New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020nypost.comBENGALS AT
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AT BEARS
Monday, 8:15 p.m.
ESPN
44, clearWho are
the real
Bucs?
W
HO ARE theTampa Bay
Buccaneers?
Are they the team that was
a one-pointlos s in Chicago away
from winning six of theirfirst seven
games?
Or are they the team that was
hammered at homeby the Saints,
38-3, last week?
Whichteam willwe see Sunday
when 6-3 Tampa Bay takes on 3-6Car-
olina onSunday in Charlotte, N.C.?The Buccaneers enteredthe
game against the NFC South rival
Saints looking like alegitimate
Super Bowl contender. They left
the game asa questionmark.
Tom Brady was lookingev ery bit
the part he did inNew Englandfor
the past 20 years. Then last Sunday
happened.
“Learnfrom it,” Buccaneers
coach Bruce Arianstold reporter s
during theweek of his message to
his team. “You don’t buryyour head
in thesa nd, yo u ow n it. Yo u go in,
you lookat the tape, you figure out
what went right,what went wrong,
and thenyou move on to the next
ball game.’’
The loss was the worst of Brady’s
car eer. Th e Sa intsratt led Br ad y
with pres sure, usinga lot of stunts
instea d of traditionalblitzing, and
it worked. Brady was pres sured
on 46.3 percent of his dropbacks,
compared to 14.8 percent in hisfirst
eightgames,according to ESPN
stats. He completed just6 of 16
pass es when underpres sure.
Br ady can bet all sixof his Su per
Bowl rings that, until hisoffensive
line solves that pres sure issue,
teams will tryto duplicate the fo r-
mulaNew Orleans used.
Plus, the Buccaneers defense
curiously abandonedwhat had
beenwo rk ing in thefirst eight
games.The Bucswere having suc-
cessall seasonwithdefensive coor-
dinator Todd Bowles dialing up
blitzes. AgainstNew Orleans,the
Bucs curiously went with more soft
zones, allowing Drew Brees to pick
themapart.
Arianssaid thegame plan was “to
try to pl ay more zo ne andget our
frontfour home.”
Why mess withwhat had been
working for the better part of the
first eightgames?
[email protected]CANNIZZARO’S
CORNER
ByMark
Cannizzaro
2018 national championshipgame against
Georgia will stand asa forever moment
in Tuscaloosa, and inMcKinney’s mind.
It prove to be oneof coach Nick Saban’s
finesthours as well, when he replaced
Jalen Hurtsat halftime with this freshman
Throwin’ Samoan.
“It was a shockat first,” McKinney said.
“But the way we kindof went about things
at ’Bama,for ev ery position itwas always
‘next man up.’ I was just glad to ha ve both
of themon my team at the time.”
McKinney recalls oneotherplay that
epitomized the magicof Tua Tagovailoa.
“Or thesecond one, which was probably
one of the craziestplays I’ve everseena
QB make, I think itwas Louisville, the first
game of our sophomore season,” McKin-
ney said. “I think he threw it to [Jerry]
Jeudy in theback rightco rnerof the end
zone. I think he madea spin move, and
as he made that spin move, he was
getting hitat the same time from
behind.He was fallingbackwards,
and he still threw like a perfect
passin theba ck rightcornerof the
endzone. Once I saw that play, I
was like, ‘Thisgu y’s pret ty amaz-
ing.’”
McKinney andTagovailoa were
Roll Tide teammates for three years
— the quarterback from Hawaii and the
sa fe ty fromGeorgia, the onehelpingthe
other, thetwo of themdreamingof the
NFLtogether.
“I justtalked to himpret ty much after
ev ery practice tryingto figure out what
he saw from me that I can dobetter, and
just tryingto figure out how he justre ad
the defense, how he read the safeties and
tryingto see like any room wher e I kind
of can improve,” McKinney said. “As
I started to do that, hewas just like,
‘H ey , yo u alsolet me know what I
can dobetter as a QB,’ if I could read
where he mightwant to go with the
ba ll, or just differe nt little things
like that just to make him better.”
Andtheirs becamea friend-
ship built on trust.
“We had deepconver sa-tions,” McKinney said.
So you can imagineMcKinney’s horror
when Tagovailoa crumpled to the turf in
ex cruciatingpain lastNov. 16 against Mis-
sissippiState witha career-threa tening hip
dislocation injury andwas carted off, his
nosebleeding.
“I t hurt meper sonally, ” Mc Kinney sa id.
“It hurt us asa team. Just seeinga guy like
that go down,we just knew how much
he meantto us asa team. We knew how
muchof a leaderhe was for us going into
that stret ch that we had. But justto kind
of see himgo down, itwa s re all y rough,
to be honest.We had to push through it,
man, andwe triedto do thebestwe could
to fight through thosetimesand play for
him.”
These are the timesthat try a man’s soul.
“He handledit well during thosetimes,”
McKinney said. “He’sa very positive guy,
as ev erybody pret ty much knows about
Tua, never really gets down onhimselfor
anybody else.He justseesit asanother
challenge in hisway that he hasto conquer
through.He never got frustrated or any-
thing like that,which was good, because
knowing that type of injury, that could eas-
il y frustrat e somebody and make things
very hard to push through that, but he defi-
nitel y did it, and it made it mucheasierfor
him on hisrecovery.”
McKinney knew the mettle of the man
and never fe ared that Tagovailoa’ s career
would beover.
“No I didn’t,” he said. “I knew he was
gonnacome back stronger than how he
left. I never thought about anythingelse.”
Of courseTagovailoa had doubts, how
could he not?
“Lit er all y almosta ye ar from now, we ’r e
makinga decisionto decideif I was going
to be ableto pl ay again or not. I’m just
bl es sed to be her e, ” Tago vailoa to ld the
mediathis week.
He has carriedhis upbeat demeanorinto
the Dolphinshuddle.
“Very collected,” Dolphinscenter Te d
Karrassaid by phone.“Hasgood command
over the guys in thehuddle.Concise with
the play call.”It couldn’thave been easy replacinga
popularveteran like Ryan Fitzpatrick. But
Tagovailoa has made itseem easy.
“I think he throws a magnificent football,
I think he’s a great leader and a guy who
works really hard and earnedthe respect
of his teammates, and justkeeps strivingto
win like the rest of us,” Karrassaid.
Same asTuscaloosa Tua.
“He’ s calm, he’s cool, he’s collected,”
McKinney said. “He’ s kindof ev en-keeled.
He never ge ts too high, he never ge ts too
low. He’s always tryingto make sure that
the goal is achieved, which is thegoal is
always winning.”
Karraswa s ask ed what onepl ay opens
his ey es, and herefe rr ed to a 17-yar d run
on which Tagova ilo a slic ed bet we en div-
ing Cardinals HaasonReddick and Markus
Golden.
“Whenhe split thetwo would-betackles
on that scramble in thefourth quarter. We
hadn’treally seenhim take of f to o much, so
that was really encouraging,” Karrassaid.
Tagovailoa, thefifth-overall pick in the
2020 draft, has hisfirst showdown Sunday
with prec ocious Chargers quarterback Jus-
tin Herbert,the sixth pick.
“I have no animosity towards Justin Her-
bert,and for me, it’s not ev en a competi-
tion between me and him, it’s a competi-
tion for myselfto go out and see what I can
do to helpour team be success ful against
their defense,” Tagovailoa told reporters.
“AndI’m pret ty sure it’s the same for Justin
as well.”
McKinney was thrilledwithTagovailoa’ s
20-for-28,248-yard, two-TD breakout last
Sunday.
“It’ s nothing new, man,” he said. “Tua,
that’ s my guy, man, that’s my brother. Being
ableto see him back out there, back doing
the things that I’m usedto seeinghim do,
it was just grea t to actually see that.I was
happy to see him out there on thefield and
make plays like he always does.He played
a helluva game, too, though, so it’s always
ex citingto watch him.”
Tua good to be true.
[email protected]byStevStevSteveeSerby
“We had deepconversa theplaycall.“[THE DOLPHINS] GOTA HELLUVA
QB, MAN. ... I THINK THEY SHOULD
BE REALLY EXCITED IN WHATTHE
FUTURE HOLDS WITH HAVING HIM
AS THEIR QB.”
— XAVIER MCKINNEY, ON FORMER ALABAMA
TEAMMATE TUA TAGOVAILOABYE WEEKS
Chiefs,Cowboys,
Falcons,JetsGetty Images; AP