The Tampa Bay Buccaneers turn around and host the Baltimore Ravens on a short week. The timing couldn’t be worse for the Buccaneers.
The sky may not be falling quite yet, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers certainly appear to be free-falling so far as we rapidly approach the halfway point of this 2022 NFL season. Not only did the Buccaneers lose to the Carolina Panthers, their division rival who everyone was under the impression were essentially tanking, they got blown off the field by a score of 21-3. If that isn’t rock-bottom, this writer is justifiably nervous to find out just what is.
With that being the case, a bye week for the Bucs would be just what the doctor ordered. A normal rest, a Monday night or heck, even a Sunday night game at this point would be refreshing so the team can have at the very least a bit of an extended break to regroup and reassess things. The prospect of playing a perceived poor team in a potential “get right” game is out the window after the aforementioned Panthers game.
Alas, neither of those things are the case for the Bucs. They don’t have their bye week until week 11, and not only do they not have a chance for an extended rest, they don’t even have a normal rest. After the embarrassment that was the Panthers loss, the Buccaneers have to turn right around and play on Thursday Night Football.
Their opponents in this game or not ideal either. While the Baltimore Ravens may be having a bit of a down year by their standards, injuries certainly have not helped. Even with those things said, they are still a team capable of beating anybody on any given day or night, regardless of how the season is going up to whatever point.
The point of all of this is, the timing of this part of the schedule of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers could honestly not be any worse. They need to turn the pirate ship around fast. Otherwise, not only will the sky start to fall, but the ship will start to take on even more water and start to sink. This will be a seemingly impossible test to pass. Then again, when Tom Brady is your quarterback, anything is possible. Of course that can go a multitude of ways as we’ve seen. Buckle up buckaroos.