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Buccaneers: “Extra Points”: A Week 3 to Week 4 Review

By Jerry Stalheim

TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 1: Kicker Nick Folk
TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 1: Kicker Nick Folk /
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TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Quarterback Eli Manning
TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Quarterback Eli Manning /

GAME TRENDS

THIRD DOWN DEFENSE

The Buccaneers third down defense last season was the best in the NFL allowing teams to convert on 34.36% of third down attempts, but in three games this season it is a whole different story where the Buccaneers have allowed 50% against Chicago, 54% against Minnesota, and a little better 47% third down conversions against New York for a seasonal total of 50% (22/44) allowed or last in the NFL.

Basically from the end of last season through the first 3 games of this season the Buccaneers defense has gone from first to worst on defensive third down conversions giving up 15.64% more third down conversions. If this number doesn’t improve the Buccaneers will be in some shootouts this season although they are only giving up 21.3 points per game which ranks them sixteenth in the NFL. Even with giving up 50% on third down conversions at least they are keeping teams out of the end zone.

ZERO PASS RUSH

Through the first three games of the season the Buccaneers have gotten basically zero pass rush other than a strip sack by Noah Spence way back in the first game against Mike Glennon and the Bears, and that sack is their only sack of the season on 127 opponent pass attempts which puts a lot of pressure on their secondary.

No pressure on the opposing quarterbacks is most likely why the Buccaneers defense is giving up the eighth highest completion percentage in the NFL this season at 67.7%, and the second most average yards per game at 316 yards.

If the Buccaneers defense does not start getting pressure on the quarterback they will get carved up as they start playing better quarterbacks starting this Thursday with Tom Brady, then Drew Brees twice, Matt Ryan twice, Aaron Rodgers, and Cam Newton twice throughout the season.

It is not going to get any easier with Spence suffering a separated shoulder in game two against the Vikings that he will play through this season, and now announced today that the Buccaneers have release defensive end Jacquies Smith.

TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Wide receiver Mike Evans
TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 1: Wide receiver Mike Evans /

RED ZONE OFFENSIVE TOUCHDOWNS

The Buccaneers struggled last season at scoring touchdowns in the red zone scoring on 51.85% of their 54 red zone attempts, and so far in three games this season they are scoring touchdowns in the red zone 50% of the time (5/10 tries).

The red zone scoring average for this season so far is 53.48% so the Buccaneers are not too far behind the NFL average, but still they need to turn more of their red zone trips into touchdowns instead of settling for field goals. Some of the high power offensive teams that they will face will score touchdowns not field goals and they will be behind on a regular basis if they cant score touchdowns with those teams.

There you have it those are my “Extra Points” comparing the things that the Buccaneers did better and worse compared to week twos loss against the Vikings and week threes win against the Giants, and some season long trend that I have noticed so far after three games.

Next: 5 Game Changers Against the Patriots

So now it is your turn my fellow StickCarriers to tell me what you think the Buccaneers did better or worse between the week two and three games, did you notice any other points that I may have missed?

Feel free to tell me about them in the comments section or directly on Twitter @ND1Bucsfan.
Thanks for reading my article hope you enjoy and until next time … lets beat them Patriots this week in prime time, and show the national audience who the StickCarriers are… GO BUCS!!!

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