Honestly, the Buccaneers could probably do nothing and still beat the Bears.
Being completely honest here, I think the Bucs have a very good chance of blowing the Bears completely out of the water. After all the shit they talked before Green Bay, their defense couldn’t stop a sweet summer breeze. And their offense. Oh their offense. Led by MVP candidate Justin Fields, they managed to put up a whopping 20 points. Not bad until you consider they scored those points in what was essentially garbage time. Anyone who watched that game knew that the Bears were outclassed at every level. And I would argue the Packers are not all that much better than the Buccaneers. Their running game and o-line is definitely better, but their defense is not and we have better offensive weapons outside of running back in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin.
Tightening Some Screws
That being said, there are definitely a few screws that should be tightened before the game. For one thing, I want the offense to get into rhythm a lot earlier than they did last Sunday. It’s better to end the game strong and start weak than the reverse, but I would just prefer to be strong all the way through.
Part of doing that is getting the run game going early. There are a lot of factors for why the run game still didn’t do all that much. The Vikings front was pretty strong. But it was mostly at the feet of the o-line and Rachaad White. The lanes were not open for White at all, and even when they were, White would do his best MJ impression and dance around rather than hitting the hole full speed. If he were better at slipping tackles, then this wouldn’t be a problem, but he hasn’t shown that ability much.
Apply Pressure
The defense also needs to pressure Fields a lot and make sure he doesn’t escape. Even when the Bears were getting their ass kicked, Fields still showed that taking him down is easier said than done. He doesn’t look it, but he is slippery and tough to bring down. So, to contain Fields, the defense needs to make sure to fully wrap him up and to not allow him to break contain.
Really, that’s all there is to it. The Bears run defense is horrendous, so if Canales commits, I can see White having a very good game. The passing game should be fine considering they’re going to have a back-up covering Godwin and Evans, so expect big games from them. I’m not super concerned about the defense as their run defense proved very impressive against the Vikings. Although, they will be facing a tougher competition in terms of RB quality. However, I won’t exactly be sweating this game (come back to this when it comes down to a FG again).
This article was used with permission from Devin Sanguinett of the Cannon Crunch Blog.
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