Speaker 1: Welcome to Books Insider, presented by ticketmaster Casey Phillips here
Speaker 1: with senior writer and editor Scott Smith.
Speaker 2: And it is a great day, a great week. We
Speaker 2: are very happy here.
Speaker 1: We're three and one, we're going to the bye week,
Speaker 1: we're leading the NFC South, and most importantly, we beat
Speaker 1: the Saints. What a day?
Speaker 2: What a week?
Speaker 3: Does anything, seriously during any given season feel better than
Speaker 3: driving away from this that Super Dome with a win,
Speaker 3: no anything, nothing.
Speaker 4: I think that's the high.
Speaker 2: It's up there with the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I was okay, I was assuming a non Super yeah,
Speaker 1: non super Bowl season, but yes, you're right. It is
Speaker 1: one of the highs of this team's organization.
Speaker 3: The rivalry is not beating the Saints, but leaving that
Speaker 3: place and knowing you don't have to go there for
Speaker 3: probably another year.
Speaker 1: I do think that's one of your hottest takes, is
Speaker 1: how much you dislike that stadium.
Speaker 2: And I understand it. I understand it.
Speaker 3: I don't need to beat a dead horse. I've I've
Speaker 3: said it many times.
Speaker 4: I think people know.
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's ever upset with hearing more about that.
Speaker 1: But yes, again, three and one, going in the bye
Speaker 1: week leading in a South beating the Saints. What does
Speaker 1: this mean to this team at this point? And especially
Speaker 1: when you know, we know from outside there were all
Speaker 1: these voices naysay are saying that there were people predicting
Speaker 1: that the books that only have two wins the entire year,
Speaker 1: and they've already got three. So what does you think
Speaker 1: this means to this organization and team at this point
Speaker 1: quarter the way through?
Speaker 3: You know, what I think it is is a little
Speaker 3: bit of establishing an and identity on both sides of
Speaker 3: the ball.
Speaker 4: And that was.
Speaker 3: Something that coaches were openly talking about going into the season,
Speaker 3: that it might take a little while to figure out
Speaker 3: who we are as a team. And Todd Bowles said
Speaker 3: to that very question after the game, we're still figuring out.
Speaker 3: It might be a couple more weeks and a couple
Speaker 3: more games until we really know what this team is.
Speaker 3: But he did say, I feel like we're morphing into
Speaker 3: used the word morphing, morphing into a tough, physical team
Speaker 3: that does the things it needs to do to win.
Speaker 3: And on offense, you know, okay, the play calling in
Speaker 3: that game by Dave Coulis was pretty interesting, right.
Speaker 4: Chris Godwin threw a pass. Yeah, we had an end
Speaker 4: a round, we had a shovel pass.
Speaker 3: We had a lot of variety of plays even on
Speaker 3: one specific drive, just a really wide variety of plays.
Speaker 3: But then you get to the end of the game
Speaker 3: and you look at the stat sheet and you see
Speaker 3: thirty three runs, thirty four dropbacks, and they've hit that
Speaker 3: basic balance in all three of the wins. And I
Speaker 3: know that runs, the number of runs is not necessarily
Speaker 3: correlating to wins. It doesn't predict wins. It sometimes is
Speaker 3: because you're winning that you run more often. But this team,
Speaker 3: even though the average per carry hasn't been great, is
Speaker 3: sticking to that run.
Speaker 4: It's a physical team.
Speaker 3: The offensive line is playing very physical upfront, doing a
Speaker 3: great job of protecting the passer, and the defense is
Speaker 3: creating a lot of turnovers, which is what Todd Bowles
Speaker 3: always wants to do. It's very aggressive, a lot of blitzing,
Speaker 3: and it has a couple emerging playmakers that you can
Speaker 3: count on to make big plays when you need them to.
Speaker 3: And I think you're starting to see the identity of
Speaker 3: this team. And you walk away from that game three
Speaker 3: and one, you just beat the Saints, your bitter division rivals.
Speaker 3: Do the Saints know who they are right now? I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm questioning which team is in a better position right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really great point. And when you talk
Speaker 1: about big time playmakers, of course, typically that's going to
Speaker 1: immediately take you to Mike Evans. And a lot of times,
Speaker 1: if you think you're losing Mike Evans in the first half,
Speaker 1: h oh, how many games are you predicting that the
Speaker 1: Bucks win? Knowing how early you're losing him?
Speaker 2: So what did you.
Speaker 1: See in terms of what it meant to have him out?
Speaker 1: And then how many people were able to step in
Speaker 1: and what that said about the depth of this offense
Speaker 1: where you know, injuries happened throughout the course of the season,
Speaker 1: And to me, I walked away from that game feeling
Speaker 1: really good about you know what, if anyone does go
Speaker 1: down for a quarter, a game, a few games, you
Speaker 1: have so many people there to step in.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, before I answer that question exactly,
Speaker 3: Mike Evans against Marshall and Lattimore three catches for forty
Speaker 3: yards plus a really big passer inference flag he got
Speaker 3: called when he beat him on a double move. That
Speaker 3: was a good day for Mike I feel like if
Speaker 3: he had been able to play the second half, we'd
Speaker 3: be looking at this going this is one of the
Speaker 3: better outings for Mike in that bitter right rivalry with
Speaker 3: Marshawn Lattimore. But to your point, he didn't play the
Speaker 3: second half, and considering how he was the focal point
Speaker 3: of the passing attack through the first three games, you
Speaker 3: could be worried about that. But Chris Godwin had eight
Speaker 3: catches for one hundred and fourteen yards and some just
Speaker 3: gigantic plays like the forty two yarder that set up
Speaker 3: the last touchdown, And then you know, Devin Tompkins had
Speaker 3: his best day as a pro, at least in terms
Speaker 3: of catching the ball.
Speaker 4: And Trey Palmer.
Speaker 3: I feel like Trey Palmer, if you if you go
Speaker 3: all the way back through the preseason, it seems like
Speaker 3: he just makes one dazzling catch every game. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's never had really a gigantic stat line. There's that
Speaker 3: amazing catch by Devon. He's never had an amazing stat line,
Speaker 3: but he you know, you remember his plays because that play,
Speaker 3: according to Next Gen Stats, had a twenty two point
Speaker 3: eight percent chance of being completed. Well, of all the
Speaker 3: completions that Baker Mayfield had in that game, and there
Speaker 3: were twenty five of them, that one was the least
Speaker 3: likely to be caught, but he made the play happen.
Speaker 2: That's incredible.
Speaker 1: They underestimated Baker and Trey in that situation where understanding
Speaker 1: that they were going to make that happen. Also, shameless plug.
Speaker 1: We had Devin Tompkins on our radio show Monday that
Speaker 1: Ali Marpett and I are co hosting this year.
Speaker 2: And it was phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Devon has such a great story and it was very funny.
Speaker 1: He mentioned that he may not have run exactly the
Speaker 1: route he was supposed to do on that play on
Speaker 1: the touchdown, yep, on the touchdown that he said, there
Speaker 1: was a chance that wasn't quite how it was.
Speaker 2: Supposed to go.
Speaker 1: But then but then it became a scrambled it became
Speaker 1: a scramble drill, and he said, I just I saw
Speaker 1: the open spot. I saw where he needed to be,
Speaker 1: and so never mind, we ran a little bit of
Speaker 1: the wrong route. We got to where we ended up
Speaker 1: needing to be to make the play, which I thought
Speaker 1: was really great.
Speaker 2: Oh go ahead.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know if I'm doing this out of order,
Speaker 4: but we're going to talk about Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, yeah, and his third down passing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's that play was on third down.
Speaker 1: He is really I have loved watching his ability to
Speaker 1: make things happen, extend plays, particularly on third down, of
Speaker 1: evading sacks, scrambling. I mean, I think he could have
Speaker 1: had yeah, thirty one yards rushing when nothing is really
Speaker 1: a designed rushing play for him. That he was able to,
Speaker 1: you know, extend a lot of plays, mega up plays
Speaker 1: and definitely showed a lot of awareness, especially stretching the
Speaker 1: ball for a couple first downs.
Speaker 2: I've been really impressed with them.
Speaker 3: Well, you make a great point on his running, and
Speaker 3: that included the thirty one rushing yards included three negative
Speaker 3: one kneel downs at the end of the game, so
Speaker 3: he actually was more like five for thirty four and
Speaker 3: they were big runs all of them. And he's been
Speaker 3: doing that kind of sneakily in the first four games.
Speaker 4: But in addition to.
Speaker 3: That, he's the best third down passer in the NFL,
Speaker 3: right now, Wow, he was actually he actually had that
Speaker 3: going into this game. He had something like one hundred
Speaker 3: and nineteen passer rating, led the league in third down passing,
Speaker 3: and then in this game he was six of seven
Speaker 3: for eighty yards two touchdowns, and well, okay, we're talking
Speaker 3: about third downs overall, two touchdowns and no interceptions and
Speaker 3: pass rating like one hundred and fifty three.
Speaker 4: He's just making it happen on third down.
Speaker 3: And that's why the Buccaneers if we talk about some
Speaker 3: of the things the Bucks offense has done well and
Speaker 3: not done well, and the things are going to be
Speaker 3: talking about during the bye week, things are going to
Speaker 3: be you know, Dave Canlison and his staff are going
Speaker 3: to be going through the tape and seeing what the
Speaker 3: Bucks have done well. They're going to like what they
Speaker 3: see on third down. And it's not just short, medium
Speaker 3: or lung it's a lot of them. And that said,
Speaker 3: the last two categories are kind of overlapping because ten
Speaker 3: plus yards is part of the seven plus yards. But
Speaker 3: either way, the Buccaneers are top twelve in every form
Speaker 3: of third down passing. They had been a little bit
Speaker 3: shaky in that four to six range, but they went
Speaker 3: four for four in New Orleans to get that up
Speaker 3: a little bit. So that's one thing you got to like.
Speaker 3: And I think that goes back to the structure of
Speaker 3: the offense and how they're calling the plays and getting
Speaker 3: a lot of third and manageables.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: So I know that if we want to stay here
Speaker 1: on the kind of the offensive side of things, Tristan wurfs.
Speaker 1: I just feel like we've talked so much about that transition,
Speaker 1: and we knew what a good right tackle he was
Speaker 1: going to be, and is he going to be as
Speaker 1: good at left tackle?
Speaker 2: You're kind of afraid to mess with a good thing.
Speaker 1: Even though all of us, I'm sure had complete confidence,
Speaker 1: I'm sure interest and now everyone has seen we were
Speaker 1: right to have that kind of confidence in him.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure if we can come up with something
Speaker 3: that Tristan doesn't do well, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know he could probably play tight end, Yeah, needed
Speaker 3: to according to PFF. According PFF, he's pretty much the
Speaker 3: best pass blocking left tackle.
Speaker 4: Or is that this period? He's allowed what to pressures
Speaker 4: all year and he's faced some pretty good pass rushers.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think a lot of us were very
Speaker 3: confident that Tristan would handle it fine. And it goes
Speaker 3: back to the thing we learned in training camp that
Speaker 3: even a player as unbelievably great as a player who's
Speaker 3: been great since day one that he walked into the NFL,
Speaker 3: he had some concerns and he was a little am
Speaker 3: I going to be able to do this? And you
Speaker 3: don't think about those guys actually having doubts self doubts superheroes,
Speaker 3: and so.
Speaker 4: He had a little bit of that.
Speaker 3: When he was switching the left tackle, he told us,
Speaker 3: He's like, this is very import and am I going
Speaker 3: to be able to handle it?
Speaker 2: And well, yep, answer is yes.
Speaker 4: The rest of us had no doubts.
Speaker 1: Tryst and he's you know, yeah, I'm hopeful that after
Speaker 1: four games he's feeling pretty good about it as well.
Speaker 1: And then another kind of weapon of the offense Chase McLoughlin.
Speaker 1: This guy, man, I have to imagine that it's so
Speaker 1: nice for coach Bulls to have so many more options
Speaker 1: perfect at this point of like, man, I know that
Speaker 1: even if we only get to hear we got a
Speaker 1: guy now that we've extended our part of the field
Speaker 1: that we can get points from.
Speaker 4: It's the exact perfect point.
Speaker 3: That's exactly what Chase McLoughlin has meant to this team
Speaker 3: because if you look at he's two for two this
Speaker 3: year and kicks of over fifty yards, and if you
Speaker 3: look at both situations they were there were one score
Speaker 3: games in the fourth quarter where if he doesn't make it,
Speaker 3: you're giving them the ball near midfield and making them
Speaker 3: a short field to potentially tie or go ahead. And
Speaker 3: so you have to be confident going into that kick
Speaker 3: that he's going to make it, or you don't risk
Speaker 3: that you find it away. We would have punted Ryant
Speaker 3: suck Up was a Super Bowl ch champion, was a great,
Speaker 3: great kicker for us, But we would have punted in
Speaker 3: those situations with a kicker of his distance distance at
Speaker 3: the time, at that time in his career. And as
Speaker 3: that graphic was just showing, since Chase came into the
Speaker 3: league in twenty nineteen, he's the second best kicker in
Speaker 3: the league in terms of his percentage of making kicks
Speaker 3: from fifty and beyond nineteen of twenty three.
Speaker 2: It's incredible.
Speaker 4: That doesn't even seem logical.
Speaker 1: That's a decent percentage from Shorter one hundred percent.
Speaker 3: You take that from your entire body of work for
Speaker 3: a season, and that's his career from beyond fifty. So
Speaker 3: that's exactly why the Buccaneers signed this particular kicker in
Speaker 3: the offseason and they're getting what they pay for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: And then so let's talk a little bit about the defense,
Speaker 1: because man, they also had an incredible performance against the Saints.
Speaker 1: I feel like there have been games times in this
Speaker 1: history where the Saints have been able to rack up
Speaker 1: some yards, some touchdowns, some different things.
Speaker 2: And now they're holding the Saints without a touchdown this game.
Speaker 1: They're holding them to one hundred and ninety seven total
Speaker 1: yards lower in sixty three.
Speaker 4: Meetings, we played him sixty three times.
Speaker 2: Which is also crazy. That's a lot of times.
Speaker 4: It dates all the way back to nineteen seventy seven.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Bucks first win ever was against the Saints.
Speaker 2: Oh in fact, yes, say that fun fact.
Speaker 1: I mean, what does this say about this force when
Speaker 1: you do have so many meetings and you do so
Speaker 1: many times to have these kind of stats of the
Speaker 1: lowest the fewest, I mean, that's just got to be music.
Speaker 2: To the defense ears.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, there's been a lot of games
Speaker 3: in this series that the Bucks have won or lost,
Speaker 3: and you I think you've made this point where you're
Speaker 3: facing like Drew Brees and Alva Kamara and you're like,
Speaker 3: we know they're going to get yards. Yep, we know
Speaker 3: they're going to score some points. They're going to get
Speaker 3: some touchdowns, but no touchdowns. I mean, you know, Derek
Speaker 3: Carr may have potentially been a little bit limited because
Speaker 3: of the shoulder injury, but he was getting the rid
Speaker 3: of the ball extremely quickly, which meant a lot of
Speaker 3: checkdowns to Alvin Kamara, who caught thirteen passes but had
Speaker 3: thirty three yards on those thirteen receptions.
Speaker 2: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: Until that game, no player in NFL history had ever
Speaker 3: caught at least thirteen pass says that had less than
Speaker 3: seventy yards.
Speaker 4: Seventy I'm not talking fifty or forty.
Speaker 3: It was less than half of the lowest amount that
Speaker 3: a player has ever had on thirteen catches. And that's
Speaker 3: that is to me. It's it's kind of a gimmicky stat,
Speaker 3: I admit that. But what it does tell you is
Speaker 3: that the underneath coverage, the guys were getting to the
Speaker 3: ball extremely quickly and not letting Alvin Kamara do what
Speaker 3: he does so well, get the ball out in space
Speaker 3: on a and make moves. They were just getting to
Speaker 3: amasing play immediately. Players like Antoine Winfield.
Speaker 1: Devin White, Levonte n Yeah, yeah, I remember dropped him
Speaker 1: for a loss of seven on one player.
Speaker 4: So there's just a lot of swarming.
Speaker 3: And I feel like if you've seen that a lot
Speaker 3: from this defense through the first four games, a lot
Speaker 3: of really swarming to the football.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you brought up Antoine Winfield. I will always
Speaker 1: bring up in Yeah, we will always want to we
Speaker 1: are a stand account for Antoine Winfield Junior at this point.
Speaker 1: I don't know that in my time covering the box,
Speaker 1: I remember someone filling a stat sheet the way he.
Speaker 2: Did in this game.
Speaker 1: Like, there's been a lot of people that have had
Speaker 1: a lot of great games to have such a diverse
Speaker 1: way of impacting the game. Where you're forcing a fumble,
Speaker 1: recovering a fumble, you're getting a sack, you're getting QB hits,
Speaker 1: your tackles for loss. I mean, it was just unbelievable
Speaker 1: past defense. I knew there's that one, yep. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just feel like this performance was incredible and also
Speaker 1: definitely a reminder of why we were like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's put him back at safety. He's pretty
Speaker 2: good at that.
Speaker 3: I would point to one series early in the third quarter, uh,
Speaker 3: where it showed what Antoine Winfield is capable of. And
Speaker 3: you talked about filling up a stat line, I would
Speaker 3: say the only other guy that I've seen do that
Speaker 3: in recent years is Levante David. And I think Bucks
Speaker 3: fans are going to end up loving Antoine Winfield the
Speaker 3: same way they obviously love Levante David. But this series
Speaker 3: in the third quarter, on first down around midfield, he
Speaker 3: makes a play six yards in the backfield, drops Alvin
Speaker 3: Kamara out for a loss of six. Two plays later
Speaker 3: that pass breaking you just saw against chrys Olave three
Speaker 3: yards deep in.
Speaker 4: The end zone.
Speaker 3: Within the span of three plays, he made two amazing
Speaker 3: plays like fifty six yards away from each other, and
Speaker 3: so he was obviously close to the line scrimmage on
Speaker 3: the first play, he was obviously playing deep free middle
Speaker 3: of the middle of the field free safety on the
Speaker 3: second play.
Speaker 4: That's what he can do.
Speaker 3: You can move him all over the field and he's
Speaker 3: making plays. And I've been predicting for several years that
Speaker 3: he's going to be an all Pro.
Speaker 4: I feel like he's off to a really good start.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sag goal this year.
Speaker 1: I mean, he if he continues this, he's gold Jacket.
Speaker 2: Headed him and Tristan Worfs. That's my claim.
Speaker 1: That's my claim, that's my hot take. He and Tristan
Speaker 1: Worfs to me are outside.
Speaker 2: I mean, we all know that.
Speaker 1: We feel like Mike Evans, Levante David are guys that
Speaker 1: are worthy of that. To me, that after them, that's
Speaker 1: who you're watching, That's who I'm watching, is Tristan and Antoine.
Speaker 1: That I just feel like that's the direction that they're heading.
Speaker 1: And I'm just and it's so cool that Antoine is
Speaker 1: the guy that everyone has talked about the fact that
Speaker 1: from day one he came in a pro, he knew
Speaker 1: how to be a pro. And I'm sure a lot
Speaker 1: of that is thanks to his dad coaching him up
Speaker 1: all those years and telling them what.
Speaker 2: It takes better.
Speaker 1: We talk about the way he the way he tackled
Speaker 1: practice and film study, and also how he takes care
Speaker 1: of his body and his maturity. It was just like
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of people referred him as an
Speaker 1: old rookie, where he came in and he didn't seem
Speaker 1: like a rookie. He seemed like he already been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's very similar vibes for sure, but.
Speaker 4: By the way good segue there did.
Speaker 3: If you watch the Chris Godwin micd Up segment, there
Speaker 3: was a point where they were talking about Antoine on
Speaker 3: the side and they're like, well.
Speaker 4: He's short, but he's just a good player, yeah, just
Speaker 4: and knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1: And then we'll talk a little bit and we normally
Speaker 1: would talk about an upcoming game, but it is the
Speaker 1: bye week, so tell people a little bit about how
Speaker 1: the team tries to use this bye week.
Speaker 3: Well, they gave the players the full week off. They
Speaker 3: didn't have to. They could have had a couple of
Speaker 3: bonus practices early, but they had to give him four
Speaker 3: consecutive days off, and they gave him the whole day off,
Speaker 3: the whole week off, and they'll come back on Monday
Speaker 3: for a bonus day. What the coaches do, and they're
Speaker 3: not putting in the normal amount of hours. I mean,
Speaker 3: they're getting out there early, which they deserve to get
Speaker 3: a break as well, but they are coming in and
Speaker 3: Dave Canel's talked about how they wanted to take that
Speaker 3: week to kind of take a deep dive into the
Speaker 3: first four games and just really go over what has
Speaker 3: worked and you know what can we emphasize and what
Speaker 3: can we hang our hat on and make this offense
Speaker 3: sort of give it its identity. And so they've been
Speaker 3: studying film quite a bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think that's where we all talked about
Speaker 1: how man we hated what an early bye week it is.
Speaker 1: You tend to want it to be late to really
Speaker 1: get healthy right before crunch time. But man, I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: we needed to get healthy right now anyways. But b
Speaker 1: I think with a new offensive coordinator and a new
Speaker 1: system and a new quarterback and all that, in some
Speaker 1: ways it is kind of nice early on before it's
Speaker 1: you know, later in the season, like, hey, let's really
Speaker 1: sit down figure out what's working, well what's not. I
Speaker 1: think in some ways that's kind of a benefit. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm sure come week twelve, if we have a bunch
Speaker 1: of iness again.
Speaker 4: We're going to be like, dang it, but we have
Speaker 4: two buys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for right now, I think it makes sense. And
Speaker 1: then all right, we will close with this Creamsickle game.
Speaker 1: In case you have not seen has been flexed. That
Speaker 1: is our next game we have here after the bye week.
Speaker 1: It was a one pm now it is a four
Speaker 1: to twenty five. So whether you're coming to the game,
Speaker 1: watching the game, all of that. Just want to make
Speaker 1: sure everybody knows it got flex which I was very
Speaker 1: excited about.
Speaker 4: And why do games get flexed?
Speaker 2: Because the teams are doing.
Speaker 3: Well right because they want more of the nation to
Speaker 3: see this and that I mean right now, Detroit still
Speaker 3: has another game to play, but right now that's a
Speaker 3: matchup of two first place teams.
Speaker 2: That's going to be a fun one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's gonna be great, And there's gonna be so
Speaker 1: many cool things that the team is doing for the
Speaker 1: stadium and the whole in game experience. I'm just so
Speaker 1: glad more people will get to see the cream school
Speaker 1: jerseys and the entire experience we have. And I know
Speaker 1: there is going to be some special merch dropping as well,
Speaker 1: so everyone cannot get enough of all the Creamsicle merch
Speaker 1: right now, myself included.
Speaker 2: So make sure you are paying.
Speaker 1: Attention over this next week or so and checking out
Speaker 1: the team store, checking out the bucks website and socials
Speaker 1: because there are going to be some very cool exclusive
Speaker 1: things dropping that you can only find at shop dot
Speaker 1: Buccaneers dot com.
Speaker 4: So I love those shots of the Olts b great
Speaker 4: and yes.
Speaker 2: The old sombrero.
Speaker 1: I think maybe there could be some swag.
Speaker 2: That has to do with that, a little teas.
Speaker 1: Therefore, now we don't know, we don't know, but all right,
Speaker 1: we hope all of you are getting outfitted, you're getting ready.
Speaker 1: Use that by week to get ready for the Cream
Speaker 1: school game. We get back, we'll be back here next
Speaker 1: week to take more of a look at that matchup,
Speaker 1: So we'll see you then,