1: running game wasn't working. And you can say, I want
Speaker 1: to establish the run. That makes our play action better. Etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: But if it's not working, at some point you stopped
Speaker 1: bashing your head against the wall and you you turn
Speaker 1: to the things that you know, you think you can
Speaker 1: be more successful with. And that's why the Buccaneers ran many,
Speaker 1: many more plays, a much higher percentage of plays and
Speaker 1: three and four receiver sets in this game, as opposed
Speaker 1: to the Carolina game, where it was pretty much an
Speaker 1: even split between that kind of offense and too tight
Speaker 1: end offense, because that's what was working against Carolina, and
Speaker 1: they thought that would work against Carolina. Um, nothing really
Speaker 1: was working in the running game, whether it was Jones
Speaker 1: or for net. As for the passing game, obviously, there
Speaker 1: were well publicized struggles with passes that were incomplete to
Speaker 1: both of those guys, and and Bruce Arians spoke about
Speaker 1: that yesterday and said, you know, he kind of broke
Speaker 1: down each one. Some of them weren't weren't perfect throws.
Speaker 1: Some of them, Uh, the play broke down a little
Speaker 1: bit like the screen pass to Ronald Jones. Just the
Speaker 1: throw came much sooner than it's designed to because there
Speaker 1: was a free runner left on the other side of
Speaker 1: the formation, and and Britty had to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball more quickly. So there's many reasons why those
Speaker 1: plays can break down, and sometimes they are just straight
Speaker 1: up drops, but in this case it was a bit
Speaker 1: of a mix. So you know, I know that um
Speaker 1: that Bruce arians still remains very uh comfortable with Leonard
Speaker 1: Fournande in particular in the passing game, and he's for
Speaker 1: the most part, caught the ball very well this year.
Speaker 1: And we had a question about it seems like we
Speaker 1: haven't heard Anton Winton Jr's name as much. Does that
Speaker 1: mean he isn't playing as well or just hasn't made
Speaker 1: the kind of plays to get his name set as much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it's actually true. I've noticed that in the stat
Speaker 1: sheet because it's been fun updating his game by game
Speaker 1: stats this year because almost every game for a stretch there,
Speaker 1: he had some kind of big play, and the last
Speaker 1: few games his stats have been pretty minimal. But I
Speaker 1: think that's what happens, just sometimes with the safety. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes the players are coming your way, the
Speaker 1: ball is coming your way. Sometimes it's not. But I
Speaker 1: don't think there's been any lacking in his play, just
Speaker 1: hasn't been the opportunities for him to to rack up
Speaker 1: a bunch of tackles or or I guess also the
Speaker 1: opportunity to rush the quarterback. I'm not sure that we've
Speaker 1: sent him on blitz is that much in the last
Speaker 1: couple of games. So, you know, stats aren't the whole story,
Speaker 1: as most fans know. And Winfield hasn't had two bad games.
Speaker 1: He's just had two games with very little stats. And
Speaker 1: I saw a question about how I think the phrase was,
Speaker 1: how we've been dinked and dunked on a lot this year,
Speaker 1: that these short little passes. We saw that a lot
Speaker 1: from the Rams. I think Bruce said in his postgame
Speaker 1: press conference that they didn't even attempt to pass more
Speaker 1: than ten yards all first half. Um, what are some
Speaker 1: of the anecdotes to that on defense? You know now
Speaker 1: that we saw that that was pretty helpful, you know,
Speaker 1: the way the Rams did it for them, that it
Speaker 1: proved to be problematic for the for the defense, What
Speaker 1: are some of the strategies there and just maybe the
Speaker 1: strengths and weaknesses you've seen with this defense of the
Speaker 1: type of offense that they're really good against. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: in today's NFL, if if a opposing team wants to
Speaker 1: get rid of the ball quickly and throw a lot
Speaker 1: of short passes. They can generally succeed in at least
Speaker 1: completing those passes. The problem for the Buccaneers was two things. Really. Um,
Speaker 1: the tackling wasn't very good in the secondary, so there
Speaker 1: were plays that should have been stopped or drives that
Speaker 1: should have been stops that that weren't because short passes
Speaker 1: turned into longer gains and than they normally would. And
Speaker 1: then also the Rams did a good job, and this
Speaker 1: is what they do when their offenses going well. They
Speaker 1: did a good job of disguising plays and having misdirection
Speaker 1: in their their shifts and their motions and just getting
Speaker 1: especially those two guys Woods and Cup really wide open.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's a tough thing to defend. The
Speaker 1: Buccaneers knew that going into the week. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of talk about I discipline, which means basically reading
Speaker 1: your keys and and figuring out what the opponent is
Speaker 1: going to do to you. And sometimes even with that,
Speaker 1: the other team wins. And the Rams have an offense
Speaker 1: that can do that on occasion, and it hurt the Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: They didn't handle it very well. And and that at
Speaker 1: least for a good portion of the game, and that's
Speaker 1: an issue going into the next name because the Chiefs
Speaker 1: can do a lot of different things. To you. I mean,
Speaker 1: that offense is the highest scoring in the league, and
Speaker 1: they have Patrick Mahomes and and all those incredible weapons,
Speaker 1: but they also do shifts and motions quite a bit
Speaker 1: and and can disguise things. So it's another week that
Speaker 1: the Buckaneers will have to prepare for that, and it's
Speaker 1: a very tough challenge. Jim asked, what do you think
Speaker 1: about the overall utilization of our tight ends so far
Speaker 1: and then the red zone and in particular overall. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's been pretty good. You've seen Cam break
Speaker 1: getting involved um the last couple of weeks. I like
Speaker 1: that He's he had a couple of big third down catches.
Speaker 1: I think we had a little bit more trouble getting
Speaker 1: the ball to Rob Gronkowski in this last game, but
Speaker 1: we're trying. Um, you know, I think the tight end
Speaker 1: position has never been one it's been terribly prolific in
Speaker 1: Bruce Arians' offense. But the two tight end set worked
Speaker 1: very well against Carolina, and I think we're getting the
Speaker 1: ball to those guys a decent amount of times in
Speaker 1: the red zone. Uh, you know, m um Gronkowski had
Speaker 1: a touchdown passing the red zone last week. Cam Brad also,
Speaker 1: I believe was that that game or was that two
Speaker 1: games ago? He had the catch right along the goal line.
Speaker 1: So we've got so many red zone weapons that you
Speaker 1: can't expect those guys get touchdowns every week. But I
Speaker 1: think they're utilizing them enough in the red zone. And
Speaker 1: then we'll close with this. Somebody asked about Scotty Miller
Speaker 1: and the fact that he hasn't been used as much
Speaker 1: since Antonio Brown was brought on, and just the overall
Speaker 1: way each of the wide receivers is being used. And
Speaker 1: do we think we maybe need a little more Scotty
Speaker 1: Miller to try to have some of those deep balls
Speaker 1: when he seems to be the one that Brady had
Speaker 1: the best connection with for those Yeah. Yeah, and they
Speaker 1: did try. I mean they threw onto him that might
Speaker 1: have been completed, but it did draw like a thirty
Speaker 1: yard pass interference penalty. Scotty was on the field more
Speaker 1: in this past game, uh, in some three and four
Speaker 1: receiver sets than he had been that week a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks before. But I think it's probably pretty undeniable
Speaker 1: that the arrival of Tony Antonio Brown has eaten into
Speaker 1: his snaps a little bit. Uh, the deep passing game,
Speaker 1: and it struggles have a lot more to do than
Speaker 1: just with how Scotty Miller has been used in recent weeks.
Speaker 1: It's been good three or four games now that the
Speaker 1: Buckaneers simply haven't been able to hit any deep balls,
Speaker 1: and that was something that had been a strength for
Speaker 1: the first I don't know, six or seven weeks. We
Speaker 1: hit a lot of them. I remember the the incredible
Speaker 1: back corner passed from Brady to Scotty Miller in the
Speaker 1: back of the end zone in Las Vegas. I mean
Speaker 1: at that point we were talking about how he was
Speaker 1: just so accurate still on deep balls, and it was
Speaker 1: it was one of the big storylines of the early season.
Speaker 1: And it's been a struggle for the last three or
Speaker 1: four games. So I don't know if it involves getting
Speaker 1: Scotty millermore involved, but somehow our know that the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: have to reconnect on those deep passes because that's a
Speaker 1: big part of bruce Arians approach to offense. Al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: that's gonna do it for us. On this edition of
Speaker 1: Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lite. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us, Thanks for those great questions. We'll
Speaker 1: see you next week and have a great Thanksgiving