After upsetting the Detroit Lions on the road last Sunday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers come home this weekend to a far easier opponent (on paper) for a 1 p.m. game. On the other side of the ball for Week 3 are former Saints coach Sean Payton and his Bo Nix-led Denver Broncos.
The Broncos arrive in Tampa 0-2 following a road loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 1 and a loss at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
—
In both games rookie quarterback Nix came away with, shall we say, uneven results; his -0.25 estimated points added per play is good for 29th out of 32 qualified QBs, hanging around with the likes of Will Levis and recently benched Bryce Young. Not exactly the crowd you want to be associated with, but there’s still time for Nix to improve.
Add in a Denver running game that’s also near the bottom of the league in EPA/play and you’ve got yourself quite an inept offense. The Broncos’ starting right tackle, newly signed Mike McGlinchey, was even recently placed on injured reserve with an MCL sprain, hammering what is already a struggling group.
The Bucs have their own fair share of injury concerns, with their starting right tackle Luke Goedeke likely to miss his second consecutive game due to a concussion.
Replacement tackle Justin Skule had a heck of a time against Detroit’s Aidan Hutchinson last week, allowing Hutchinson to get 4.5 sacks. The Vanderbilt product otherwise wasn’t too bad, with Hutchinson not receiving any other pressures and having a 100% conversion rate on the times he did get pressured, a bit rare for an edge rusher.
—
Tampa Bay as a team also only allowed a 32.1% pressure rate last Sunday, lower than its total all year last season, which was 37.4%. Not bad for having a backup and some new faces in the lineup.
Hutchinson is one of the best edge rushers in football, too. The Broncos do not have such a dominant force on their defensive line, hopefully limiting the impact of the Bucs missing Goedeke.
Unfortunately on the defensive side of the ball for the Bucs, they’re also going to be without interior defensive linemen Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey, forcing the Bucs to rely on Logan Hall and Greg Gaines to replace the talented big men.
The Broncos’ offensive woes make it a good game for our guys to miss, but the lack of interior presence will be felt at points throughout the game.
And overall, the Bucs defense has played far better than expected.
—
Luckily Tampa Bay has linebacker YaYa Diaby playing quite well, as he ranks eighth in the league with 10 pressures. Zyon McCollum has been a solid outside corner, contributing to the Bucs ranking in the top-half of the league in EPA/play in the pass game. The low ranking in that category against the run is mostly due to facing Washington’s rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels in the season kickoff and a stout Lions rushing attack in week two. The numbers aren’t much to make a fuss over and should regress back to their usual high ranking as the season moves along.
The Bucs are likely to come away with a solid, 27-14 victory over the Broncos Sunday, and starting the season 3-0 is something not many (myself included) expected. Last weekend’s Lions victory was a huge statement win, even this early in the season. It’s the kind of result that can galvanize a group, especially as it continues to deal with injuries and guys missing time.
—
So here’s to hoping the next article being written is about the Buccaneers stomping all over Denver and sending Payton home crying about how much he misses Drew Brees.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
This article originally appeared on CLTAMPA.COM and is used with permission.
Follow @ctbrantley12 on Twitter and listen to him on the RBLR Bucs podcast
Follow, Like and Subscribe to Bucs Report
For more on this and everything Tampa Bay Buccaneers check back here hourly at BucsReport.com
