The Tampa Bay Buccaneers‘ season has started smoothly. They came out on top with a comfortable win in their Week 1 matchup against the Washington Commanders, 37-20. Throughout the entire game, we saw a dominant Tampa Bay team that took the lead early in the first quarter and never looked back.
Here are four takeaways from the Week 1 victory, and what they mean going forward into the season.
4 Takeaways From the Buccaneers’ Week 1 Win Over Washington
The Passing Game Is On Point
The arrival of new offensive coordinator Liam Coen promised to be a great addition and a nice change of pace for the Buccaneer offense. One game into the season, it looks like the decision to hire him has paid off; it definitely still is too early to tell, but it seems like the air offense has improved dramatically since Coen’s arrival to the team. Quarterback Baker Mayfield had a spectacular game, completing 24 passes on 30 attempts for 289 yards and four touchdowns. On the receiving end, Chris Godwin stole the show, hauling in eight catches for 83 yards, an average of 10.3 yards per catch, and a touchdown. Other players with notable efforts included wide receiver Mike Evans (five catches, 61 yards, 12.2 yards per catch, two touchdowns), running back Rachaad White (six catches, 75 yards, 12.5 yards per catch), and wideout Jalen McMillan (one catch, 32 yards, and a touchdown).
The Running Game Needs Work
Even though the air offense looked impeccable, the same cannot be said for the ground offense. The Bucs were only able to rack up 112 rushing yards, contrary to the 280 receiving yards, and didn’t get any touchdowns on the ground. The best rusher for the Bucs was fourth-round pick Bucky Irving, who had 62 yards on nine carries, an average of 6.9 yards per carry. White, in turn, had more carries with 15 but didn’t have nearly as much success, racking up just 31 yards for a dismal average of 2.1 yards per carry. As previously mentioned, White did have success on the air, but he looked sluggish on the main aspect of his game. Coen might experiment with this, perhaps using White in a receiving back role and leaving most of the ground duties to Irving going forward. Still, he needs to find a formula that works for the team and he needs to do it quickly as the team moves on to their more difficult matchups.
Quarterback Containment Must Improve
In an otherwise mediocre Washington offense, quarterback Jayden Daniels had a pretty solid game. The LSU product completed 17 passes on 24 attempts for 184 yards but had greater success on the ground, rushing for 88 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Bucs secondary did a good job limiting Daniels on the passing game, but it seemed like every time he scrambled he would gain big yardage. A lot of that stems from containment issues. Even when using a spy, the Bucs just couldn’t contain Daniels. It’ll be on the defense to figure out a way to contain better, and with a defensive-minded head coach like Todd Bowles, they should have no problem doing so.
Backups Need to Step Up
Before the game even started, the Buccaneers had already suffered two important losses, with defensive linemen Calijah Kancey and Logan Hall being ruled out before kickoff, and cornerbacks Zyon McCollum, Bryce Hall, and Josh Hayes suffering injuries and having to be replaced during the course of the game. These injuries led to the team being forced to play safety Christian Izien at cornerback despite not having any prior experience at the position. This is probably an indicator of what will likely be a difficult season for the Bucs in terms of injuries, and the backups need to be ready to play to make up for the injuries that will unavoidably happen throughout the season.
Next up, the Bucs will face off in an intriguing matchup, a rematch of last year’s NFC Divisional Round against the Detroit Lions. The Lions took the upper hand on that one, and the Bucs will surely seek revenge. It’ll be an exciting matchup, and if they’re able to fix the aforementioned issues, they might have a decent shot at winning one of the hardest games on their schedule.
Main Image: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
