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Tampa Bay Buccaneers End of Season Review
With the Bucs' loss in the NFC Championship it's now time to go over the season. This year had a rough start but a strong finish to secure their 2nd straight playoff appearance. Heading into their bye in week 9 the Bucs had a 4-4 record including two to division rival Atlanta and things were not looking up as the NFC was very deep this season.
The first half of the year had a lot of sloppy play from the offense. 2nd year coach Dirk Koetter wanted to give Jameis Winston a heavier role in the offense rather than relying on the run game as much as they did in the previous season. However, Winston stumbled out of the gates as he was an interception machine and the run game just wasn't there to pick up the slack either. The 2nd half of the season was a totally different Tampa Bay Buccaneers though. They lost their week 10 game right after the bye to the Packers by 6 points but then rattled off 3 wins in a row over New England, Carolina and New York (Jets). The defense only gave up 19 total points in those 3 games despite losing both Kwon Alexander and Lavonte David long-term in the Patriots game. The win streak was thwarted the next week when Tampa played host to the Vikings in a game that went down to the wire but Tampa and Minnesota is really shaping up to be one hell of a rivalry. However, the next 3 games were all wins to end the season at 10-6. They completely embarrassed the Dolphins in week 15, took a big lead late in week 16 over the Saints thanks to Winston's 400 yards passing and then Alexander and David returned in week 17 to help secure the 6th seed with a win in Chicago. Buccaneers went 6-2 after their bye and finished the year at 10-6 with their 2nd straight playoff appearance. We all remember the Bucs' loss in last year's Super Bowl to Tom Brady and the Pats but the road would be much tougher this year as the 6th seed in a very deep NFC.
Playoffs
In the wild card round the Bucs matched up with the New York Giants who were led by the league's MVP in Eli Manning. The Tampa defense was able to hold Manning to 16 completions for 165 yards and even picked him off once while also shutting down his go-to target in Odell Beckham Jr. He only had 3 catches for 26 yards. Winston played the game manager role in this one with no picks while the veteran Vincent Jackson was his leading receiver with 74 yards on 6 catches. Doug Martin only had 54 yards but 2 red zone touchdowns and it was all they needed as the Buccaneers topped the Giants to move on to the divisional round where'd they face the always tough Minnesota Vikings. Heading into Minnesota everyone knew this would be a battle. The Bucs lost to Minnesota in a heart breaker back in week 14 but in the previous season the Buccaneers topped the Vikings in the NFC championship. From the start this game started off as a turnover fest. Teddy Bridgewater threw 4 INTs and Winston threw 3. The game came down to the wire as the Bucs had a drive with less than a minute left to score a TD with Doug Martin. Buccaneers topped the Vikings 20-13 and moved onto the NFC championship to face division rival Atlanta. The Falcons had the Bucs' number all year as they won the season series 2-0 and in the third meeting of the season it was yet another battle between the rivals. It was back and forth all game but Jameis Winston's 3 interceptions were killer and despite scoring late to make it a 3 point game, Atlanta was able to run out the clock and secure their trip to the Super Bowl.
All in all, the Buccaneers had another successful season under owner Jeremy Dugan and are in prime position to be a force in the NFC for years to come. The NFC's DROY Derek Barnett looks like he's gonna be terrorizing NFC South QBs for years to come and rookie WR Dede Westbrook is primed to take over as the #2 with Vincent Jackson towards the end of his career. With the offseason right around the corner the Bucs will have some work to do to shore up some of their weaknesses but we will save that discussion for the offseason article.
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