I have a lot of positives to say about this Buccaneers preseason opener. They were very strong on all sides of the ball. It was not perfect, but it was good. To get some of the negatives out of the way, despite the offense moving fairly well, it seemed a struggle for the Bucs to get points.
Part of that was John Wolford and Kyle Trask struggling on some throws and failing to make plays. Trask in particular had a very interesting game. He looked sharp at some points, and downright dreadful at others. He should’ve had multiple interceptions, but did also make a lot of tough throws. I don’t know how to feel about it. Still probably better than Wolford, who just looked bad, albeit he was playing with back ups to the back ups. Hayes also had a rough game. His PI I thought was kinda soft, but he looked like Devin White trying to tackle Tee Higgins. Just a bad angle on what should’ve been a stop.
Buccaneers Offense Looks Solid
But the offense did look really good. The rookies in particular absolutely showed out. Bucky Irving was able to break several tackles on way to their only TD and also getting 8 yards on a play where he looked stuffed. He went 28 yards with 6 carries, which is certainly not bad. Tucker actually had the better game rushing with 10 rushes for 68 yards. Jalen McMillan also had an amazing grab off a ball where the DB jumped the route and he fought for and won the ball. The star on offense though was Graham Barton. He was absolutely running people over in the run game and even seemed to be calling protections. I also didn’t notice any bad snaps by him, which is a relief since that was a problem in the preseason.
Even though this isn’t indicative of what the offense will look like come September, I like it. There is a lot of presnap motion, lots of moving parts and misdirection, and Liam Coen is doing a good job getting guys open. There were also quite a few bootlegs that worked, especially the one on third down in the third. Again, this is the watered-down version of what we will see in a real game, so I can’t wait to see it.
The Smith & Merriweather Show
On defense, it was the Tykee Smith and Kaevon Merriweather show. Although, there were appearances by Chris Braswell getting several pressures on Browning and Keenan Isaac getting the only interception where he looked like the WR. But Merriweather was just everywhere. Even if he didn’t show up a lot on the stat sheet, he was constantly around the ball. And Tykee Smith was a tackling machine. He had three on the day and like Merriweather, was all over the field. I especially liked when he was blitzing.
The future looks bright with these young stars would be my biggest takeaway. If they live up to the promise they have been showing in Training Camp and the preseason, this will be a fun season.
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