Matchup with the Steelers As week three came to a close on Monday Night Football
Vita Vea Jersey , the Tampa Bay Buccaneers endured their first loss of the season. The game had many ups and downs and reeked of the team as many have come
to know it over the last few seasons. Penalties, no-calls, ghost-calls,
turnovers and a late rally that fell short best summarizes the game void of
detail. Now it’s time for some post game reactions. The offense lost some of
it’s early season mojo. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for another 400 yards and as Gil
Arcia wrote here, entered the record books as the first quarterback to toss for
400 yards in three consecutive games. Three was number of the game for
Fitzpatrick as he threw 3 interceptions (2 of which can be pinned on him) along
with 3 touchdown passes. Yards aside, this was the version Fitzpatrick that most
of the football world envisioned the Buccaneers getting while Jameis Winston
served his suspension. The high risk-high reward gunslinger mentality finally
cost the team a bit in this one though it was far from being solely on the
shoulders of the teams signal caller. Following a Justin Evans interception,
Peyton Barber got the offense going with a couple good runs to set up a
touchdown pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Cameron Brate to give the Buccaneers and
early lead. Barber would have little to no success after this drive, finishing
the game with a total of 33 yards on 8 carries. Rodgers added 2 carries for -1
yards, Humphries carried one time for 4 yards and Fitzpatrick scrambled his way
to 27 yards on 5 carries. Barber had the biggest carry of the night, going for
18 yards. Without the 18 yard scamper, Barber carried 7 times for 15 yards. The
receiving core including tight ends worked hard in this one led by Mike Evans
and O.J. Howard. Evans had 137 yards and a touchdown on 6 receptions including
two amazing grabs shown below. Howard pulled in 6 passes for 72 yards and Chris
Godwin had 4 catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. Godwin had his struggles
including a ill timed fumble and several key drops, one of which was in the
end-zone. The team was unable to get DeSean Jackson involved much
Carlton Davis Jersey , finishing with 3 catches for 37 yards. Brate got his first bit of real action of the season catching 3 of 4 targets for 34 yards and
a touchdown. The offensive line again did an overall solid job protecting
Fitzpatrick but a missed assignment directly led to a Fitzpatrick interception.
Run blocking was below average yet again, struggling to consistently open holes
albeit they did succeed in allowing Barber to spring for a good gain on the
second drive. As a whole, the offense did enough to win the football game. The
turnovers, all four of them, are inexcusable and need to get under control. The
pick six from Fitzpatrick (shown below) just can’t happen.The play calling was
questionable in a few key moments but ultimately in this gamethe offense as a
whole didn’t execute to the level that they are capable of.Defensive backfield
got gashed and gap discipline late was an issue. The defensive line had a solid
game led by veteran free-agent acquisition Jason Pierre-Paul. JPP did receive a
personal foul for a hit to the head of Big Ben that was quite the acting job the
by quarterback to sell the force of contact, but he also contributed 2 sacks to
give him 3 on the season, one off the league lead in sacks. Pierre-Paul’s 3
sacks are more than any Buccaneer defensive end had a season ago. Vinny Curry
and Gerald McCoy combined to split a sack which you won’t hear much about due to
the sack that didn’t happen late in the 4th quarter by Gerald McCoy. On the play
in question, McCoy nearly gets to Big Ben but was held on the play and in turn,
the Steelers ended up extending the drive and went on to win the ballgame. The
linebackers were swarming but a few miscues including a poor angle and a vacated
zone by Kwon and David let to a few big Steeler plays across the middle. Lavonte
David did have an otherwise stellar game including a huge stop early in the
ballgame that was followed by a Pierre-Paul sack to close out a Steeler drive in
the first half. David led the team with 9 total tackles. The defensive backs
would best be served split into two groups, veterans and young guns. The young
guns, including Justin Evans, Carl Davis
O. J. Howard Jersey , M.J. Stewart and Jordan Whitehead played well. The veteran tandem of Brent Grimes and Chris “Highlight” Conte however did not. In Conte’s
defense, he had little to do with the overall game as he was injured shortly
after being demolished by Vance McDonald in this clip here. Justin Evans had
himself a solid ball game against the Steelers that included this early
interception of Big Ben on the Steelers second drive. Evans did play a big role
in the Steelers scoring on a pass to Antonio Brown that first saw Brent Grimes
playing off coverage and whiff on the tackle attempt. The biggest story of this
game for the defensive backs was Carl Davis and how well he played, in
particular when guarding Antonio Brown, versus how rusty a game it was for Brent
Grimes who struggled in coverage early and seemed to be debating on whether or
not to tackle the Steelers running back late in this ballgame. Also of note
corner wise, Ryan Smith was noticeably absent from the defense just a week
removed from the game of his life. I wrote a bit on that here. Special Teams
play. Catanzaro made all 5 of his kicks which included 2 field goals in this
game. Punter Brian Anger worked in three punts totaling 126 yards that included
a 62 yarder and one punt inside the 20. Kicking game wise, the special teams
units did their job. Kick return wise the Buccaneers struggled aside from an
electric punt return touchdown from DeSean Jackson that was brought back due to
a bad holding call against Isaiah Johnson. Shaun Wilson struggled returning
kicks on his 5 attempts, netting a big gain of only 17 yards and finishing with
68 yards returning in total. It may be time to question if Wilson is cut out for
the job after a few questionable decisions and his spot potentially hindering
the availability of Ronald Jones suiting up as one of the final 46 going
forward. The wrap-up. The Buccaneers nearly went 3-0 to start the season and
that in and of itself is incredible given the early on expectations. With the
team now 2-1 and gearing up to take on Khalil Mack and the Chicago Bears, it’s
time for this front office and the coaches to not let one loss roll into
another. This team desperately needs to turn things around this season and the
start they are off to is just what they needed. Fitzpatrick saw the magic wear
off a good bit on Monday night and how he starts this next ballgame will very
easily dictate his immediate future along with Jameis Winston’s. The offense is
in prime position to continue putting up big plays and points. The defense needs
to step it up in all phases. The loss was tough but it was not a back breaker.
Fans should be proud of how this team battled back and the players should look
to build upon their efforts. As always, Go Bucs! Many Buccaneers fans remember
the days Tampa Bay was in the NFC Central. The always memorable black and blue
division featured the likes of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, Green Bay
Packers, and Detroit Lions. The Bucs had many memorable matchups against those
teams. However
Justin Evans Jersey , in today’s NFL world, they have had to grow to hate a different set of teams after the realignment of 2002 placed them in the NFC
South with the New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, and Carolina Panthers.With
that said, SB Nation asked fans to vote on who they feel are their team’s
biggest rival. So as you can see below, many feel the Saints are Tampa Bay’s
rival.The Bucs have faced the Saints 53 times which is fifth most among teams
they have played against. They have a 21-32 record against New Orleans. And the
four teams the Bucs have played more are of course the Bears, Vikings, Packers,
and Lions.Note: Eagles were placed in the FanPulse poll because, well, they’re
still mad with Tampa Bay after Ronde shut The Vet down.
