The Lions are missing their entire secondary and the Buccaneers have Mike Evans and friends. Truly another heavyweight match in the injury bowl. I think I wrote in the Seahawks recap that we wouldn’t face another team that’s suffering their amount of injuries. It keeps happening. At this rate Matthew Stafford will retire when we face the Rams.
Looking at the offense, it’s time to unleash the “fuck it Mike Evans is down there somewhere” tactics. It’s not even an exaggeration to say that the Lions are down the entire starting secondary. It’s just the truth. They are down to starting Rock Ya-Sin on Mike Evans. Baker just needs to find him and throw it like he’s Calvin Johnson.
And yes, I know Emeka Egbuka is doing everything possible to get onto the field, but honestly, I think the team should play it safe here. The team has proven they can play well without him, so there’s not this great need to rush him back. Sterling Shepard has proven he is WR1 material (joking but also not) and maybe Tez Johnson can take the top off. The team knows better than I do about his injury obviously, but looking from the outside in, there’s no need to get him back in tonight.
As far as Aiden Hutchinson goes, I think Cade Otton will end up reprising his role as an offensive lineman. Hutchinson will not be teeing off against Goedeke, but Charlie Heck. While Heck has been good enough so far, he’s facing arguably a top 5 edge rusher. It might get bad again. Great day for those that think cade Otton isn’t good at TE because he probably won’t have many catches. This however will be a great day for Rachaad White truthers and people that love watching his blitz pick up.
For the Bucs defense, they can’t play the same game they did in 2024. Last year Detroit moved up and down the field but couldn’t score points. I don’t think they can win that sort of game again. Tampa will be getting their starting secondary back, which should help. Sam Laporta may have a good day if our LBs can’t hold the fort though. We also have to worry about Gibbs and Monty, but the Bucs have done a really good job stopping the run.
Every single time I try to predict if a game will be high scoring or not, I just look like the Brewers at the plate, so I’m just going to skip that. The Bucs offense should be able to abuse the secondary if the offensive line can keep Baker upright. I think Detroit may compensate for the lack of secondary help by sending more men, so they need to protect Baker. on defense, force the Lions to beat you threw the air. The Bucs pass rush I think is good enough to force Goff into mistakes and you can’t let them play the game on their terms.
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