By Robert Mills
ORLANDO–This week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face off against fellow NFC south rivals Atlanta Falcons. Tampa’s coming off a very entertaining Thursday night win back on September 9th, so they have had plenty of time to rest, address the secondary issues, and be ready for this important matchup. The Falcons face the Bucs after losing by 26 points to the Eagles last Sunday. Does this make me feel good about the Buccaneers’ odds to win? Safe to say yes, but these are the type of trap games that can toss up even the best teams when they least expect it (Miami beating New England pretty much every year rings a bell).
Defensive woes for Tampa will be in full effect, and the expectation is to see it exposed in this game. While the D line is still fully intact, that does not change the fact that Sean Murphy-Bunting is out with a serious injury. There is good news on that front; however, as of September 17th Bruce Arians has come out to say that he will not need surgery for his dislocated elbow. It is great news for the defense, as he could return to full activity before the end of the season and potentially just in time for the playoffs. Regardless, that doesn’t change the present, and Tampas depth isn’t the best at CB right now. Andrew Adams will come in to replace the depth at Murphy’s position. Adams has been with the Buccaneers for four seasons now, so he is no beginner when it comes to taking reps. The other big key for the defense in this game is to read the play-action that Falcons and Matt Ryan love to run. With the big guys up front, Tampa has one of the best run game defenses in the NFL. Will it cause the Falcons to change how they play, or will we see a full-on shut down of their run game. We will see more passing and less running, but it could be interesting if they can get the running game going.
On offense, the Buccaneers should have a relatively easy time. The Falcons defense gave up over 400 yards of offense to the Eagles in week 1, and that’s with their second-year man Jalen Hurts, who has been questionable at that position since he took over the reins. Just a few short years ago, Atlanta had the 29th worst defense in the league. Yikes, that’s a terrible stat line to have to go into a game against arguably the best offense in the NFL right now. However, Bruce Arians is not sleeping on it with the Falcons signing new defensive coordinator Dean Pees. In his words, “He has every trick in the book” and “We’re going to have to be ready for them.” Not to worry much, with Gronk playing like his 2011 self, Brady not aging, and Mike Evans ready to snap off a big game after his underperforming week 1, it will likely be a shootout.
Overall, this should be a week 2 win for the Buccaneer, and it will not be a close one. Cowboys did surprise us all in week 1, however, so anything is possible. I’ll take the over on the 51.5 point spread currently predicted, with the Buccaneers winning by 21 with a final score of 38 to 17. This week the defense will be interesting to watch as the Murphy-Bunting injury might affect how they play. Check back in after this week for a breakdown of this matchup and all its glory.
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