By: Devin Sanguinett – Special to Sports Talk Florida
Ignore the score that you see because it’s a damn lie. It makes it look like the Buccaneers were almost equal to the Cowboys in skill. Because they weren’t.
The Bucs were outmatched against them all game long. Both Coen and Bowles deserve scrutiny as both did not do a good job for their respective sides of the ball. Bowles’ couldn’t stop Cooper Rush checking down in .5 seconds in the first half and Coen couldn’t figure out what play to call outside two minute drills.
Some Good
Let’s start with some good. Vita Vea made what should’ve been the play to save the game for the Bucs. He was a monster in the middle and made several key tackles to help the Bucs out. Thank God for that as no Buccaneer was interested in tackling. Wait, hold on, more positive still. Goedeke played lights out on the line and Bucky was practically carrying the offense on his back. Micah Parsons could barely sniff Mayfield in the pocket as he desperately hoped somebody would just get open.
And that’s it for good. I’m not missing anything else unlike these players on defense missing tackles. I legit thought Lavonte was going to retire at halftime. This was one of his worst performances in a game since the 49ers this year. He was missing tackles left and right and not playing coverage correctly. He was so bad I had to check to make sure it wasn’t Britt wearing his jersey. Dean and McCollum were also allergic to playing good coverage on WRs, because why not. And the pass rush was virtually non-existent, what else is new.
Buccaneers Offense Sputters
But the offense was something else. At least the defense was making stops in the second half. The offense proceeded to do fuck all with them. I kept begging for more screens to be called, but Coen forsook me for some past sin. Mayfield was taking terrible sacks again, but the o-line had one of the worst games I had ever seen from it.
Everybody except Goedeke, including Wirfs, was getting beat by a mediocre pass rush and no WR seemed able to get open. I had before blamed McMillan for the Baker TD as he didn’t fight for the ball, but it was also on Baker not putting the ball in front of him. But he still could’ve had it had he fought harder. Barton also looked like he was told he would be playing center ten minutes before the game started. If it wasn’t for the two minute drills, the offense would’ve produced virtually nothing.
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The worst part about all of this is that it was against a team that is not very good. The Cowboys didn’t have their franchise QB nor their best WR for the second half, and still the offense and defense couldn’t keep up. Cooper Rush just took a twenty yard shot on play action and let Aubrey kick 70 yard FGs. It was an absolutely embarrassing effort from a team that had nothing to play for.
All the Cowboys had was pride because they aren’t making the playoffs. And still the Bucs could do nothing. Terrible, just absolutely terrible from a supposed SB contender to get whipped by a team without their best players outside Micah. Now they have to hope either the Commanders or Panthers beat the Falcons. This is of course assuming the Buccaneers win their own games.
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