The Penalties

Remember when Bruce Arians said the penalties were cleaned up?

Remember when he said the Team won’t beat themselves??

Coming out of the game, the BUCS had a League-leading 42 penalties. No bueno.

Highlighted by the one drive with 5 penalties. F-I-V-E

In the 2nd drive of the 3rd quarter, the offense seemingly imploded on a drive. That drive had 4 consecutive plays with penalties that killed the drive after a big 20 yard pass play to Cameron Brate that put the Team in scoring position at the Bears’ 35 yard line.

It was 1st and 10 at that stage.

At one point after that, the BUCS faced 1st and 34. THIRTY-DAMN-FOUR.

Our Team had gone FULL NFL Blitz.

We ended up punting the ball away rather than scoring. To quote the great Jim Ross, it was “bowling shoe ugly”.

3 Offensive Holding calls.

2 of which were declined or offset.

1 Offensive Pass Interference-- Mike Evans went FULL Ludacris. “Move, B*&%…Get Out Tha Way…..”

1 Unnecessary Roughness call

Funny enough, the offensive line penalties are the ones you’ll see and hear fans and followers mention the most.

Gronkowski should’ve had just as many penalties as Donovan Smith.

Smith was flagged for 2 false start penalties. One of them was actually on Gronkowski instead.

As I questioned who would responsible for keeping the players and the staff focused on the maintaining discipline, I got an enlightening response from Rhett Matthew of the Cannon Fire Podcast.

Rhett pointed out the fact that there’s no real voice of reason on the offensive line anymore. With the departure of Demar Dotson, who was the longest tenured Buccaneer on the roster last season, there was no one left that had the kind of presence that could reel guys in when things go awry as far as discipline goes.

You can hear Rhett’s take on the matter on the latest podcat here.

As far as physical talent, Dotson had been on a bit of slide as an offensive tackle for a few years. However, he still commanded the respect of his peers due to his effort and maturity. That maturity is missing on the offensive line.

And so is the accountability.

Eventually, someone on that unit is gonna have to be more vocal and demand more from himself and his teammates.

Scotty Miller

Since the announcement of Tom Brady coming to town, Scotty Miller has been pegged as “The Next(insert short White WR from NE past)”.

Completely unfair to him.

Miller’s no Edelman. Nor, is he a Wes Welker. Both of which are considered as 2 of the Top 5 WRs in New England’s history, by the way.

Scotty Miller is a completely different kind of talent. He’s more DeSean Jackson than he is either one of those guys. And that ain’t bad.

It’s yet to be seen if Miller can take on a larger role. As of now, he primarily benefits from being able to fly under the radar to a degree. With the likes of Evans, Godwin, Howard and/or Gronkowski for the majority of his rise in production, Miller has been taking on the opposition’s 3rd or 4th best DB in most cases.

That’s to no fault of his own. He doesn’t get to pick his opponent.

But, I am starting to pay attention to what he’s doing when he draws the attention of a CB2 when Chris Godwin has been absent.

Scotty Miller with and w/o Godwin
-Week 1.....6 targets 5 catches 73 yards w/Godwin
-Week 2.... 3 targets 2 catches 11 yards w/o Godwin
Week 3......5 targets 3 catches 83 yards w/Godwin
-Week 4....7 targets 5 catches 83 yards w/o Godwin

-Week 5….0 targets….0 catches w/o Godwin

No targets in Chicago was a bit curious to me.

Coach Arians says that Miller was open and just didn’t get the look from Brady. In reviewing the game, I didn’t see anything that stood out as an overlooking by the QB. I didn’t see Miller streaking up the field wide open or anything.

It’s been a longstanding opinion of mine that until all of your WRs can challenge for the WR2 spot, you should be constantly churning the roster and trying to find someone that can. I was assumed that Miller was that guy. His disappearance in Chicago kinda puts a bit speed bump on the fast track to naming him the next great.

With Godwin returning soon, we should see Miller’s opportunities become more plentiful again.

Kill That “No Risk It, No Biscuit” Talk

RETIRE the quote.

It’s DEAD.

“No Risk It, No Biscuit” is officially no more. Coach Arians, the guy most famously, known for quote, played no to lose in a game he shouldn’t have lost to begin with. And he lost anyway.

He made one of the most inexplicable moves in coaching last Thursday.

Opting to go for a 2 point lead on the opponent’s 7 yard line in the 4th quarter rather than going for a TD that could’ve been the beginning of the end for the Bears proved to be a big mistake.

The BUCS defense had shut out the Bears for the 3rd quarter and much of the 4th. Chicago had to settle for FGs on their few successful drives in the 2nd half. So, with just under 5mins to go in the game and having possessed the ball for 5mins and 46 seconds, Arians decided to pull his offense off the field to attempt a FG attempt to take the lead instead of trusting his offense to convert the short yardage OR trusting his defense to defend 93 yards.

I have to wonder what his players were thinking of him making that move. In particular, what did his QB and his RB think.

Even more interesting: What did Todd Bowles think.

Arians, on two separate occasions, has called the defense “soft” this season. You can’t get any more soft than what he put on display in Chicago.

Sean Murphy-Bunting Struggle

In the first few games of the season, Murphy-Bunting had been one of the standouts on defense. He was flying to the ball early and often. He was continuing his ascension seen in his rookie season. Playing with the experience and confidence many of us assumed he’d show.

But, the last two games have seen him with some down performances.

This could be due to playing on a short week after sustaining an injury in the previous game. That shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

The question comes as to how long the effect of playing through an an injury and having a bad showing last. Can a player develop bad lingering bad habits to compensate for the physical disadvantage?

We’ve seen instances in which that could be the case.

Both Brent Grimes and Vernon Hargreaves infamously used techniques to make up for their physical statures and/or conditions. Routinely playing off their receivers to make sure they didn’t get beat deep was something that infuriated BUCS fans and, sometimes, coaches alike.

In Chicago, it was assumed that Bowles was implementing a plan to play soft coverage late in the game. In reality, it was Murphy-Bunting playing soft and/or having a mental lapse on a crucial 3rd and 9 play that kept the Bears’ offense going rather having to settle for a long FG attempt.

I think Murphy-Bunting can bounce back. However, his last two performances will definitely draw the attention of Green Bay offensive coordinators and QB Aaron Rodgers coming up.

Something to pay attention to.