With the Falcons just a game behind, Tampa needs to make sure they continue stacking wins this week against the Cowboys.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are centered right in the middle of a late-season playoff push. The Atlanta Falcons, with key personnel changes, are just a single game behind, keeping the pressure on Tampa to continue their win streak. The Buccaneers, winners of their last four will be coming off of a statement win against the Los Angeles Chargers. In their 40-17 victory, a week ago, the Bucs looked primed to take on any contender in their path. This week, that contender will be the Dallas Cowboys.
A shallow look at Dallas’ season might lend itself towards the thought process that the Buccaneers will have it easy this week as they battle Cooper Rush. Despite the Cowboys’ 6-8 record, the team is far from a pushover. Cooper Rush has been playing solid football down the stretch— eight touchdowns, one interception in his last four games. Dallas has actually won three of those four contests. So—
How can the Buccaneers win this game?
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Run like an A.C. in the Florida heat. Last week, Tampa Bay asserted themselves— dominantly. Matched up with a well-respected defense and a team that prides itself on physicality, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran for 223 yards. Tampa’s rushing attack has been the strength and highlight of their team in 2024 and there is no reason to get carried away trying to mix it up this week. The Dallas Cowboys’ defense has allowed the fourth-most rushing yards this season (1905). They’ve also let up more rushing scores than any other team in the league (22).
The 2024 Tampa Bay Bucs have shown they can center their attack around a run-first approach. Dallas has not demonstrated the capacity to stop that method of attack. The fastest way Dallas can turn the game is a splash play from Micah Parsons. Fewer drop-backs for Baker Mayfield and a strong commitment to the running game will be Tampa’s best way of minimizing his impact.
Sometimes football is hard, sometimes it’s simple— Commence with Bucky time.
How can the Buccaneers lose this game?
Forget about Mike Evans. Last week, the Buccaneers did something obvious— Threw the ball to Mike Evans. Whilst winning the game may be more dependent on Tampa’s ability to win in the trenches through the use of their rushing attack, the two are not mutually exclusive. Tampa Bay’s offense is at its most dynamic when they work those two in tandem.
Evans has had an off year— mostly due to injury, however, even when the season was wet behind the ears and Evans was fully healthy, 2024 was not shaping up to be an outstanding season for Tampa’s star pass catcher. Mike Evans, prior to the team’s bye week, had only received double-digit targets in one game and failed to reach 100 yards in any game before sustaining injury— He first accomplished the feat when the team traveled to Charlotte to play the Carolina Panthers three weeks ago.
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Liam Coen has been a gem of a find for Todd Bowles and the Bucs but, if there is one thing that can be critiqued about his scheme it has been his inability to incorporate one of his best players. To Coen’s credit, whether due to necessity, self-scouting, or peer pressure to give Mike Evans a legitimate chance to make NFL history, he has appeared to have made that adjustment in the latter portion of the season. Post the team’s bye week, Evans has gotten more than 10 targets in two of the team’s four games and has supplied 414 yards and three touchdowns.
Tampa Bay has a lot of good players on their offense, however, they only have two players who can truly rip a game wide open— Mike Evans and Bucky Irving. Those two need to be focal points for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense in every outing moving forward.
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