Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 4 Critical areas of focus at the bye week
3. Finding a cure for the defense
At one point in the season, the Buccaneers’ defensive unit was ranked first in the NFL and was clearly playing like one of the best in the league. Those days are long gone and the team has struggled against much of their opponents, beginning with Week 8.
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The most concerning part of the struggles have to be the team’s slow starts during the recent down period. They have struggled to stop anyone early in games and then have tried to hope halftime adjustments can help them get back into the game in the second half.
In the three most recent losses, the Buccaneers gave up over 400 total yards in all of them. Against the Chiefs, they allowed an eye-popping performance from Tyreek Hill as an aggressive defensive front forced the secondary to run single-coverage on the speedster. The results were obviously problematic.
The run defense has still been steady but they have been picked apart in the passing game. Even Daniel Jones managed to throw for over 250 yards against the Buccaneers during the second half of the season. Todd Bowles and the coaching staff need to find a more practical approach to get this unit back to form.