Ok Bucs fans, here’s a rhetorical question for you. Did that game bring us down to earth or what? Seriously! Who would have thought that Case Keenum was going to look like Tom freaking Brady while making our Defense (though heavily injury-plagued) look like it didn’t belong on the same field?
There was no pass rush, our secondary was absolutely shredded by Minnesota’s average wide receiver corps, often repeatedly leaving them WIDE open. As good as this unit played against the Bears in Week 2, what we witnessed last Sunday was quite the opposite.
As if there was a need to add salt to our wounds, the team lost more key contributors on defense including Gerald McCoy, Lavonte David and Vernon Hargreaves to injury. The game may have gone in a different direction had what appeared to be a fumble recovered by Tampa Bay on Dalvin Cook’s touchdown, been ruled as such. Unfortunately, the refs didn’t see enough to overturn the call on the field of a Vikings touchdown.
This loss can be attributed to the offense just as much as it is with the defense. There were too many mental mistakes by Jameis Winston, three Interceptions are simply unacceptable. Winston is still trying to fit the ball into double and triple coverage, just as he did on his third interception of the game, when he tried to fit the ball to Mike Evans, who had 3 players hovering around him on the route. If Jameis really wants to take the next step to Elite, and get our beloved Buccaneers into the playoffs and beyond, he has to stop taking unnecessary risks. When our offense is this stacked, there should never be a reason to throw to a receiver that is triple covered, even if it is Evans because that should tell Winston that either DeSean Jackson, Cameron Brate, O.J. Howard or any number of players will be single covered. He has to go through his progressions and learn to live tu play another down.
Our running game was practically non-existent also. That is to be expected when you are down multiple touchdowns early. Jaquizz Rodgers rushed for a measly 15 yards.
I am confident our captain, famous Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers will bounce back this Sunday against the New York Giants. They have to because next week, well, we have the G.O.A.T. and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots coming for a visit, and if we don’t correct our mistakes from last week this week, then next weeks game will become a long night, very quickly.
Edited By: Harmeet Kapur
