There were a lot of no shows by the Bucs in their 33-27 loss to the Bengals to begin the season. Mistakes were made on each side of the ball, but what was particularly a letdown was some defensive performances by a group that has new players and was supposed to be a big upgrade over the defensive front from a year ago.
The lack of pass rush was most glaring. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked only one time, and that came from a blitzing inside linebacker, Josiah Trotter. And according to Pro Football Focus, Burrow had the fewest pressures against him in all of the games this week, having pressure on just seven of his drop back passes.
Excitement was through the roof for what a defensive front could look like with Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey on the interior of the line with Yaya Diaby and Rueben Bain Jr. on the edge at outside linebacker. The four of them combined to make two tackles and two quarterback hits. While Diaby made a nice play on a tackle for loss, it was not enough by the whole group.
Todd Bowles Gets Critical Over Bucs’ Pass Rush
A day after the game, Bucs head coach dissected what the problem was.
“I don’t think it was very good for the fact that we didn’t work together,” Bowles said. “I thought they tried to be too many individuals up there for us to be effective we got to work together.”
It was particularly alarming with the first-round pick in Bain, who had dominated in training camp. Bain looked lost at times getting handled pretty well by Bengals tackle Amarius Mims. Bowles cited that it was mental side of it that slowed Bain down.
Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect
“I don’t think they were the sharpest,” Bowles said of Diaby and Bain. “I thought Yaya played hard. I thought Bain, he probably took a step back in terms of the mental aspect of it, but that comes with working together with everybody else in the pass rush game as well. We got to do a better job at that.”
Bowles Addresses Anzalone’s Play, Alignment Mess Up
The other headlines from the Bucs on defense besides Josiah Trotter’s huge day was more miscommunication and some subpar play by free agent acquisition and team captain Alex Anzalone. It was a rough day for Anzalone as he missed several tackles and blew some coverages, too. Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki tormented the Bucs with five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. He was the go-to target for Burrow, taking advantage of some mistakes by Tampa Bay’s defense.
“His man coverage is fine,” Bowles said of Anzalone. “I think Gesicki got two plays on two zone coverages where we didn’t drop the right way. He missed a couple of tackles that he’d like to have back. Obviously you don’t want that part of it, and he was rusty the first game. But I know he’ll bounce back (in) this one.”
Bucs ILB Alex Anzalone and Bengals RB Chase Brown – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect
Then of course there was a big moment in the game where Burrow audibled to a quarterback draw after noticing that the Bucs defense had nobody in the middle. He ran for first down and also got another 15 yards after Tykee Smith was penalized for a late hit.
As it turns out, that was a mistake, too.
“The middle is never vacant in our defense,” Bowles said.
When asked on a follow up if it was a mistake, Bowles nodded his head.
Bengals QB Joe Burrow – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect
“It’s what usually happens,” Bowles said.
Miscommunication was rampant once again in Tampa Bay’s defense. It’s a story we’ve all read before. However, Bowles believes with more reps that these mistakes will be corrected.
“We play as a team. It’s a mistake here or there or somebody not on the same page mentally,” Bowles said. “That comes with it, it’s the first game jitters of playing that many plays at the same time, so we’ve got to eliminate that quickly.”