When you watch the Buccaneers travel to Carolina Thursday night for an important early season battle, key in on several important aspects of that matchup. Here is what you should be looking for.
The Buccaneers can’t get Carolina’s defensive front blocked
With the exception of guard Ali Marpet, Tampa Bay’s offensive line is quite troubling. This goes back to the preseason, where it was often exploited, but we also saw this front five struggle against the 49ers last week. Meanwhile, led as always by Luke Kuechly, Carolina’s front seven is just littered with former first round picks and is extremely talented and dangerous. This unit is extremely deep with a wide variety of impact players. Kawann Short, without question, is one of the NFL’s premier defensive tackles and he is coming off yet another strong showing against the Rams last week, while Gerald McCoy is sure to have a little something extra for his old squad when these teams square off on Thursday night.
Tampa Bay’s passing game is better than it showed in Week 1
While pass protection should be a big problem, the weakness of Carolina’s defense is its secondary. The Buccaneers passing game is loaded with high-end talent, but that didn’t come to the forefront in the first week of the regular season. However, several key members, most notably Mike Evans, of that unit were reportedly dealing with flu-like systems and on Thursday night, we might just see how lethal this group can truly be. OJ Howard is also a better player than he showed on Sunday. A great matchup to watch is James Bradberry vs. Evans, two players in their prime with great size and physical attributes for their respective positions. The Rams had success attacking Carolina from the slot, so that could work out well for Chris Godwin. All that being said, James Winston absolutely must cut down on the reckless play and poor decisions.
Critical Matchup: Christian McCaffrey vs. Tampa Bay’s linebackers
Lavonte David and early first-round pick Devin White are going to get all they can handle in dealing with McCaffrey, who was simply spectacular in all phases in Week 1. David and White are every-down players and will rarely leave the field in Carolina. White has rare physical traits including A+ speed for the second level, but he didn’t stand out in the preseason and had a tough day against the 49ers several days ago. As for McCaffrey, he puts up great numbers every week regardless of his matchup.
Attack Tampa Bay’s secondary
There are a lot of spots in this Tampa Bay secondary that Cam Newton can look to exploit, but maybe the cover man that stands out most in this capacity is Carlton Davis. In reality, there isn’t a member of this secondary that Newton should shy away from and his two top weapons, DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel, should have success on shorter routes designed for both receivers to use their dangerous after-the-catch skills as well as potentially getting behind Tampa’s secondary for a big play. It doesn’t help that the Bucs looks like one of the NFL’s worst pass-rushing defenses.
Is Ronald Jones for real?
Jones was highly disappointing during his rookie year. Well, that might be somewhat unfair. Jones was pretty much nonexistent during his rookie year. He isn’t all that big and isn’t very powerful. Pass protection has been a problem for Jones and he isn’t a real accomplished receiver. That doesn’t sound so promising, but no one batted an eye when Tampa Bay used a second round pick on Jones just one year ago because he is a real playmaker. Jones stood out in a big way against San Francisco. The Buccaneers really are light at the running back position and there isn’t much in the way of competition for Jones right now for playing time. He has a golden opportunity and if Week 1 was any indication, the second year back might be primed to step up. His 93 yards on 14 carries might be a sign of things to come. Jones’ snap count needs to increase.
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