Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Week 1 Winners and Losers
By Brian DeFeo
Losers
Defensive Coordinator Mike Smith
The Buccaneers biggest weakness coming into the season was their defense. They were terrible against the run and horrible against the pass in 2017. The season opener was no different. The defense started the game with the Saints marching downfield in less than four minutes for an easy touchdown.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay can’t only hope to contain Drew Brees, let alone his talented weapons. They were missing one of them with Mark Ingram being suspended so the primary focus should’ve been on Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara. The Bucs could not stop those two at all. Michael Thomas went off. He recorded 16 catches (eighth-most in NFL history) for 180 yards and one touchdown.
In three games against the Bucs, Alvin Kamara has 27 carries, 141 rushing yards, four rushing touchdowns, 21 catches, (deep breath) 280 receiving yards, two receiving touchdowns and a kick return touchdown. Again, that’s in only THREE GAMES!
He had three touchdowns today, and the Bucs couldn’t touch him. Mike Smith has to game plan better when playing the Saints because I don’t expect the Buccaneers to put up 48 points every game.
Defensive End Jason Pierre-Paul
The Buccaneers made a splash trade this off-season acquiring a premier pass rusher from the New York Giants. Jason Pierre-Paul made his Tampa Bay Buccaneers debut today and recorded zero stats. His snap count was limited, and it appears he may have gotten injured in the game, but he returned and was still very unproductive.
When you record zero statistics, you can’t do any worse. The Buccaneers brought him in to make an impact, and his presence was hardly felt on the field. Vinny Curry, the other defensive end the Buccaneers brought in, recorded the lone sack on the day.
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Brees dropped back over 50 times today, and the Bucs only got to him once. That’s one reason why the Bucs struggled against the pass all day. They need ‘JPP’ to get pressure on the quarterback to take the pressure off of the lackluster secondary.
Running Back Ronald Jones
Yikes. Second-round pick Ronald Jones was a healthy scratch this week for reasons unknown at this time. This was in favor of keeping Peyton Barber, Jacquizz Rodgers and Shaun Wilson, an undrafted rookie, active. Wilson was primarily the kick returner, but he recorded a carry before the second-round pick, which is extremely telling. Maybe he isn’t picking up the playbook quick enough, or they trust Barber and Rodgers that much more but it’s not a great sign to have a top-40 pick ride the pine when fully healthy.
Jones didn’t have a good preseason, we all saw that, but there are reports that he has explosive playmaking ability in practice. Koetter doesn’t say much to the media, so we may never know why Jones was benched, but it’s not a good start to the rookie’s career.
Bonus Losers
Chandler Catanzaro
Ok, this is nit-picky buy is it possible for a Bucs kicker to make all of his kicks in a game? I don’t think I’m asking for too much. While I don’t think Chandler Catanzaro is going to miss every single kick like the kickers from the past but it still feels like anything over 40 yards, he has a 50-50 chance.
To be a successful kicker you really should make a few more 40-plus yard kicks. The one attempts Catanzaro missed was a 44-yarder which would’ve secured the Bucs victory. The miss made the fans sweat a little more than they should’ve after being up 48-24 in the fourth quarter.
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A lot of people picked against the Bucs and because of that, they are losers because they lost.
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The Saints
Just wanted to remind everybody the Bucs won, and the Saints lost.