The big issue the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need to talk about
By John Paul
The Buccaneers didn’t get great being complacent.
Over the last year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have arguably become most feared not for their offensive capabilities, which are impressive to say the least, but instead for their defensive dominance. However, with two games under their belt this season, the defense has been the glaring hole in the team’s success so far.
This could not have been more obvious than in Week 2 against a sub-par Atlanta Falcons team. Despite the return of Jordan Whitehead, the Bucs were still unable to prevent the Falcons from scoring for the majority of the game. It wasn’t really until the offense was able to score some clutch touchdowns towards the end that the defense seemed to gain momentum.
This type of victory will work fine for beating teams like the Falcons, however the fact that the game was close, given the talent of the Bucs defense, is certainly not a good sign. If the Buccaneers defense were to get as slow a start as they did playing the Falcons against a team like the Kansas City Chiefs, the game would be over by the end of the 1st quarter.
Thankfully, the Bucs offense has looked incredible, lead by stellar back-to-back performances by Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, which has made up for the lack of consistent defense so far this season. Inevitably though, there will come a game at some point this season where the offense just isn’t there, and it will be incumbent on the defense to carry the slack.
So far this year, there are still some major questions in regards to the ability of the defense to do so in its current state.
This is by no means to say the Bucs have a bad defense or need to rebuild, however, if the Buccaneers have hopes of winning another Super Bowl, a slightly above average defense isn’t going to get it done. Hopefully the defense bounces back after two tough performances and returns to the form they had last season/postseason.
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