Few observations on Titans game (part 1)

1st O possession

- OK, first play of the game, Bucs were banking it all on the play-action. Titans didn't bite, VJax heavily covered. Free tries to force anyway

- It looked like MWill was open over the top on the back side but Free never looked in his direction at all

- Second down, Blount gets 4. As usual, Lorig gets a good initial thump on the DT but fails to engage&maintain a block, DT tackles Blount with the safety. If Lorig had sealed DT inside, Blount would have had big hole to outside. If Lorig had sealed DT outside, Blount would have had an extra yard or two before the safety got to him. Instead, Lorig failed to block, only thumped, so Blount only got 4. Lorig must do better.

- 3rd down Free locks in on VJax again but at least it's caught for the 1st down

- 1st down power O, Nicks on pull seals outside man, Blount follows Lorig through hole but Lorig fails to drive his man back. Also, Zuttah fails to seal his man inside, and his man moves over into the play hole, squeezing it shut. Blount had nowhere to run, gets 2. Lorig & Zuttah fail.

- 2nd down play-action pass (note Clark in at fullback). Line block as if power-O towards left. Line dispersed but blocking defenders. Nicks blocking a DT away from Free, towards Zuttah blocking another DT. Zuttah's DT loops around, so Zuttah doubles with Nicks, Nicks peels off to pick up looping DT but is too slow to get there. Looping DT hurries Free, which causes him to scramble out of pocket, throws ball away.

- 3rd down drop-back pass, Freeman sits a few seconds in the pocket but DT spins inside Joseph, comes free, and runs at Freeman, causing him to take off (also on the line, Dotson beaten inside, gets pushed over coz of crossed legs, also Trueblood on a DE, Martin runs up and chips him, but the chip actually seems to cause the DE to spin to maintain balance, but that spin leaves him free inside of Trueblood). Freeman scrambles but slides short of a first down.

- PUNT good punt terrible coverage. Cutera & I think Tandy (don't get clear view of second digit on shirt) get pushed away. First player to get a hand on returner is Q Black but he overshoots, tries to arm tackle, which is broken easily, big shock. Economos the LS makes the tackle low, and Parker finishes. 

1st D possession

- 1st down Bucs in nickel with Myron Lewis on the outside, Wright in slot. Hand off to Johnson, who runs to left where most of front seven flow, but Johnson cuts back. Bennett has good contain, forces Johnson back inside to where Barron should be able to take him down. Barron hesitates though, and Johnson is able to out-wiggle him. Barron grabs him as he goes past and brings him down (with McCoy & Barber piling on) but if Barron hits him in the hole rather than hesitate, it's a 3-4 yard gain. Instead, 7 yard gain.

- 2nd down Bucs still in nickel. Power O. FB takes on Foster but Foster able to shed him and grab Johnson as he goes past, McCoy uses his arms to push himself off of his blocker and wraps Johnson up high as Foster has him low, bring him down for 2.

- 3rd down Bucs still in nickel. Hand off to Johnson. TE simply whiffs on Bennett, who hits Johnson high, then wraps him up low, bringing him down - Barron comes down into the hole, and Clayborn comes on a TEX loop, both hit Johnson as he goes down for no gain.

- PUNT Parker fair catch

2nd O possession

- 1st down Martin in backfield play is zone run, Martin follows Lorig but then cuts back across formation into open space. DE gets off Clark's block but is only able to grab Martin's jersey. Mike Williams doing a good job of sealing the CB outside. Safety comes down and trips Martin up, two players hit him but he was going down anyway, gain of 9.

- 2nd down play-action pass exactly same problem as first time, Bucs bank on the defense to bite on the play-action and only send two on routes, though Martin what looks like a wheel route on delayed release. Freeman scrambles towards sideline (looks like he felt phantom pressure) then tries to throw to Williams but pass is too high (Williams should have been able to catch the ball if it was thrown to his numbers).

- 3rd down looks like a zone run. Martin follows Lorig, the cuts inside of Lorig. Looks like Joseph was over powered by the DT which shuts down any holes, pile of linemen collapses on top of Martin. OL made no holes on that side for Martin, if Martin was looking for cutback lane there was one outside of Nicks but he wouldn't have been able to see it as Zuttah was pushed so far into backfield that it would have obscured Martin's sight of the cutback lane.

- PUNT good punt coverage again holes, returner just makes people miss with his wiggle. First man to get his hands on him is Cutera but just an arm tackle, but he holds on to returner causes returner to spin, Q Black gets arms around returner high which drags him down (tho Quincy lets go), Hayward wraps him up from behind and forces him down.

2nd D possession

- 1st down Bucs line up in base 4-3. Empty backfield Foster pretty good coverage on TE but Locker just places it where Foster can't get to it and the TE makes a great grab, Foster brings him down straight away. 3 yards. Another McCoy/Clayborn TEX but both picked up.

- 2nd down power O. McCoy just tosses DE aside and chases play down from behind. LT fails to seal in Miller and chases down Johnson. Wright on blitz makes the pulling guard miss and wraps up Johnson around the legs, with the two DTs hitting him up high, brought down for loss of 2.

- 3rd down Titans empty backfield, Bucs in dime package - three man line (Clayborn McCoy Bennett), Foster & Watson LBs, Talib & Lewis outside CBs, Ronde & Wright slot CBs, Barron & A Black safeties. Locker scrambles because coverage appears to be good on his right, looks across to his left. Two open receivers, one with Lewis over the top of him, and one who appears to be completely open (Myron Lewis's man). Locker over throws the first receiver, Black jumps it, picks it and returns it to the 2. The scary thing is, if Locker had the arm strength and accuracy, if he had gotten the ball to the deep man it looks like that would have been a long, long completion, probably taken to the house if i'm being honest, looks like there is NO-ONE on top of him (hard to tell because All-22 hasn't been put up yet).