FAB 5. SR’s BUC SHOTS
• The Glazers have to be incredibly excited about the prospects of the Bucs’ 2017 home schedule in terms of ticket sales. Not only will there be more Tampa Bay fans in the stands as a result of the team’s improvement this year, the Bucs also have several northern teams on the schedule whose fans travel extremely well. Chicago makes a return trip to Raymond James Stadium, and as it stands right now, both New York teams – the Giants and the Jets – will also play in Tampa Bay.

Tampa Bay plays the corresponding team in the NFC East at home in 2017, and right now both the Bucs and the Giants are in second place in their respective divisions and that’s not expected to change. The Bucs will also host the Patriots, which is a popular team with a national following due to quarterback Tom Brady and New England’s success, for the first time in eight years.

It’s possible to think that those four Bucs games could be instant sell-outs when individual game tickets go on sale during the summer. Hopefully it will be Tampa Bay fans gobbling them up first.

The Bucs defense celebrates a stop – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

• Bucs team captain Russell Shepard expects the team to bounce back quickly from a 26-20 loss at Dallas that snapped Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak. With a loss by the New York Giants on Thursday night, the final two NFC wild card spots remain up for grabs and the Bucs need to win out to get to 10-6. That starts with a win on Christmas Eve at New Orleans.

“You need to snap back quick because of the importance of this week and the next week,” Shepard said. “A good team rebounds very quickly. We lost to a very good team – if not the best team in the NFL. It doesn’t hurt as bad, especially when you are coming off a win streak. At the same time, we’re looking to rebound. I think we’re going to be fine.”

Shepard said the Bucs are at a point where they don’t need any more of his inspirational pre-game speeches.

“No, we know we’re a good football team now,” Shepard said. “We beat some very good football teams – home and away. The team gets it. We don’t need the hoorah and the ‘Guys, come on!’ every time. Good teams get it, and I think we’re a good team now.”

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• The biggest shock about playing in the NFL for Bucs rookie tackle Leonard Wester, who played at small school Missouri Western? It’s the size of the crowds in NFL stadiums.

“Coming from Division II, I played in front of maybe max 3,000 people,” Wester said. “And before the Eagles game in the preseason I was thinking, ‘ Hey you’re about to take your first snap ever at left tackle in front of 70,000 people.’ That’s pretty crazy. And then just in the regular season, for the Saints game I wasn’t feeling too many jitters, but once I actually ran out, I was thinking, ‘Yeah, you’re about to do this, man. Go out and make the most of it.’

“The thing with playing in Dallas last week, it wasn’t even until I sat down and realized after the game was over that I just played my first snap in a two-minute situation. In the moment you’re just trying to get the play, get the snap count. You’re just trying to do your job and compete. You’re just trying to get the basic things down to put you in a better situation to win on every rep. I got a long way to go. There’s a place we all want be, and all the coaches say you’ve just got to keep climbing that ladder and keep making improvements.”

• If Tampa Bay wants to make the postseason and have any type of playoff run it has to do a better job running the football. The Bucs have only had two 100-yard rushers this year, and that was Jacquizz Rodgers in back-to-back wins over Carolina and San Francisco. Doug Martin has failed to eclipse the century mark running the ball in over a calendar year and hasn’t averaged at least three yards per carry in each of the last five games.

We haven’t been successful, no, not as successful as we’d want to be,” said Bucs right guard Ali Marpet. “Again, you try to just be more detailed and focused and you hope that could be what turns it around, but if it was an easy fix it’d be done. So for us, all we can do is control what we can control, which is our footwork, pad level, effort and I think we do a pretty good job of that.”

The Bucs need to establish the run, not only to help the team avoid third-and-long situations, but also to set up their play-action passing game.

Ali Marpet blocks Aaron Donald – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“I love that Coach Koetter has confidence in us because when you get away from the run, it throws off the rhythm of the game and it’s awesome that he keeps running the ball,” Marpet said. “We’ve had those [big] games those this year, it’s possible. I think if we continue to stick with it and take our shots, it will come. A 150-yard, 175-yard rushing day isn’t out of our grasp.”

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• And finally, we have a special announcement coming on Monday on PewterReport.com. Don’t miss it along with our Bucs vs. Saints post-game coverage, and do not miss next Friday’s SR’s Fab 5 column, either. I’m already working on it, and it’s shaping up to be another good one and it will end 2016 with a bang. Stay tuned.

On behalf of the PewterReport.com staff, I want to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season. Thank you for visiting PewterReport.com and making us the number one website for Bucs news and inside information.