Not exactly a unique observation, but if the Buccaneers advance, I will have one more of these part two articles. Which was only meant for division rivals.
As strange as it may seem, the Lions have a really good shot of making it to the NFC Championship game. The Lions of course did play the Bucs earlier in the season, and won pretty convincingly 20-6. However, the Lions offense was mostly stifled by the Bucs defense. The main issue besides Ryan Neal in coverage was the offense. This is a game that would make John McKay be in favor of executing the offense.
The key to victory for the Bucs is pretty simple. Score first and do it fast. I think I almost went deaf listening to the Lions game on television, so it may be a little loud for the players. With that said, Dave Canales needs to get the crowd out of the game as soon as possible. Best way to do that? Get the ball, and score. The Bucs have still not scored an opening drive TD. A stat that has haunted me on Twitter. That needs to change.
Of course, it is very easy to say that. But the Lions secondary is not that much better than the Eagles. While their players may be able to tackle better, their coverage leaves something to be desired. This will be another game where the Bucs have to launch an all-out aerial assault. And Mike Evans can’t drop the easiest TD passes in the world. The passing attack will also have to look a little different. They most likely can’t get away with all those screen passes or passes at the line of scrimmage. I have a hunch the Lions will be able to stop those more than the Eagles did. Baker Mayfield needs to constantly be saying “someone is down there”.
On defense, Todd Bowles needs to be a madman again with the blitz. Jared Goff is really good with a clean pocket, not so good without it. Calijah Kancey had a good game last time, but he and Yaya Diaby need to be monsters. Last time the blitz made Goff uncomfortable, but their o-line is really good. And Ben Johnson has seen a blitz before, so Bowles needs to be careful with it. Blitzing 18 out of 27 pass attempts will not fly here.
But the most important thing the Bucs need to do is eliminate the run game. The Eagles literally admitted that they couldn’t run against the Bucs, so they gave up. The Lions need to reach that point. Force Jared Goff to carry the team to victory without David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. He has taken strides and usually finds a way to beat the Buccaneers, but he is still prone to mistakes. The Lions have built a really good team that has been able to work around some of Goff’s limitations. In the words of CJ Gardner-Johnson, “If you give that Detroit group a good quarterback, that’s a great group.” Hey, he said it.
Literally everyone has counted us out. Fine, they’re the same people that said we would win 3 games. Let people count us out. Let all the Lions players and their fans talk their shit. We’ll see what happens on the field.
Make sure you check out Devin’s blog at cannoncrunch.wordpress.com.
Cannon Crunch with Devin Sanguinett
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