Fixing technique.
The Bucs defense has been awful since the bye. Big play after big play. Watching good quarterbacks carve the Bucs to pieces like a Thanksgiving turkey. Holding an offense to a field goal seems like a win.
The way veteran assistant, outside linebackers coach/run game coordinator Larry Foote sees it, it all boils down to technique, so he said just before Thanksgiving.
“When you give up those amount of points, you know it’s technique,” Foote said. “As far as a player’s standpoint, you [have] to work on your technique. You [have] to do some pre-snap awareness as far as thinking and understanding you [have] to limit the possibilities.”
The Bucs, since the bye, allow opposing offenses to score 35 points a game. That’s Mike Smith nonsense. Then, America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, knew before he left the locker room prior to kickoff if he didn’t put up 35, the Bucs were doomed.
That’s what the Bucs defense has turned into now.
“[As] coaches, we [need to] coach up the technique a little better,” Foote said in an understatement. “We can hammer on some points of what we’re trying to get, but at the end of the day, you [have] to make plays.
“I think if you look at our third downs, you don’t want to just point out one specific area, but normally when teams are picking up third downs, points come behind that. That’s part of our focus, we [have] to get off the field. We [have] to make plays … everybody.”
What Joe would like to know is how technique got so out of whack in the middle of the season, in the span of 14 days. What did these guys do in the bye that they forgot about technique?
Let’s be real, technique is fundamentals. How can those just vanish in one week off? Unless you are going to tell Joe the technique stunk to begin with, which Joe will absolutely buy.