Sunday was a damning indictment of where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers currently are as a team. All the good will and excitement that was built up last week after beating Detroit is pretty much out the window after being crushed by the Denver Broncos by the score of 26-7. Keep in mind that the Bucs were at home in this game and playing one of the worst teams in the NFL and lost by nearly three touchdowns.
At this moment, it’s hard to say that the Bucs aren’t closer to the team we saw lose yesterday than the one we saw upset a very good Detroit team on the road last week. Right now, the Buccaneers have obvious flaws that need to be corrected. Some will be relatively easy to fix and some will take more time.
With all that said, here are my Buccaneers Week Three Takaways.
Half Baked Quarterback Performance
There are no two ways to say it, Baker Mayfield was awful yesterday. He looked uncomfortable, even scared, most of the game. Even when he had plenty of time to throw he would either bail from a clean pocket or dump the ball off to a receiver who had no chance to make a real play.
It’s games like this that remind us why Mayfield was a reclamation project coming into last season. His lows can be very low and the next step of his career revival in Tampa will be eliminating games like this and developing week to week consistency. On a down week like this one he gave the Bucs very little chance to win.
This isn’t to say that I think Mayfield is bad or the Bucs should be looking for the next guy to replace him. Most of his time in Tampa he has played well and I believe he is a quarterback that this team can win a Super Bowl with. However, he has to learn from this experience and play better moving forward.
Injuries Hurting Pass Rush
The most disturbing part of yesterday’s loss was how comfortable rookie quarterback Bo Nix looked all day. There was very little pressure on him to speak of and he slowly picked the Bucs apart. Keep in mind that this Broncos offensive line is not good and they were missing their starting tackle on the outside.
The Buccaneers edge rushers were just basically a non factor. Yaya Diaby and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka were not impactful in this game. It didn’t matter what Todd Bowles dialed up, the pass rush just had no impact in this game.
It became very obvious in this game how much the Buccaneers are missing Vita Vea and Calijah Kancey. With as many stunts and blitzes as this defense runs, not having those two to draw attention and work with the rest of the defensive line to open things up for them really hurt this group. It’s a testament to how good those two guys are as well as that the Buccaneers don’t have a guy on the outside who can impact the game by himself.
Offensive Line Struggles
There were a lot of issues up front for the Buccaneers yesterday. Guys like Cody Mauch, Justin Skule and even Tristian Wirfs were beaten and allowed big hits on the quarterback. It was ineffective and chaotic all day for this group.
Part of this is inexperienced. Graham Barton played only his third NFL game on Sunday and is still learning the position; we knew there would be growing pains. Cody Mauch is in a similar boat, only in his second NFL season and his second season playing guard. I would have expected him to look better thus far, but he is still experiencing growing pains as well.
I am becoming increasingly concerned about Ben Bredeson at left guard. While he has the mobility to make some of these blockers, it seems like opponents are just going right through him at times. Perhaps rookie Elijah Klein could do better, but it might be too early to make that move.
Also keep in mind, some of this is a communication issue. The interior of this line is still getting used to playing together and all of them are learning this new offense. This is one of those problems that will take time to solve, but yesterday’s performance against a talent void Denver defensive line was not encouraging.
Players, Not Plays?
One of the big frustrations from the game yesterday was the lack of Mike Evans involvement. We expected a lot of options to be open, so he might not get a lot of opportunities in this game. However, when nothing else was working, why did we not see more Evans?
When new offensive coordinator Liam Coen came to town he talked about his philosophy. He said he believed in going to players over specific plays. So, why did we not see him dial up his future Hall of Fame wide receiver more often?
Maybe he did and Mayfield’s bad day killed the plan and he just wasn’t able to get the ball in his direction. Maybe Patrick Surtain was that good and Evans was just never open. Regardless of the reason, this offense has to start feeding Evans if they want to find the endzone more than once per game.
Time For A Change
One thing that can be fixed right away is a change in the starting lineup. It might be early in the season, but it has become clear that one of the depth players on this team is better than the starter and deserves more playing time. There is no point in starting a more established guy when he clearly isn’t the best option.
I am referring to K.J. Britt as the current starter to replace and how much better SirVocea Dennis has looked when on the field. We know Dennis is the better player in coverage, but he also brings more sideline to sideline speed and comparable tackling ability. You can’t have a run stuffing linebacker who can’t get to the tackles he needs to make, like we saw yesterday.
Dennis is only in his second season and didn’t see a ton of playing time as a rookie, so again there will be ups and downs with a young player like this. However, I’d rather he learn on the jon even if it means mistakes. Dennis is the better player right now and he comes with a much higher upside than Britt provides.
A Few Bright Spots
I thought Zyon McCollum played well overall. He gave up a big play early, but after that he was very good. He continues to impress as one of the biggest unanswered questions coming into the season. I am feeling more and more comfortable with him every week.
I also thought Chris Braswell took a step forward in this game. He got pressure on Nix a few times and he seems to be starting to adjust to the speed of the NFL game a little more. He still has a long way to go, but it was nice to see the rookie make some plays.
Another rookie impressed on Sunday and that was running back Bucky Irving. While the blocking situation made it difficult for either running back to get a lot going, Irving made a big play and that was in part due to the way he set up his blocks. I’m not advocating for him to become the starter at this point, because White hasn’t had a lot of opportunity with such poor blocking in front of him, but Irving is proving that he can make things happen when he has the ball in his hands.
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