Buccaneers: “Extra Points”: A Week 7 to week 8 Review

By Jerry Stalheim | Nov 4, 2017

TAMPA, FL - OCTOBER 29: Jameis Winston of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fumbles the ball after being sacked by Julius Peppers #90 of the Carolina Panthers in the second quarter of a game at Raymond James Stadium on October 29, 2017 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

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BETTER: DEFENSE

HELD PANTHERS TO UNDER 400 YARDS OF TOTAL OFFENSE

In week seven against the Bills the Buccaneers defense gave up 434 yards and probably played their worst game of the season.

After finally coming from behind and taking a lead in a game it looked like the Buccaneers might beat the Bills with 3:14 left and up by seven, … but nope the defense allowed the Bills to go 75 yards in three plays (44 yard pass on first play with a fifteen yard penalty – 59 total yards) in 46 seconds and score the game tying touchdown on a LeSean McCoy seven yard run.

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Leaving the Buccaneers with plenty of time to go down the field and kick the game winning field goal … but we all know how that went as the Buccaneers lost on a game winning field goal 30 to 27. In the process the defense allowed the Bills to gain 434 yards of total offense with 268 passing yards and one touchdown and a total of 173 rushing yards on 33 carries (5.2 yards/carry) and two touchdowns and only one turnover.

Now on to week eight against the Panthers, prior to this game the Buccaneers defense was allowing 408.5 total yards per game and 314 net passing yards per game ranking them as one of the worst defenses in the NFL, so when they allowed the Panthers to gain just 254 yards of offense and 154 yards passing it was an amazing feat because prior to this game the Buccaneers have allowed four of their six opponents to amass 400 yards of total offense.

The Buccaneers not only held the Panthers offense to under 400 yards but the 254 yards of total offense is the lowest for the Panthers all season, so this was an a big deal for a Buccaneers defense that was just awful most of the other games they played.

Another great feat for the Buccaneers defense was to contain Cam Newton to 56% completions and only 154 yards passing with one touchdown and forcing him to throw only the Buccaneers fifth interception, but he did have another 44 yards on the ground. Cam had been averaging 64% completions and 241 yards passing a game prior to the Buccaneers game.

With those stats then as an outsider you would have thought the Buccaneers won right, but … nope sadly as we all know they did not. This is about the only thing that I could find that the Buccaneers did better between the two games so let’s move on to the worse things.