The Tampa Bay Buccaneers sit at 2-3, but in a weak NFC conference, so things could be much worse. The team’s two wins came against very bad teams in the New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars, and in last week’s matchup against the Jaguars, the Bucs were barely able to survive, winning only by a touchdown. 

Allowing 31 points to the Jaguars is never a good sign for your defense, and the Bucs defense has been shaky to say the least. The cause of the team’s struggles on defense is not one thing in particular, but rather a combination of poor performance, scheme issues, and the underlying relationship between the two. An astonishing 37.7% of opponents drives have ended in a score so far this season, which is 12th worst in the NFL. Perhaps the best way to identify why the Bucs have been playing so poorly on defense is to breakdown the All-22 film from some of their games so far this season.

Kwon Alexander’s struggles in pass coverage 

Head coach Lovie Smith and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier made the decision to start rookie linebacker Kwon Alexander before the beginning of the regular season. Alexander had an impressive preseason and the original starting middle linebacker, free agent acquisition Bruce Carter, struggled.  Alexander’s play has been hit-or-miss in pass coverage so far this season, however. The Bucs, in their cover-2-heavy scheme play a lot of man coverage, but they also heavily rely on the Tampa-2 variation, which means Alexander has to drop back into the deep middle of the field to help in coverage. In the example below, and this not the only occurrence, Alexander’s anticipation is off and he’s late over the deep middle, allowing for an easy completion deep. 

In Alexander’s defense, it takes a while for players to feel comfortable in a scheme based primarily on cover-2, so we should see improvement in his anticipation as the season progresses. Alexander has the speed to play the position in a Tampa-2 defense – he scored in the 90th percentile among linebackers in the 40-yard dash at the combine -- but if the goal of the team is to win now, veteran Bruce Carter, who is very familiar with this system, might be the better short-term option at middle linebacker.

Cornerbacks allowing too many easy plays

The second best player on defense for the Bucs, cornerback Johnthan Banks has missed the last couple of games because of a knee injury. Furthermore, former Pro Bowl corner Alterraun Verner was benched earlier in the season. Both of these situations have led to an increase in playing time for corners Mike Jenkins and Tim Jennings, both of whom have been awful. Against the Jaguars, Jennings played 97% of the snaps on defense, and by my count, Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles completed 7 of 10 passes thrown Jennings’ way, including two touchdowns. In the screenshot from the game tape, you can discern that Jennings was way out of position, which allowed for an easy touchdown, as the safety did not have the time to bail Jennings out. 

The most likely reason why Jennings is getting so much playing time is because he’s been relatively good in stopping the run. The problem with that, however, is that Jennings has become such a liability in pass coverage that the cons of leaving him on the field so much far outweigh the benefits, especially because the Bucs’ front seven has been good at stopping the run.

On the other side, the veteran Jenkins hasn’t been much better, yet he played 86% of the defensive snaps last week against the Jaguars. He didn’t play too poorly against the Jacksonville, which is presumably why they picked on Jennings most of the time, but the tape from the game against the Carolina Panthers game tells a different story. In the screen grab below, the Bucs were playing man coverage with Jenkins lined up on Ted Ginn. Ginn was motioned before the snap, and the idea in man coverage is to always stay very close to your receiver, which as you can see, is not the case.  Overall, Jenkins has been caught out of position often this season, which has led to him slipping and falling while attempting to catch up. 

I was planning to expound on the Bucs’ lack of a pass rush, but after reviewing the tape, I can’t really criticize the team there. Currently, the Bucs are ranked sixth in the NFL with 15 sacks, and further analysis shows that the defense is getting pressure on the quarterback, but the timing is sometimes unlucky.

The bulk of the problems on defense are in the secondary, and this becoming abundantly clear as the season progresses. The good news for the Bucs is that they should be getting cornerback Johnthan Banks back from injury after the bye week.