Buccaneers: Five quick impressions from preseason game two

The Ones Played Very Well

Coach Koetter said that the starters were going to be playing the entire first half in game two of the preseason so we got plenty of opportunity to look at the new weapons of the Bucs starting offense and defense.

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THE OFFENSIVE LINE:

All members of the offensive line played outstanding, giving Jameis Winston plenty of time to go through his progressions and find the open man, and also opening up some good holes for Doug Martin to fly through.

Although they did allow Winston to be sacked twice and they did commit two big holding penalties stumbling some good drives, the overall grade is positive. The team should be happy with how the guys up front performed.

Demar Dotson went down with a groin injury in the first quarter and was kept out the remainder of the game, meaning that second year tackle Caleb Benenoch and Leonard Wester came in and also played very well.

JAMEIS WINSTON:

Winston played outstanding in the first half except for one play when he tried to do too much in avoiding a sack and threw the ball up for grabs in the end zone and it was intercepted. Luckily he was ruled down for a sack by the officials.

Other than that potential costly mistake that he has to correct, his night was just about flawless completing 21 of 29 attempts (72%) to nine different receivers for a total of 196 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions, though the Jags top three corners did not play in the game.

Still he went through his progressions well and found the open man although he did have a couple of overthrows one to DeSean Jackson, and Mike Evans dropped a touchdown pass.

DOUG MARTIN:

Martin played just over a quarter and looked like player from his two good seasons (2012 and 2015). He showed explosiveness and good vision to find the holes and fire through them without too much hesitation.

Rushing five times for 30 yards for an average of six yards/carry and scoring the team’s only touchdown on a two yard sprint to the left pylon, Martin gave Bucs fans hope. Maybe he can return from his suspension and be the productive back of old.

Once he returns from his three game suspension I believe that he will still be the clear-cut number one back on the team.

DEFENSE:

The number one defense was dominant, top draft pick running back Leonard Fournette did not play for the Jags but they held the Jags to 59 total yards in total with one yard rushing on seven carries.

Corner Ryan Smith got the start in place of injured Brent Grimes and he and Vernon Hargreaves played very well against Allen Robinson holding him to five receptions for 40 yards, although Bortles did underthrow him on two wide open passes.

The starting defense played very well and picked right where they left off last season holding the Jags starting offense to one of six on third down conversions (14%).

Concerning though was that they did not get much in pass rush, only sacking Bortles once (L. David) and Noah Spence did not play much with the ones, so we will see what the plan is for him.

Overall the ones as a whole played quite well and if they can continue to all play this well together we can expect big things from the Bucs this season.