Bailey Adams
I am fighting the urge to say that the real Bucs are in between what we saw in week two and week three. But since that might be a cop-out answer, I’ll go ahead and stick with week two.
Tampa Bay has way too much talent to be getting blown out by anyone. Yes, there were plenty of factors that led to week three’s 17-point loss to the Vikings, but I truthfully think things would’ve gone differently had the Bucs been at full strength.
I hate to use injuries as an excuse, but I’ll do it anyway.
Missing someone from every level of the defense is a huge issue. Having Chris Baker and Jacquies Smith out on the defensive line weakened the pass rush by a considerable amount.
Missing Kwon Alexander at linebacker is never going to be an easy obstacle to overcome, nor is missing No. 1 corner Brent Grimes.
And those are just the issues that were felt prior to the game.
Throughout the afternoon, players were going down left and right. I feel confident in thinking that a full-strength Bucs team plays the Vikings much closer, and possibly even comes out with a victory.
Overall, it’s likely that we haven’t seen the real Tampa Bay Buccaneers yet. But given the choice, I’d have to say that week two showed more of the team’s true colors.