Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Assessing the Panic Meter after Week 1 loss

Assessing the Buccaneers Panic Meter after Week 1 loss

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fell short in their Week 1 match-up against the New Orleans Saints and fans are already beginning to panic.

The Buccaneers played an ugly game that resulted in a disappointing 34-23 loss down in New Orleans and there are certainly reasons for concern as we head into the next week of the 2020 season.

Following the first drive of the game, the Bucs struggled to get hardly anything going offensively and put the defense into too many bad situations. The offensive line struggled to open holes and in pass-protection, and Tom Brady threw two interceptions- including a pick-six.

While Brady had some frustrations of his own, the wide receiver corps didn’t help him, either, coming away with a few drops and the offensive line couldn’t stop the Saints’ pass-rush in key situations- especially in third down attempts that could’ve potentially shifted the momentum of the game.

But is it time for Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans to panic?

There’s always going to be some panic from within this fan base, but there is an overwhelming amount of Bucs fans who are simply overreacting to this loss.

Is there reason for concern? Absolutely.  Are there things that can be corrected and areas that need to be developed? Yes.

But it’s one week and the game you just lost was against a team that may very well be the top team in the NFC this season.

Bruce Arians was asked Sunday evening if he still believes the Buccaneers can win the division and he had just two words: ‘Hell yeah.’

It’s not over by any stretch of the imagination and this team deserves a little bit of grace considering there was no preseason and you’ve got an absolute ton of new pieces. It will take a few weeks for them to get into a rhythm and to figure things out, but we certainly saw glimpses of what this offense could potentially be this season and Bucs fans should be encouraged by the defensive effort, as well.

Panic Meter Index: Low

There are plenty of things to work on moving forward, but this team has the pieces in place to still be successful and it’s not time to abandon ship yet.