Serious question.
This unit started out so hot, historically hot. Fitz had the best 3 games of any Bucs QB and the offense was smoking even with a terrible D and very little running game.
Since then it has completely sputtered. I'm very curious what others think is going on?
The Bucs have been falling in points/game. They started out at 1st and after a few games were ~6th. They are now 12th. For the record, the Bucs under Koetter have never been better than 18th. We see this in DVOA as well, the Bucs were a top 5 unit but have now fallen to 15th (fun fact, Bucs only have the 2nd worse defense now to ATL).
The OL is clearly part of the problem but is OK in the pass game: the Bucs are 3rd in pass attempts but 15th in sacks.
Part of it is the turnovers: Bucs are 1st in giveaways (and were 6th/8th/8th the last 3 years). The Bucs are giving the ball over on 1/4 of all drives. Prior to this week 2/3rds of the turnovers were Winston and 1/3rd Fitz (thanks to another poster for gathering that info).
After the Giants game its easy to blame Fitz. But he was PFF's 8th QB, he was 10th in QBR, and 7th in FO's DYAR metric. Given that Fitzpatrick had played in 6 whole games, these reflect much more than his first two weeks.
So what happened? The Bucs had a QB playing overall at a high level, early offensive output, and elite weapons on O. What gives?
Again, very curious what others think. My quick thoughts:
1) QB turnovers from Fitz/Winston caught up.
2) OL's complete inability to run block with key pass blocking lapses.
3) Teams took away the Bucs early, big play shots and there wasn't enough there either/both from the QBs or OC.
