If you asked me at halftime who I thought was going to win, I thought the Patriots had it all the way. The Bucs looked nervous and beat up.
They were without Rob Gronkowski, Jamel Dean, Sean Murphy-Bunting, and Jason Pierre-Paul to begin the game, and Carlton Davis III went down in the first half on a special teams play with a quad injury.
Add to that losing Antoine Winfield, Jr. in the fourth quarter to a concussion, and you have a team that scuffled to the finish line.
But they won.
Ryan Succop nailed a 49-yard field goal to take the lead with a little under 2 minutes to go, and the Patriots’ kicker Nick Folk missed a 56-yarder with a little under a minute to go to seal the game for the Bucs.
Now let’s get into just how bad the Bucs played. Because it was really sloppy.
They didn’t have any turnovers, but they only scored one touchdown in what seemed like 20 trips to the red zone (it was actually 4). I know Gronk is an important target down there for Brady, but my goodness did Mike Evans and Chris Godwin fall off a cliff? Were they just invisible out there? Neither seemed to be able to make a difference inside the 20 when the Bucs so desperately needed it, as their one TD came off a Ronald Jones rush.
So yeah. Offensively they were horrible. But defensively they at least showed that pass rush that was so good at the end of last season.
They got after rookie QB Mac Jones, managing to record 4 sacks despite not having JPP. Joe Tyron-Shoyinka had his best game as a pro, racking up a pair of sacks and 3 QB hits. But the secondary looked as banged up as they actually were, as they allowed Mac Jones to complete 19 straight passes in the second half, the longest streak by a rookie QB in the last 30 years.
Given, the Bucs’ secondary probably could have done that at full strength too, but it is a genuine concern. Mac Jones may have played well, but he wasn’t throwing to anyone special. It is one of those things that doesn’t seem like it’s going to get fixed anytime soon, and the Bucs can’t get away with it against actual offenses with real playmakers out on the perimeter.
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This article appears in Oct 7-14, 2021.
