Coming off their first loss of the season, the Tampa Bay Bucs will be looking to rebound this week against the Seattle Seahawks. Tampa Bay will travel to the west coast to battle some fiesty northwestern birds and they’ll be bringing their wildy popular, adored by all 1976 throwback uniforms. In what may be one of the greatest uniforms battles of all time, Seattle will also be donning their throwback uniforms. The question will be, can the performance on the field match each squad’s look?
“Football is one-third offense, one-third defense, one-third special teams.”
-George Allen
How can the Bucs win?
Correct the correctable issues. No team is perfect and no player is going to play a perfect game, however, some mistakes are more avoidable than others. The Bucs are 3-1, but could easily be 0-4— They have been trailing late in the fourth quarter of every contest so far. While Baker Mayfield’s late game heroics have been a stressful joy for most Bucs’ fans to watch, the team needs to begin preventing those scenarios from getting underway. The Bucs need to focus their energy on playing a complete 60 minutes— which includes all three phases of the team.
Special teams— What is/are the issue(s)?
The Bucs have played four games. Despite multiple gargantuan punt returns and a franchise record field goal being made by Chase McLaughlin, the team’s special teams have been terrible. In three of Tampa’s four contests, the group has had a kick blocked that has led to points for their opponent. Both kickers, Chase McLaughlin and newly added Riley Dixon have struggled to find consistency even when they do get their kicks off.
Riley Dixon’s seat is getting warm– The Bucs opted to bring in a batch of punters this week. For the time being, Chase McLaughlin has seemed to reestablish himself after a tremendous contribution towards winning last week. The actual kicking of the kickers set aside, three blocks allowed in four games is beyond unacceptable. Whoever is at fault, whether it is one person or multiple, must be put on notice and the necessary adjustments need to made.
In order to have a championship team, you don’t need special teams to be your most dominant source of big plays but you cannot have your special teams unit be a liability. They can be forgettable, but they cannot take the field in any capacity and provoke fear that they may find a way to cost your team the game. Tampa must correct what is correctable and fix their special teams execution.
“Sometimes you must lose everything to gain it again, and the regaining is the sweeter for losing.” -cassandra Clare
How can the Bucs lose?
Allow the Seahawks to play on their terms. The Bucs should focus on taking the fight to Seattle– Rather than their customary slow starts. The Seattle Seahawks are 3-1, same as the Tampa Bay Bucs. This Sunday’s game should be a very quality contest between two evenly matched teams, however, where these two teams differ drastically is their expectations.
The Seattle Seahawks are in their first year with a new quarterback and just their second year under head coach Mike Macdonald. Tampa has been to the postseason each of the last 5 years, has been operating with the same general core for multiple seasons, and has taken the steps to prime themselves for a championship run in 2025.
For Tampa, they will be facing a winning team for the second week in a row and need to find better results. High-end teams manifest high-end responses after losses. How the Bucs come out on Sunday, will say a lot about the team’s identity.
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