Tight end Devin Culp celebrates his first NFL touchdown Thursday.
Joe thinks the Bucs are on the verge of upheaval at One Buc Palace in some form or another. That’s what happens when you may have the worst defense in the league and your team is cratering so bad in the past seven weeks you’re on the cusp of missing the playoffs. So start chugging that mug of java, you will need it.
Being Kirk Cousins’ Female Dog
Joe just doesn’t get it. How in the world can a defensive coordinator regularly get fried by Kirk “509” Cousins? Not just one game, but several.
It’s not like Cousins is Matt Stafford or Pat Mahomes. He’s OK, sometimes good. Not a Hall of Famer. Cousins is on the final lap or two of his career, yet when he plays a Todd Bowles defense, Cousins looks like an immobile Josh Allen.
You’d think getting burned once would be enough. “OK Kirk, I will devise a defense that will rattle your cage so bad you’ll be talking like a parrot for weeks.”
Nope.
And while the following may be completely untrue and unfair, does it appear Todd Bowles looked at any tape of Cousins the past two seasons? Bowles got raked over the coals by Cousins twice last year.
Did Bowles make any adjustments or add special looks or schemes for Cousins? Try something different? Didn’t look like it to Joe.
Remember lousy Lovie Smith in the Tennessee-Ready game against that rotten runaround quarterback Marcus Mariota? Allegedly, lousy Lovie was studying Mariota’s film as there was a chance the Bucs would draft Mariota (whew, bullet dodged). But when lousy Lovie’s defense faced Mariota in Week 1 of the 2015 season, Tennessee ran a form of Oregon’s offense with Mariota.
To Joe, it was as if lousy Lovie never watched 30 seconds of film on Mariota. Defenders were all over the map, having no idea where to go, what to do. Meanwhile, Mariota ran rings around lousy Lovie’s defense.
That’s what last night looked like. Bowles and his defense had been blasted several times by Cousins and it didn’t appear Bowles used anything exotic or out of the ordinary.
The results were too predictable. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and thinking you will get a different result.
Predictable Bucs
Was anyone really surprised at what happened last night? Here are the bets Joe placed on that game last night:
* Bijan Robinson to score two touchdowns.
* Dixie Chicks +4
* Dixie Chicks moneyline (meaning picked to win).
* Dixie Chicks +5 (couldn’t pass up the extra point last night).
* Robinson over-74.5 rushing yards.
* Kirk Cousins over-201 passing yards.
* Robinson over-37.5 receiving yards.
* Cousins over-1.5 passing touchdowns.
* Jalen McMillan over-10.5 receiving yards.
Joe missed one bet (Robinson over-1.5 touchdowns). Why? Because last night’s game was so predictable. The Bucs defense hasn’t looked remotely good since they beat the slimy Saints in New Orleans before the bye. And Joe figured Bowles would do nothing to adjust to Cousins.
Also, the Bucs inside linebackers cannot defend the pass, which is a bread-and-butter play for Cousins and Robinson. Joe predicted the Dixie Chicks would expose the Bucs on short passes targeting Robinson.
If some dope like Joe could predict all of this with the Bucs defense, imagine what professional NFL coaches can predict with Bowles’ defense? Well, we’ve been watching just that play out the past seven weeks.
Personal Record
Joe is so worn out by opposing offenses having someone burn the Bucs for the best day of his career against a Bowles defense.
Last year it was Kirk Cousins. This year, Atlanta tight end Kyle Pitts.
Pitts has been a major disappointment for the Dixie Chicks. Coming out of the University of Florida, he seemed to be a next-level, generational talent at tight end. It never happened but for a couple of games his rookie season. And last night.
Facing a Bowles’ defense, naturally.
Pitts was targeted 12 times making 11 catches for 166 yards and three touchdowns! He’s never had more than 163 yards in a game receiving and that was back in Dec. 26, 2021. And he’s never had three touchdowns in a game.
Until he played a Bowles defense last night.
Joe asks: Aren’t you about tired of opposing offensive players setting personal marks of production against Bowles’ defenses? Joe is. This doesn’t happen regularly to good defensive coordinators.
It’s bad enough the Bucs need an act of Congress to get a sack from an edge rusher. Yes, they got a big one last night from Haason Reddick. Now even stiffs can have near-personal records on the Bucs pass defense — in the first half!
It’s getting harder and harder to try to hatch a reason this team doesn’t need a new defensive coordinator. You can’t win meaningful games with a sieve of a pass defense like the Bucs have had the past few years.
A Devin Culp Sighting!
A lot of Bucs fans have been clamoring for reserve tight end Devin Culp to get targets. The way Cade Otton has played his way out of a new contract, the drum-beating had some merit too.
With Otton slipping into obscurity and Josh Grizzard being allergic to involving Payne Durham into the offense in any capacity other than as a blocking tight end, it has been like the Bucs were playing with 10 players on offense. Virtually zero production from tight ends.
So the folks who wanted to see Culp had some ammo, and Thursday night their pleas were heard.
Culp got wide-ass open down the seam for a six-yard touchdown. OMG, a tight end got down the field (yeah, just six yards but Joe will take it) to not just make a play, but score a touchdown?
Last night with most of the offense back, Joe had glimpses of what this offense could have been. Production from nearly very skill position.
And it was sure good to see how Culp demonstrated what production from a tight end looks like for a change.
Jalen McMillan Is Back
How awesome was it to see Bucs receiver Jalen McMillan return to the field? And McMillan didn’t just walk on the field. He caught a long pass over the middle in traffic to set up the Bucs for a one-yard touchdown early in the game.
After breaking three vertebrae in his neck, Joe figured McMillan would be skittish in his first game back from getting undercut by a Steelers camp meat corner trying to make a splash play.
McMillan wasn’t skittish at all getting that catch in traffic over the middle. That was probably the best thing Joe saw last night in a Bucs loss that’s going to eat at Joe until probably next fall.