The Buccaneers are now perfect on the young season. They have won against division rival in the New Orleans Saints and the defending Superbowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. The Buccaneers dominated in all phases of the football game in Week 2. Of course, Ryan Fitzpatrick dazzled us with his superb quarterback play. This team is exciting to watch with the aerial attack they posses every week. The offense racked up 436 total yards against the Eagles.
In Week 2 there were some spectators that thought maybe Ryan Fitzpatrick would fall back to Earth, but he had an excellent game. Fitzpatrick threw a missile in the first 15 seconds of the game to DeSean Jackson. The 75 yard touchdown pass shocked the Eagles defense. That wasn’t the only touchdown pass of the day for Fitzpatrick. He went into his bag of tricks and threw three more touchdowns. He hit O.J. Howard (75 yards), Chris Godwin (8 yards), and Mike Evans (4 yards). He also tallied up 402 passing yards and one interception. The one blemish on his day was an interception that could’ve been called a fumble on Howard.
The offense has to get Barber and Rodgers going on the ground. The aerial attack is covering up a sub-par running game, but if the Buccaneers have any chance at winning the NFC South they need to run the ball better. Maybe Ronald Jones II will get his act together and possibly see some action this year.
The defense was much improved in Week 2, but they still need to improve. The secondary got gashed in the second half, but I can’t put all the blame on them. Why NFL teams continue to play prevent defense when they have the lead baffles me? The only thing the prevent defense does is prevent the game from staying a blowout. The Eagles did whatever they wanted when the Buccaneers dropped back and stopped bringing pressure. That said, Jason Pierre-Paul looked like the monster we have grown accustom to seeing in New York. The secondary will continue to get better as players come back from injury. The Buccaneers losing Vernon Hargreaves III for the year hurts a young secondary though. The Eagles racked up 7 points at halftime and finished the game with 21 points. The Buccaneers held them to 412 total yards. When it comes down to it Tampa Bay got stops when they needed them.
Special Teams were excellent this past week, too. Ryan Smith made numerous plays for the Buccaneers in the open field. Smith played the game of his career and will continue to get better the more field time he gets through the season. Chandler Catanzaro missed one extra point, but finished the day 3 out of 4. The missed extra point would have been much bigger if the Eagles would have scored on the last drive of the game, but they ran out of time. We would love to see perfection with the kickers, but after watching with agony through the kicking nightmare the last few years, I think we will all live with 3 of 4 extra points made.
The Buccaneers have a Monday Night Football match-up this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers are a team in disarray right now. Le’Veon Bell continues to hold out and now Antonio Brown is missing practices. This could be the perfect time to hit the once AFC powerhouse Steelers. Fitzpatrick will continue his hot play this week and the Buccaneers should come out victorious. Week 4 will be interesting if Fitzpatrick plays well again because we all know Jameis is itching to get back onto the gridiron.
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