Speaker 1: Welcome in two Bucks Insider Live Casey Phillips. Here was
Speaker 1: senior writer and editor Scott Smith, and I think hopefully
Speaker 1: we are finally not jetlagged enough that we can make
Speaker 1: some sense on the show. We're feeling good finally. I'm
Speaker 1: kind of happy the show wasn't any sooner. I don't
Speaker 1: even know what we would have talked about, who knows,
Speaker 1: but we have an exciting win from Germany to talk about.
Speaker 1: And we know you probably have done some questions as
Speaker 1: the Bucks head into their bye week about the team
Speaker 1: and about the season. So if you want to send
Speaker 1: us those, put them underneath the live video on Facebook
Speaker 1: and the comments section. We'll get to some of those
Speaker 1: in a little bit. So for now, just go ahead
Speaker 1: and tell me a little bit about the big picture
Speaker 1: takeaways from the game and anything that really stood out
Speaker 1: to you in terms of what this game meant to
Speaker 1: this team and some of the individuals on it. Well.
Speaker 1: I asked Donovan Smith in the locker room up to
Speaker 1: the game, I said, it was this a statement game
Speaker 1: for you guys because they've taken some heat, right and
Speaker 1: they've had adjust to a lot of lineup changes. And
Speaker 1: he agreed, and really they think of the amount of
Speaker 1: time that Tom Brady had to throw in that game.
Speaker 1: He was not sacked, He was only hit one time.
Speaker 1: He uh he had. He had an average of two
Speaker 1: point seven eight seconds from the snap to the throw,
Speaker 1: which is by far his highest average of the year.
Speaker 1: In this season, he's been getting involved really really quickly
Speaker 1: and throwing a lot of short passes. But think about
Speaker 1: those passes down field. Mike Evanscott went down the sideline
Speaker 1: kay dot and kind of down the scene. Chris Goblin
Speaker 1: had one Scotty Miller, remember the one where he jumped
Speaker 1: at the near the goal line. He had time to
Speaker 1: look down field and be comfortable and wait and let
Speaker 1: those plays develop. And that's the little thing. We haven't
Speaker 1: seen a whole lot of out of this offense this year.
Speaker 1: It's a lot more like what we did in two
Speaker 1: thousand twenty. See here you go with the offensive line
Speaker 1: statement game. Hundred sixty one rushing yards, zero sacks all that. Also,
Speaker 1: the Buccaneers had their best third down game. There were
Speaker 1: ten of fifteen, but really it was ten of thirteen
Speaker 1: because there were two kneel downs on the third down
Speaker 1: and the Bucks were over for two in the first
Speaker 1: two drives needing ten in fourteen yards. So from then on,
Speaker 1: the eleven times they tried to convert the third down,
Speaker 1: they succeeded ten times, which is pretty and that's why
Speaker 1: you have these extended drives. And part of that was
Speaker 1: because the good work in the running game was producing
Speaker 1: a lot of third and one, two, three, and they
Speaker 1: were there were seven and seven on those, so that
Speaker 1: all worked together to create a type of offensive output
Speaker 1: that we haven't seen a whole lot of this year. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it felt like every storyline that had been a question
Speaker 1: mark for the team got answered in this game, right
Speaker 1: the third and one and third downs on both offense
Speaker 1: and defense, and the red zone and extending the drives
Speaker 1: and not making the defense beyond the field too long,
Speaker 1: faster starts, I mean, you name it, every potential issue
Speaker 1: except one except one. They still kind of lagged a
Speaker 1: little bit on defense at the end after a dominant performer.
Speaker 1: It was very much like the a little bit of
Speaker 1: a let up in the second half. Well, not even
Speaker 1: the second half, it was like the fourth quarter. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: a little bit in the second half, because if it
Speaker 1: hadn't been for that force fumble by Devin White, then
Speaker 1: um it could have been a lot of harrier, and
Speaker 1: I was thinking about that of how important that was
Speaker 1: of after five games of no turnovers and even you
Speaker 1: can say even you know, five and a half games,
Speaker 1: or if you want to depend on how specific you
Speaker 1: want to get so many games without a turnover, and
Speaker 1: that play by him, it's a reminder of how big
Speaker 1: turnovers are, of what they can do. Because I agree
Speaker 1: with you that because that came not long after the
Speaker 1: Seahawks interception on the trick play, and it was Lloyd
Speaker 1: that we went from the Bucks having all the momentum
Speaker 1: to suddenly you could feel that shift happening and it
Speaker 1: felt a little dangerous. And then Devon's play, I mean
Speaker 1: to me, it was it saved the momentum and potentially
Speaker 1: saved the game, especially when you look at the fact
Speaker 1: that they really ended up only winning by five. It's
Speaker 1: not like it was this blowout situation. Well, they immediately
Speaker 1: not only did they get that, but they immediately then
Speaker 1: drove eighty seven yards for a touchdown. So it was
Speaker 1: a complete swing of like potentially fourteen points. And so
Speaker 1: at that point it was twenty one three with about
Speaker 1: eleven minutes to play, and while the defense did have
Speaker 1: some lapses. The rest of them way, they're just ran
Speaker 1: out of time, right, Yeah, in twenty one three, with
Speaker 1: eleven mints to play, you're almost always gonna win that game.
Speaker 1: So it might have seemed a little scary at the end,
Speaker 1: but the odds were never very strong of Seahawks coming
Speaker 1: all the way back. Yeah, And so tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about not just that play, but Devon White's
Speaker 1: game overall. I mean, now we've seen that he's named
Speaker 1: the NFC Defensive Player of the Week, which very deserving,
Speaker 1: and um, you know, I know people have probably at
Speaker 1: this point heard about the emotional side of it for
Speaker 1: him of losing his dad a few days before the game,
Speaker 1: so we know what it what it meant to him
Speaker 1: personally for this game. You see him sort of acknowledging
Speaker 1: his dad after that play, but so separate from just
Speaker 1: the emotions and the personal side of it for him
Speaker 1: in terms of what that game meant to the team
Speaker 1: and what we saw about what this means about Devon's
Speaker 1: level of play? What did I say? Yeah, well, you
Speaker 1: probably recall, I'm sure that he was the NFC Defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Month for September, so he obviously was
Speaker 1: playing really, really well, and the Bucks offense, if you
Speaker 1: probably also recall through the first three games, was killing it.
Speaker 1: And I think they were averaging nine points allowed per game,
Speaker 1: and it was it was the best known league. And
Speaker 1: then you know, it didn't kind of hold up as much,
Speaker 1: and and Devon himself took a little bit of heat
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks from outside sources, and uh
Speaker 1: you see this performance and it's very much more like
Speaker 1: Devon White at his best, and that means a lot
Speaker 1: to this defense, and especially in terms of getting after
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks. He had the two sacks because that play
Speaker 1: counted as a sack, the one we just saw with
Speaker 1: the force phone. He had another one, and uh, now
Speaker 1: he's got I can't remember how many has this year,
Speaker 1: maybe four point five or something, but over the last
Speaker 1: well since he came in the league, over four years
Speaker 1: of off ball linebackers, not edge rushers like Shack Barrett,
Speaker 1: but off ball linebackers, he's the one with the most
Speaker 1: sacks of anybody in that span. And that's a big
Speaker 1: part of what the Buccaneers can do because the Bucketeers
Speaker 1: are I think maybe second in the league in sacks
Speaker 1: as a team, but we don't. I mean, Vita Vea
Speaker 1: leads us with six point five, we don't have Shack
Speaker 1: Barrett with ten sacks, right right, is very much a
Speaker 1: team effort, you know, Antoine Winfield's got three uh and
Speaker 1: and Devin White is a big part of that effort.
Speaker 1: He had the two sacks, He had another play where
Speaker 1: he just shot up the middle and disrupted the play
Speaker 1: and I think he got credit for a quarterback hit.
Speaker 1: So that element to the game. It was maybe missing
Speaker 1: for a little while, but having that bag is big.
Speaker 1: And then of course because he did so well, we
Speaker 1: forgot to mention or I forgot to mention he was
Speaker 1: named the NFC Defense Player of the Week. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's amazing and uh and it's so well deserved
Speaker 1: and just so happy for him. And you know earlier
Speaker 1: you didn't mention the longer drives, which of course we
Speaker 1: know also helps the defense, helps those guys be fresh
Speaker 1: to make plays like that. For sure. Um, it's one
Speaker 1: thing to know that just recently this team had struggled
Speaker 1: a little bit in terms of putting together longer drives
Speaker 1: and finishing them. But put into perspective a little bit
Speaker 1: for U is how impressive. It was how long these
Speaker 1: drives were, how many of them they were doing that.
Speaker 1: Did it feel impressive just because of what they've done
Speaker 1: recently or was it actually a pretty big deal. It's
Speaker 1: not common that the Bucks did do what they did
Speaker 1: in that game. They came into this game with three
Speaker 1: drives touched on drives of eighty or more yards in
Speaker 1: the entire first nine games, and they had three in
Speaker 1: that game. They had an eight eight and eighty seven
Speaker 1: and an eighty three I think six, So three of
Speaker 1: the top five longest drives of the entire season touched
Speaker 1: on drives were in this game. And as you can
Speaker 1: see there on this chart, doing that three times one
Speaker 1: game is not common, at least it's not common for
Speaker 1: the Bucks. I didn't look it up for every team,
Speaker 1: but I have charts of of drives going back to
Speaker 1: two thousand and I could only find five games is
Speaker 1: including this one in that span where the Buccaneers had
Speaker 1: three a plus touched on drives in the same game,
Speaker 1: and they never had four, so they I don't have
Speaker 1: the information from earlier, but from two thousands on in
Speaker 1: the last twenty three seasons, that's as good as it's
Speaker 1: been in terms of sustaining drives. So it's it's not common,
Speaker 1: but it is encouraging going forward. But we may not
Speaker 1: have touchdongs drives next week or the week after, but
Speaker 1: showing the ability to consistently keep moving the chains is
Speaker 1: what was encouraging. Yeah, I feel like a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago, Coach Bowls said one of his availabilities about
Speaker 1: how some of these plays and drives and moments are
Speaker 1: contagious where you just kind of need to get started,
Speaker 1: you need to get rolling a bit. And it feels
Speaker 1: like maybe that game winning drive for the Rams was
Speaker 1: that catalyst. It was that thing to remind the team
Speaker 1: who they are, get that identity back. And then, of
Speaker 1: course health is just such a huge factor in this
Speaker 1: and it's why the Bucks were the healthiest team in
Speaker 1: the league the year they won the Super Bowl. That
Speaker 1: is not a coincidence. It wasn't the case last year,
Speaker 1: and it was not the exactly And I feel like
Speaker 1: this last game against Seattle was the closest we've seen
Speaker 1: to having a fully healthy team, because, yeah, you had
Speaker 1: most of these guys week one, but I think it's
Speaker 1: safe to say, Chris Godwin, you know you lost in
Speaker 1: part with through the game and he just wasn't back
Speaker 1: as much in terms of his legs under him and
Speaker 1: all of that. To feel like, you have Antoine Winfield
Speaker 1: junior back, you have Achem Hicks back, Julio Jones looked
Speaker 1: like Julio Jones, Chris Godwin looked more like Chris Godwin,
Speaker 1: both of those guys getting their first touchdowns. I feel
Speaker 1: like we finally saw the Bucks team that they had envisioned,
Speaker 1: and you forget how much either Brady having to learn
Speaker 1: all these new different targets not having that consistency every day. Um,
Speaker 1: I just feel like this is hopefully a sign of
Speaker 1: what this team can be moving forward when they're healthy. So,
Speaker 1: now that it's the bye week for you, what are
Speaker 1: the biggest things that you're going to be looking at
Speaker 1: for this back part of the season. We're past the
Speaker 1: midway point, but you know by week yeah, kind of
Speaker 1: a half and half things. So what are the biggest
Speaker 1: takeaways you feel like you have from that beginning part
Speaker 1: that will be something you're looking for these back seven Well,
Speaker 1: I think you kind of brought it up earlier. The
Speaker 1: the things that have been ailing the Buccaneers, most of
Speaker 1: them Third and one third and short third downs, overall
Speaker 1: red zone. Uh, just basically consistently maintaining that things were
Speaker 1: doing well, having time to make plays down feel a
Speaker 1: little bit more, getting Chris Godwin and Julio Jones more involved,
Speaker 1: that sort of thing. Um, that was all in that
Speaker 1: evidence is you just very well pointed out in this
Speaker 1: game in Germany can and continue is at the beginning
Speaker 1: of a trend, and I would like to think so. Um.
Speaker 1: But you also mentioned how coaches talk about momentum, right,
Speaker 1: and these things building on each other, or turnovers coming
Speaker 1: in budges and so on. I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: actually true, but I understand why they feel that way,
Speaker 1: and maybe that sort of speaks it into existence because
Speaker 1: they've been through this. I mean, think about the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl year, right, things weren't going great headed into the
Speaker 1: bye seven and five better than five and five, but
Speaker 1: they weren't going great. I lost three of the last
Speaker 1: four and then came out of that and just started
Speaker 1: rolling right, and then everything they were doing well. They
Speaker 1: were doing well every single week, and so maybe they
Speaker 1: maybe the fact that they feel like that can happen
Speaker 1: will help it happen. Yeah, And I think that, Um,
Speaker 1: It's so interesting how every year when it comes to
Speaker 1: the bye week, we always end up talking about how
Speaker 1: thankful we are the bye week is here to get
Speaker 1: some guys healthy. I don't remember a time where the
Speaker 1: week before the bye week we were saying, Wow, look
Speaker 1: at all these guys we have back healthy, and how
Speaker 1: what a luxury that is to not be in more
Speaker 1: of a desperate place and have a late by like
Speaker 1: this and still feel like you're actually trending upward health
Speaker 1: wise even before you hit the by. Yeah, and this
Speaker 1: maybe there's some help get Logan Ryan closer to returning
Speaker 1: so they have more options on defense. Again, Uh, it
Speaker 1: helps that Leonard four Net will have time to rest
Speaker 1: that hip injury a little bit longer, because hip pointers
Speaker 1: usually take between one and three weeks to recover from,
Speaker 1: depending up how serious, and so it can still help.
Speaker 1: And and then we don't forget. I don't think I'm
Speaker 1: not saying you forgot this or anything, but a player
Speaker 1: may not be listed on the injury report. These guys
Speaker 1: have gone through a lot, and so every everyone's kind
Speaker 1: of hurt versus injured. Everybody, Yeah, everybody needs that week
Speaker 1: off their stiff on Monday. So having the whole week
Speaker 1: off going into next week, they should feel better, a
Speaker 1: lot better. Yeah, which is great. Um, and let's kind
Speaker 1: of close with this. I know something we haven't talked
Speaker 1: about is Shot White and his incredible game that he
Speaker 1: had over a hundred yards. He brought up Leonard four
Speaker 1: Nett and that you know, we shot White in the
Speaker 1: wake of him for Net being out and even before
Speaker 1: he was out was really stepping up. And we've even
Speaker 1: seen Keyshawn Von get a few carries, you know in
Speaker 1: these last couple of games. I think he had a
Speaker 1: ten yard or in this one. So, um, what do
Speaker 1: you feel like you're intrigued to see in terms of
Speaker 1: just how this running back room is used? And is
Speaker 1: this we know that they've wanted to establish the run
Speaker 1: game like this all season and what it is that
Speaker 1: has finally happened between them and the old line that
Speaker 1: do we see this moving forward? How much is each
Speaker 1: guy maybe being used? What is the Buccaneers run game
Speaker 1: look like ideally going forward? Well, first, Keyshawn Von, you
Speaker 1: were right he did. He had an eleven yeard game
Speaker 1: was actually on a reception. It was a really good
Speaker 1: play to spend away from the tackler. And it was
Speaker 1: a key first down when they were trying to run
Speaker 1: out the clocks over so that was good overall. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we shot and White was great and he has shown
Speaker 1: flashes with that. And then when he got a chance
Speaker 1: to get twenty two carries, you saw that somewhere along
Speaker 1: the way he's going to break for you. A couple
Speaker 1: of times. He had a yon yarder in an eighteen yarder,
Speaker 1: which are the bucks two longest runs of the entire season.
Speaker 1: And of course we can't not mention the incredible stiff
Speaker 1: arm that sent Quandre Digs into another zimpuns amazing and uh,
Speaker 1: it was funny hearing them talk about it because they
Speaker 1: asked him how that happened. Is that I don't know.
Speaker 1: I just I started stutter stepping to set him up
Speaker 1: for something, but I didn't know what that was gonna be,
Speaker 1: and then it just happened. So anyway, that's for the
Speaker 1: whole overall game. I'm gonna assume that Leonard Fournette is
Speaker 1: back for the Cleveland game, or if not, he doesn't
Speaker 1: miss much time. So we're contemplating what the backfield will
Speaker 1: look like with both Leonard and healthy. I don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a flip. So Leonard's played about the
Speaker 1: snaps so far ras played about thirty. I don't think
Speaker 1: you're gonna see that flip and and Rashad become the
Speaker 1: lead guy. But I do think that you will probably
Speaker 1: find closing that gap something more like that, because you
Speaker 1: get to the point where you can't ignore this guy's
Speaker 1: producing big players when you can get him on the field.
Speaker 1: On the other hand, Leonard Fournett has a very good
Speaker 1: track where God and the coaches trust him, Tom Brady
Speaker 1: trust him, and we have seen that when Lenny gets hot,
Speaker 1: he can really get on a roll like playoffs. So
Speaker 1: you don't want to take away that from your offense
Speaker 1: and and uh and you know, lose the possibility of
Speaker 1: him getting on heater, right, But you also probably want
Speaker 1: to see a little bit more of a shod white.
Speaker 1: So I just expect to see that gap clothes a
Speaker 1: little bit. Probably not if both those guys are healthy.
Speaker 1: Probably not a whole lot of options opportunities for Keyshawn Bibi.
Speaker 1: All right, Well, that's going to do it for us
Speaker 1: on this edition of Bucks Insider Live. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us. We'll see you next time.