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About the Author: Scott Reynolds

Avatar Of Scott Reynolds
Scott Reynolds is in his 28th year of covering the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the vice president, publisher and senior Bucs beat writer for PewterReport.com. Author of the popular SR's Fab 5 column on Fridays, Reynolds oversees web development and forges marketing partnerships for PewterReport.com in addition to his editorial duties. A graduate of Kansas State University in 1995, Reynolds spent six years giving back to the community as the defensive coordinator/defensive line coach for his sons' Pop Warner team, the South Pasco Predators. Reynolds can be reached at: [email protected]

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It’s time for PewterReport.com’s 2-Point Conversion post-game column, which features two statements, two questions and two predictions based on the latest Bucs game. Tampa Bay scored a major upset with a convincing, 38-10 victory over previously unbeaten Green Bay to improve to 4-2 on the season. The Bucs played error-free football with zero penalties and no turnovers while harassing Packers QB Aaron Rodgers into two costly turnovers and sacked him five times.

2 BIG STATEMENTS

STATEMENT 1. Dean’s Pick-Six, Dominant Defense Lead Bucs To Win

Coming into Sunday’s game at Tampa Bay, Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers hadn’t turned the ball over. Rodgers also hadn’t been sacked, nor had he lost in helping the Packers race out to a 4-0 start with 13 touchdown passes.

By the time the final whistle sounded, the Bucs had picked off Rodgers twice, sacked him four times and beaten Rodgers and the undefeated Packers into oblivion, 38-10, in what was a huge statement win for the Tom Brady-led Buccaneers. Brady did his part in throwing a pair of touchdown passes to rookie receiver Tyler Johnson and tight end Rob Gronkowski, but this game was won by the Bucs defense in the second quarter.

Bucs Cb Jamel Dean

Bucs CB Jamel Dean – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

After those picks, Rodgers got rattled and was never the same as Tampa Bay scored 38 unanswered points and took complete control over the game.

Trailing 10-0 and having been dominated for the first quarter of play, Tampa Bay’s defense rose up thanks to Jamel Dean’s 32-yard pick-six that turned things around quickly for the Bucs. Rodgers stared down Davante Adams and Dean stepped in front of the pass and made Rodgers pay for it. Unbelievably, that was just the third pick-six in Rodgers’ illustrious 16-year career.

“Dean made his play,” Bucs head coach Bruce Arians said. “That kind of changed the whole momentum – I thought – in the whole stadium. Coming right back with another [interception], knock it in [and] get the lead.”

Three plays later, cornerback Carlton Davis III broke up a pass intended for Adams and deflected the ball into the waiting arms of free safety Mike Edwards, who picked off his second pass of the year and returned it 39 yards to the Green Bay 2. Ronald Jones II scored on the next play and the Bucs suddenly had a 14-10 lead with 11:02 left in the second quarter and the route was on.

By halftime, the Bucs had increased their lead to 28-10 and had out-gained the Packers, 153-149. In addition to recording two interceptions, the Bucs recorded two sacks from defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and linebacker Lavonte David in the second quarter and stole the game’s momentum, which they would never surrender.

The second half was more of the same as Tampa Bay added 10 more points and two more sacks of Rodgers – a sack split by David and outside linebacker Jason Pierre-Paul and a sack by inside linebacker Devin White. The Packers waved the white flag of surrender with seven minutes left, pulling Rodgers in favor of backup quarterback Tim Boyle, who was sacked by Pierre-Paul for the fifth Tampa Bay sack of the day.

Bucs Ilb Lavonte David

Bucs ILB Lavonte David – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs’ waved the red flag of absolute pirate dominance, completely shutting down a Packers offense that had averaged 38 points per game coming into Sunday. Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles called a masterful defensive game from the second quarter on and never allowed Rodgers and the Packers to mount a comeback.

“I thought Todd mixed it up really, really good with his fronts, blitzes [and] coverages,” Arians said. “You don’t usually get Aaron confused – I don’t think I’ve ever seen him confused. When you start running him down and chasing him out of there – early in the game he chased out and he made a lot of plays. We just kept chasing, it hemmed him up a little bit and we got some hits on him. The defensive line, linebackers and the secondary – it was a great defensive performance.”

After the game, White, who led the team with 10 tackles, talked about how the five sacks and 13 QB hits helped wreck Rodgers’ day.

“Todd Bowles just told us like we are respecting those guys too much,” White said. “They have to earn our respect. We have to play them honest and just be ball-hawks and just get after them. I think once he said that, he kind of gave everybody the green light to go make plays. It’s Aaron Rodgers at the end of the day. He has his respect for being a great quarterback, but Coach Bowles was preaching, ‘We’re going to do what no other defense can do to them.’ He was preaching that all week, but when we got on the field, I think you line up across from him and you see who he is and see him moving around in the pocket making plays. But you just have to match his energy. I think that’s what Dean did, and Dean set the tempo for the whole defense.”

STATEMENT 2. Brady, O-Line Redeem Themselves

The Bucs defense did its part with a pick-six and another interception to set up a score in the second half, but Brady and the offensive line seized momentum from the play of the defense and put three touchdowns of their own on the board. Jones’ 2-yard touchdown started a day in which the Bucs offense was 4-of-4 in the red zone after only scoring one touchdown and settling for four field goals in Tampa Bay’s last game, a 20-19 loss at Chicago.

Bucs Te Rob Gronkowski

Bucs TE Rob Gronkowski – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Brady struggled in Chicago, completing just 2-of-5 passes for 16 yards on Tampa Bay’s final two drives, but was an efficient 17-of-27 for 166 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Brady hit rookie receiver Tyler Johnson with a 7-yard touchdown and then found Rob Gronkowski in the end zone for a 12-yard score. Gronkowski was Brady’s favorite target on Sunday, and led all receivers with 68 yards on five catches and a TD – his first in a Bucs uniform.

“He played great today,” Brady said. “Got to try and keep getting him and Cam [Brate] the ball. The tight ends can really help us out [and] the backs can help us out. It takes pressure off the receivers and we just have to keep building and growing. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel – we just have to show up every day, try to get better, learn from the mistakes and see if we can win on the road here, which has been tough for us.”

Slot receiver Chris Godwin returned to the lineup and provided 48 yards on five catches, while Mike Evans was held to just one catch for 10 yards. But Brady and the Bucs offense didn’t really need the dynamic duo at wide receiver as the offensive line blasted holes for Jones to run through. Jones had his third straight 100-yard rushing performance, running for a career-high 113 yards while averaging 4.9 yards per carry and scoring a career-high two touchdowns.

Tampa Bay’s offensive line played penalty-free football and didn’t allow a sack as Brady had plenty of time to throw, which was a far cry from how the unit played in Chicago on Thursday Night Football with numerous penalties, three sacks and eight QB hits allowed.

Bucs Rb Ronald Jones Ii

Bucs RB Ronald Jones II – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I think it’s a pretty big part of every team’s success – not turning the ball over and then not committing penalties, which puts you behind down and distance, take you out of your runs and play-actions,” Brady said. “All those hurt. You’ve got to be able to stay on track and stay ahead of down and distance. That’s the goal for the team.”

Left guard Ali Marpet and center Ryan Jensen did a great job of opening up running lanes for Jones up the middle of Green Bay’s defense. Rookie Ke’Shawn Vaughn chipped in a career-high 42 yards on five carries (8.4 avg.) to help the Bucs rush for a season-high 158 yards, averaging 4.5 yards per carry.

2 PROBING QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1: How Did The Bucs Beat The Packers?

Simple: the Bucs didn’t beat themselves, as they have earlier this year in New Orleans and in Chicago on Thursday Night Football. Tampa Bay, which came into Sunday’s game as the most penalized team in the league, didn’t commit a single penalty through three quarters.

Bucs S Mike Edwards

Bucs S Mike Edwards – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs also won the turnover battle against a Packers team that hadn’t committed a single turnover coming into Sunday’s game. Tampa Bay recorded two interceptions in a huge second quarter and didn’t turn the ball over. The Bucs stayed aggressive on offense and defense and kept getting into the end zone while keeping the Packers off the scoreboard.

For a team that has beaten itself far more than its opponents over the last dozen years with penalties and turnovers, Tampa Bay needed to play near perfect football to beat an undefeated Green Bay team that was 13-3 last year. And that’s exactly what happened. The Bucs looked like the Packers on Sunday – a better version, actually – and literally beat the hell out of them to move to 4-2 on the year.

QUESTION 2: Did The Pewter Pants Help Tampa Bay Win?

Heck yes they did. The Bucs finally ditched the boring all-white look, in which the team went 2-2 in, in favor of the classic white jerseys and pewter pant combo that the Bucs wore for a majority of the time under Tony Dungy and Jon Gruden from 1997-2008. Tampa Bay won three divisional titles – one in the NFC Central and two in the NFC South – and a Super Bowl in the pewter pants as the team rarely wore the all-white look back in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Former Bucs Dt Warren Sapp And Ex-Packers Qb Brett Favre

Former Bucs DT Warren Sapp and Ex-Packers QB Brett Favre – Photo by: Getty Images

In the first quarter, Aaron Rodgers looked like Brett Favre and in the second quarter Ndamukong Suh looked like Warren Sapp on the hunt. Old-time Tampa Bay fans would remember that this was how the Bucs played on defense in the glory days, and Todd Bowles defense looked like Monte Kiffin’s suffocating unit from yesteryear on Sunday.

The Bucs are now 2-0 in the pewter pants this season, getting a win in their new all-pewter ensemble in Denver in Week 3. As you can tell, we’re a little partial to the color pewter here at PewterReport.com.

2 BOLD PREDICTIONS

PREDICTION 1: Bucs Will Have A Winning Record At Home

Don’t look now, but the 4-2 Buccaneers are 3-0 at home. That’s more home wins than the team had last year in Arians’ first season as head coach when Tampa Bay went 2-6 at home and 5-3 on the road. With the Bucs off to a hot start at home, chances are very good that the team will go at least 5-3 at home this year, especially with games against a pair of 1-5 teams coming up in December in Minnesota and Atlanta. Of course the Bucs will have a chance to add a few more wins when New Orleans, Kansas City and the Los Angeles Rams come to town, too.

It’s hard to believe, but Tampa Bay hasn’t had a winning record at Raymond James Stadium since Jon Gruden’s final year when the 9-7 Bucs went 6-2 at home in 2008. The closest Tampa Bay got to a winning record was a pair of 4-4 records at home under Dirk Koetter in 2017 and ’18.

PREDICTION 2: Tampa Bay Gets Lucky In Vegas

Raiders Head Coach Jon Gruden And Qb Derek Carr

Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and QB Derek Carr – Photo by: Getty Images

Speaking of Gruden, Tampa Bay will square off against the all-time winningest coach in Bucs history next Sunday night in Las Vegas. The Raiders are 3-2 and will be coming off a bye week. Their last victory was a 40-32 win over the defending Super Bowl Chiefs in Kansas City.

I expect a much closer game than the Bucs’ 38-10 blowout victory over the Packers, especially on the road. But somehow, some way, Tampa Bay prevails in Vegas. The Bucs will have just enough luck on their side in Sin City to improve to 5-2 on the year.

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