Speaker 1: Welcome into Buccaneers Insider Live. Casey Phillips and Scott Smith here,
Speaker 1: and man, they're making our jobs easy these last couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. So many things to talking about, starting out
Speaker 1: to and know a division road win, beating the defending
Speaker 1: Super Bowl champs. I mean, this is just about as
Speaker 1: fun as a guest. I thought about having us both
Speaker 1: show up in the outfit, but I knew that we
Speaker 1: couldn't pull it off like he did. It would just
Speaker 1: the lack of the beard would be a problem. Yes,
Speaker 1: that is true. Going to give me, need to give
Speaker 1: me a couple of months to try to get Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I might need a little longer, but you
Speaker 1: never know. So yeah, I mean that was just so fun.
Speaker 1: And I know people probably have tons of thoughts, comments,
Speaker 1: questions about these games and the one coming up Monday
Speaker 1: Night Football. We're taking all of those on the Facebook page.
Speaker 1: The head over to the Buccaneers Facebook page. If that's
Speaker 1: not already where you're watching, comment underneath our live video,
Speaker 1: and that's where we will seales, questians and yeahs as
Speaker 1: those come in. Let's let's let's acknowledge it's only two games.
Speaker 1: We're not getting over excited we're not talking super comparently
Speaker 1: exact actually think the perfect amount of the extremely excited.
Speaker 1: I don't have to be one those people that stays humble,
Speaker 1: like to be ridiculous, but I mean, you don't want
Speaker 1: to make any assumptions based on two games. But but
Speaker 1: on the other hand, not only are we two and oh,
Speaker 1: it's such and such exciting fashion. Let's enjoy it whiles
Speaker 1: while it's happening. The Bucks have been to and O before,
Speaker 1: not since two thousand ten, but they did win ten
Speaker 1: games when that happens more often than not when they've
Speaker 1: started out to know, they've been in playoff contention. There's
Speaker 1: been a couple of seasons that sort of went off
Speaker 1: the rails after that. But it's happened eight times, which
Speaker 1: you'd like it to be a bigger number. But um,
Speaker 1: this is different. And I'll tell you why. The Buccaneers
Speaker 1: have never started a season two and oh with wins
Speaker 1: over two teams that were in the playoffs the previous year.
Speaker 1: They've never even started to and O with wins or
Speaker 1: two teams that were over five the year before. This
Speaker 1: is the best two games start in that regard in
Speaker 1: team history. I mean the Super Bowl season that that
Speaker 1: team actually lost their first game. Um, it was kind
Speaker 1: of flukey, but uh so there's a lot of reasons
Speaker 1: to feel good about this. And now you you you've
Speaker 1: made it through two thirds of what everybody considered to
Speaker 1: be a ridiculous opening season gauntlet, the in terms of
Speaker 1: number of wins, the hardest three games start any team
Speaker 1: has ever had. You are coming off a five and
Speaker 1: eleven season, and you have your starting quarterback suspended. It's
Speaker 1: understandable that people would think Bucks Are going to maybe
Speaker 1: struggle to get one winner at first three and then
Speaker 1: try to write theirselves and get back in the race.
Speaker 1: You're playing with house money now at two and oh,
Speaker 1: and now you're home against the Pittsburgh team that clearly
Speaker 1: is very good but also has looked vulnerable. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't really bet sports betting um
Speaker 1: NFL here that I don't really see, but it is true.
Speaker 1: I never we're not allowed. I took that gambling course
Speaker 1: last week. Yes, um, but I would imagine there's a
Speaker 1: shot that the Buccaneers would actually be favored in this game.
Speaker 1: And so if you're all of a sudden favor to
Speaker 1: go three and oh through that gauntlet, it'll be an
Speaker 1: opening season that everybody around here should be absolutely excited about.
Speaker 1: I mean, who could have seen this coming? Yeah, which
Speaker 1: I think is so incredible. And I think there is
Speaker 1: something to the idea of playing as underdogs that teams
Speaker 1: have always done well when people that when it feels
Speaker 1: like there's nothing to lose and you can just play
Speaker 1: so freely. And I feel like that's when a lot
Speaker 1: of big plays happen, is teams are just letting it fly,
Speaker 1: almost And I wonder how much of that just pours
Speaker 1: into this idea of the confidence that they've had of
Speaker 1: like why not us, you know one's better let go
Speaker 1: more concrete reason, I think we're getting all those big
Speaker 1: places that we have awesome players. Oh my gosh. Our
Speaker 1: offense just looks incredible, especially the past catchers I think overall,
Speaker 1: especially because we talk about wide receivers. But I want
Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts on past catchers overall. Do you
Speaker 1: think we have the best unit in the league? Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: I think you definitely would. It's gonna sound Homer's for
Speaker 1: us to say so, but I think it objectively, they
Speaker 1: have to at least be in the discussion for the
Speaker 1: best group of patis catchers, and I think it's probably
Speaker 1: the case, just top to bottom, so many weapons. One
Speaker 1: I'd like to talk about is Mike Evans. Now de
Speaker 1: Sean Jackson, understandably and for good reason, has been the
Speaker 1: biggest story of these first two games. He leads us
Speaker 1: in yards, he leaves us in touchdowns. Every pass we've
Speaker 1: thrown to him has been completed. He's averaging like thirty
Speaker 1: yards per catch and per target, which is incredible, right.
Speaker 1: But I discovered I discovered the statistic on NFL Jesus
Speaker 1: Uh yesterday and I talked about it on our podcast
Speaker 1: with Jeff Ryan Salty Dogs. But I know not every
Speaker 1: single person here is going to listen to that podcast,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna throw it out here as well. It's
Speaker 1: called net yards over average, and if you could, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a complicated stat but if you're a hockey
Speaker 1: fan at all and you've heard of plus minus, you
Speaker 1: know what that means. So if you're on the ice
Speaker 1: school differential, and you know, if you're on the ice
Speaker 1: and your team scores more and you have a good
Speaker 1: plus minus means you're a good player. This is somewhat
Speaker 1: an NFL equivalent to that. They take um six years
Speaker 1: worth of outcomes every play of every game, and using that,
Speaker 1: they have an average of what you should expect on
Speaker 1: any given play like first and ten at the should
Speaker 1: get you five point nine yards or something like that.
Speaker 1: So if you get more than that or less than that,
Speaker 1: that impacts your differential. There your net you are differential,
Speaker 1: and if you're on the field, you get credit for that.
Speaker 1: Every player that is okay, Like the first play of
Speaker 1: the game, we were expecting to get about five yards
Speaker 1: and we got seventy five. So that's like a plus
Speaker 1: seventy for every player on the field. Right there, Mike
Speaker 1: Evans leads the entire NFL in net yards over average
Speaker 1: right now, the entire every position, every player. He is
Speaker 1: number one in both overall and per plays. Incredible. Now,
Speaker 1: all of our offenses up there, because the offense has
Speaker 1: been ridiculous. We have nine hundred fifty two or eighty
Speaker 1: two is something that yards, and we probably were expected
Speaker 1: to have about six or seven hundred at this point.
Speaker 1: So everybody's well over You see all our offensive lineman
Speaker 1: right there near the top. But Mike's even higher than
Speaker 1: that because he's not on for every single play. But
Speaker 1: when he's on there, we're averaging like twelve yards of play,
Speaker 1: which is insane. And and I'll give you a concrete
Speaker 1: example or a couple of them. The first touchdown to
Speaker 1: Deshaan Jackson in New Orleans. I think we already discussed this. Uh,
Speaker 1: the reason fits stairs at Mike Evans and the safety
Speaker 1: and another player go to him. That's why Deshawn's wide open. Okay,
Speaker 1: the threat of Mike Evans is hell being to Shawn
Speaker 1: Jackson on the seventy year touchdown. DeShawn said that the
Speaker 1: safety and top in center field left to go cover
Speaker 1: Mike Evans and that's why he was so wide open.
Speaker 1: So Mike Evans is impacting plays when he's thirty yards
Speaker 1: away from Paul. Wow, that's incredible. That's a great stadtar.
Speaker 1: It's what we've always talked about you with like Gerald
Speaker 1: McCoy and the idea of needing people around to distract
Speaker 1: every one. So now it seems like we have that
Speaker 1: on offense and defensive. Yeah, let's talk about that, which
Speaker 1: is huge. So yeah, the the defensive the first game
Speaker 1: was incredibly excited from an offensive samepoint, but the defensive
Speaker 1: said they don't want to be allowing in a game,
Speaker 1: and so what did you see from week one to
Speaker 1: week two that changed about Well, I'd like to address
Speaker 1: first your your very good point about Jerry McCoy um.
Speaker 1: That's why you bring in Jason Pierrele Pierre Paul, and
Speaker 1: Vinny Curry and and so on, and especially those two
Speaker 1: who are your new starting defensive ends. The passports has
Speaker 1: not been overwhelming so far. Four sacks or two games
Speaker 1: is good, but not awesome. But they did hit Nick
Speaker 1: Foles twelve times in that game, which is a lot.
Speaker 1: Jason Pierre Pierre Paul hit him four times. Okay, Curry
Speaker 1: and Pierre Paul, your two new starting ends already have
Speaker 1: one sack each. Again, that's not overwhelming, but it's a
Speaker 1: really encouraging start because I went back and looked at it.
Speaker 1: You know, in the last time, both of our opening
Speaker 1: day starting defensive ends already had at least one full
Speaker 1: sack just two games in the season. One wow, Marcus
Speaker 1: Jones and Simeon Rice, which not bad company. We've been
Speaker 1: looking for something productive on the on the edges for
Speaker 1: a long time, even put some draft picks into a
Speaker 1: lot of free agent signings, and nothing's really turned out.
Speaker 1: Two games doesn't prove anything, but it's a really encouraging start.
Speaker 1: That's huge. I love that idea. And so do you
Speaker 1: feel like this is something that you see the defensive
Speaker 1: all even though there have been some injuries. We haven't
Speaker 1: seen Burnton Grimes yet. We know we've lost Vernon Hargraves.
Speaker 1: For a while that there there was concern of what
Speaker 1: is this defense going to look like with some pieces missing?
Speaker 1: Do you still think we don't know the injury situation yet?
Speaker 1: We don't have an injury report until tomorrow or actually
Speaker 1: maybe Thursday. Yeah, I forget that it would be Thursday. Um,
Speaker 1: so what are your thoughts on this defense overall and
Speaker 1: what they might be able to do on Monday, not
Speaker 1: knowing for sure who else healthy. You know, they still
Speaker 1: gave up four something yards to the Eagles, and that's
Speaker 1: not ideal. But nowadays yards aren't really as great of
Speaker 1: a measuring stick as they used to be. Everybody's putting
Speaker 1: up huge amount of yards. I mean, when the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: had that great defense that won the Super Bowl, they
Speaker 1: gave up like two twenty five yards a game that
Speaker 1: that would be unheard of. Now, even the best defenses
Speaker 1: they're giving up like I looked at the Eagles had
Speaker 1: a very good defense last year, and they gave up
Speaker 1: like three and forty yards a game. I mean, and
Speaker 1: we're playing from behind. You're gonna be trying to that
Speaker 1: as well. And so it actually you can see that
Speaker 1: a team gives up a lot, but they might be
Speaker 1: because they were winning by so much. And that's exactly
Speaker 1: what happened in that Philadelphia game. In particular, New Orleans,
Speaker 1: they did do a lot in the Philly game up six.
Speaker 1: The defense made a lot of good plays early on seven, right,
Speaker 1: and then they did as you said, we're trying to
Speaker 1: protect a lead, we're running the clock, we're giving the
Speaker 1: ball back to them. They had like thirty six minutes
Speaker 1: of time of possession compared to ours because we kept
Speaker 1: hitting big touchdowns and then otherwise we had a lot
Speaker 1: of three and ounce when we're trying to round the clock. Um,
Speaker 1: so you give up a lot of arts. But think
Speaker 1: about it. We give up twenty one points, which isn't terrible.
Speaker 1: And the last seven lose was on the insane fourth
Speaker 1: down pass. I still can't believe Nick Foles got that
Speaker 1: ball in there. I mean, sometimes you have to give
Speaker 1: the other team credit from making a ridiculous place. But
Speaker 1: before that happened, the books made the Eagles take like
Speaker 1: seven plays from about the fifteen yard line in they
Speaker 1: made a bunch of stops before that fourth down play,
Speaker 1: and what that did was it ran like two or
Speaker 1: three more minutes off the clock, which ended up being
Speaker 1: crucial at the end. So it's about making some big plays.
Speaker 1: The quant Alexander strip sack, the Levante David stop on
Speaker 1: fourth down on Zack Arts, you've gotta make some big plays,
Speaker 1: justin Evans where he almost got killed making that diving breakup,
Speaker 1: and and the pass rush has been great on that play.
Speaker 1: So I think it's still reasonably be concerned about this
Speaker 1: secondary because you have such young guys getting so many snaps.
Speaker 1: But if they can continue to get the kind of
Speaker 1: pressure they got against Philadelphia, it will make it possible
Speaker 1: for those guys to make some plays when we really
Speaker 1: need it. Yeah, that's a great point. And of course
Speaker 1: I just love that fitz Magic has been such a
Speaker 1: thing this week, even national news. We saw him on
Speaker 1: the damp Patrick Show earlier today and it's just been
Speaker 1: so fun. I didn't see it. Did he have the
Speaker 1: offit on? It was on the phone, so you never know.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's just wearing it all the time. Now, he
Speaker 1: did say that he hopes people are not expecting him
Speaker 1: to do it all the time. And he was like
Speaker 1: that that was a one time thing. And Newton comes
Speaker 1: out in a kind of a crazy outfit almost every prison, right,
Speaker 1: so I think he was trying to make sure he
Speaker 1: tempered everyone's expectations of this. This was a one time
Speaker 1: spur at the moment, no planning involved thing. Um, but
Speaker 1: I just want to hear your thoughts on why you
Speaker 1: think fits his plates well and how sustainable is it,
Speaker 1: because that's the question everyone has is how long can
Speaker 1: they continue to do this well? And that's the million
Speaker 1: dollar question because before long we're gonna have the elephant
Speaker 1: in the room when Jameis winston suspension is over, and
Speaker 1: you know who's going to be the starter for the
Speaker 1: bulk of the season. To this point, of course, and
Speaker 1: for a reason, for good reason, coach Cutter said, that's
Speaker 1: not an issue for us to be discussing right now,
Speaker 1: right where you need to be discussing Pittsburgh right now,
Speaker 1: and we'll see what happens. So, um, I lost my
Speaker 1: train thought. What was the original part of how long
Speaker 1: do you think Fitzpatrick? There's reasonably there's reason to believe
Speaker 1: he could sustain this. And one of those reasons, as
Speaker 1: Coach Cutter pointed out after praising um Fitzpatrick for a
Speaker 1: number of reasons, saying, and of course look at the
Speaker 1: cast around him. The offensive line is playing great in
Speaker 1: front of him, and he's got all these fantastic playmakers.
Speaker 1: You know, that really helps, and so it would be
Speaker 1: reasonable for somebody who would be on the jamis should
Speaker 1: be starting side to say he's going to have access
Speaker 1: to the same weapons. But your simple question of can
Speaker 1: fits keep it going? I think he can because as
Speaker 1: again as Coach Cutters pointed out on several occasions, this
Speaker 1: didn't come out of the blue. He's had big games
Speaker 1: like this. There's a chance he wins NFC Offensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Week again this year this week because Patrick
Speaker 1: Mahomes is in the a f C. So he's certainly
Speaker 1: got a good shot, maybe Matt Ryan, but if he does,
Speaker 1: that'll be his sixth seventh of RAW, but his sixth
Speaker 1: since two thousan fourteen, and the only guys who would
Speaker 1: have more in that span are Aaron Rodgers with eight
Speaker 1: and another quarterback who's like Tom Brady or somebody has seven.
Speaker 1: I mean he's capable of these big games and not
Speaker 1: just once or twice, right, you know, Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: great point um And he's had such success in the
Speaker 1: passing game. Do you think is that the running game
Speaker 1: has not been as prolific, but it seems like it's
Speaker 1: been what you needed it to be. So which do
Speaker 1: you think kind of came first? Is that the running
Speaker 1: game just hasn't been as necessary when they're throwing these
Speaker 1: seventy five yard bombs, or are they throwing the seventy
Speaker 1: five yard bombs because the running game isn't there. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody wants a balance attack, as coach Cutter will say,
Speaker 1: that's the hardest type of attack to defend. But he
Speaker 1: also says, you know, when something's working, you stick with it.
Speaker 1: I don't care how we get four dred yards. If
Speaker 1: we have to throw it on every play, then we will.
Speaker 1: And it's just been working, So why would you go
Speaker 1: away from it? I think there's enough of a threat
Speaker 1: of the run that play action works. The very first
Speaker 1: play of the game that the seventy touchdown, we lined
Speaker 1: up in a regular eye with Alan crosses the fullback
Speaker 1: and and just two receivers and tighten. Just a total
Speaker 1: normal first down in formation that looks probably like it's
Speaker 1: probably gonna be a run. A lot of teams run
Speaker 1: out of that on first and tent and play act
Speaker 1: in and touchdown right, and we we us that this
Speaker 1: is just what I remember. But I remember seeing that
Speaker 1: formation on the field at least three times, and every
Speaker 1: time I can recall, it was a pass. So there's
Speaker 1: enough of a threat of the of the running game
Speaker 1: to at least give your play action some bite. But no,
Speaker 1: it's not where it needs to be yet. And then
Speaker 1: linebackers is I realized a position we've not talked a
Speaker 1: whole lot about. We've got a lot of attention to
Speaker 1: the pass words, the defensive line overall, and the new
Speaker 1: look at has the injuries because of the secondary who
Speaker 1: has had to step up. We haven't talked a lot
Speaker 1: about the linebacker for I wanted to hear your thoughts
Speaker 1: on the first couple of games, and we didn't have
Speaker 1: kindle back with and what that was gonna look like.
Speaker 1: So what have you been to your thoughts on them? Well,
Speaker 1: I'd say the reason we're not talking about them it's because,
Speaker 1: like we said leading into the season, you've got this
Speaker 1: new look defensive line. You're gonna talk about that a lot.
Speaker 1: You've got issues in the secondary and some young guys there.
Speaker 1: The linebackers are you know what you got? Levante David
Speaker 1: and Kuanaxander are legitimate star linebackers. And to have both
Speaker 1: those guys running around, they're always on the field for
Speaker 1: every play because they're your nickel package as well. I
Speaker 1: don't personally were call a ton of plays that a
Speaker 1: Darius Taylor has made. He's not on the field as much,
Speaker 1: But I don't recall big breakdowns either. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you do. And Lavante and quin have already made
Speaker 1: some big plays, like a referenced earlier. They the big
Speaker 1: tackle on zach ERT's on fourth and a couple of yards.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is vintage what Philadelphia does.
Speaker 1: They put most of their players on one side of
Speaker 1: the offense, and then they split zach Arts on the
Speaker 1: other side, and they work it so that he is
Speaker 1: one on one with whatever you decide to put over there.
Speaker 1: And sometimes it's a safety in the Buck's case. In
Speaker 1: at least this case, they had Levante on him. That's
Speaker 1: just man demand coverage. So zach Ertz runs a pivot,
Speaker 1: which is a tough route to cover, because the first
Speaker 1: thing you're worried about is what we did when we
Speaker 1: needed the first down on third down, the slant um
Speaker 1: Mike Evans. That's the first thing you worry about is defender.
Speaker 1: You don't want to get that quick slant. So a
Speaker 1: pivot starts, isn't in and then they pivot and go out.
Speaker 1: It's a tough route to cover. And indeed he ran
Speaker 1: it well. The pass was right on the money, but
Speaker 1: Lavante's coverage was good enough that he was there to
Speaker 1: make the tackle and stop him like a yard and
Speaker 1: a half short. So that's a great play by Lavante. David,
Speaker 1: that's huge. I love it all right. Well, we hope
Speaker 1: to see all of you guys out there Monday night football.
Speaker 1: We need everyone out. The Ring of Honor for Tony
Speaker 1: Dungeon is going to be so fun as well. Thanks
Speaker 1: as always for joining us and we'll see you back
Speaker 1: here next week.