If one were to just scoreboard watch the Buccaneers, you might think that this was just a convincing win. Well, that would be true if not for the second quarter. The second quarter, everything just kinda blew open. Cats and dogs living together-mass hysteria.
Allow me if you will the opportunity to recap the adventure that the second quarter was. Bucs get backed up in the end zone, punt and allow a punt return TD, Baker Mayfield throws a pick, Saints get three, Saints get another pick, score seven, Bucs get seven, Saints get seven. Bucs’ go from up 17-0 to down 27-24. And that was all she wrote for the Saints. Today I will attempt to describe what I think happened.
One thing I know for sure is that Joe Buc is popping champagne. For those that hate Rachaad White, this was the game for them. Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker combined for, ahem, 217 yards!!! And do you know who lead the team? Sean Tucker, who had 131 yards, 1 rushing TD, one reciving TD, and 9.7 ypc.
I needed to keep checking that wasn’t me making a mistake somewhere. If you were to watch him, you would see a guy who had fantastic vision and broke so many tackles I thought it was Marshawn Lynch against the Saints.
After Baker started hot 9-9, threw three picks, he ended the game with a respectable stat line. The biggest thing was Coen asking him to throw a lot less and using the running backs more. He threw 30 times in the first half and six times in the second. Baker was definitely off in the second quarter, but managed to get comfortable and feed his favorite target. No, not Mike Evans stupid. Chris Godwin. Godwin had 11 receptions for 125 yards and two touchdowns. I think it’s safe to say he is in fact back. Oh and Sean Tucker was second in receiving yards with 59. Btw, the 594 yards the Bucs got today is the highest amount the Bucs have ever gotten and they scored the second most amount of points in their history.
It wasn’t all offense though. The defense after the second quarter really shaped up. Antoine Winfield Jr recovered a fumble for his first ever TD, Zyon McCollum got another pick and just clamped Raheed Shaheed, and we got five sacks. It was rough at first as Bowles did nothing to stop Spencer Rattler from rolling out and finding the open man. Remember what I said about blitzing and pressuring the rookie?
Well, Bowles apparently read that as he sent Rattler to hell with his pressure packages. After the first half, Rattler looked like a fifth round rookie making his first start. Thank God because he looked more like CJ Stroud against us. Hell, Tyler Funderburk had to come in for Jamel Dean and I barely noticed it outside one TD pass.
Was this the best win the Buccaneers have ever had? Well, 51 points does make a compelling case, but this was far from a perfect game. Just like last week, the Bucs worst enemy was not the other team, it was themselves. Those 27 points in the second quarter don’t happen without the offense and special teams helping the Saints out. However, this was a great win to prove this team can overcome adversity. Bowles turned what could’ve been a blown game and deflating loss into a convincing win. Regardless of the opponent and their deficiencies in terms of injury, that is impressive. We will see what team comes out against Baltimore, but the Buccaneers managed to get the fans a win that we needed.
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