Speaker 1: Welcome to Bucks Insider Live. Casey Phillips here with senior
Speaker 1: writer and editor Scott Smith. We're here to talk about
Speaker 1: everything Buccaneers related, from the game that did not go
Speaker 1: as we had wanted it to go, to this upcoming
Speaker 1: game that we will hope we'll go a little bit better,
Speaker 1: and of course to answer all of your Facebook questions,
Speaker 1: So if you have one, force make sure you head
Speaker 1: on over to the live video on Facebook and leave
Speaker 1: it in the comments section right underneath. We'll get to
Speaker 1: those later in the show. So for now, let's just
Speaker 1: start with the takeaways on this game of Now that
Speaker 1: we've had a few days to digest the unfortunate outcome,
Speaker 1: what are some of the big things that stand out
Speaker 1: to you? Well, Casey, it's just most a lot of
Speaker 1: NFL games come down to one score or just a
Speaker 1: few points, and no matter who is favored or by
Speaker 1: how much, it's still a lot of them come down
Speaker 1: to that. And that means that a lot of these
Speaker 1: games come down to a handful of plays one team makes,
Speaker 1: some one doesn't, and a lot of times those key
Speaker 1: plays are and what coaches like to call situational f ball,
Speaker 1: third downs, red zone, short yardage, two minute drills, and
Speaker 1: short yards including two point conversions, and the Buccaneers have
Speaker 1: already lost two games by two points in which they
Speaker 1: could have tied the game with a two point conversion
Speaker 1: and did not. The Buccaneers just simply didn't make the
Speaker 1: plays in those key moments, and the most glaring of those,
Speaker 1: obviously were the third and elevens and longer four of
Speaker 1: them almost consecutively that Mitchell Drabinsky and the Steelers were
Speaker 1: able to convert, and Coach Bull said on Monday that
Speaker 1: he knows exactly what happened, of course he does, after
Speaker 1: watching the film on each of those four plays, and
Speaker 1: in each one of them it was a different player
Speaker 1: who made the critical mistake. Uh. It's disappointing, obviously, and
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers certainly expected to win against a one in
Speaker 1: five team that had a secondary depleted by injuries, but
Speaker 1: they did not make the plays in those key moments
Speaker 1: in situational football, and that is probably what has to
Speaker 1: change for the Buccaneers to get back on track. Three
Speaker 1: and three first place in the NFC South. That's obviously
Speaker 1: the optimal stick way to look at it, but they've
Speaker 1: also lost three of their last four games, and a
Speaker 1: couple of those I felt like they were very winnable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I know that in particular, we talked going into
Speaker 1: the game about how depleted that Stealers secondary was, and
Speaker 1: I think we assumed this could be a get right
Speaker 1: game for the Buccaneers offense that has so much potential
Speaker 1: and we've seen it with you know, a lot of
Speaker 1: the same people put up thirty plus a game pretty consistently,
Speaker 1: and to see the especially the struggles early on getting
Speaker 1: that going. And so what did you see happen this game?
Speaker 1: And not only not maybe being able to take advantage
Speaker 1: of the secondary that was pretty depleted, but even some
Speaker 1: of your more go to guys like Chris Godwin, we
Speaker 1: saw I think he was only one of six in
Speaker 1: terms of the early targets to him. So what did
Speaker 1: you see happening from the passing game and particularly the
Speaker 1: longer passing game that wasn't clicking. I don't think it
Speaker 1: was the best game for some of those guys, including
Speaker 1: Tom Brady. Um, Tom Brady has been awesome and actually
Speaker 1: the the the uh passing game was sort of getting
Speaker 1: right before that game through Tom Brady through for three
Speaker 1: and eighty one yards and three touchdowns. Against Kansas City,
Speaker 1: he threw for another three fifty and the win against
Speaker 1: Atlanta had just the one touchdown. Because red zone has
Speaker 1: become a problem in the last couple of games and
Speaker 1: was again here, so it was surprising. I would say
Speaker 1: that they were unable to make these connections even if
Speaker 1: the Pittsburgh defense was playing a sort of game that
Speaker 1: was intended to try to take away the big plays.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why Tom Brady kept trying to
Speaker 1: go to Chris Godwin early on and they just couldn't
Speaker 1: hook up, which is uncharacteristic because those two over the
Speaker 1: time Tom Brad's been here, have had a great connection
Speaker 1: and I think they will continue. I'm not worried in
Speaker 1: the long run that that's not gonna work. And in fact,
Speaker 1: Chris ended up catching six catches for yards, which would
Speaker 1: normally seem like a good day, but he was targeted
Speaker 1: twelve times, so that's not great efficiency. But Tom Brady
Speaker 1: to Mike Evans to Chris Godwin is still what this
Speaker 1: offense is all about and what is going to carry
Speaker 1: us forward. I believe in The amazing thing about this
Speaker 1: is it's hard to believe that we're watching these two
Speaker 1: guys at the same time together on the same offense
Speaker 1: for so long, And if you look at this list here,
Speaker 1: obviously we know Mike Evans is the leading receiver in
Speaker 1: franchise history by a long shot. Chris Godwin is about
Speaker 1: to become number two, number one of everybody that's not
Speaker 1: named Mike Evans. He only needs thirties six more yards
Speaker 1: to pass a buccaneer legend and Kevin House and six
Speaker 1: more to pass Mark Harrier. And the only guy who
Speaker 1: would have more yards than him in team history is
Speaker 1: his teammate Mike Evans, Which I think it kind of
Speaker 1: snuck up on me a little bit that we have
Speaker 1: one in two. Are we're as soon gonna have one
Speaker 1: in two in franchise instory? Yeah, that means it's been
Speaker 1: a fun time to be a buck stand two watching
Speaker 1: all of these receiving yards. Yeah. Um, I know that
Speaker 1: Antoine Winfield Jr. Has definitely been a bright spot on
Speaker 1: this team in this defense, no matter what has been
Speaker 1: going on with the games or how many points allowed
Speaker 1: or anything that he has seemed to me maybe the
Speaker 1: most consistent player on defense is Yeah, you would agree
Speaker 1: with that, So tell me what you've seen from him,
Speaker 1: and the fact that we can be saying that about
Speaker 1: a guy that's essentially having to play a new role
Speaker 1: and is still such a young player is amazing to me. Well,
Speaker 1: I think the most telling thing about this is that
Speaker 1: with Logan Ryan out and then Mike Edwards out, the
Speaker 1: what they didn't Okay, So when we had both those guys,
Speaker 1: Antoine Winfield and Mike Edwards would start at safety and
Speaker 1: base packages and then in sub packages like the nickel,
Speaker 1: which you usually are in about seventy percent at the time,
Speaker 1: so it's almost your really your base defense. Antoine Winfield
Speaker 1: goes down to become the slot corner and Logan first
Speaker 1: Logan Ryan and then Kean O'Neill came in to be
Speaker 1: the third safety. With Logan Ryan and Mike Edwards out,
Speaker 1: they didn't take Antoine Winfield back and make him a
Speaker 1: safety the snaps and put in a third quarterback into
Speaker 1: the slot. They kept winfielding his role and put the
Speaker 1: very inexperienced d Delaney a cornerback at safety. That is
Speaker 1: because they did not want to mess with what was
Speaker 1: happening with Anton Winfield and they had this new role
Speaker 1: for him where he's a safety and a slot corner,
Speaker 1: and he is making impact plays every single game, including
Speaker 1: a sack in this last one, and you just want
Speaker 1: to keep him in that role. Look at this over.
Speaker 1: He's the only defensive back in the NFL, by the way,
Speaker 1: including all these three guys. Here are five guys here
Speaker 1: who has double digit sacks in each of the last
Speaker 1: three seasons, which which for him, are his only three
Speaker 1: NFL seasons. But here's another thing in addition to this
Speaker 1: that might amaze you. He's got eight point of sacks.
Speaker 1: How far away do you think that Antoin Winfield is
Speaker 1: from being the Bucks all time leader among safeties and sacks. Well,
Speaker 1: if you're asking, probably pretty close, right, he's already got it. Whoa,
Speaker 1: he's that's the most sacks any Buckaneer safety has ever
Speaker 1: had in his career. That's two years and six games.
Speaker 1: That is incredible, what a statistic. Like. John Lynch was
Speaker 1: an amazing player. He's in the Hall of Fame. He
Speaker 1: used to have the record at six because they just
Speaker 1: didn't blitz him. All right. That's the best part of
Speaker 1: it is the role he's being put in the way
Speaker 1: that bowls sets them up, and that's what the guys
Speaker 1: talk about about why they love Bowls scheme. It sets
Speaker 1: them up to make so many of those splash plays
Speaker 1: at all different positions. And I think was it Larry
Speaker 1: Foote who was saying the other week about how they
Speaker 1: look for Tursday mornings, like, is my name gonna get called?
Speaker 1: I want? I want to be the guy? Yeah. Probably
Speaker 1: the better comparison for Antoine than the other safeties in
Speaker 1: the league is Randey Barber, because Randey Barber played that
Speaker 1: slot role and they blitzed him a lot, and obviously
Speaker 1: he had a billion sacks I mean his I think,
Speaker 1: and just an amazing number for a defensive back. That's
Speaker 1: more what Antoine Field is chasing, right, Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think I saw that he's tied among all defensive backs
Speaker 1: in the league this year for Secon Yeah, for three
Speaker 1: and we're six games in, so it could be five,
Speaker 1: it could be six by the end of the season.
Speaker 1: And if he can add a couple of picks to
Speaker 1: that as well. He was already a pro bowler last year.
Speaker 1: But I've made the prediction on our Salty Dogs podcast
Speaker 1: before the season that I thought antro Winfield would be
Speaker 1: a first team APL PROB. Yeah. I think hes got
Speaker 1: to have counting numbers for for the voters to vote
Speaker 1: for you, So he needs more sax and a few
Speaker 1: more picks and they'll have a shot. Okay, And then
Speaker 1: you kind of mentioned this earlier in the show, But um,
Speaker 1: I know that you know football fans, They're passionate and
Speaker 1: that occasionally can mean a bit of a skies falling mindset.
Speaker 1: It's fair, it's understandable. Nobody likes to lose. And uh,
Speaker 1: I know that this is at three and three, maybe
Speaker 1: not where the Bucks wanted to be or hoped to
Speaker 1: be at this point in the season. What do you
Speaker 1: see as what this means for where we're at and
Speaker 1: moving forward of can they still accomplish what they want
Speaker 1: to accomplish at three? Aid? Like I said before, three
Speaker 1: and three and three doesn't feel great because you're one
Speaker 1: in three in your last four and a couple of
Speaker 1: games there that you really felt like you probably should
Speaker 1: have won. That being said, if you want to take
Speaker 1: the glass half full, look at it. They are tied
Speaker 1: for the division lead with Atlanta, who looks to be
Speaker 1: better than you expect. But we already have a win
Speaker 1: over them. We already have a win over New Orleans,
Speaker 1: and we have a shot to make it a first
Speaker 1: half sweep in the division this weekend against Carolina. And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of different sites that have NFL playoff
Speaker 1: odds on them. One of the most prominent five thirty eight.
Speaker 1: They often they do a lot of election stuff too,
Speaker 1: their playoff odds or i'm sorry, their division winning odds.
Speaker 1: For the Buccaneers, they still have US at and that's
Speaker 1: the third that's the third best of all the eight
Speaker 1: division leaders. Because some of these quite frankly, some of
Speaker 1: these teams have a lot more competition. I mean, the
Speaker 1: Eagles are six and oh and their record, their their
Speaker 1: playing fids are below us. Because Giants are five. One
Speaker 1: in Dallas is four and two. It's got to be frustrated.
Speaker 1: So I'm not saying anything about the other teams in
Speaker 1: the Bucks Division, but by record at least there it
Speaker 1: isn't the toughest division in the league. And the Buckneers
Speaker 1: already have a two and old record against division opponents.
Speaker 1: Now they're about to play a Carolina team that recently
Speaker 1: fired its head coach and has tons of injuries at
Speaker 1: the quarterback position. You obviously cannot go. They're expecting to
Speaker 1: win just because of that because we just saw what
Speaker 1: happened in Pittsburgh. That being said, if the Buccaneers can
Speaker 1: fix a few things, they should have a good shot
Speaker 1: at going three and old in the division this weekend.
Speaker 1: So tell me what those things are in your mind
Speaker 1: that you most want to see this weekend against Carolina
Speaker 1: and and maybe the chances of being able to fix
Speaker 1: them in essentially one week that there's, you know, the
Speaker 1: idea of what they know they need to do, but
Speaker 1: can it actually happened this weekend. Tempted to say running games,
Speaker 1: since the Buccaneers are last in the league in the
Speaker 1: arts per game, and I'm not sure they've really need
Speaker 1: to be a great running team in order. They really
Speaker 1: haven't been a great running team the last couple of years,
Speaker 1: but still had the highest scoring offense in the league.
Speaker 1: One of the things I would say is probably red zone.
Speaker 1: In the last few games, the Bucks are I think
Speaker 1: three of nine or three of eight and something like
Speaker 1: that in the red zone if that means scoring touchdowns.
Speaker 1: We got to score touchdowns. The Buccaneers had the ball
Speaker 1: about six inches from the goal line in that game.
Speaker 1: The second of one brought into power package lost three
Speaker 1: yards third down. Tom Brady got sacked your six inches
Speaker 1: from the end zone and you settle for three points
Speaker 1: and you lose the game by two. Kind of easy
Speaker 1: to connect the dots there, So red zone would be
Speaker 1: a big one. The other thing that's confounding is I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but sometimes you're watching a game
Speaker 1: and it's not going exactly how you want, but you're like,
Speaker 1: this has got to turn around, and you say, somebody
Speaker 1: always says, boy, this would be a good time for
Speaker 1: a for an interception. Where are the takeaways? The Buccaneers
Speaker 1: have not had it. They've had one takeaway in their
Speaker 1: last three games. And this is a Todd Bowles defense
Speaker 1: that is among the league leaders in takeaways since he
Speaker 1: got here. It's it's part of the DNA of this defense.
Speaker 1: Where are they They're gone, there's no takeaways. It's it's
Speaker 1: a weird note and it's partially positive. But the last
Speaker 1: two games, neither team has committed a turnover in the box.
Speaker 1: That's only the second time in team history that the
Speaker 1: Bucks have gone two straight games in which neither team
Speaker 1: committed a turnover. So it's weird, and obviously you like
Speaker 1: the fact that the offense hasn't turned the ball over,
Speaker 1: but where are the turners and defense? So give me some,
Speaker 1: give me, give me a little bit of success and
Speaker 1: red zone, which I think they can fix by self
Speaker 1: scouting and seeing what's working best and what's not. And
Speaker 1: then I don't know how you you can't really coach turnovers,
Speaker 1: but we need to get some more. Turnovers are so
Speaker 1: interesting because sometimes they're fluky, right that there was the
Speaker 1: forced fumble, but then they fell on it, you know,
Speaker 1: And it's sometimes a tipped pass that you could have
Speaker 1: intercepted if it hadn't been tipped. You know that there's
Speaker 1: just some weird things about it. But then I know
Speaker 1: that they wouldn't say that that's acceptable because that's always
Speaker 1: the case. And they've gotten more, you know, turnovers and
Speaker 1: takeaways in the past. The Bucks are about I think
Speaker 1: tied for fourth something or like that in terms of
Speaker 1: takeaways with nine, but five of those came in one
Speaker 1: game in New Orleans and four of them were in
Speaker 1: one quarter, so they definitely come in. Bunches were in
Speaker 1: a drought. Now we need to go from drought to bunches,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, that is going to do it for us.
Speaker 1: On this edition of Buccaneers, Insider Live. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for being with us. Enjoy the game this weekend.
Speaker 1: We'll see you next week. M