Jenna Laine, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Bucs seek discipline against run to avoid Week 6 effort against Bills

TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had one of their worst performances defending the run against the Arizona Cardinals, and if they're not careful, that could repeat itself this week against the Buffalo Bills.

The Bucs surrendered 160 rushing yards to Adrian Peterson and the Cardinals. That mark tied their effort last year against Carlos Hyde and the San Francisco 49ers for their second-most allowed since 2016. The Bills' LeSean McCoy, a five-time Pro Bowl running back, thinks there's more where that came from.

"I think this is the game for us," McCoy said, adding that the Bills used the bye week to retool their rushing attack. "They're a talented group up front. They play well together. They got a McCoy [Gerald McCoy] on the other side, so of course he's probably good. They're a fast group. But teams have been running on them and I think it's time for us to get it going. Simple as that."

LeSean McCoy has had only one 100-yard rushing performance this year, but his 9,233 yards on the ground are the most of any player since 2009. He averaged 5.41 yards per carry last year, third-most in the league. And like Peterson, McCoy can generate his share of explosive runs. He also can get to the edge, as Peterson did last week.

"To me, they've got a 1-2 punch in McCoy being the guy that can get out on the edge [and] does a really good job bouncing the ball," Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith said. "Then if they want to pound it, they put -- we see him all the time, we have seen [Mike] Tolbert when we played Carolina -- he's a fullback body, but he runs as a halfback.”

The Bucs once had a stout run defense that was ranked No. 1 in the league -- in 2012, when they averaged 82.5 yards per game. It was coupled with the league's worst pass defense, which did skew the statistics. Nevertheless, it was a source of pride. They vowed to get back to that this offseason.

They rewarded strongside defensive end William Gholston with a new contract and signed defensive tackle Chris Baker. It's also why they re-signed veteran Sealver Siliga and drafted Stevie Tu'ikolovatu. It's one of the reasons they believed Justin Evans out of Texas A&M was one of the best fits in a talented draft class of safeties, signed thumper J.J. Wilcox and traded for T.J. Ward.

Those efforts appeared to pay off in Week 2, when the Bucs held the Chicago Bears to just 20 rushing yards -- the lowest of any team this season. Heading into their Week 6 contest against the Cardinals, the Bucs were averaging 87.3 rushing yards per game, eighth-best in the league. But against the Cardinals, the Bucs' gap discipline was awful.

"We did not fit the run very well. It's real simple," Smith said. "You've got a gap; you've got to have your head in that gap. If one guy is out of his gap and the ball carrier attacks that gap, it's into our secondary. Our run fits were horrendous in the first half of that football game. Our tackling was horrendous. We did not want to put our pads on the running back in the game last week. We've got to figure out how we as coaches do not allow that to happen.”

It starts up front with the defensive line, then the linebackers fit into gaps like a puzzle. Cornerbacks and safeties also have an important role, although those responsibilities vary according to the defense being played.

For example, cornerbacks typically do have responsibilities containing the outside in a Cover 2 zone defense. In a Cover 3 zone, the strong safety has that responsibility on one side of the field while the two cornerbacks and a free safety are splitting the back end into thirds.

Today's NFL defenses are never purely Cover 2, Cover 3 or man. They're a mixture of several defenses, depending on scheme, situation and personnel, and they change throughout games. It can be a lot for players to remember. The problems the Bucs experienced last week were also the result of mistakes by multiple players.

“When you try to do too much in run defense, what ends up happening is you end up lying to your partner," Smith said. "He's expecting you to be in this gap and then you move your head outside -- you've lied to him and he doesn't know whether you are going back or are you staying out there and we have two guys in one gap. That was the issue in the game. It was compounded by poor tackling.”

A closer look at the numbers suggest they had more problems with tackling against the Minnesota Vikings, when they allowed 77 rushing yards after contact. The problem against the Cardinals was being totally out of position to make tackles, as the Bucs had 121 rushing yards before contact. That's why three defensive backs -- Brent Grimes, Evans and Vernon Hargreaves -- led the Bucs in tackles.

"When you have your back end, your last line of defense, making tackles and leading the team in tackles it is not a good day for run defense – that is for sure," Smith said, believing his players were trying to do too much instead of focusing on their jobs, which is why they were in the wrong spots.

How do they get it fixed? First and foremost, guys have to be in the right spots. At times against the Cardinals, you saw two players in the same gap. That goes back to preparation, understanding what alignment you're in and reading your keys.

"What we talk about in our defensive unit room is eyes. Where are your eyes? Usually when your eyes aren't where they're supposed to be is when you're out of your gap," Gholston said. "That comes with more focus, more preparation. It's not a very difficult thing to do. As long as you key in on what you have to look at -- once we preached that in OTAs, it came pretty quick. Most of the problems we had last year, we fixed."

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