Tag: Antonie Winfield Jr.

5 takeaways from the Bucs loss to the Cowboys in Week 16

Overall, it was one of the more entertaining games of the season. Unfortunately, the Bucs were on the losing end of a 26-24 must-win game.

Entering Sunday night’s contest against the Dallas Cowboys, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers controlled their destiny when it came to making the playoffs and holding on to their lead in the NFC South.

Overall, it was one of the more entertaining games of the season. Unfortunately, the Bucs were on the losing end of a 26-24 must-win game.

The Buccaneers are not a prime-time team

Prime-time games and the Buccaneers do not mix well. When the lights are the brightest, the Bucs are the dimmest. This season alone, 4-of-7 losses have come on a Thursday, Sunday, or Monday night game. Three of the four losses were one-score games, with two games going into overtime, but they featured the Buccaneers playing from behind and needing to come back to make the game closer. Following suit during Sunday night’s loss to the Cowboys, the Buccaneers were playing from behind and ultimately lost the game as they have on each prime-time game this season.

A true lack of identity

Typically, when you think of the top teams in the league, each one has an identity. The Buccaneers do not have an identity. They have stars on both sides of the ball but are not a team known for doing anything extraordinary. With the amount of talent on offense and defense, something should stand out, yet it doesn’t. Even more of a head-scratcher as they are a top 5 team in the league in both passing and rushing offense through 16 weeks of the regular season. This played out last night as a Cowboys team with nothing to play for, as they were eliminated from the playoffs before kickoff on Sunday night. It allowed a team that ranks near the bottom of the league in team defense and is a middle-of-the-pack team on offense to control the game completely.

Questionable clock management strikes again

Todd Bowles and clock management are as prevalent a pairing as the Buccaneers and prime-time games in that they do not mix well. Throughout the entire first half of the game, the Buccaneers could not stop the Cowboys on defense. Calling a timeout with 54 seconds remaining in the second quarter was questionable at best. The timeout would not have impacted Mayfield’s 11-yard strike to Jalen McMillan. Instead, it gave the Cowboys 48 seconds to move the ball down the field and get into scoring position with two timeouts remaining, and with the Buccaneers defense unable to slow down the Cowboys all night, they did just that.

Improper utilization of Irving and White

The box score will tell you that Bucky Irving led the team with 16 carries to Rachaad White’s three, but there is much more than meets the eye. For the final ten minutes of the game, Irving, the NFL’s leader in yards after contact per attempt, sat on the sidelines without a single touch while White finished the game for the Buccaneers offense. White is better in pass blocking than Irving is, but pass protection from the running back wasn’t the biggest issue for the team, as the Cowboys generated 22 pressures on the night. White led the team in receptions with seven and tied Evans for a team-high eight targets. To correctly use a dynamic backfield like the Buccaneers have, look towards a team like the Detroit Lions and how David Montogmery and Jahmyr Gibbs have been used this season.

Something is missing from the defense

Saying the defense needs leadership isn’t the right observation because it slights a veteran like Lavonte David and stars like Vita Vea and Antoine Winfield Jr., which isn’t an entirely fair assessment. However, it’s missing something at every level. This comes back to the lack of identity, which, if not player-related, has to fall back on coaching. This has been a theme for most of the season when the Bucs lose. The defense ranks 25th in yards allowed with 354.3 per game and 22nd in points per game allowed with 23.5. Their inability to routinely stop opposing offenses forces their offense to play mistake-free, which is a lot to ask for in a pass-heavy league. Football is a team game, and the best teams in the league typically find their offense and defense ranks not to have such a large gap.

As the season is winding down, the seat for the Buccaneers coaching staff should be scorching hot as they entered Week 16 in the playoffs and left Week 16 on the outside looking in. Simply put, there is too much talent on this Buccaneers team for the array of issues that rear their ugly heads more often than not.

 

5 key takeways from the Bucs 23-20 loss to the 49ers

In a game that was not nearly as close as the scoreboard would indicate, here are 5 key takeaways as the Bucs continue to look for answers.

In what was sort of a midseason battle of attrition of under-performing teams between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers, the Buccaneers once again fell short, this time in regulation as Jake Moody hit a game-winning FG as the clock expired.

In a game that was not nearly as close as the scoreboard would indicate, here are 5 key takeaways as the Buccaneers continue to look for answers following their fourth-straight loss.

The Buccaneers are not built for close games

Close games are traditionally won by out-coaching your opposition. Todd Bowles is unable to do that and has proven it time and time again. Whether it is poor clock management or just simply playing without a killer instinct and playing to win, Bowles is overstaying his welcome among fans. Offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who would be the front-runner to take over the team should the Buccaneers make the unlikely midseason move at head coach, has continued to show flashes of great calling, followed by headscratchers. On the season, the Buccaneers

Bucky Irvin should be RB1 from now on

Of that headscratcher, as mentioned above, decisions would be why the Buccaneers have not named rookie RB Bucky Irving the clear-cut RB1 after routinely out-gaining Rachaad White on running plays. White is dynamic in the passing game; however, splitting nearly 50% of carries every week is less than ideal as Irving is not only the team leader in rushing yards but out-gains White by over a yard per carry, which is a lot considering how close the Buccaneers games have been as of late.

Defense is poorly indescribable

Injuries be damned. Players get hurt weekly, and there is no excuse for how poor this Buccaneers defense is, especially with the number of self-inflicted wounds we see weekly. That falls back on coaching. Bowles continued odd-man substitutions rarely allow for his best players to be on the field at the same time, namely on the defensive line. In last week’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, Yaya Diaby, Vita Vea, and Calijah Kancey all saw more than 55% of defensive snaps, which was the highest for all three players all season. Antoine Winfield Jr. has to put 120% effort into every play, not to account for a lack of talent but for a lack of effort from his teammates, which is a recipe for disaster as the season progresses.

The lack of depth at WR should’ve been addressed

The NFL trade deadline came and went, and all the while, the Buccaneers were missing superstar WRs Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. This left Mayfield solely to rely on a young and unproven wide receiver corps, as Jason Licht and the Bucs front office chose to stand pat and not make a move. TE Cade Otton has emerged as Mayfield’s favorite–and most reliable– target over the last several weeks; outside of Otton and the Bucs running backs being utilized in the passing game, it’s become a total crapshoot if and when someone else will step up. Luckily for the Buccaneers, Mayfield continues to toe the line as an outlier in the MVP conversation. Evans will likely return following the bye, which should help open up the offense more.

Bucs playoff hopes dwindling

Per The Athletic, the Buccaneers entered Week 10 with only a 21% chance of making the playoffs, and with another NFC loss to a team in the Wild Card picture, that only makes things harder. Five of the remaining seven games are against fellow NFC teams, making each a must-win bout. As the Bucs enter the bye week, they will look to address some of the problems in hopes of shoring up the defense. In Week 12, the Buccaneers will play against the New York Giants, who have been a mess all season, with the caveat that Bowles has never won a game following a Bye Week.