Buccaneers Predictions: Forecasting the 2017 Second Quarter
@ BUFFALO BILLS (22 October 2017)
The Buccaneers bring their first of two extended road trips to a close by visiting up-state New York. In fact, they’ll be playing the only NFL franchise which actually plays in the state of New York.
In it, their opponent is LeSean McCoy and the AFC East leading Buffalo Bills.
This team just took a loss this weekend to the Cincinnati Bengals who put 328-yards passing on them, and rookie Joe Mixon ran for 51 and a score.
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Tyrod Taylor was less than spectacular as he was forced to throw the ball 37 times in the loss.
While Buffalo has started the year 3-2 heading into their bye week, they’re still a bit of an enigma.
They barely beat the Panthers in a game of field goals in Week 2 of the season, but then they defeated the Atlanta Falcons by a full touchdown.
Denver fell victim on the road to the Bills by a count of ten, and Buffalo also handled the Jets in the first of their two match-ups this year.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the Taylor led Bills offense is 25th in the NFL up to this point. Taylor has been a running quarterback his entire career, not a quarterback with wheels.
This leaves his team in a very serious situation whenever they get down by one or more possessions. So, the key easily, for the Bucs will be to get up ten or more as fast as possible.
How easy is that? Well, it’s really going to depend. Buffalo has allowed more than 1,100-yards passing through five games, or 309 per game. This bodes well for a Tampa offense which likes to see quarterback Jameis Winston throw a lot.
However, this same defense has only allowed two passing touchdowns in 2017 so far, meaning the Bucs need to have a strategy for punching the ball in when they face this group.
Good news is Doug Martin looked really good in his season debut against New England this past week, even if it came in a loss.
If Martin continues to run like that against Arizona, then it’s safe to say Winston will have plenty of options for punching the ball across the goal line against the Bills.
Both of these road games are against offenses which frankly, aren’t all that terrifying. Which is good given the Bucs’ current health situation on defense.
These are NFL teams though, so nothing is a gimme. This one will be a bit closer than anyone would like, but I feel like Tampa still comes out with a victory.