There’s Plenty Of Room For Growth
3 min read
After Sunday’s loss, the Bucs can now focus on reality. The talks of an undefeated season are now; put to rest. The “what if’s”; can finally subside. Not many things went right for the Bucs on Sunday as they were just simply outperformed by the Rams— in what could be a potential preview of the NFC Championship. There were still plenty of positives to take away the game, that if corrected, could work in the Bucs favor.
Lack of pass rush by the front seven
After rewatching the game tape from Sunday’s loss, it’s evident the defense struggled due to the lack of a pass rush by the Bucs front seven, recording only one sack in what was arguably garbage time for the Rams offense. It wasn’t that they were missing in action; it was simply that the Rams offensive line was just slightly better than the Bucs.
The task in Week 4 doesn’t get any better when the Bucs travel to Foxboro to take on the Patriots, as New England has the third-best offensive line in the NFL, according to PFF. The Bucs are definitely going to have their hands full if they plan to take down rookie quarterback Mac Jones.
Joe Tryon-Shoyinka will get better
Not much negative can be said about the rookie’s first road start in place of Jason Pierre-Paul, as he took the week off to rest his shoulder. Although it wasn’t much to be said negatively about the rookie’s performance, there definitely isn’t any part of his stat sheet that jumps off the page at you. In regards to his performance, the first-round pick will absolutely improve his technique as the game slows down for him. I’d say a good step in that direction was him being on the field for 78% of the team’s defensive snaps.
After recording 2 tackles and a pass deflection, there is still plenty to be excited about when it comes to watching this rookie perform. Tryon, who was an outstanding pass rusher in college, is still looking for his first career sack and seems destined for it to happen. As he garners more playing time in JPP’s absence, the increase in production should rise as well. Some fans need to understand that as well.
The secondary has work to do
It’s not fair to fully hold the secondary responsible for how things went down during the loss, but for an injury-depleted secondary, who was already without one starter as Sean Murphy-Bunting has been out of action since Week 1. To make things more difficult; the Bucs also lost his backup when Jamel Dean went down with a knee injury in the second quarter, while Dee Delaney and rookie Ross Cockrell split duties.
If the Bucs are going to have any chance of stopping the pass against New England, they might want to ensure Sherman remains in Tampa once he visits. And I’d Tom has his way, it will happen.
