Some quick thoughts:
- Byron Jones is our future FS. Heath is a rotational backup at best. Looked pretty good out there today except for the horrendous penalty. Need a SS to go alongside Jones.
- We lost this game because of horrendous playcalling. The Bucs started to send the blitz figuring that Cassell couldn't read it well and they were right. But, by the same token, the Bucs were leaving Dez 1-on-1 and for some reason we still think going to Witten on a pivot route or a flare and asking him to pick up the first down will actually work when it has *never* worked his entire career. And we still feel the need to try and throw a deep pass to Williams in a jump ball situation which again....has never really worked in his career.
We get the ball into the Bucs red zone and on 1st down we run shotgun. The same on 2nd down. No sense of keeping the defense honest because...why would we ever want to do that?
I'm sure the O-Line will get ragged on, but when a team is sending 6 or 7 and you only have 5 to block, somebody is getting free. It requires the receivers and QB to beat the blitz, not the O-Line. And Cassel and the receivers could not do it, but by the same token...there was no change in the gameplan to figure this out.
I've really grown tired of Garrett this season. He's all about technique and player development which is great, but he and Linehan have zero ability when it comes to managing a game and seeing the overall big picture when it comes to play calling and how to help out talent when they have inferior talent at a position.
The players didn't deserve to lose this game. They played hard. But Garrett deserved to lose the game with that amount of ineptness in the play calling and adjustments. I usually hate to talk about play calling when it comes to a team's failure, but it was an embarrassment to watch today and it didn't deserve my fandom today.
YR