IN THE CROSSHAIRS

Buccaneers Live Up to Their Name in Win

Ken Cross

October 18, 2020 at 9:25 pm.

The Buccaneers in ancient lore were known as a swashbuckling group of pirates known for blood-letting and the pillaging of ships, coastal houses, small stores and anything else along a coastline that might have value.

Sunday afternoon, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-10 beat-down of the Green Bay Packers showed a pillaging, swashbuckling defense that never let the Packers’ high-flying offense get on track after their first two drives.

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles brought so much pressure from his defensive front that Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was diminished and ineffective after Green Bay jumped to a 10-0 lead.

The turning point came early in the second quarter when cornerback Jamel Dean jumped a short out-pattern by Green Bay wide receiver Davante Adams. Dean picked it off and raced 32 yards with the interception for the touchdown.

“Todd Bowles just told us like we are respecting those guys too much,” explained linebacker Devin White. “They have to earn our respect. We have to play them honest and just be ball-hawks and just get after them.”

On the next drive, Rodgers was trying to find Adams again when Carlton Davis deflected the pass and Mike Edwards returned the ball 37 yards to the Green Bay 2-yard line. This set up Ronald Jones’ first touchdown of the afternoon on a 2-yard run and it started a scoring watershed as Tampa Bay took the lead for good at 14-10.

“We understood that he had only been sacked three times, so being able to keep getting hit constantly, it could cause a little distress,” said Dean.

The Buccaneers’ defense tallied 27 quarterback pressures as they sacked Rodgers four times. He came in with zero interceptions on the season and had a string of 157 passes without a pick. Then, Dean and Edwards posted the two interceptions in his next three passes.

“I thought Todd mixed it up really, really good with his fronts, blitzes, coverages,” said Bucs head coach Bruce Arians. “You don’t usually get Aaron confused; I don’t think I’ve ever seen him confused.”

To underscore the enormity of the Tampa Bay defense, it held the Packers to 52 total yards on the 10 drives after the 11-play, 80-yard drive that saw Aaron Jones score on a 1-yard run for the 10-0 lead.

Bowles unleashed heavy doses of White and Lavonte David into the struggling Packers offensive line. Green Bay came in averaging a league high 38 points per game and 455.5 total yards per game – second in the NFL.

The Buccaneers controlled the A-gap on defense as Jones was averaging 5.2 yards per carry. He had no effect on the game with just 15 yards on 10 carries.

“Their speed shows up over and over, sideline-to-sideline, but they’re excellent blitzers,” noted Arians. “When you have Shaq (Barrett) and JPP (Jason Pierre-Paul) out there, it’s hard to send them all the time, but that’s four really good blitzers.”

Offense Unleashed: The Tampa Bay offense was flawless as well as the Buccaneers’ defense provided an electric charge into the stadium as the two interceptions set the stage for the Bucs to score on four of the next five drives after Dean’s pick-6.

The 28-point second quarter was the most points in a single period in team history. Tom Brady threw a 7-yard scoring toss to rookie Tyler Johnson and a 12-yard touchdown pass to Rob Gronkowski to give Tampa Bay a 28-10 lead at halftime.

“You get a defensive score and offensively you just take the game over,” said Arians. “We gave up the first quarter, but we won the second quarter pretty good.”

Keeping Up With Jones: Ronald Jones is coming into his own as the featured back in the Buccaneers offense. Sunday, he had his third 100-yard rushing game in a row as he ran for 113 yards on 22 carries with two touchdowns.

“Our job every game is to outscore the opponent,” explained Jones. “Just had to keep our foot on the gas and things like that, couldn’t let up. Coach always talks about coming out with the same energy to start the second half and that’s what we did.”

Jones’ 1-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter pushed Tampa Bay to 38 unanswered points as the Buccaneers took the upper hand in the NFC South after six weeks.

A Clean Slate: The Buccaneers had 11 penalties for 109 yards in a sloppy 20-19 loss to the Bears last Thursday night.

Sunday was different as the Buccaneers were flawless in committing nary a penalty. Arians put a major emphasis on cleaning up the miscues to where it was easy for Tampa Bay to respond with perfection in that area.

“I can’t say that I’ve ever been in a ballgame with no penalties,” said Arians. “We address it every single day and the guys addressed it in practice this week. Hopefully, we can continue that trend.”

The zero in not only the penalties margin, but the turnovers margin was a major story in the game as was the Buccaneers going 4-for-4 in the red zone. The win served notice that this is a different era in Tampa Bay and when the Buccaneers play with this type of focus, they look close to unbeatable.

“Not turning the ball over and then not committing penalties which puts you behind down and distance and they take you out of your runs and play-actions – all those hurt,” said Brady. “You’ve got to be able to stay on track and stay ahead of down and distance. That’s the goal for the team.”