Chris Godwin and Leonard Fournette will be out there when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers this Sunday.
Rodgers is absolutely on fire. He still has yet to throw a pick this season, while posting 13 TDs and 1,214 passing yards. These are ridiculous, eye-popping numbers.
More impressive is that he’s doing all of this with his star receiver Davante Adams out for the past two games (and playing in limited capacity in Week 2). But now Adams looks set to return from his hamstring injury, so look for him to probably rack up double digit receptions for triple digit yards. He’s a huge mismatch for any secondary, especially with Rodgers out there slinging the ball the way he is right now.
Do the Bucs have what it takes to slow down this high flying Packers offense? No.
While Carlton Davis is emerging as a solid corner and Antoine Winfield Jr. is playing like the defensive rookie of the year, after those two guys, the Bucs secondary gets a bit messy. If the Bucs want to disrupt what Rodgers and this offense does, they have to give pressure, and more importantly keep Rodgers in the pocket. He is one of the best quarterbacks in the league (maybe of all time) at turning seemingly broken plays into big gains. He rolls out, fires a bullet down the field on the run, next thing you know it’s 35-17 and the Bucs fall to 3-3.
But let’s try to be optimistic for once. If the Bucs are to win this game, they need to force some turnovers, and more importantly they need to take care of the ball on offense and be solid on special teams.
No stupid throws to Gronk, no miscommunications with Mike Evans, and for God’s sake, make sure every handoff exchange is clean. If the Bucs can play basically perfect in the two other phases of the game, perhaps they can make up for whatever mistakes they make on the defensive end.
That’s not likely to happen, though. So remember that little 35-17 scenario? Yeah, I’m afraid that’s going to be a reality. Sorry, Bucs fans. At least the Rays looked like crap in Game 4 of the ALCS, too.
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