Tuesday, 4 a.m.
- Is it just me, or will Tom Brady end up with a Rolex advertisement because of Sunday's game-clock mismanagement.
2. I'll say it again. The Bucs had 13 plays and 2:50 worth of time during their final touchdown. Did anyone think to decide on a two-point play along the way?
3. With limited wide receivers on the Bucs, opponents are loading up to stop the run. Mostly, they succeeded on Sunday.
4. Recipe to lose:Turnovers, penalties, poor run blocking, low third down completion rate and bad clock management. That's a lot of mountains to climb.
5. Is anyone ready to admit they miss Bruce Arians yet?
5 Comments
(From Todd Bowles day-after press conference)
(On the delay of game penalty at the end): "You know, one time it said 25 and the next time it said 20. We're looking into it right now. We'll send it in and see what they say. But we've got to get the ball off – we've got to be cognizant of that as a unit. We've played enough ball to where we know we've got to get the ball snapped."
(On backup runners Rachaad White and Ke'Shawn Vaughn not getting snaps: "We've got to play the other two more. When ‘Lenny’ [Fournette] gets in the flow we've still got to play the other two more. We went in the game that way. We didn't have [the ball] a lot in the first half but that still should not be a reason to not play the other guys, and we'll make sure that gets done."
(On what is the most glaring issue that went wrong in the game): "We didn't play well enough. It wasn't one thing. We didn't play well enough, we didn't score enough points, we let them get off to a fast start – you can name a number of things that could've [gone] right in that game that didn't go right. We didn't play like we played the last two games. We had more mistakes in this game than we've had the previous two games before that."
(On the defense giving up scoring drives to start every game so far)" "It's not a lack of discipline or effort. We've just got to be smart and hone in on our fundamentals. Sometimes our eyes are in the wrong place and [we're] trying to do too much and trying to see things, and by the time we settle down they've gone down the field. We've talked about that, we're working on that and we'll get better at that."
"
(On if there is a common thread to Tampa Bay’s struggles on third downs on offense)
"Yeah, just execution. We're not on the same page. We've got to get on the same page there and we've definitely got to get better at that if we want to win more games."
Game Balls
Offense: The Bucs aren't scoring enough, so fingers are pointing at Tom Brady. But Brady hit 31 of 42 bases for 371 yards on Sunday. He wasn't perfect, but he wasn't bad.
Defense: Logan Ryan had an interruption and a fumble recovery.
Special teams: Punter Jake Camarda averaged 49.5 yards on six punts.
Grades
Quarterback: Brady gave his team a chance late in Sunday's game. Grade: B+.
Running back: Leonard Fournette ran hard, but not for very much yardage. Grade: D+.
Wide receivers: After an early fumble, you could finally see why the Bucs wanted Russell Gage: Grade: B.
Offensive line: Not a lot of movement in the running game: Grade: D.
Linebackers Lavonte David had seven tackles and Devin White six, but neither made a difference. Grade: B-.
Defensive backs: Aaron Rodgers shredded the unit early, but they played better in the second half. Grade: C.
Special teams: Ryan Succop kicked his two field goals and Camarda was a force: Grade: A-.
Power Ratings
- Miami
- Philadelphia
- Buffalo
- Green Bay
- L.A. Rams
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7. Tampa Bay
Bottom 5
1, Las Vegas
2.N.Y. Jets
3. Houston
4.Atlanta
5. Detroit
Tom Brady
(After three games)
2021 2022
2-1 Record 2-1
1078 Yards 653
10 TDs 3
2 Int. 1
109.3 Rating 89.2