The Bucs’ defense stole the show last week in Dallas. Holding the Cowboys to just three points and shutting them out after the first drive was a dominant feat that Todd Bowles’ group should be proud of. And while the defensive unit as a whole can take credit, personally, I think the backfield shined brightest.

Now, that’s not to say the Bucs’ pass rush wasn’t successful. After all, they ended the day with four sacks and Cowboys quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Cooper Rush were under pressure on almost 40% of their dropbacks, per Pro Football Focus.

However, the Bucs did need to use blitz packages to create much of that pressure. The defense totaled 12 pressures on the night. Half of those came when blitzing, while the other half came when Tampa Bay rushed just four. The real difference is when you look at how often each event occurred. The Bucs’ six pressures while blitzing came on just 12 dropbacks, good for a 50% pressure rate. The six pressures when rushing four or less came on 19 dropbacks. That success rate falls to just 31.6%.

Bucs NT Vita Vea – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The pressures from the defensive line came mostly from Shaq Barrett, who was a one-man wrecking crew at times. Much has been made about the defense’s new-look front four. I have made much of the making, in fact! But the truth is, beyond Barrett, the Bucs’ defensive line had a rather quiet game. Sure, outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka had an impressive play behind the line of scrimmage to sniff out a reverse end-around. And yes, Vita Vea did register a sack. But take those two splash plays out of it and you are left with a lack of consistency from the boys up front.

The defensive line as a whole logged 183 pass rush snaps collectively and generated a total of 15 pressures. That conversion rate is a pedestrian 8.2%. Of the four sacks the team logged, one was an unblocked gimme for outside linebacker Anthony Nelson, and one more was a coverage sack.

Bucs’ Run Defense Can Be Better

The run defense, while not terrible, was certainly below the standard the team has created under Bowles’ four-year tenure in Tampa Bay. Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott was able to rip off good gains throughout the night before Dallas abandoned the run in the second half. For the game, Elliott posted 52 yards on 10 carries for a 5.2 average while regularly locating holes in the defensive front to cut through. A lot of those holes were on the right side of his line, where Tryon-Shoyinka would leave inside gaps for Elliot to run through by playing too wide of the tackle.

Bucs OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As a matter of fact, the end-around that JTS shut down was one of the few plays where he took an inside angle. It was a big reason he was so successful in blowing up the play. In general, Dallas’ banged-up offensive line was able to move the Bucs’ fearsome front a good bit in the run game. There were multiple reps where Akiem Hicks, Will Gholston, and yes, even Vea got moved more than they would have liked.

That was surely something Bowles and his defensive coaching staff addressed with the line this week. And it wasn’t all negative. Rookie Logan Hall had quite the impressive rep that took the Twitterverse by storm.

Buccaneers rookie DL @loganhall_ is going to be a PROBLEM! Watch what he does to the best Guard in football Zack Martin 👀 #Bucsfilm2022wk1 pic.twitter.com/QKPtfAchDx

— Commissioner Cheah (@StevenCheah) September 13, 2022

The Tampa Bay defensive line as a whole was OK in Dallas. But that isn’t what the group was billed to be. It’s a front that features a $17 million pass rusher, a former Pro Bowl defensive tackle, multiple first-round picks (one of whom just signed one of the richest contracts in NFL history for a defensive tackle), and an up-and-coming second-round pick. The team has put way too much into this line for them to be just OK. They can, and should be, elite.

And if they can reach that potential, paired with a secondary that balled out on Sunday, they have the potential to elevate this defense into, dare I say, the conversation with some of the best historical defenses in NFL history? Time will tell.