The Brady Empire in Tampa Bay is collapsing before our very eyes. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have lost their third game in a row, which is only happened to Tom Brady twice in his career, as the Baltimore Ravens went into Tampa Bay and smacked the Bucs 27-22.
No one can doubt now that there needs to be serious changes made in Tampa Bay if the Bucs wish to keep their slim playoff hopes alive. The Ravens absolutely pummeled the Buccaneers from the first minute of the game to the last minute of the game, with both the passing and rushing schemes tearing apart the Bucs defense.
In the first half, the Ravens made no effort in running the ball and they used Lamar Jackson’s arm to try and pick apart the Bucs secondary that was severely hampered with the losses of Antoine Wingfield Jr., Carton Davis, and Sean Murphy-Bunting.
And, after Mark Andrews (3 REC, 33 yards) and Rashod Bateman (0 REC, 0 yards) both left the game injured, the Ravens turned to their running game as it exploded on the Bucs linebackers and defensive line, ruthlessly dismembering the 2020 Super Bowl winning defense in route to gaining 242 total rushing yards.
Yes, the Buccaneers defense gave up 200+ rushing yards for a second game in a row, with linebackers Lavonte David and Devin White continuously getting pushed deep into the secondary.
If you never saw a Bucs game prior to today, you would have thought that White and David were the worst linebacker pairing in all of football and not a Super Bowl winning tandem. That’s how bad this defense played, which is pretty indicative of how poor the players have been and how timid Todd Bowles is as a head coach.
It’s clear that not only are the Bucs lacking a proper leader on defense in the wake of Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh, and Richard Sherman’s departures, but also have too many guys resting on their laurels from their previous successes. The Buccaneers are in a leadership crisis on the defensive side of the ball, and their ‘captains’, Lavonte David, Devin White, and Vita Vea, have not stepped up to solve this issue.
As for the offensive woes, where do I even begin?
The Bucs running attack ranks 31st in the NFL currently as they have only garnered 495 rushing yards across eight games. That’s only 62 yards/game! Lenny Fornette had only 9 carries for a measly 24 yards last night, while Rachaad White had another 4 carries for 19 yards to combine for a grand total of 44 rushing yards.
Did the Buccaneers really think they were going to win this game by only rushing the ball 15 times (Julio Jones and Tom Brady each had a carry) for 44 yards? Is offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich really that naïve?
“Well, at least they aren’t dead last in the NFL, right? That honor would belong to the LA Rams,” some Bucs fans might be wrongfully thinking. Why is that wrong? It’s true that the Rams have only 423 rushing yards this season, but it’s also true that they have played two less games than the Bucs! The Bucs will be dead last in this category come the end of Sunday.
Anyway, a lot of this turmoil has to rest on the shoulders of Todd Bowles. He’s the man that ran the Bucs defense for three years under Bruce Arians, winning the NFC South title, the NFC Conference, and the Super Bowl in that span. This team was a championship contender coming into this season and is now floundering for its playoff life after only eight games during his stewardship.
That’s not great.
Even though Bowles is a great defensive genius and a good man by all accounts, I think it’s time to start questioning his acumen as a head coach. With Bruce Arians waiting in the wings (more like the executive boxes) and the Bucs on the verge of missing the playoffs, I think it’s time to pull the plug on Bowles as the HC.
If he’s willing to go back to being just the DC, great. If not, I guess the Bucs will need to find another DC to take his place.
Nevertheless, Todd Bowles is on extremely thin ice.
Speaking of people who are on thin ice, Tom Brady is proving that he might very well be the biggest idiot who has ever lived. In light of the unfortunate news that Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have finalized their divorce, it’s becoming painfully clear that Tom Brady made the biggest mistake of his life coming out of retirement to play another year in the NFL.
Not only has the Bucs offense been reduced to hanging Brady out to dry every week, as they did last night as he went 26/44, 325 yards, and 1 TD, but Brady’s continual absence has clearly affected the locker room dynamics of this franchise.
How else can one explain why a Super Bowl winning roster from just two years ago has suddenly imploded into an ugly abomination of selfish, uninterested player at the exact time Tom Brady has gone AWOL? You can’t.
Nonetheless, I should complement the Ravens a little bit. They overcame two huge losses on offense and were able to put the 2020 Super Bowl champions to the sword, though that is becoming quite an easy feat this season. They should be able to win the AFC North with the news out of Cincinatti that Jamar Chase is injured, but it’ll still be a close race between the Bengals and themselves for 1st place.
On the other hand, with the Bucs now dropping to 3-5 (the worst in-season record Brady has ever in his 23 years career) and falling behind the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC South title race, the team can realistically only lose another 2-3 games if they hope to even make the playoffs this season.
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