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Defensive Line Getting Better

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By ROY CUMMINGS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 22, 2007

Updated: 11/21/2007 11:12 pm

TAMPA - Greg White has been challenged before. This is football, after all. But never had he been challenged like this. Not in front of the entire team, by the head coach, on the eve of game day.

It didn't matter that Gaines Adams, Jovan Haye and every other member of the Bucs defensive line had been challenged right along with him. White took this challenge personally, which is precisely what Coach Jon Gruden wanted him to do.

Gruden had tried everything else to light a fire under his young pass rushers. Even when their effort was commendable, which it was against the Titans and the Lions, Gruden couldn't bring himself to commend it.

Not good enough. That became his mantra. When your defensive spark plug is the rush you get from your four down linemen and they have yet to grasp that fact, you have no choice but to push for more.

So three sacks should have been four, four should have been five. That's what White, Adams and Haye kept hearing. And they were listening. Still, it wasn't until they were put on the spot that the message started to sink in.

"It was crazy the way Coach Gruden and Coach Monte Kiffin came at us," said Adams, who is just now starting to display the skills that made him the most coveted pass rusher in the draft in April. "But it motivated the whole line."

Timing is everything, some say. In this case, Gruden's timing was perfect. He delivered his message a couple of weeks back just as White, Adams and Haye were starting to figure things out. That's what Derrick Brooks thinks, anyway.

The bottom line is that, for the first time all year, the results Sunday at Atlanta were along the lines of what Gruden and the Bucs have been looking for. White had two sacks, including one that caused the fumble that Ronde Barber scooped up and turned into a touchdown. Adams also had two sacks, and nose tackle Chris Hovan had one sack.

And Haye had a quarterback hit, which is even better than a sack when it forces the quarterback to throw the ball in such a way that it comes down like a pooch punt into the arms of your middle linebacker.

"That game was sort of like a coming-out party for us," White said. "But you know what? It's still not good enough. We know we can still do better. We have to do better."

Gruden said the same thing less than 24 hours after the Atlanta game. He probably realized that in retrospect getting five sacks against the Falcons is not necessarily an outstanding accomplishment. Atlanta's quarterback was Byron Leftwich. He's something of a statue in the pocket, and his delivery is so slow that it lends itself to giving up a lot of sacks or pressures. And the Falcons offensive line had a couple of suspect starters.

A better test of whether the Bucs' young pass rushers are really getting to where they need to be will come Sunday when they take on the Redskins.

Having allowed 15 sacks all season, the Skins are fifth in the league in sacks allowed per pass play. If the Bucs can harass their quarterback the way they did the Falcons' QBs, Gruden finally may think he's got what he wants.

He knows that he's close. He said this week that the plan for refining Adams' raw pass-rush skills is "on schedule," and White's play is starting to impress him as well.

"I am impressed with him," Gruden said of White, who came to the Bucs from the Arena League's Orlando Predators near the end of training camp. "He has some natural pass-rush ability."

Like Adams, White is a raw talent. The two are still learning the nuances of the game and are just starting to take advantage of their vast skills.

"You've really kind of started seeing it in practice the past couple of weeks," Brooks said. "They've started taking that a little more serious."

Veteran linemen Kevin Carter said the improved practice play is simply a result of the young players maturing and realizing they are responsible for maintaining the high standard the Bucs set defensively. Carter also credited Adams, White and Haye with finding their second wind.

"It's like they got over the wall - the rookie wall," Carter said. "It usually hits around week 9 or 10 and you see some guys start to fade a little bit mentally because the college season is not quite as long as our season. But they've actually persevered through it; they're on the other side and they're improving."

They had no choice but to improve. Not after starting end Greg Spires went down with a calf strain three weeks ago. Adams believes that he, White and Haye might be where they are now even had Spires remained healthy.

"We were getting there," he said. "But it was one person getting there, maybe two. Now we have three or four getting there. If we keep a level head and keep working hard, things should continue to happen for us."

Reporter Roy Cummings can be reached at (813) 259-7979 or at rcummings@tampatrib.com.

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