by Carter Brantley
The Bucs were without Antoine Winfield, Jr., Calijah Kancey, and Luke Goedeke. Vita Vea went down in the middle of the game and didn’t return.
Yet, they leave Detroit 2-0 after coming away with a gutsy 20-16 victory over those pesky Lions that knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs last year.
It came down to the wire, but the Bucs managed to hold firm defensively despite a last gasp from the Lions, making it all the way to the Tampa Bay 26 with 14 seconds left but failing to get anything going, turning it over on downs to end this Week 2 showdown.
Surprisingly, the defense was able to adopt that bend-but-don’t-break mentality throughout the game, allowing 463 yards of total offense and 7 red zone trips, but the Lions only coming away with a single TD, having to settle for a trio of field goals throughout the game.
The much-maligned Bucs secondary managed to force Jared Goff into a pair of interceptions despite the pass rush not getting a single sack for the game.
Goff had to fire 55 pass attempts, completing 34 of them for 307 yards through the air.
Offensively the Bucs struggled mightily to get anything going on the ground, only rushing for 70 total yards as a team with QB Baker Mayfield leading the way with a whopping 34 yards rushing.
Mayfield was also sacked 5 times for a loss of 39 yards total, as the loss of right tackle Lule Goedeke due to injury was felt mightily, especially when dealing with one of the best pass rushers in the league, Lions defensive end Aiden Hutchinson, who ended up with 4.5 sacks for the game.
While Mayfield wasn’t the electric version of himself he showed last week, he did a fine job taking care of the ball, only throwing a single interception and managing to hold on the ball through all of those sacks.
Around the division, the Saints went to Dallas and dominated the Cowboys, coming away with a 44-19 victory and continuing their scorching hot offensive play, scoring 91 points over their first 2 games. The Panthers (who the Saints stomped in Week 1) managed to somehow look just as bad as they did in their first game, falling to the Los Angeles Chargers 26-3 at home.
The Falcons take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football, with the Eagles without star wideout AJ Brown, but with QB Kirk Cousins still settling into his new offense and coming off a serious Achilles injury, the Bucs and Saints could be tied for 1st in the NFC South at 2-0 each.
It’s a home game for the Bucs next Sunday, with the Denver Broncos and rookie QB Bo Nix coming to town for a 1 pm matchup.
Fire those cannons, the Bucs are hot and undefeated.
