Yeah this game was bad for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I’m tired of moral victories. Yeah, the scoreboard said they kept it close. That’s because the 49ers shot themselves several times in the foot. Both these teams should be embarrassed about their effort in this game. It was absolutely terrible. The 49ers just got lucky the Bucs didn’t accept the win they gift wrapped.
I know a lot of people will blame the defense, and of course it deserves the blame, but the offense was not very good today. Baker Mayfield barely had over 100 yards and he missed quite a few throws. He played better than those yards would suggest, but the offense deserves some blame for how this game went. Baker was not able to push the ball down the field at all and it really hurt the explosiveness of the team.
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On the flip side, the 49ers got every explosive play they could’ve asked for. The defense of course allowed 413 yards even if they did hold them to only 23 points. But, as usual. Josh Quiepo is spot on with an observation. Jake Moody missed three what were entirely makeable FGs, really helping the Buccaneers out. I actually was about to come on here to say the defense did a perfectly fine job considering the earlier games this season, but no, I don’t think so.
It’s hard to single out two players in particular when the defense as a whole unit has not been good. But Antoine Winfield Jr and Zyon McCollum have not been having good games recently. Maybe it’s missing too many other pieces, but it hasn’t been good for them. Winfield had a horrible effort on the Ricky Persall touchdown and McCollum looked like he had glass bones. Oh, and we’re going to be missing McCollum for probably a few games.
But, if I have to talk about this terrible defense, I have to of course mention how utterly terrible the final drive was. I get we were missing Zyon McCollum and a few other guys, but dear God the coverage they played was so utterly terrible the Legion of Boom wouldn’t have helped them here. I don’t care who is out there, prevent defense when the other team needs a FG to win is an embarrassment.
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At the end of the day, the Bucs enter the bye 4-6 with a chance to beat up on some easy teams down the stretch. It becomes a lot harder though to beat said teams if McCollum misses significant time and Tristan Wirfs being out for a number of weeks. I still have some faith that the Bucs can make the playoffs because of said easy schedule, but it’s a hard road. They’ve backed themselves into a corner in which the only solution is to win out. Bowles has not endeared himself to fans as of late, but maybe if he does guide us to a 10 or 11 game season, we change our tune. It’s looking like that will be the only way he saves his job.
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