Speaker 1: Good morning and good morning Bucks fans. How's everyone doing,
Speaker 1: Casey Phillips. Here was senior writer and editor Scott Smith,
Speaker 1: and it is time for Buccaneers Inside or Live, presented
Speaker 1: by Miller Lyte. This is not our normal time, and
Speaker 1: that's because playoffs, babies, You're coming at you like crazy.
Speaker 1: This week. We got one today, we got one tomorrow,
Speaker 1: we got one Thursday. So basically, any question you have,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have the time to answer it. And so
Speaker 1: that's what we need you guys to do now is
Speaker 1: submit your questions to us over on that Facebook page
Speaker 1: in the comments section, so as we give everyone a
Speaker 1: chance to start doing that. Um, let's go ahead and
Speaker 1: start with. Of course, the major question I know we're
Speaker 1: gonna get asked a thousand times is Mike Evans. And
Speaker 1: I know that we did get to hear from Bruce yesterday.
Speaker 1: He gave some updates not just on Mike, but all
Speaker 1: the different guys that are either on you know, COVID
Speaker 1: situations or injury situations, so kind of give us a
Speaker 1: bird's eye view of everything that he covered in that sense, Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: what everybody wants to know is Mike Evans, what's status
Speaker 1: for the game and it's not decided yet, but it
Speaker 1: certainly was really really good news on Monday. You know,
Speaker 1: you were at stadium. We were all there when Mike
Speaker 1: got heart immediately after breaking that record and it didn't
Speaker 1: look good and just the air went out of the
Speaker 1: whole stadium, and you know you started thinking at that moment, Boyd,
Speaker 1: we're winning. But I'd trade this win for having Mike
Speaker 1: Kevins in the playoffs. It's possible we'll have both. The
Speaker 1: goodness is no structural damage. You know those um the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers had those big pools, uh tubs, hot and cold
Speaker 1: tubs in their hydro room at the oven Held Trading
Speaker 1: Center and one of them has a treadmill for a
Speaker 1: floor so you can run in the water and you
Speaker 1: can run and loosen up your your legs without all
Speaker 1: the pounding. Right, he was already doing that on Monday.
Speaker 1: To me, that's a really good sign. He hardly has
Speaker 1: any swelling. That's another really good sign. And Bruce arians
Speaker 1: said he hopes to having back in practice on Thursday,
Speaker 1: and if that happens, I would think you'd be looking
Speaker 1: at him playing on Saturday night. I mean, it's incredible.
Speaker 1: I think we we thought there was a chance that
Speaker 1: looked like the kind of injury that he might not
Speaker 1: even be ready for the start of next year. There
Speaker 1: was I mean, to go from thinking he could be
Speaker 1: out a full year two thinking he might not even
Speaker 1: miss a game. He was insane. And it's it's so
Speaker 1: exciting for him. And again, I think even when we thought,
Speaker 1: not only is it the games even earlier, that we
Speaker 1: even have a day earlier game by playing on Saturday,
Speaker 1: and where the fact that he might be playing is incredible. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but that's actually not good in a couple of ways.
Speaker 1: And Bruce arians said he wasn't exactly excited when he
Speaker 1: saw the schedule because that Devin White, you know when
Speaker 1: and Steve mcclindon when they when they started their quarantining,
Speaker 1: it does not look like they will be available Devin
Speaker 1: for sure on Saturday night, And had the game been
Speaker 1: on Sunday, there might have been a chance. So that's
Speaker 1: a little bit. It's it's disappointing, it's not wrong. It's
Speaker 1: the league didn't do anything bad to us, and and
Speaker 1: certainly we've seen all year that uh competitive concerns like
Speaker 1: the Broncos not having a quarterback or the Browns. Not
Speaker 1: having receiver are not reasons for the the league to
Speaker 1: schedule in certain ways, So they weren't going to give
Speaker 1: us a break just because they wanted to be nice
Speaker 1: to us. So it just didn't work out in that regard.
Speaker 1: But coach did say that Shack Barrett is going to
Speaker 1: be back, so that's great. That will help our pastors
Speaker 1: quite a bit. It really the Pastors really needed some
Speaker 1: help in that game against Atlanta, you could tell that.
Speaker 1: So I not so sure yet on Jeremiah lad Better.
Speaker 1: But also the good news looks like Carlton Davis should
Speaker 1: be able to come back. Coach said he would be
Speaker 1: up and running was the words he used for the game.
Speaker 1: So that's great. Yeah, that is. I mean, all of
Speaker 1: that is is almost the best news you could hope for.
Speaker 1: The one with Devon is a little unfortunate timing wise,
Speaker 1: but nothing we can be doing about that. So um,
Speaker 1: all right. We had a question from Jermaine and he asked,
Speaker 1: is there any possibility that Vita would be back in
Speaker 1: the playoffs? No, I look through this, U. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy answer, right. I look back on this recently
Speaker 1: for I think maybe a mail bad question or something
Speaker 1: I wanted to see the last time, and I was
Speaker 1: talked about. I think if I remember right, it was
Speaker 1: November six, and I can totally understand, Uh, you know
Speaker 1: the way you can come back from I are these
Speaker 1: days you start thinking, Okay, they said he was done
Speaker 1: for the season, but but now it's longer him and O. J.
Speaker 1: Howard and coach said, I think the words was something
Speaker 1: like very very unlikely or he basically dismissed it. And
Speaker 1: really the injury, it was a pretty bad injury leg
Speaker 1: injury at the time, and it was clearly going to
Speaker 1: take more than uh, you know, four months or whatever.
Speaker 1: So adding a couple of weeks on the season doesn't
Speaker 1: make any difference to that or to O. J. Howard.
Speaker 1: So that would be great And can you imagine Vida
Speaker 1: coming bad for the playoffs? But it's not gonna happen. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So sad Um Bridget had asked, who will we be
Speaker 1: playing first in the playoffs, So now that we know
Speaker 1: our matchup, to tell us, tell us who it is
Speaker 1: and what some things are about that matchup to keep
Speaker 1: an eye on, well, Bridget. The Buccaneers will be playing
Speaker 1: at Washington on Saturday night. It's their first playoff games
Speaker 1: since two thousand and seven. I think I misspoke the
Speaker 1: last time we were talking about this on Sunday night.
Speaker 1: Our most previous playoff game was against the Giants in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. I think I said was Washington.
Speaker 1: We played Washington in two thousand and five, and actually
Speaker 1: that was here, and uh, Washington won that game. The
Speaker 1: only other playoffs game with Washington was Annox made a
Speaker 1: big comeback and one four thirteen to get to the
Speaker 1: n C Championship game. So it's one one. So this
Speaker 1: is the tiebreaker, and uh, it's at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a little cold, the field will probably
Speaker 1: be a little slick, Coach Areen said. Uh. And really
Speaker 1: the big thing to look at the big match up
Speaker 1: here is the Buckeers offense and Tom Brady obviously just
Speaker 1: absolutely red hot right now. Just the last month. Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's pass rating is something like a hundred twenty six
Speaker 1: point nine. But Tom Brady did not didn't and the
Speaker 1: Bucks offense did not face this Washington defense in and
Speaker 1: during that stretch, and it is a legitimate playoff caliber defense,
Speaker 1: one of the best in the league. I know that
Speaker 1: for the football team was only seven and nine and
Speaker 1: you don't make the playoffs with the sub five very often.
Speaker 1: But forget that, because this defense is legit and the
Speaker 1: Bucks offense against that defense is one of the best
Speaker 1: matchups of the whole wild card weekend. Yeah, that's gonna
Speaker 1: be so much fun. I mean, Chase Young has had
Speaker 1: a heck of a rookie season. I think, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: he's he's a little good of football. So and of
Speaker 1: course he issued his little challenge of how he's coming
Speaker 1: for Tom Brady, which I loved bruce Arians response to that.
Speaker 1: His His response to that was essentially, I'd be careful
Speaker 1: issuing challenges to the goat because it's it's like what
Speaker 1: we saw in the last dance when Michael Jordan was
Speaker 1: challenged and how poorly that went for people. I get
Speaker 1: the feeling that that may be something that that Tom
Speaker 1: Brady says he doesn't pay attention to, but may put
Speaker 1: a little extra chip on the shoulder, which seems like
Speaker 1: a dangerous move. Yeah, but do Let's also point out
Speaker 1: that Bruce said be careful what you wish for at
Speaker 1: the end of a long answer which also said how
Speaker 1: good Chase Young and Montes sweat and all those first
Speaker 1: round picks. Queshton has a front r So uh, there's
Speaker 1: a good line at the end, but he does acknowledge
Speaker 1: that that those guys, yes, completely agree. Um. Josh asked
Speaker 1: without Devon, how will the Bucks defensive blitz package be utilized?
Speaker 1: And who would be the coverage guy on Logan Thomas.
Speaker 1: So overall, I think let's add to this question just
Speaker 1: how you felt like we looked without Devon in there?
Speaker 1: Who stepped up and and and what a Devin Lists
Speaker 1: defense seems to look like. Kevin Minter obviously is the replacement,
Speaker 1: and he did a really nice job replacing Devin White. Listen,
Speaker 1: there's only one guy in the league who had hundred
Speaker 1: forty tackles in nine sacks, so it's hard to replace
Speaker 1: Devin White with the exact same caliber player. But Kevin
Speaker 1: Miner did a really nice job and the Bucks certainly
Speaker 1: trust him. He was in the right place, he moved around,
Speaker 1: He had a good range and moved around the field,
Speaker 1: made a lot of plays, made some He can cover
Speaker 1: downfield a little bit like he did towards the end
Speaker 1: of that game. Uh and uh. He also has shown
Speaker 1: on several occasions that he can. He can blitz up
Speaker 1: the middle just like Devin White can. Now, Devin White
Speaker 1: is pretty special in that regard. But we can still
Speaker 1: blitz up the middle with both Kevin and Lavante, and
Speaker 1: Coach actually mentioned that as a possibility when he was
Speaker 1: talking yesterday. So the blitz packages shouldn't be impacted. You
Speaker 1: can still do the same things. You just don't have
Speaker 1: Devin White. UM. As far as covering Logan Thomas, of course,
Speaker 1: when you answer these questions, you have to realize it's
Speaker 1: not the same guy every time. We don't have one
Speaker 1: guy following Logan Thomas around and covering him every time. Obviously,
Speaker 1: whatever defense you call sometimes it's a zone, of course,
Speaker 1: and whatever defense you call is going to dictate that.
Speaker 1: But we do have a very good coverage linebacker and
Speaker 1: Lavante David He he really is an extremely good coverage linebacker.
Speaker 1: So when Lavante is matched up on Logan Thomas, it's
Speaker 1: a good matchup for us. And we had a couple
Speaker 1: of questions that kind of go together. Kevin and Greg
Speaker 1: both essentially asked about the way that we will try
Speaker 1: to slow down their D line and Chase Young in particular,
Speaker 1: and UM Greg brought up. Do you think that Auclaire
Speaker 1: or Joe Haig will be used as an extra pass
Speaker 1: protector often? So what do you see as the game
Speaker 1: plan there in terms of trying to stop their D line.
Speaker 1: I understand that, and I'm sure there will be times
Speaker 1: when you use an extra tech or tight end in
Speaker 1: there to help with the protection scheme. But remember that
Speaker 1: on many occasions, Bruce arians has stated his preference to
Speaker 1: not go max protect because he wants as many guys
Speaker 1: available at cash passes. He knows that it's a bit
Speaker 1: of a risk reward, but he likes he prefers to
Speaker 1: have more guys available for targets, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: and less max protect. So you're you're probably gonna see
Speaker 1: a ton of that even against this team. Uh. For
Speaker 1: one thing, Tom Brady is very good at getting rid
Speaker 1: of the ball quickly, one of the reasons why the
Speaker 1: Buccaneers ranked second in the whole league and sacks allowed
Speaker 1: for pass play. The offensive line has been great, of course,
Speaker 1: but Tom Brady knows how and when to get rid
Speaker 1: of the ball, and UH, that helps you in that regard.
Speaker 1: And then we trust a lot of our our defensive alignment.
Speaker 1: I mean It's not just Chase Young, it's Montes Sweat.
Speaker 1: But whichever one is coming off h the right end
Speaker 1: of the Bucks line is facing Tristan Worse. And as
Speaker 1: great as Chase Young has been, Tristan Worse has been
Speaker 1: just as good on the other side of the ball.
Speaker 1: By um, he has only been credited with allowing one
Speaker 1: sack all year. That's that's incredible. I mean I saw
Speaker 1: a recent All protein by ESPNS Bill Barton while and
Speaker 1: he picked Tristan Works is one of his tackles as rookie,
Speaker 1: the only rookie on the team. So just remember this
Speaker 1: Washington front is is an incredible challenge, but the Buccaneers
Speaker 1: have a pretty good line to hold up there into
Speaker 1: that challenge. Yeah, that's a great point. Um. Stephen asked
Speaker 1: how big of a factor do you think Ronald Jones
Speaker 1: will be about against Washington. I wanted to hear how
Speaker 1: you felt like he looked coming act from being on
Speaker 1: the COVID list and with that broken finger. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't know about you, but I thought he looked great. Now,
Speaker 1: obviously we didn't throw him the I'll pass a single time,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if they thought that if that
Speaker 1: just was circumstantial or they just didn't want to risk
Speaker 1: it when he was wearing that brace on his hand
Speaker 1: that makes him curling these two fingers like that, so
Speaker 1: he's playing with eight fingers and it's you know, it's
Speaker 1: catching ability has obviously been a bit up and down
Speaker 1: this year as it is, but running the ball, he
Speaker 1: was he was explosive, sharp cuts. I thought he looked
Speaker 1: really good. It seems pretty clear at this point that
Speaker 1: the Bucks aren't gonna rush for a hundred fifty yards
Speaker 1: in a game very often, or even a hundred a
Speaker 1: lot of times. But what coach talks about is having
Speaker 1: effective running game when they run the ball. Are they
Speaker 1: getting four yards on first down or half of the
Speaker 1: distance too on second down? Or are they getting the
Speaker 1: first down on a third and short? Are they getting
Speaker 1: the ball on the gold line as Leonard Ford has
Speaker 1: done very well on you know, into the end zone.
Speaker 1: So Bruce thinks the Bucks running game has been effective,
Speaker 1: even if it's not putting a huge numbers. And I
Speaker 1: think you saw a lot of play action in this
Speaker 1: last game, and that's that helps when you're running game
Speaker 1: is effective. I'm glad someone asked this question you and
Speaker 1: I before the show, we're telling how we wanted to
Speaker 1: bring this up. Delvin asked, is there a chance we
Speaker 1: hold a night practice sometime this week to be better
Speaker 1: prepared for primetime football. There's a chance right now. I've
Speaker 1: looked at the schedule. He was just looking at it
Speaker 1: right before we came on, and it's look, it's a
Speaker 1: pretty normal schedule, uh, you know, except accelerate. So today
Speaker 1: is a Wednesday, and so on, and they're actually practicing
Speaker 1: in the afternoon, which is a little bit of a
Speaker 1: change because it usually practice in the morning on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: But that's just a couple of hours difference. The rest
Speaker 1: of the schedule looks like a normal week schedule and uh,
Speaker 1: and so at the moment, there isn't a night practice scheduled. Um.
Speaker 1: Bruce arians did say that he could. This whole thing
Speaker 1: is subject to change and he could decide to do that,
Speaker 1: and if he does, it would probably be the Thursday practice.
Speaker 1: But as of now, that's not the case. And I'm
Speaker 1: not sure it really made that much of a difference
Speaker 1: the last time we did it. Yeah, that's true. Um.
Speaker 1: And also just in general, Um, what do you feel
Speaker 1: like the biggest key will be in that game? On
Speaker 1: Saturday of if you were going to pick one thing
Speaker 1: that has to go a certain way, uh, to make
Speaker 1: sure that the Bucks get the win, what would be
Speaker 1: the thing that you say would be the most important.
Speaker 1: Okay I lost a little bit of audio there in
Speaker 1: the middle of that, But the question is what's the
Speaker 1: most important thing to happen for the Bucks. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you were to pick one key to the game, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I could always go the easy answer and
Speaker 1: say turnovers. Um, but what I'll I mean, I'll just
Speaker 1: go back to what we were just talking about. If
Speaker 1: Tom Brady has given time to throw, I think that
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers will have a very good chance of winning
Speaker 1: this game because he is locked in right now. We
Speaker 1: probably will have Mike Evans, so we have the full
Speaker 1: complement of incredible weapons, and I just I know how
Speaker 1: good Washington's defense is. But if we can keep the
Speaker 1: pressure off Tom Brady, I think he can beat it.
Speaker 1: All Right, Well, that's gonna do it for us. On
Speaker 1: this edition of Buccaneers Inside a Live presented by Miller Lyte. Again,
Speaker 1: we are doing these three days in a row this
Speaker 1: week leading up to the playoffs to make sure you
Speaker 1: guys have answers to all of your questions you have,
Speaker 1: so we'll be back again tomorrow morning at ten and
Speaker 1: Thursday morning at ten, so make sure you join us then.
Speaker 1: If there were any questions that we didn't get a
Speaker 1: chance to get to you today, we'll see you then.
Speaker 1: Umah