Legendary Bucs cornerback and Hall of Famer Ronde Barber was disgusted by what he saw watching Tampa Bay’s secondary get torched by Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud, who passed for an NFL rookie record 470 yards and five touchdowns in a stunning, 39-37 come-from-behind win in Houston. Barber shared his reaction to the play of Todd Bowles defense, specifically the secondary, with Rich Gannon on The 33rd Team.
“A lot of confusion – I don’t want to say they’re not coached well, but they do things – even when you break down all those touchdowns, you’re going to look at a secondary that doesn’t look coached well,” Barber said. “The touchdown – the [Dalton] Schultz (TD) it’s Quarters coverage. Carlton Davis has a safety sitting inside of him.
“The long 75-hard touchdown to Noah Brown, it’s Quarters coverage. The safety has to cut the inside breaking route when No. 2 (receiver) disappears, and there’s nobody there. It’s things that I look at and say, ‘Okay, that’s simple.’ But on the field is not translating for this team.”
Davis gave up three touchdowns on Sunday, including one to Shultz, the Texans tight end who had 10 catches for 110 yards, and two to rookie receiver Tank Dell, including the game-winner with six seconds left.
Ronde Barber Calls Bucs Defense “Embarrassing”
Ronde Barber, who went to five Pro Bowls and helped the Bucs win Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002, was embarrassed by what he saw on defense as he watched Tampa Bay allow Houston to go 75 yards in less than a minute for the game-winning score.
“To give up that many yards in a Todd Bowles defense – one that he takes a lot of pride in – is embarrassing,” Barber said. “To me this was an embarrassing watch. From a guy that studies a lot of Bucs film, and I when I go back and watch it on film on Monday or Tuesday – whenever I can stomach this – it’s probably going to hit even harder.
“They look like the worst secondary in football, and they have the best one of the best safeties in football in Antoine Winfield Jr. I know they had some injuries back there today, but if this team’s going to make any kind of push in the NFC South they have to fix their issues back there and they have to fix them fast.”
The Bucs are now 3-5 after losing their fourth straight game. Following the loss the Bucs defense now ranks 29th in total defense (372 avg.), 31st in pass defense (279 avg.), 31st on third downs (48%) and 16th in scoring defense (20.9 avg.).
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