The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense was missing Jamel Dean and Lavonte David, and Devin White was dealing with an injury of his own, and the unit certainly looked the part, as the Bucs fell 27-20 in Indianapolis to make their record 1-6 over their past seven games.
The Colts were able to do whatever they wanted on offense in both the run and pass game, as well as causing a couple key turnovers on the defensive side of the ball, the most important coming via a fourth quarter strip sack that put the final nail in the coffin of a horrible game.
—
Indy was able to run for 155 yards and throw for 239 on the day, overcoming some shoddy passes by quarterback Gardner Minshew, one of which led to a Carlton Davis interception.
Minshew even mixed in a rushing touchdown for the day, sending Devin White into oblivion on a little shimmy move that many middle-aged men probably broke out during their annual Turkey Bowl games this past Thanksgiving.
Every facet of the game the Bucs could have been bad at, they were; offensively they were their usual inconsistent selves, with Baker Mayfield going down with an ankle injury that derailed their first drive of the game from being a touchdown, forcing the Bucs to settle for three points despite getting inside the Colts one-yard-line after Kyle Trask was thrust into the game and couldn’t get anything going.
On special teams Jake Camarda missed a couple opportunities to pin the Colts deep inside their own territory after the Bucs couldn’t get anything going and were forced to punt around mid field, as the former Georgia Bulldog booted a couple punts into the end zone for touchbacks throughout the game.
At least Rachaad White, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin all had relatively decent games despite the rest of the offense being so miserable.
It’s still very much a Bucs life, but at least the Saints lost this Sunday to the Falcons, giving the Buccaneers a window to still, despite their struggles, be right in the thick of this NFC South race.