Buccaneers Stat Shot: Analyzing Week 5 vs the Patriots
By Marc Magana
The Buccaneers struggled in a winnable game on Thursday. Dirk acknowledged after the game that the team didn’t play complementary football at home.
The six game home win streak is now over and the Buccaneers need to look forward to next Sunday in Arizona. Jameis Winston was a little wobbly on some easy throws early and Dirk’s play calling on offense was vanilla as the commentators pointed out.
They will rebound and 2-2 at the quarter mark of the season is far from a disaster, but that loss definitely hurts.
The Offense
The offense overall wasn’t terrible. Jameis missed a few throws early, but DeSean Jackson had over 100-yards and Doug Martin looked fantastic in his return. The problem seemed to be the play calling, The commentators remarked that it was very simplistic. Deion Sanders even went so far as to say the offense was limiting Jameis from making plays with his arm. Overall 14 points when the defense held Brady to 19, isn’t good enough. Of course the kicker next Sunday shouldn’t be Nick Folk, so there is a positive.
Must Read: Week 5 Winners and Losers
The Good: 2
Jameis has now gone two games without throwing an interception. The Bucs have also now gone two games winning the turnover battle, but only one of those translated to a win on the field. Jameis continues to improve. His deep shots have been off, but i can appreciate missing deep as opposed to missing short. A good portion of those were turned into interceptions last year, this year, he misses deep and avoids costly mistakes.
The Bad: 9-70
The Bucs struggled with penalties. Some of them were on the defense, but a few holding penalties that brought back big runs and the biggest penalty of all on Ali Marpet towards the end of the game. Watching it looks like Jameis called for the ball and Marpet simply didn’t snap it. The illegal use of hands on Evans Smith wiped out a touchdown in the third quarter. The timing of the penalties throughout the game was terrible.
The Defense
The defense once again played admirably. So far this season, the defense has only turned in one really bad game against the Vikings and it was because we lost quite a few defenders throughout the game. The Bucs had Brady on his back early and often and recorded three sacks and a forced fumble. Brady was clearly frustrated and also threw his first pick of the season. Though many were nervous about Justin Evans first start, he had nine total tackles, two passes defensed and an interception. Strong showing again from Mike Smith‘s squad.
The Good: 3
Is that sacks I see? This season the Bucs had only recorded one sack until Thursday night. Mike Smith pointed out earlier in the week that like turnovers, sacks come in bunches. That was the case Thursday. The pass rush and defense as a whole kept the Bucs in the game for a long time. Multiple time the defense held Brady to a field goal or forced a drive to stall out early. Clinton McDonald seemed to be a big spark off the bench and got the night started off on the right foot. Glanton coming of the edge hit Brady hard and forced the fumble that helped to get the Bucs going again.
The Bad: 4.9
The Bucs have been good this season at stopping the run, but on Thursday night they struggled. Allowing nearly 5 yards per carry is strange for a team that allowed 3.3 to the Giants and 2.9 to the Vikings in the past two weeks, Chris Baker, Gerald McCoy and William Gholston are great at run stuff, but the rotation of running backs seemed to have an effect on our defensive line. Next up is an Arizona team averaging 2.7 yards per carry.