BETTER: OFFENSIVE PLAY IN THE SECOND HALF
BACKUP QUARTERBACK RYAN FITZPATRICK ALMOST BROUGHT THE TEAM BACK
Man during that performance against the Cardinals it was very hard to find anything that the Buccaneers did better against them then they did against the Patriots, so I basically looked into when the Buccaneers played their best which was during the comeback in the second half and discovered that the offense played probably the best it had all season.
But first against the Patriots the Buccaneers were playing from a 13 to 7 deficit due to kicker issues and were trying to make a comeback the entire game getting as close as 16 to 14 after Cameron Brate caught an 18 yard touchdown pass from Winston with 2:09 left to go in the game, but after the Pats kicked a field goal to make it 19 to 14 the Buccaneers could not get into the end zone to win the game.
During the second half Winston played pretty well trying to bring the Buccaneers back completing 24 of 44 passes (55%) for 232 yards and one touchdown but it just wasn’t enough. Now on to the Cards game….
After Winston got knocked out of the game and Buccaneers were down 31 – 0 at halftime Ryan Fitz“magic” probably played the best he has ever played in his career in the second half completing 17 of 21 passes (81%) for 238 yards and three touchdowns in the second half alone but he did also throw two interceptions.
The 238 yards passing accounted for 68% of the Buccaneers total passing yards in the game and in the first half he and Winston combined for 11 of 21 (53%) for 113 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions.
Fitzpatrick almost brought the Buccaneers all the way back from an embarrassing first half that probably would have been forgotten if they had won instead 38 to 33 after a 37 yard touchdown by Mike Evans with two minutes left in the game was as close as the Buccaneers got, and they could not cover the onside kick to continue the comeback. Now most fans are wondering what happened to the Buccaneers team that had so much hype coming into the season?
Basically the second half offensive performance is the only thing that I could find that the Buccaneers did better between the two games in an otherwise awful performance against the aging 2-3 (at the time) Arizona Cardinals as they were blown out 38-0 before they even scored a single point. Now on to the worse things and there was so much I will just focus on the worst of the worst.