Lovie Smith e i margini di miglioramento dei Bucs

Lovie Smith, HC dei Bucs

L'esordio prestagionale dei Tampa Bay Buccaneers non è stato certamente dei più brillanti, al di là di una sconfitta di misura maturata nel finale di gara, quando in campo c'erano ormai solamente i rincalzi dei rincalzi.

La prestazione dei Bucs è stata opaca anche e soprattutto quando in campo c'erano i titolari (o presunti tali) e la cosa non può che suscitare qualche dubbio, senza dimenticare che i Jaguars sono una delle squadra meno accreditate in vista del prossimo campionato, nonostante la "stellina" Blake Bortles, il QB rookie di cui probabilmente sentiremo ancora parlare parecchio nel prossimo futuro.

E se è vero che si trattava solo del primo match di preseason, va anche sottolineato che tra meno di un mese inizierà la regular season e dunque il tempo per oliare i meccanismi e perfezionare l'intesa tra i giocatori non è poi moltissimo.

Coach Lovie Smith nel corso di una conferenza stampa ha fatto il punto della situazione, soffermandosi in particolare sulla non brillante prestazione fornita a Jacksonville dai suoi ragazzi; ecco alcune delle sue dichiarazioni tratte sia dal sito ufficiale che dal Tampa Bay Times.

Una delle note più negative del match con i Jaguars ha riguardato la linea offensiva titolare, incapace sia di proteggere Josh McCown che di aprire varchi per Doug Martin. Ecco l'analisi del coach riguardo all'OL, senza drammatizzare ma anche senza nascondere i problemi che ci sono, soprattutto, nella posizione di Guardia:
"On the offensive side of the football, I know you want to ask about 30 offensive line questions right now, so let’s go into the offensive line right away. Demar Dotson played well. He had the penalty that really hurt us, most of those aren’t normally called. His play, he’s been that way throughout. He’s not the only one, of course Evan [Dietrich-Smith] played well. We didn’t play as well at the guard position as we needed to, but we needed to see them in that role. 

Non è facile valutare la prestazione del QB starter, Josh McCown, rimasto in campo per un solo quarto e non adeguamento supportato dalla linea. Queste le parole di Smith a proposito di McCown:
"It was tough, but we got a chance to evaluate Josh under tough circumstances," Smith said of the quarterback signed during the offseason to supplant Mike Glennon as the starter. "That's why he's a mobile quarterback sometimes. Sometimes, you have to move around a little bit. Josh will learn. He took a hit as he scrambled one time. You can't take that hit. But we'll have better protection for him, and he'll be able to have more success. Any time you throw a pick, it's bad. There's a lot of people involved. We looked at the route. Was the split right? Was the receiver where he needed to be? Of course, there was pressure. That's part of it also. All of that comes into play."

Lovie Smith è invece rimasto favorevolmente impressionato dalle prestazioni di alcuni giocatori, in particolare del reparto difensivo:
"A lot of encouraging points from last night. You have to look at the way we started the game. We chose to defer, wanted our defense to play first. Gerald McCoy, best player on our team, was that and played that way right away. Lavonte David – a lot of guys on the defensive side that you expected to play well, did. It’s good to get some of our young corners action while we’re out there. Johnthan Baks played well. Rashaan Melvin, coming off the IR list played good ball. Major Wright – defensively there was some good play."    

L'unico giocatore uscito malconcio dalla partita è stato il WR rookie Robert Herron; ecco quali sono le sue condizioni:
“We think he’ll be ok. We’re hoping that, because, take Robert for instance, had one really good catch, could have made another. That’s kind of how it goes with rookies in general. We didn’t really get a chance and the plan wasn’t to play Mike Evans an awful lot, didn’t get a chance to really see him, but we’ll have things and plays to try and showcase some of the other guys coming up this week.”

Infine, Lovie butta acqua sul fuoco e stronca sul nascere eventuali polemiche: siamo solo in preseason, e l'importante sarà essere in forma per l'opener contro Carolina...
"You have to keep in mind what the goal of the preseason is: to get ready for the Carolina Panthers (in the season opener)," Smith said. "With that, we wanted to put our guys in position to … let them play. We didn't have an extensive game plan or anything like that. With that said, though, there's some things that we liked from this first preseason game. Some of the players we thought would play a certain way did that. And some of the players we felt would play a little bit better didn't play as well as we would've liked. So that's kind of where we are right now."