The Bucks’ defense is in complete disarray right now, and it’s hard to believe that head coach Todd Bowles has the answers. Tampa Bay allowed over 500 yards to the Falcons on Thursday Night Football, but gave up 27 points in the first quarter against the Saints. They then allowed another 500 yards to the Ravens earlier in the week on Monday, and on Sunday they allowed 394 yards and four passing touchdowns to Kirk Cousins in a 31-26 loss.
There were concerns about what Tampa Bay’s offense would look like without Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, but offense wasn’t the problem for the Bucs. The defense was a much bigger issue and looked better in the second half, but ultimately Couldn’t stop It was necessary until it was finally too late. The Falcons attempted a field goal on their final drive, but Atlanta stole the ball with 6:52 remaining and the ball was not returned to Tampa Bay until 1:01 with no timeouts.
What’s wrong with Todd Bowles and the defense?
Everyone wants to know what’s wrong with this defense. Also, is Todd Bowles going to continue calling plays? Bowles hasn’t been this bad defensively since he came to Tampa in 2019. He certainly had some bright moments. You can point to the 2020 Super Bowl, but when it comes to the 2024 season, it was pretty much non-existent.
Bucks HC Todd Bowles – Photo by Cliff Welch/PR
“What’s not happening is there are four or five plays a game where we miss a tackle or don’t fall where we should and give up a big play,” Todd Bowles said. “I’ll continue to call plays.”
Creating pressure wasn’t an issue until Sunday. Tampa Bay had 17 sacks in its last four games heading into the rematch with Atlanta. Other than defensive tackle CJ Brewer, who surprisingly had two sacks in the game, pressure was nowhere to be found. Mr. Bowles discussed what some of the issues were.
“I think our edge players have to be better at getting chipped,” Bowles began. “And we still figure out how to put pressure on the quarterback, other than breaking up the game a little bit with chips and getting a little frustrated trying to force things. We do a better job of getting that.” We have to do a better job of learning when to get off the chip block.”
Will there be personnel changes for the Bucks?
With the Bucs defense being as poor as ever, something has to change, right? If the scheme doesn’t change, maybe Join with other players solve some problems. Todd Bowles made some adjustments by subbing cornerback Josh Hayes for Tyreke Funderburk, but it wasn’t enough. Bowles has often made personnel changes too late in his career, rearing its ugly head once again.
Falcons WR Darnell Mooney and Bucs CB Tyreke Funderburk and ILB KJ Britt – Photo courtesy of USA Today
“We review personnel changes every week and think about what’s best for our company,” Bowles said. “Sometimes you can’t do anything, but we’re doing everything we can to get guys on the field this week that will help us get better and move forward from there. We won’t be without them, but we’re going to have them on the team.” If there are, we definitely try to get them in there.”
The first thing Bucs fans want to see is inside linebacker KJ Britt coming off the field on third down. Britt has a weakness in pass coverage, which has been on display since Sarvosia Denis suffered a season-ending injury. Everything was fine when Britt and Dennis were in formation, but the Bucks don’t have that luxury anymore. A simple solution would be to move on to JJ Russell or Vi Jones, but Bowles doesn’t particularly feel like Jones is up to speed yet.
“There’s probably only one. [player] He can do that and he’s got to get up to speed,” Bowles said, later clarifying he was talking about Jones. “He just wasn’t up to speed at the time. All the other guys were Mike linebackers or pretty much the same from an athletic standpoint, and K.J. [Britt] He was the smartest of the group. ”
