Despite their horrendous start to the Week 1 game against the Green Bay Packers before Kyler Murray suffered a concussion, the Minnesota Vikings rallied to 2-0 under backup quarterback Carson Wentz. And they now take their 2-0 record to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their 0-2 record after learning that their big offseason quarterback acquisition will be back in the lineup on Sunday.
Wentz won both games and is an experienced quarterback with a talented arm, but for any Buccaneers fan or player thinking that the switch from Wentz back to Murray won't affect the Buccaneers much, then maybe they want to rethink that statement.
Murray not only has a strong arm and can challenge the Bucs defense down the field with much better wide receivers around him in Minnesota than he had with the Arizona Cardinals, but he is also an elusive, mobile quarterback. And not only can Murray escape pressure in the backfield, but he can take off and run for key first downs or break off big plays.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense can't tackle
That is a recipe for disaster for the Buccaneers defense when you look at the weak spots in how Todd Bowles' unit plays. There are cavernous holes in the linebacker core over the middle that Murray can exploit, and it is hard to imagine Alex Anzalone being a reliable spy for the Buccaneers. And if Bowles pulls Anzalone out of the lineup after two games in which he was the worst player on a Bucs team with plenty of candidates for that dishonor, Murray is still going to have a soft mathcup anyway.
Anzalone, of course, has been the biggest culprit of this, but the Buccaneers defense has been a disaster when it comes to tackling, just as they were last season before the former Detroit Lions veteran linebacker made his way to Raymond James Stadium.
Troubles tackling and Murray are not a good mix at all for a defense, and the Bucs could be in for a world of hurt this weekend whenever Murray takes off running. Because even if the corners do a great job, as they did against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1 against their own great wide receiver duo of Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Murray can still gash the Bucs defense with his legs. And it's not like Vita Vea and Rueben Bain Jr. are putting quarterbacks under duress in the backfield either.
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