The real question is can the Bucs offense sustain that third down conversion rate.
very unlikely, especially 3rd and 21!
You can see what they have to do to covert 3rd downs like they did because they were Coen-esque in the first drive ie, the offense stayed on schedule so mostly 3rd and manageable.
3rd and 4 - Daniels scramble
(1st down pass to Otton on 1st down
3rd and 2 - short pass for 1st down
3rd and 5 - defensive holding 1st down
3rd and 4 - short pass to Egbuka
there is a neutral zone infraction, but then Irving TD
BUT TO YOUR POINT penalties (Wirfs' false start) and other poor early down performance knocks them off schedule on the next two series and they punt on both.
That is shaky against any good defense.
That first drive really threw the cowboys off. 11 minutes almost and a TD. We controlled the time of possession.
It's the inverse of forcing 3 and outs and defense.
The complimentary football is what makes ok teams good and good teams great.
I said this during the game and I'll say it again, in defense of Bowles this team could have given up before the game and certainly after the first TD score and they didn't.
Certainly credit there.
Certainly credit for confusing Dak.
Certainly credit for getting the corners up at the line and designing blitz packages to confuse.
Truly I felt like this was the first time the actual scheme was good on defense.
That was compounded by offense converting many thirds downs, some of which were simply based on cowboys defense being bad and given us penalties.
Let's see if Bowles can keep that up because let's face it...
Bengals moved the ball at will and closed the game out on offense.
Browns moved the ball pretty easily.
Vikings offense is atrocious and didn't have Jefferson.
Packers are a train wreck too.
Cowboys offense was the first time I've been impressed with the defense but can we really expect to get 3 turnovers and that time of possession again? NahÂ
Pittsburgh game will be interesting because it's a slightly better RUN defense than the Cowboys but a pretty anemic offense.Â
