The Road Warriors

Well, first off I’d like to begin this article by saying no matter who you are in any sport the schedule makers do not care about, nor consider, your thoughts and feelings when it comes to creating schedules. With that being said, it is my belief that around the Bucs community we all feel slightly ousted when it comes to favorable schedules in recent years. As for this year’s schedule, our Bucs will be facing a tough on the road stretch, including the home game in London, that could ultimately sway our season in one way or the other.

The Bucs start the long stretch of away games from home in late September, against the defending NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams. On the bright side of this, is that we have three games prior to this to figure things out. However, they will face a Rams’ team that was dominant the entire 2018 season. By all means, this is a winnable game, in my opinion, and with our new coaching staff and new player additions, the Bucs could pull out the win.

Next, we will face our division rival, the New Orleans Saints, and might I add that shots have been fired by Cam Jordan. He expressed his anticipation of playing Tampa at home and called last year’s 48-40 week one loss as being a fluke, citing that it “Will not happen again”! The game in New Orleans will be an emotional contest, and the Bucs must fire on all cylinders to win.

The following week the Bucs will have a “home” game in London. No matter how this plays out, this is, by no means, a home game for the Bucs. It is against another division rival, the Carolina Panthers and will conclude our season series against. In some sense, you can say that playing them twice in a month has its perks. Although the Bucs have never won a game that they’ve have played in London, this one is definitely a winnable game for the Bucs this coming October.

Following their overseas home game, the Bucs will get a week off to rest, heal, and recharge for the remainder of the season only to find themselves traveling to Tennessee to face the Titans. Last time we faced the Titans in the regular season, they spoiled our rookie quarterback Jameis Winston’s debut with a 42-14 Smackdown in Tampa. I want this to be seen as a revenge game for Jameis and the boys, with Tampa walking away with the win.

Following their showdown against the Titans, our Bucs will be faced with the final game of their road stretch in Seattle against the recently paid Russell Wilson-Quarterbacked-Seahawks. It may just be arguably the toughest road test for any team in the league. Well, it won’t be a secret in what this game will mean to Bruce Arians and most of his staff as they will face their former NFC West rival. It will be an intense heavy hitting, possibly wet, contest for the guys.

The impact the stretch of road games will have for the Bucs will be taxing, to say the least, but the only thing that matters is the outcome of these games, but at least they will have played all of their NFC West opponents by week 10. Having done this could be valuable down the stretch for them as they will have played some important and playoff-like road games early in the season. They should be poised to make a run at a playoff spot down the final stretch of their season.