On a day when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense struggled the defense showed it inexperience to get off the field. Yes Cam was held under 154 yards passing, and 44 rushing yards any other week and we would be talking about a Buccaneers win. Unfortunately the defense can’t get off the field on 3rd down, allowing the panthers offense to go 5-5 on third down and scoring a touchdown on its first drive of the day.
Vernon Hargreaves and Ryan Smith held their own against the Panthers receiving corps, Vernon has definitely been better since the disappointing start to his second year. Without Brent Grimes playing Sunday they held all receivers to under 50 yards. Rookie McCaffery had 49 on 5 catches, the defense played the run well holding the Panthers to 100 yards. The one glaring problem I see each week is the defensive splash plays turnovers and sacks. The defense just can’t get to the QB, when you blitz you better be able to get a sack, or it’s going to be a long day.
We lucked out when Denver released T.J. Ward, but for some reason he’s not getting the playing time to be the impact player he knows he can be. The 25 yard touchdown to Kelvin Benjamin was on rookie Justin Evans, I rather have seen the more experienced Ward covering Benjamin on that play.
You can’t go 16 NFL games and expect the offense to win every game. The defense needs to step up, put the QB on his back, and take the ball away. Until we see that from Mike Smith defense, I don’t see him coaching in Tampa for long.
