Buccaneers blowout win over Giants is exactly what they needed to get the season back on track

Something that has helped get Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans through the last four weeks was looking ahead to the schedule coming out of the bye week and how much it presented an opportunity to right the ship. It turns out it wasn't a mirage, at least not intially, as the plan to get the season back on track is off and running.

That's a perfect way to describe the Buccaneers offense on Sunday as well. Tampa Bay exploded out of the gate to put up 30 unanswered points before the New York Giants mercifully found the endzone. It took four quarters for the defense to allow a single point, which is perhaps the biggest win of the day.

If there's been one part of the team that has been holding things back it's how poorly Todd Bowles' defense has played. After stifling the Commanders and Lions at the start of the season, Tampa Bay's defense sunk to the bottom of the league and was a major reason the team was unable to close out games it probably should have one.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory became a specialty for the defense and things got so bad that an angry fan base began using any miscue as a reason to call for Bowles' job. It's hard not to at least partially drink from that cup as the Bucs lost three straight games by just a single score or less, and all three losses were on the defense for failing to close out.

That didn't happen on Sunday, and while the level of competition the Bucs were going against needs to be considered the fact that they cooked the Giants to a crisp still counts for a lot. Good teams do not struggle in matchups like the one Tampa Bay had on Sunday, and the response out of the bye week was impressive.

Buccaneers' blowout win over Giants was exactly what they needed right now

Last year the Bucs fell into a 1-6 slump after a strong start to the season, but right around this time they started to turn things around. It was a a four-game winning streak that helped pull Tampa Bay out of the darkness and set up a run that wouldn't end until the NFC Divisional Round, and all the makings for history repeating itself are present.

Now the Bucs need to keep the momentum building and not take their foot off the gas as the stars begin to align.

All around Sunday's game was exactly what the Bucs needed. While the defense needed it the most, the way the offense operated should give everyone confidence that a turnaround is indeed possible if not imminent.

Baker Mayfield finished the game 24-for-30 with 294 yards and a touchdown, plus a brutal troll that saw him mock Tommy DeVito's signature celebration. The first drive of the game was far from perfect, but it ended with a touchdown and included some pretty decent playcalling from Liam Coen. That Baker-Coen combo has been powerful for the Bucs this season and is one of the reasons the offense is among the highest-scoring in the league.

What has made the last three games impressive from an offensive production standpoint is that Tampa Bay averaged just over 23 points per game without Mike Evans or Chris Godwin. That's not something anyone thought would happen, nor is it something that should happen when a team's best offensive players are subtracted from the equation.

Coen has worked his way into head coaching conversations both among fans but also at the national level thanks to the job he's done. The fact that the offense got back to its business-as-usual flow with Evans back in action is a great sign for things to come.

Everything is lining up for the Bucs to surge back into the playoff picture and the NFC South race. The win on Sunday gets them to 5-6 with back-to-back games against the Panthers and Raiders coming up next. Meanwhile the Atlanta Falcons get the Chargers and Vikings over the next two weeks and will be coming off back-to-back losses.

There's a very real chance that if the Bucs keep building on the way they played on Sunday that they can flip the NFC South standings and get back into first place in a few weeks. There's still work that needs to be done, but a 30-7 blowout win was exactly the kind of game Tampa Bay needed right now.

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