All eyes were on Kyle Trask as the Buccaneers entered their first preseason game. The young Florida quarterback did not disappoint.
Kyle Trask was the player of the night for the Buccaneers against the Dolphins. The game ended in a loss, but Trask did everything right to put his team in a position to win. A botched kick is nothing new in Tampa.
After a down week that saw the Buccaneer quarterback on social media for all of the long reasons, this wad a Hell of a way to shut down some of the doubt that he been forming throughout parts of the Tampa fanbase.
Let’s start with the bad, of which there was very little:
Trask does need to show a bit more awareness in the pocket. He did well to move outside of the tackles a few times, but it seemed like he was unsure as to whether he should stay or go a few others, and that led to a fumble.
We also aren’t going to blame a bizarre pick on Trask either, even if it should’ve been thrown away somewhere else.
The only other area where Trask really struggled was pushing the ball down the field. Scotty Miller was open with green grass ahead, but the pass came up short by about two feet. The defender did make a great play on the ball, but it also has to be further.
Now, onto the good.
Trask lived up to his positive selling points. His accuracy in the short to intermediate areas was excellent. The touchdown pass to Jerreth Sterns might be the best one we see from a Buccaneers quarterback during the entire preseason.
The young quarterback was extremely comfortable in these areas, and he was even able to push the passes well in the further intermediate areas.
This wasn’t just a check down game; Trask was asked to throw the ball down the field, and that was exactly what he did.
Trask also showed very good anticipation when reading the defense, and there was more than one throw where he threw receivers open into very tight windows.
Finally, Trask showed a very short memory and played well under pressure. It didn’t matter that turnovers were happening or that the team was on a time crunch to get into scoring position; Trask was cool. The passes weren’t forced, and a most of the offensive stagnation that took place at times had to do way more with the play-calling than anyone on the field.
The box score obviously doesn’t tell the whole story, but 25/33 with 258 yards and a touchdown was a pretty easy way to keep the doubters quiet.
Kyle Trask had a great night. Let’s hope we get to keep seeing more of this as his share of the reps should stay the same over the next few weeks.
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