Buccaneers Pick Six: Bucs outlast Giants 25-23
By James Yarcho
In a game that had all the makings of a blow out, the Buccaneers needed a game winning drive from Jameis Winston and Nick Folk to get the W at home.
*Sigh*. Deep breath, everyone. That was a stressful one. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took the field to way too many blue jerseys in the stands to play the New York Giants and it started out as perfectly as we could have hoped. Gerald McCoy was blowing up the defensive line, the offense scored 13 points in nine plays, and everything was clicking.
Until all of a sudden it wasn’t.
It took a game winning drive from Jameis Winston with a little over 3:30 left in the game for the Bucs to pull off a 25-23 win and send all those Giants fans home crying. A very minor amount of redemption for Nick Folk – but we’ll get into that right now as we Pick Six!
Six Topics Suitable For Conversation
1.) Cut Nick Folk. Now. Weren’t we past this? Weren’t we supposed to be done freaking out any time a kicker set foot on the field? Well, kicker issues reared their ugly head again as Folk missed two field goals and an extra point. There is no reason for this to continue to happen all season long. There’s zero confidence in the kicking game to the point that the Bucs were having to go for it on 4th down within range of any competent kicker. There are options (but we’ll get to that in a bit…)
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2.) The pass rush is never going to happen. I said it on the site, I said it on the Walking The Plank podcast – if the Bucs can’t sack Eli Manning, the pass rush is never going to amount to anything this season. Guess what? They didn’t sack Eli Manning. This team leads the NFL in quarterback pressures but can’t finish it off. It doesn’t matter if they send blitzes, it doesn’t matter who is at defensive end, this team is allergic to sacking the quarterback. There’s no other way to say it.
3.) Jameis and DeSean still have issues. This isn’t a problem just for the Bucs. You can see it across the league from Terrelle Pryor to Sammy Watkins to Pierre Garcon to Brandin Cooks – there are growing pains any time a receiver leaves one team and joins another. Chemistry doesn’t happen immediately and it certainly isn’t fine tuned by the end of training camp. Winston can’t seem to hit Jackson on the deep pass and consistently throws behind Jackson on short to intermediate routes. There’s the issue of adjusting to Jackson’s speed, especially on those short passes. Jameis has to lead DJax if Jackson is going to make those back-breaking plays he’s known for. We saw Jackson’s frustration Sunday, but there’s no need to freak out quite yet. It will get there.
4.) These refs, though… Can the NFL please explain to the officiating crews two things: What is a catch and what is a hold. The amount of times we saw Gerald McCoy, Robert Ayers, Noah Spence, or Ryan Russell with arms draped around their necks or the backs of their jerseys being pulled after they beat their guys was astounding. To not get a single flag during the entire game for holding? Inexcusable. Last week it was shots to the head, this week it was offensive holding. The Bucs have a big enough test against the Pats Thursday, they can’t afford to play against the officials too.
5.) Dirk, I love ya buddy, but these play calls… You had first and goal from the one yard line and you run a toss?! Then two straight pass plays – one a bad pass by Winston, the other just a bad play altogether. Where is the turn around, hand it off, and run up the gut? Where is the quarterback dive? You had one yard. Put in Barber and bust through. Put in Sims and dive over the top. Hell, just let Winston fall forward. That was one of the most puzzling sequences in recent memory. Then, you opt to go for it on fourth-and-two and the play was doomed before the snap. The Bucs were scrambling, Jameis was yelling out calls with two seconds on the play clock. It never had a chance. Call the timeout and make sure everyone is on the same page and get the first down. Maybe then you wouldn’t have needed a game winning drive.
6.) Ali HAS to get these snaps under control. I was all in on the “move Marpet to center” idea. That said, he is having far too much trouble with these shotgun snaps, which is a recipe for disaster with as much as the Buccaneers run plays in shotgun. He had a drive killing botched snap that resulted in one of Folk’s missed kicks and way, way too many low snaps down the stretch. Luckily Jameis was able to bail him out, but this is something that absolutely has to be fixed. Like, immediately.
Six Numbers To Consider
58 – Yards on O.J. Howard’s first career TD – third longest by a tight end in Bucs’ history
7 – Career game winning drives by Jameis Winston
6 – Career 3+ touchdown games in Winston’s career
13 – Touchdowns by Cam Brate, third most in team history by a tight end
7 (again) – Times Patriots have lost two games in a row since Tom Brady took over as QB (week three, 2001)
1 – Number of times Eli Manning has lost to the Bucs
Six Free Agent Kickers To Consider
6.) Dan Carpenter – Only kicked lower than 85% twice in his nine year career
5.) Patrick Murray – Familiar face, made 83% of his kicks and 100% of extra points with Bucs
4.) Nick Novak – Lowest percentage was 84% on field goals in the last six years
3.) Josh Lambo – Not stellar field goal percentage, but over 91% on extra points
2.) Cairo Santos – Need him to recover from injury, but a solid kicker
1.) Pat McAfee – Lure him out of retirement. He was supposed to take over for Adam Vinatieri – and it would be SOOOOO entertaining.
Six Top Performers
6.) Gerald McCoy – When will Buccaneers fans appreciate how great this guy is?
5.) Jacquizz Rodgers – Third career game with 100+ all purpose yards. Fought hard to keep the run game relevant. Unfortunately for him, not enough to keep Doug Martin on the sidelines Thursday night.
4.) Brent Grimes – What a difference maker he is in the secondary. Just wish he would follow the number one receiver all over the field.
3.) O.J. Howard – Continues to shine in the run game as a blocker and what a way to haul in your first NFL touchdown.
2.) Cam Brate – Came through in the clutch numerous times. Still one of Jameis Winston’s favorites
1.) Jameis Winston – 22/38, 332 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, game winning drive with ice in his veins. That was a statement drive by Jameis.
Six Super Bowl Bets
1.) Kansas City Chiefs – Can’t believe I just typed that…
2.) Green Bay Packers – Who else in the NFC do you trust?
3.) New England Patriots – Better than their record, we all know that
4.) Atlanta Falcons – Still a legit, top contender
5.) Denver Broncos – That defense…
9.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Gutted out a much needed win
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