How will Todd Bowles’ Bucs look coming off of their bye week?

The 2024 season began in glorious fashion. The Tampa Bay Bucs started 3-1 and introduced themselves to the NFL world with a week two road victory over the Detroit Lions— a defeat that is still the only Lions loss to date. Since their 3-1 start, Tampa’s suffered five losses and even more significant injuries. Following the team’s bye week, the Bucs have a somewhat favorable schedule and if the team is going to salvage their season, a run must start on Sunday with the Giants. So—

How can the Bucs win this game?

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Mike Evans. The reports out of one Buc place are that Mike Evans, after missing three games, will be suiting for Tampa this week. For Tampa Bay, Evans’ return cannot be overstated. Baker Mayfield has been running the Bucs’ offense through Cade Otton and the team’s backfield, almost exclusively. Not only will Evans being back in action assist in the obvious ways of being able to throw him passes, having him stretch the field, and score touchdowns but, his impact on the team’s other pass catchers will quickly become apparent. Evans is a premier offensive threat and is the caliber of player who will dictate defensive coverage.

In his absence, Cade Otton has played admirably— 30 catches and three touchdowns over the last four weeks.

Outside of Otton, Liam Coen and Baker Mayfield have been operating with Sterling Shepard, Trey Palmer, Rakim Jarrett, and Ryan Miller. To the duos credit, despite those names being a few short of a banner list, the team’s offense has found ways to score points and keep games close.

How can the Bucs lose this game?

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Underestimating the opponent. Earlier in the season, the consensus was the Tampa Bay Bucs fell victim to a trap game when they lost to the Denver Broncos. A few months later the Broncos are 6-5 and have planted themselves firmly inside of the AFC playoff picture, looking like a much more legitimate outfit.

This week, the Bucs will be taking on the New York Giants. The Giants are a football team without life. New York has two wins and they have just benched Daniel Jones. It would be incredibly simple to overlook the Tommy DeVito-led NYG. DeVito has just a little more than 1,000 yards passing in his career, however, he does have a better than 2:1 touchdown to interception ratio (8-3). DeVito’s overall inexperience should play out as a positive for Todd Bowles and the Bucs’ defense, a unit that has rode peaks and valleys this season and is currently amidst their deepest valley. Tampa Bay’s defense has not found a way to generate a consistent pass rush and while tackling and down-field coverage have been prominent issues for Bowles’ group, their lack of pass rush against an inexperienced quarterback may hurt them the most.

Sterling Shepard, former Giant, offered some like-minded insight on the Bucs ‘getting’ to play a backup quarterback this week.

The Bucs’ defense has allowed at least 23 points in each of their last six games. Tommy DeVito, leading a desolate Giants’ offense, is not be the easy victory it would appear to be on paper and if Tampa Bay’s approach to this game is anything to the contrary, the team’s performance may come in beneath expectations.

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