NFL Panic Button: Saints, Colts among 5 teams looking for reset button after Week 2
By Shaun Church
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Quotable
"A lot is being said about our offense and what we’re doing in certain situations, but we’re really not performing well enough right now on the defensive side. From long drives to taking the ball away to third downs and our first goal on the defensive side is to score and we haven’t come close to any of those things right now—at this stage of our season we haven’t. They will come."
–Buccaneers head coach Lovie Smith, via Scott Smith of the team’s official site
Why the reset button?
As noted above, Tampa Bay’s defense has allowed too many long drives early this season. In fact, the Bucs have the highest average defensive drive so far, at 3:32 per drive.
That is poor, in case you’re wondering.
They also have allowed too many scoring drives. Nine of 19 defensive drives (47.4 percent) have resulted in points for the opposition, which is the fifth-highest percentage through Week 2.
The Buccaneers added safety Dashon Goldson last offseason as well as defensive end Michael Johnson and cornerback Alterraun Verner this offseason in an attempt to improve a promising young defense.
That has backfired early.
Johnson was completely ineffective as a pass-rusher against the Carolina Panthers in Week 1 before leaving the game with an injured ankle, and he missed last week’s game because of it.
Verner has been a shutdown corner-type for the defense, but he has yet pick off a pass, which is what he is being paid the big bucks to do.
Tampa added veteran quarterback Josh McCown this offseason and gave him the starting job over Mike Glennon, who showed promise at times in 2013. All the 35-year-old former third-round pick has done is lose two games to two backup quarterbacks. McCown has completed a high percentage of his passes, at 67.9 percent, but he also has thrown three interceptions already.
He has yet to find either of his towering wide receivers, Vincent Jackson and rookie Mike Evans, for a touchdown—neither have 100 yards receiving through two games.
Clearly, something is not right in Tampa. The Bucs have plenty of talent all over their depth chart, so the 0-2 start has to be frustrating for coaches, players and fans of the organization. What looked like a good team is turning out to be a dud.
Moving on, we’ll now discuss a perennial playoff contender from the same division as these Buccaneers.