NEW ORLEANS — The years have taught you to be wary. To expect misfortune and brace for calamity.
So you worried Tom Brady was too old and Antonio Brown too disruptive. You fretted about O.J. Howard’s ruptured Achilles tendon and obsessed over Vita Vea’s broken leg. You feared COVID-19 would shut down the season and leave a trail of wasted potential in its wake.
And how did it all turn out?
Well, the Buccaneers sidestepped, evaded or overpowered every potential hazard or roadblock and had the best season Tampa Bay has known in nearly 20 years. With one more victory, the Bucs will be in the NFC Championship Game for just the fourth time in the franchise’s 45 seasons.
So, as they prepare to take the field against the Saints, there’s just one thing left to worry about:
All those darn kids.
Funny, how that works. The youngest guys on the roster were the ones we took for granted. They played so well at the end of 2019, we just assumed the group of upstarts in the secondary would continue to grow and prosper in 2020.
And, for the most part, that’s been true. Tampa Bay’s pass defense may not have been exceptional this season, but it was good enough on most Sundays. It’s just there’s been some recent hiccups — including a less-than-stellar effort against Washington last week — that reminded you this group is still a bunch of toddlers in NFL years.
The first time Drew Brees and Brady faced each other on a football field — on Oct. 2, 1999 when No. 4 Purdue was blown out, 38-12, by No. 11 Michigan — Carlton Davis, Jamel Dean, Sean Murphy-Bunting, Jordan Whitehead and Antoine Winfield Jr. were all 1 or 2 years old.
And now, 21 years later, it’s up to those five defensive backs to stop Brees and advance Brady’s legacy.
“You expect a lot from guys, because you want to win,” said defensive coordinator Todd Bowles. “They understand that.”
It’s true that once you put a player on the field, his age no longer matters. He’s still expected to do the job, whether he’s 23 or 33.
But there is an oddness about this secondary when you consider the rest of the roster. Everywhere else, the Bucs have gone outside the organization to add experience and proven performers. There’s Brady in the backfield, Brown at receiver and Rob Gronkowski at tight end. There’s Ryan Jensen on one side of the line, Ndamukong Suh on the other side and Jason Pierre-Paul at linebacker.
When final cuts were made in September, the Bucs had gone from being one of the youngest teams in the NFL in 2019 to one of the oldest in 2020. The anomaly was in the secondary where 94.6% of the snaps this season have gone to players who are 24 or younger.
“They’ve helped get us to where we are at this point,” said cornerbacks coach Kevin Ross. “Can we play better? Sure. Every day is still a learning experience for these guys. You don’t really start to understand everything in this league until you’re in your sixth or seventh season. These guys have all the physical skills in the world, but it’s a mental game for them now. This is from-the neck-up football right now.”
It was the growth of the secondary that fueled the second-half comeback in 2019, and adding Winfield in the second round of the 2020 draft only solidified the group.
And while everyone accepted that the pandemic and shortened offseason made it harder for Brady to familiarize himself with the offense, it was also costly for the group of defensive backs who had not yet played a full season together. There is rhythm and familiarity to playing in the secondary, where you have to recognize formations and plays and trust that the guy next to you is covering the right receiver.
There were some problems with that in the second New Orleans game in November, when the Saints had receptions by 12 different receivers and four pass plays of 20 yards or more. In fact, the secondary seemed to give up more and more big plays as the season progressed and the schedule got tougher.
Opposing quarterbacks threw for 250 or more yards in only two of Tampa Bay’s first six games, but eight of the last 11. That includes the playoff game against Washington when Taylor Heinicke threw for 306 yards in his first start of the season.
“I thought we busted a couple of coverages that led to some points,” Bowles said.
The Bucs cannot afford too many of those mistakes against the Saints. Two of Tampa Bay’s three lowest-scoring games of the season were against New Orleans, so it’s probably wishful thinking to hope for Brady to put 30 or more points on the board.
That means not allowing New Orleans the kind of quick strikes they had in November against the Bucs, when they had three successive touchdown drives of five plays or less.
“We controlled 41 (Alvin Kamara) and 13 (Michael Thomas) the first time we saw them this season. We kept the ball in front of us and didn’t give up the explosive plays,” Ross said. “We need to make them drive the ball and turn some of those touchdowns into field goals.”
It’s been a long road to get here. A season of anticipation, and a generation of waiting.
Can the Bucs depend on the kids to finish it off?
