Bucs feel the need for speed on defense following loss to Falcons

TAMPA BAY, Fla. — K.J. Britt is a platoon player, a job-sharer at inside linebacker with the strength to stop the run but not the speed to avoid being beaten in pass coverage.

But due to a shoulder injury that landed SirVocea Dennis on injured reserve this week, Britt was forced to play 81 snaps in Thursday night’s 36-30 overtime loss to the Atlanta Falcons.

Between Britt’s lack of speed and linebacker Lavonte David not being as fast as he used to at age 34, Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins exploited the middle of the field to pass for a career-high 509 yards and four touchdowns.

According to Pro Football Focus, 320 of Cousins’ passing yards came on throws over the middle. The other 189 were to the left (83 yards), right (59) or behind the line of scrimmage (47).

“It wasn’t tough, because it was our normal stuff that we normally run, but at the same time, you know, we want to have more speed on the field at certain times,” head coach Todd Bowles said Friday. “K.J is a very good zone player, but at times we want to have some speed guys on the field.

Ad the communication has to be better, especially with the safeties. When we lost Jordan (Whitehead), we lost some of the communication aspect of it, and then we just missed some drops and missed some tackles.”

Whitehead recorded five tackles, including four solo, and a pass defensed before leaving with a groin injury. He had 31 tackles (20 solo) and two passes defensed in Tampa Bay’s first four games.

Bowles said Dennis last Sunday against the Eagles aggravated a shoulder injury he has been dealing with since the offseason.

“We’re not counting on him anytime soon,” Bowles said, “His shoulder was kind of messed up this summer. We kind of knew it was a touch-and-go type thing there, so we’ll see how he comes around and we’ll play it week by week.”

Bowles said the Buccaneers defense missed a lot of tackles Thursday. It was evident when Cousins took the Falcons 46 yards on nine plays with no timeouts in 1:14 to set up Younghoe Koo’s game-tying 52-yard field goal as time expired to send the game into overtime.

Cousins was able to spike the football and kill the clock with 1 second remaining after a 14-yard completion to Drake London to the Tampa Bay 29-yard line. Bowles said Bucs cornerback Jamel Dean should have sat on London to prevent him from lining up and forcing the clock to expire.

“We should’ve laid on them more,” Bowles said. ”We kind of got up and let that second tick off, and we should’ve laid on them.”

London (12 catches, 154 yards, TD) and Darnell Mooney (9 catches, 105 yards, 2 TDs) worked the middle of the field, winning easily against the Bucs’ zone coverage.

The NFL is a copycat league, and now that the underbelly of the Bucs defense has been exposed, you can expect teams to try to attack the middle of that zone.

Bowles wouldn’t say whether he plans to make any changes or possibly utilize linebacker J.J. Russell in a platoon role with Britt.

“We’ll see,” Bowles said. “I mean, we’re confident in K.J. (Britt), but at the same time we need to make more tackles. I thought our zone drops and our tackling weren’t very good, and that’s where we kind of got behind the eight ball.”

To make matters worse, the Bucs lost Whitehead in the game. With All-Pro Antoine Winfield Jr. missing his fourth game with a high ankle sprain, the Bucs’ inexperience in the secondary showed.

Bowles has some other options. When Winfield returns, he could use Georgia rookie defensive back Tykee Smith as an extra linebacker in coverage and drop Christian Izien into that slot cornerback role. Smith led the Bucs with 11 tackles, one pass defensed and a forced fumble.

“When (Winfield) comes back, we have those types of packages in,” Bowles said. “But with the injuries, we can’t afford to use those right now.”

Some Bucs fans on social media have been clamoring for the team to trade for linebacker Devin White, who has been inactive all season after signing a one-year deal with the Eagles. But that’s not likely to happen given some of the acrimony that White brought to the Bucs in his final season in Tampa Bay.

Of course, the Bucs had an obvious opportunity to win the game in regulation. With three timeouts remaining, Falcons head coach Raheem Morris opted to go for it on fourth-and-15 at the Atlanta 20-yard line. Cousins’ pass was intercepted by David and returned to the 28.

The Bucs managed to force Atlanta to use all their timeouts, but Rachaad White lost 3 yards on first down, rookie center Graham Barton was called for holding on second down, and the next two plays backed the Bucs up to the 42.

Even then, the Bucs could have pinned the Falcons inside their 10, but Trenton Gill punted the ball to the end zone for a touchback.

“They came through on the first play, and then the holding call kind of set us back and kind of put us out of field goal range, and we kept going backwards,” Bowles said. “We at least have to be stalemated and get a field goal so they need a touchdown to win instead of a field goal.”

Referees also missed an obvious facemask penalty on Bucky Irving’s second-down run, which would have offset Barton’s holding penalty. Bowles, who was newly appointed to the NFL’s Competition Committee, said he believes potential facemask penalties should be automatically reviewed.

“Hopefully, we can get to that,” he said. “We’re trying to get to that right there. I think it should be reviewed from the top or at least be reviewed by the coaches, if anything else, so they don’t miss (many) calls.”

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