By – Devin Sanguinett
You don’t lose this game if everything doesn’t completely collapse. There was not a single good Buccaneers’ player on the field outside the running backs. Special teams bad. Offense bad. Defense bad. I don’t care how injured you are, this is an embarrassing loss. The Saints now have three wins on the season. At least we can commiserate with the Panthers in the corner as they probably take the division.
The only part of this team that functioned as intended was the run game. not Bucky. He was mostly ineffective outside of a big run. Rachaad and Tucker mostly carried the slack though. Rachaad had 53 yards on 11 carries while Tucker had 29 yards on 7 carries. Thus concludes the only positive segment of this article.
Offensive Offense
The offense was complete dogshit for 90% of this game. It felt less like the Saints making good plays as opposed to the offense shooting itself in the dick. Repeatedly. With a 12 gauge shotgun. To best exemplify that, let’s look at the 4th down conversion rate. 1 for 6. Yes, you are reading that correctly. the Buccaneers failed to convert on five fourth downs. Nearly all of which were 4th and 1. It was an embarrassing display. At no point did anyone on the coaching staff question maybe just punting. No one. Because dear reader that would’ve been smart.
You want a culprit for why the offense kept sputtering, look to the man under center. Baker has done everything possible to play himself off of the team. He looks completely lost out there as he misses easy throws and makes terrible decisions. On the last play for the offense, Baker had Otton wide open in the middle. But Baker decided he didn’t like Otton’s cleats as they were dirty, so he threw the football right at them. He got completely outplayed by Tyler Shough. He wasn’t exactly being helped by his receivers as Egbuka and Godwin had some catches fly off the useless stumps on the end of their arms.
Defenseless
Oh speaking of Shough, the defense couldn’t stop him over the middle if their lives depended on it. They had some success in the first half, but in the second, it was a complete no show. Bowles was calling an iffy game, but his players completely fucked him as well. Lavonte missed an easy tackle to stop a first down conversion and five players missed tackles on Shough as he ran it for an easy TD.
That’s not to say Bowles did a good job. Because he didn’t. The pass rush disappeared in the second half and the middle of the field was wider than the grand canyon. I thought we cut our linebackers mid game as they weren’t anywhere to be seen. They also couldn’t defend on third down in the second half as the Saints converted all but one. There was a drive where the Saints passed the ball once and ran the rest of the time. It wasn’t a three and out, but a long FG drive. Bowles just didn’t adjust. McCollum wasn’t even the worst part of this defense.
Not So Special Teams
And don’t even get me started on special teams. First kick of the game, ball goes past midfield on the return. Basic stuff that is constantly being screwed up at every turn.
If I was Jason Licht, I would pull this game up while I’m deciding who to fire at the end of the season. It should provide the answers he needs. Unless David Walker is the second coming of Demarcus Lawrence, not a single player they are missing would’ve gotten them the win. Morrison wouldn’t have done anything, nor Evans, nor McMillan, nor Kancey. We were told this team was a SB contender. They started the year 5-1 for fuck’s sake. They now sit at 7-6 with the Panthers. A Panthers team that looks infinitely better than the Buccaneers at this moment. McGaughey should be fired, that goes without saying. But you cannot retain Bowles or Grizzard if this is what the team will look like against bottom feeders. Even Baker should be under scrutiny for how he has been.
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