The Buccaneers feel confident in their ability to slow down Chiefs WR Tyreek Hill this time around.
When the Kansas City Chiefs faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during Week 12 of the regular season, Tyreek Hill put together a historic day.
Hill became the first player to record 7 receptions and at least 200 receiving yards in a single quarter since the NFL began tracking play-by-play data in the early ’90s. He’d finish the game with 13 catches for 269 yards and three touchdowns, earning AFC Offensive Player of the Week honors.
Hill’s performance had a huge impact on the Chiefs’ ability to win that road game in Week 12, but this time around the Bucs are confident they’ll be better prepared. Carlton Davis, who was tasked with covering Hill for the majority of the day, plans to attack this week with the same mentality.
“I’m going to bring the same mentality,” Davis told reporters on Tuesday. “I’m always going to be myself. It didn’t work out the first game as far as what we did and our game plan, but we’ve corrected it and we’ve got a great game plan going in. But I’m going in with the same mentality and that’s to dominate.”
Davis believes Tampa Bay has made some changes to the gameplan in regards to Hill. One of the changes is that they’ll have Jamel Dean back in the lineup. Dean didn’t play in Week 12 due to injury and he’s someone that is believed to have the speed to match up with Hill in coverage. Dean doesn’t really see himself as being any sort of X-Factor in this game, though.
“I mean, I just feel like everybody will have all their weapons,” Dean said. “I really don’t feel like I’m much of a big difference… They’re very talented on the offensive side of the ball, so it’s going to be a challenge for all of us. But we’ve got to just stick to our technique and be disciplined with them.”
Perhaps the Bucs’ top performer at the position, Sean Murphy-Bunting feels like they’ll get the best of Hill this time around. He has recorded an interception in each of the last three games for Tampa Bay. He seems to believe that having already played against Hill once gives him and the rest of the cornerbacks an advantage in Super Bowl LV.
“100%,” Murphy-Bunting said. “From anybody, from the outside looking in, that dude is fast. He has some serious speed and I feel like, for a lot of people you won’t really know how to play that type of guy until you’ve seen it go against you. Just seeing that in-person, the dude’s fast. I see why he’s nicknamed ‘The Cheetah,’ I do.”
The challenge of slowing down Hill will certainly be a big key to this game, but the Bucs are also aware that if they focus too much on stopping one offensive weapon another can step up and have a big game too.
“Throughout their whole offense, they all feed off of each other,” Murphy-Bunting said. “They’re all very talented guys, you can definitely tell they have a lot of chemistry in the building over there.”
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