Raise the Flags and Fire the Cannons - Tampa Bay Buccaneers CFM - Madden 19

[callmetaternuts]

It’s time to put away the practice jerseys, time to put away the two-a-days. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have played their meaningless preseason games and now it’s time for the real thing. It’s time to suit up, play 16 games and hope that the team plays well enough for some late January games in the playoffs. It’s time for some real NFL football.

The Bucs come off an uneven preseason and head into the 2018 season with very few personnel questions, but a lot of questions on their performance. The potential is real, the chance for a special season exists, but it’s going to require everyone on the team and in the organization to pull together to accomplish their goals this year.

No one knows what Western is thinking heading into the new season, but the playoffs certainly look to be out of reach. This team has talent, but with their schedule and tough division, it will be extremely tough to get to the 9 or 10 win mark.

We know that Western has scheduled a press conference for later today to give a pre-regular season press conference, and while we don’t expect any groundbreaking news, we never know what Western may say. This will be his first public appearance since just prior to the preseason.

As we head into the 2018 regular season, here are a few things to know as we prepare for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to take the field.

Projected Win/Loss

Looking at the Bucs 2018 schedule, it’s easy to feel some optimism in looking at the layout of the games. The division games seem to be pretty steady with the home team typically winning their games and it being a very close to a split between all division foes. The bye week comes early in Week 5, which is unfortunate. After looking at each opponent and projecting win totals, we are estimating that the Bucs will go 6-10 and finish last in their division. While this is bleak, the offensive line and secondary are too weak to make the team a viable threat this year.

Offense

The offense is returning all of the key players needed to make a deep playoff run. Jameis Winston is back under center and this is a make or break year for him. He has to cut down on his turnovers and be more efficient.

The run game looks to be a weakness, with a motley crew of Barber, Rodgers and newcomers Jones II being the three headed monster. The goal will be to use all three backs, but it should be a heavy mix of Barber and Jones if all goes well.
The receivers and tight ends have to be a strength for the team. Mike Evans, Desean Jackson, Chris Godwin and even Adam Humphries lead the receivers and feature a good mix of speed and height with ways to stretch the field and own the red zone. Add in the tight ends, and Howard can be an All-Pro tight end if Jameis can figure out how to use him.

The offensive line is weak at best. A lot of fringe players outside of Ali Marpet and it will make both running and passing difficult. It’s going to take a lot of work to make this line work well for the team.

All in all, it’s a B minus offense, but they only have to catch magic a few times to make this a special season.

Offensive Player to Watch

Peyton Barber. The Bucs will only be successful if they can find balance on the offensive side. The passing game has the tools, but it all hinges on Barber and his ability to shoulder the workload. He doesn’t have breakaway speed, but should be able to at least milk the clock and provide enough to open up the passing game.

New face on offense expected to contribute

While not brand new, O.J. Howard has to step up and be the first round pick the Bucs thought they were getting. He has to not only be able to block but has to own the middle of the field and be a security blanket. Cameron Brate had filled that role in previous years, but Howard has the ability to stretch the field even more.

Key Player on Offense

It has to be Jameis. If he can minimize the turnovers and just be more efficient, the offense will take off. Drives can end with punts and incompletions, but he can’t turn the ball over. This year will go a long way to determining if Jameis will stay with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or will be jettisoned in the off season.

Defense

A weak link on the team for years, this is a year a change has to be made. The defensive line has been reworked completely with JPP and Vinny Curry anchoring the ends. Newcomer Vita Vea has to destroy lines and just occupy two people on almost every play to be successful. That leads us to Gerald McCoy who, though generally good, has not been great yet. He has to step up and have a monster year.

The linebackers are in great shape with speed, smarts, and the ability to make any play. Beckwith is a fringe player but with the Bucs in Nickel so much, he will only see the field on 25% of the snaps. Kwon and David will see the field and be asked to do everything.

The secondary is weak and being led by longtime starter but fading Brent Grimes. He, along with Hargreaves has to be able to cover the opposing receivers. While they won’t be asked to go one on one a lot, they have to be able to handle the passing attack. The safeties are weak with Chris Conte and Justin Evans filling in for now.

Defensive Player to Watch

Vernon Hargreaves III. He will be asked to not only play most of the season and avoid injuries, but he has to be able to handle his side of the field with the help being given to Grimes and the #1 receiver on the other side.

New face on defense expected to contribute

JPP and Curry. The pass rush has to improve as the Bucs had the lowest number of sacks in the league last year. These two were brought in to pressure the quarterback and have to show up every week.

Key Player on Defense

I’d love to say Gerald McCoy here, but the fact is he just never quite gets over the hump to be a superstar. So with that, it’s gotta be Kwon Alexander. He is the general of the defense and while we know what we have every where else, he needs to show that he is ready to step up and be special.

Special Teams

The special teams has been a sore spot for years with no kicker able to help the Bucs end drives successfully. With Santos manning the helm, he will be asked to make at least 88% of his kicks. The punting game is what it is. The return game is just about securing decent field position and not making mistakes.

Rumors

We are hearing that Western will reiterate his mandate that he handles all items and that he essentially be the face of the franchise as opposed to any player. The biggest question mark is if he will stir the pot with any player or coach.

A question that needs to be answered is if Western wants to be the face of the franchise, why has he been so silent?

The rumor mill points to the coaches, especially Koetter, being unhappy and ready to move on. Of course, winning changes everything, so Koetter may change his tune.

We are hearing that a lot of position coaches don’t want the Bucs gig due to the overbearing new owner, but as no coaches are out of contract, this is a moot point for now.

[callmetaternuts]

It was a familiar setting at One Buc Place. The media had assembled, some players and coaches were watching on the in-house monitors, and no one knew what Western was going to say. Would he announce anything newsworthy? Would he be holding court just looking to get face time with the media? Or would he talk about the upcoming season? No one had any idea what he was going to do, and as the press conference approached, the coaches began to fear the worst.

Western walked to the podium and quickly launched into a statement. “I am excited to be a part of the Buccaneers organization as we enter the 2018 season. As I have previously mentioned, no coach or player or any other staff member would lose their job or be impacted by the change in ownership. As we start Week 1, it now becomes about the team. Coaches have to prepare, players have to play well, and the staff has to support the organization. There will be no tolerance for failure. I am not worried about any of this, but wanted to go on record to show you that I will uphold my promises.”

After that, Western discussed his goals for the team. He mentioned that he thought a playoff berth was possible given this “special” team he had bought. Coincidentally, we were able to get a recording of Western in a private call earlier in the day where he said he would be surprised if this team could go 8-8. Clearly he is putting on a show for the media.

He did mention he knows the potential of this team on the playing field and expects that to be realized. There will be no favoritism for any player and all players, high draft pick or undrafted free agent, long time veterans or high priced free agents, they all had to produce.

He reiterated that all items must run through him. He confirmed that players were cut earlier in the year due to them trying to circumvent his management style and while he wished them well, he said he would not tolerate this type of action. Each decision would need to run through him during the course of the week. He was also frustrated that the NFL would not allow him on the sideline to wear a live headset but said he had worked out an understanding where he could sit in his luxury box and communicate with the team. That sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

He mentioned that his pricing changes had been received well by the fans, with revenue increasing and already showing a profit. Of course, what he didn’t say is what happens if and when the team starts losing, how will that impact revenue.
He did mention that he will be running all negotiations and that some players whose contracts were up this year could receive extensions that he would negotiate with the agents.

This last point seemed to solidify the message that Western truly was running every facet of the organization. Not only was he cutting players, running marketing, and being the face of the organization, but he was sitting in on meetings and handling active negotiations.

Western ended by saying how excited he was for the start of the season. While the media seemed pleased with the quotes, the players and coaches were left staring at each other, wondering what they had gotten into. The coaches in particular did not like this and from what we can gather, Western may be trying to push them out the door. They are, after all, not his guys, but coaches he had to take over.

The regular season is almost here and our brief Week 1 preview is coming up shortly.

[callmetaternuts]

Matchup Preview | September 9, 2018
	@
Tampa Bay Buccaneers Away		New Orleans Saints Home
Game Notes Here we go. The Bucs travel to New Orleans to take on the explosive Saints. Which Bucs team will show up? The road team that was able to find a way to scratch out a victory, or the home version that looked like a high school team? The start of the 2018 season brings a chance for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to finally return to the playoffs and establish a winning culture. But the only change in the organization has been the owner. Can a new owner with the same coaches, players and staff change an entire organization, or will it simply be more of the same for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

[callmetaternuts]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints
Sep 9, 2018	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-0)	0	10	7	6	23
New Orleans Saints (0-0)	7	14	7	6	34

Team Stats Comparison
	TAM	NOR
Total Offense	352	529
Rushing Yards	68	117
Passing Yards	284	412
First Downs	16	22
Punt Return Yards	22	20
Kick Return Yards	29	0
Total Yards	403	549
Turnovers	1	1
3rd Down Conversion	6-14	11-15
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	1/2	4/2
Penalties	5-45	6-59
Posession Time	28:05	31:55

Tampa Bay Buccaneers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Jameis Winston (85.4) 26/40 300 1 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Peyton Barber 13 47 3.6 0 Jacquizz Rodgers 4 10 2.5 0 Jameis Winston 2 11 5.5 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD O.J. Howard 8 99 12.3 0 Desean Jackson 6 83 13.8 1 Mike Evans 5 85 17.0 0 Adam Humphries 2 9 4.5 0 Jacquizz Rodgers 2 9 4.5 0 Cameron Brate 1 2 2.0 0 Chris Godwin 1 5 5.0 0 Antony Auclair 1 8 8.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Ali Marpet 0 1 DEFENSE TACK TFL SACK INT Kwon Alexander 13 0.0 0 0 Lavonte David 12 0 1.0 1 Chris Conte 9 0 0.0 0 Vinny Curry 7 1 2.0 0 Kendell Beckwith 7 0 0.0 0 Brent Grimes 6 0 0.0 0 Vita Vea 5 1 0.0 0 Vernon Hargeaves III 4 0 0.0 0 Justin Evans 4 0 0.0 0 Carlton Davis III 4 0 0.0 0 Jason Pierre-Paul 3 0 0.0 0 Gerald McCoy 2 1 0.0 0 Jordan Whitehead 1 0 0.0 0 Devante Bond 1 0 0.0 0 Jack Cichy 1 0 0.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Cairo Santos 3/3 2/2 11 48 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Bryan Anger 4 196 49.0 2 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Jacquizz Rodgers 1 29 29.0 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Desean Jackson 1 22 22.0 0

New Orleans Saints PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Drew Brees (128.3) 32/39 437 3 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Alvin Kamara 26 102 3.9 0 Mark Ingram 4 15 3.7 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Ben Watson 12 226 18.8 2 Dez Bryant 7 86 12.2 1 Mike Thomas 4 50 12.5 0 Ted Ginn Jr. 4 34 8.5 0 Cameron Meredith 1 20 20.0 0 Dan Arnold 1 9 9.0 0 Mark Ingram II 1 7 7.0 0 Zach Line 1 2 2.0 0 Alvin Kamara 1 3 3.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Larry Warford 1 0 DEFENSE TACK TFL SACK INT Alex Anzalone 14 3 1.0 0 Demario Davis 9 0 0.0 0 David Onyemata 7 0 2.0 0 P.J. Williams 6 0 0.0 0 Marcus Williams 6 0 0.0 0 Vonn Bell 4 0 0.0 0 Patrick Robinson 4 0 0.0 1 Marcus Lattimore 3 0 0.0 0 Craig Robertson 3 0 0.0 0 Cameron Jordan 2 1 0.0 0 Sheldon Rankins 2 2 0.0 0 Manti Te'o 2 0 0.0 0 Alex Okafor 2 0 0.0 0 Cliff Avril 2 0 0.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Will Lutz 2/3 4/4 10 28 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Thomas Morstead 1 56 56.0 0 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Ted Ginn Jr. 0 0 0.0 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Ted Ginn Jr. 1 20 20.0 0

[callmetaternuts]

Tampa Bay Buccaneers start slow, can’t catch up against the Saints.

The NFL regular season kicked off on Sunday and the Bucs traveled to New Orleans to start the season. The game started with new Orleans receiving the kickoff, and just marching down the field at will against the Bucs D. The first drive ended with Brees connecting with Watson for a TD on a blown coverage (by me).

The offense came out for the Bucs and started out with 3 nice runs by Barber for 25 yards, but the drive stalled and the Bucs had to punt. The rest of the first quarter was more of the same with Brees throwing for 130+ yards compared to Jameis’ 4 yards of passing. The defense couldn’t do much, although Vinny Curry had the first of his two sacks in the first quarter.

The second quarter was much like the first. Watson took a pass from Brees and scored on another blown coverage (by me). The Bucs offense couldn’t get anything going, and late in the second, the Saints scored on a rushing TD to push their lead to 21-3. The Bucs tried to drive with about 2 minutes left in the half, but had to punt. And then some magic happened.

Brees dropped back to pass and threw towards Watson, but Lavonte David stepped in and intercepted the pass and returned it for a TD, cutting the lead to 21-10 going into half.

After halftime, the Bucs received the kick but couldn’t manage anything substantial. Both offenses seemed to struggle in the third quarter with the Saints going run heavy and the Bucs able to move the ball, but not get into scoring position.

The fourth quarter was cruel to the Bucs. While they shut down Michael Thomas (4 catches for 50 yards), and they started doubling Watson, Brees started finding other receivers and Kamara got going on the ground. No big plays, but just enough to keep the clock moving. The Bucs could only muster a few field goals deep in Saints territory, but they did have a chance.

That is, until Brees found Watson with 1:30 left on the clock for a 72 yard gain on a missed tackle by Chris Conte. That ended any comeback hopes and led the Saints to their first victory of the year.

Jameis played well, with his only turnover coming on the last play of the game in an attempt to score. The Bucs didn’t turn it over but just started out too slow.
The running game was great in the first half, but after the first drive and 25 yard for Barber, he only ran for 18 yards the rest of the game. O.J. Howard, Evans and Desean played well and helped out the team, but they just didn’t have enough firepower.

The defense gave up way too many completions over the middle. Brees tore up the zone defense and for some reason, when man-to-man was called, Kwon lined up on Mike Thomas a lot, which led to his 4 catches.

Offensive MVP

O.J. Howard, who made some great catches and owned the middle of the field.

Offensive LVP

Bucs receivers in first quarter who had 3 dropped passes and killed drives.

Defensive MVP

Lavonte David who had 12 tackles, a sack, a pick and a touchdown

Defensive LVP

I can’t pick one person. Conte missed tackles, the pass rush was largely not there, the linebackers didn’t cover Watson. Overall, it was just not good enough.

Notes: I blew two coverages on Watson that led to his first two TDs. Both were on Cover 2 where I controlled the deep middle. On the first one, I bit up on Kamara running an angle route, on the second, I didn’t drop deep enough because I thought I could jump and tip the pass, using the back of the endzone as an extra defender. I was wrong.

I played alright, but had 4 passing yards in first quarter. Just started too slow. Overall though, it played out like it should have. The Saints O was better than my D and I was able to move the ball for the most part.

[callmetaternuts]

Matchup Preview | September 16, 2018
	@
Philadelphia Eagles (Away)		Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Home)
Game Notes Time to go get a win. I's the first home game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as they come off a loss.

[callmetaternuts]

Philadelphia Eagles at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sep 16, 2018	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Philadelphia Eagles (0-1)	10	17	21	0	48
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (0-1)	0	3	0	15	18

Team Stats Comparison
	PHI	TAM
Total Offense	522	280
Rushing Yards	87	146
Passing Yards	435	134
First Downs	16	15
Punt Return Yards	1	1
Kick Return Yards	20	71
Total Yards	543	352
Turnovers	1	4
3rd Down Conversion	6-11	4-14
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	5/2	0/2
Penalties	4-30	5-50
Posession Time	27:14	32:46

Philadelphia Eagles PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Carson Wentz 23/29 444 5 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Jay Ajayi 28 86 3.0 1 Carson Wentz 1 1 1.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Nelson Agholor 5 65 13.0 1 Alson Jeffery 5 177 35.4 1 Golden Tate III 5 120 24.0 2 Zach Ertz 4 41 10.2 1 Dallas Goedert 2 30 15.0 0 Jay Ajayi 2 11 5.5 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Jason Peters 1 1 DEFENSE TACK TFL SACK INT Jordan Hicks 12 1 0.0 0 Fletcher Cox 10 2 1.0 0 Rodney McLeod Jr. 8 0 0.0 0 Brandon Graham 7 1 0.0 0 Kamu Grugier-Hill 7 1 0.0 0 Nigel Bradham 6 0 0.0 2 Derek Barnett 6 2 2.0 0 Mike Jenkins 4 0 0.0 1 Sidney Jones IV 3 0 0.0 0 Avante Maddox 3 1 0.0 0 Chris Maragos 2 0 0.0 0 Chris Long 2 2 0.0 0 Ronald Darby 2 0 0.0 0 Rasul Douglas 1 0 0.0 0 Haloti Ngata 1 0 0.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Jake Elliott 2/2 6/6 12 36 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Cameron Johnston 3 70 23.2 0 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Nelson Agholor 1 20 20.0 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Golden Tate III 1 1 1.0 0

Tampa Bay Buccaneers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Jameis Winston (35.3) 18/29 147 0 3 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Peyton Barber 24 85 3.5 0 Jacquizz Rodgers 6 32 5.3 0 Jameis WInston 3 29 9.6 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Desean Jackson 4 39 9.7 0 Mike Evans 3 36 12.0 0 Adam Humphries 3 14 4.6 0 Peyton Barber 3 17 5.6 0 O.J. Howard 2 31 15.5 0 Jacquizz Rodgers 2 5 2.5 0 Cameron Brate 1 5 5.0 0 BLOCKING PANCAKE SACK Ryan Jensen 1 0 Caleb Benenoch 0 1 Donovan Smith 0 2 DEFENSE TACK TFL SACK INT Lavonte David 12 2 0.0 0 Kwon Alexander 8 0 0.0 0 Chris Conte 8 2 0.0 0 Carlton Davis III 5 0 0.0 0 Jason Pierre-Paul 4 1 1.0 0 Brent Grimes 4 0 0.0 0 Vernon Hargreaves III 4 0 0.0 1 Justin Evans 3 0 0.0 0 Vita Vea 2 1 0.0 0 Vinny Curry 2 2 1.0 0 Gerald McCoy 2 0 0.0 0 Kendell Beckwith 2 1 0.0 0 Jordan Whitehead 1 0 0.0 0 Andrew Adams 1 0 0.0 0 Adarius Taylor 1 0 0.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG Cairo Santos 3/3 1/1 10 39 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 Bryan Nager 5 286 57.2 2 KICK RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Adam Humphries 2 38 19.0 0 Jacquizz Rodgers 2 33 16.5 0 PUNT RETURN RET YDS AVG TD Desean Jackson 1 1 1.0 0

[callmetaternuts]

Bucs lose big again, get demolished by Philly, 48-18

This was about as ugly of a game as you can have. We’ll have to condense this recap due to all the scoring the Philly offense did on the Bucs defense.
The game started out like every other Bucs game seems to; the opposing team gets the kick and marches down the field and scores a touchdown, with most of the plays being through the air.

This was a common theme in the game as Wentz went for over 400 yards in 3 quarters and hit pass after pass after pass. The Bucs D couldn’t stop them. Brent Grimes stood still as Jeffery caught a pass and burned past him. Golden Tate broke 4 tackles en route to a long touchdown. The defense kept getting burned through the air and couldn’t generate any pressure.

The offense wasn’t much better. Jameis threw 3 picks, 1 of which was a bad throw. The other were supernatural plays by the defense. The running game was average, but no drives could be sustained.

In fact, to tell you how bad it was, the offense scored zero touchdowns and managed 3 field goals. The Bucs defense had a pick six and a safety, accounting for more points than the offense (not counting our kicker).

Coach Koetter and staff were visibly frustrated and it would seem that changes are coming. We’ve heard rumors that the defense will become more blitz heavy instead of sitting around in zone and deep man and that the offense will start to feature more of a West Coast feel than the deep to short offense they have now.
All we know is that something has to change.

Injuries: Right tackle Demar Dotson suffered a shoulder tear and is out 3-4 weeks. The Bucs have signed Jake Rudolph off the Bengals practice squad to fill in as we had no other tackles on the roster that could fill in. The Bucs cut Isaiah Johnson (SS) in the corresponding move.

Note: This is frustrating. On defense I cannot stop the pass. I am going to try to be more aggressive rather than just sitting in zone, but I may ave to change sliders, which I don't want to do. I don't want slideritis.

These interceptions are ridiculous. One was a bad read by me, but the other two shouldn't have been interceptions. I gotta figure this out. It's ugly and I have no chance since I can't score and they score right away.