Biggest question mark down the stretch will be "can Bowles' defense play to at least the NFL average down the stretch?"
Depending on the metric the Bucs defense is almost NFL average. Scary, right?
The Bucs are presently at 24.8 points allowed. I think long term average is around 21.5 and middle of the league right now is about 22.2.
The REAL problem for the Bucs defense is their inability to stop people when they need to. I don't know that any rational person would expect the Bucs defense to close out the game with a lead and that is a back breaker.
But, this is close to the SAME problem as last year, it was just masked by great RZ defense in 2023.
The easiest way to see that is the LOSS to the Lions because that game is lost by the D's inability to stop 3 long Lions drives, but for comparison the Bucs 2023 defense gave up about 340 yds/game and this is is 370. BUT, the D was on the same yardage track as the 2023 defense AND THE SAME SCORING TRACK as the 2023 defense UNTIL the Falcons game (Britt in for Dennis)
