This was where you came in, right?
The Bucs had a bad night on the offensive line. It spread to the quarterback. It led to a lopsided victory at Raymond James Stadium.
Again.
For the Bucs, it might as well have been 2014. The Cleveland Browns caved in the Bucs’ line, and Tampa Bay never had a chance to get rolling.
“We had some bad plays last night,” Bucs’ coach Lovie Smith said. “It’s like that most games though. You have some plays you would like to have back. Good plays on [Cleveland’s] part. I’m looking at the overall picture. Just like before. When we played a lot better, you take everything in, which we will do, but that play last night for the most part is unacceptable for us and we’ll fix it.”
Will they, however? The Bucs are starting two rookies, two veterans in their second years with the team and a free agent tackle. Will that keep the opposition at bay? Will that give rookie Jameis Winston time to develop at quarterback?
“The problems I have were when we knew who to block and we did not,” Smith said. “It always comes down to that. Defenses are going to have good plays at time or they may have you outnumbered, but you have a plan in place when that happens. You have built-in things that take care of that. It was our execution. Part of that execution of course is when you know who you are blocking. We didn’t get it done. Sometimes I think it’s as simple as that. We just didn’t get it done, blocking.”
Smith did not point at rookies Donovan Smith and Ali Marpet as the reasons for the line being dominated, however. He would not point the finger at either of them.
“Based on how they played yesterday?” Smith said. “Oh, well if I did that, quite a few of us wouldn’t have a job if we based it on that performance. So, that’s just not the case. Guys are going to have bad plays. You look at the overall picture with those guys and for rookie offensive linemen we think we have two pretty good players. And are they Pro Bowl-ready right now? No, but they’re making progress.”
The Bucs play Thursday night against Miami to conclude their preseason, then open Sept. 13 at home against Tennessee.
