A Big-Play Bucs Defense Emerges
October 20th, 2025
Yeah, Joe is annoyed the Bucs lost and got bullied in Detroit tonight, but damn, Todd Bowles defense’ was impressive locking up the Lions over and over and over again while the offense looked like Mike Glennon and the fighting Schianos of 2013.
Jamel Dean had his third interception of the season. SirVocea Dennis had a drive-killing sack. YaYa Diaby registered a strip-sack the Bucs recovered. Benjamin Morrison’s coverage was good enough on fourth down to force a turnover on downs.
And that was all in the first half!
The Bucs put playoff-caliber defense on the field tonight against an elite offense. It wasn’t nearly enough, but it could have been and probably should have been if the Bucs offense wasn’t lifeless.
A big difference tonight was the defense was fully healthy, minus Calijah Kancey. The cornerbacks returned and the stable was full.
It showed.
Joe’s not blind and saw Jared Goff carve up the Bucs defense in the first quarter, and saw Jahmyr Gibbs bust big plays, but limiting the Lions to 24 points in their crib when your offense sucks is a major accomplishment.
Detroit was 3-for-13 converting third downs and 1-for-2 on fourth down. That should be a winning night for their opponent. It wasn’t — not even close.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:46 pm
Defense came to play
Baker and the offense didn’t
We’ll bounce back
GO BUCS
October 20th, 2025 at 10:47 pm
Joe you are right. I wanted to talk smack, but then set my emotions aside and the reality is the offense completely shat the bed. We had how many TOs? Oh and the refs helped that. Alls I can say is we better learn from this. Save it for another day for that day will come. Go Bucs!
October 20th, 2025 at 10:49 pm
outside of the long run by gibbs and some bad missed tackles, the defense was the only real positive tonight. if our offense had been able to put together any semblance of a drive they wouldn’t have had so many chances and the score would have been much lower.
I expect grizz will go back to the drawing board and we’ll come back strong. baker will bounce back too. fingers crossed we get some guys back on offense though.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:49 pm
Not going to win them all.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:50 pm
I’m encouraged by our defense ….many stops but allowed a couple of big plays…
October 20th, 2025 at 10:50 pm
Other than the opening quarter, the defense was solid. The offense made it harder on them, too.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:51 pm
i thought this was going to be about gibs big td run
October 20th, 2025 at 10:52 pm
Dennis had a sack. Give him a cookie. He played horrible tonight. Gibbs had a career night, a lot of that is on Dennis. He’s the man in the middle. That’s where Gibbs got his 200 plus yards. That doesn’t happen if you have a good MLB, we don’t.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:52 pm
We still cant tackle. And play too siftwhy eas their offense so wife open
All the first half. I dont understand why we do this.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:54 pm
Brittle and soft. Probably .500 the rest of the way with the injuries. Should be enough to keep the homers happy.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:55 pm
A big difference tonight was the defense was fully healthy, minus Calijah Kancey. The cornerbacks returned and the stable was full.
———
I think the big difference was that Bowles didn’t just sit back in that trash super soft zone all night, and actually was aggressive, including playing man probably more than any game this season outside of perhaps the Jets game.
You could say that was because Bowles had his corners healthy for once. It’s a good sign going forward because it could mean the end of that awful soft zone trash that has plagued the team since 2021.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:59 pm
Yeah Joe, agree the Bucs defense did a heck of a job especially under difficult circumstances, no ooo offense!. Yes despite the early score and yards given up along with being put in bad position by the offense give tge defense a round of applause!!. They kept the Bucs in the game u til the 4th quarter.
Give the Detroit defense credit . They kept Baker under duress most of the game. His throws were off and Detroit really made him hurry his throws. Detroit’s d line was the story in this game and they were spot on all night.
They definitely made Detroit’ secondary look Better than they were.
We all thought so now we know Detroit is going to be tough to beat this year.
Tonight they made the offense look pedestrian!!
October 20th, 2025 at 11:03 pm
Sorry Joe, but the game I watched did not display any semblance of an elite defense. You might want to rewatch it. –Joe
Too many Missed tackles to talk about and it’s as if every game Bucs defense gives up a TD to start the game and/or second half. Reddick, Braswell and Dennis are all liabilities and seems like WRs run wide as open all over the field. The score should have been 38-9.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:04 pm
Defense stepped up. Baker had a terrible game.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:06 pm
Go Bucs!!!
October 20th, 2025 at 11:08 pm
Well, look at the bright side we played our worst game tonight. Baker played his worst game as a buc and we still had a puncher’s chance. hopefully we get Godwin, MacMillan, Bucky and Luke back with a broken clavicle I think Mike is probably gone for the year. but every Super Bowl team needs a game like this to keep him grounded. let’s see how we bounce back next week against the Saints and also Atlanta lost so that makes it a little less stinging
October 20th, 2025 at 11:11 pm
‘Joe is annoyed the Bucs lost and got bullied in Detroit tonight, but damn, Todd Bowles defense’ was impressive locking up the Lions over and over and over again’.
Uhhh, I’m not sure we watched the same game Joe. Bucs’ tackling was atrocious for much of the game. Their pass defense was mediocre & their run defense was the worst I’ve seen them do in a long time. Heck, Gibbs alone got 136 yards rushing on only 17 carries, a ludicrous 8 YPC average.
But the back-breaker to me was that our defense gave up so many explosive plays. Been doing that much too much this season.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:24 pm
To all the Pom Pom waving delusionals – this was a reality check but 813LadyBoi and her 3Tards just say “Yay!” Can’t say anything negative about the team, how it was ill-prepared , the poor gameplan, not doing anything about SirSuckslotDennis, or Pornstache, continuing to call deep shots for Baker when (a) he had no time, and (b) he was clearly sailing those throws, every time.
Coaching matters. Sadly, it’s the Bucs biggest weakness.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:28 pm
What a dumb, ill-timed article. WRs were wide open all game, Gibbs ran wild for 200+ yards, and we couldn’t tackle for sht.
It’s mind-blowing how every one of our passes were tightly contested, yet Goff played pitch and catch with receivers that were constantly 10 yards open. Big $ contracts to Winfield and McCollum are looking like mistakes.
An utterly embarrassing beat down on national tv. This was not the time to publish an article how “awesome” this defense is.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:28 pm
The bend but don’t break defense has been the real star of the team this year, as it was in 2023 with the low PPG and turnovers. The Eagles game and this game were on course to be UGLY blowouts. The wheels will come off this thing if the defense falls apart(won’t happen) the rest of the Year. Detroit could have had a 40+ night.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:30 pm
DR
Disagree with you on this one
Defense played great…turnovers and lack of offense doomed us..
We’ll bounce back
On to the next one
GO BUCS
October 20th, 2025 at 11:38 pm
Aqua happy he’s eating squid instead of crow tonight!!!!
Some fan!!!…..baker and grizz have to get better
GO BUCS
October 20th, 2025 at 11:49 pm
Come on Joe, SVD is hot garbage and the biggest liability on defense.
I know you have an erection for sacks, but 1 sack does not make up for 4 – 5 blown coverages and clueless, weak tackling.
October 20th, 2025 at 11:49 pm
I thought the defense was playing better than usual and it was a pleasure, Lions had multiple short drives and outs. The offense had trouble as Hutchinson and buddies were relentless. Unable to run the ball either which made it worse. Lions were dialed in and dominant, sometimes we lose. Lets regroup and figure out how to beat the Saints.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:10 am
The offense went three and out and four and out in the first quarter for a total time of possession of 3:56. Then, in the second quarter, the Bucs possessed the ball for 1 play and 9 seconds before Shepherd fumbled. And, on the following drive, the Bucs possessed the ball for 1 play and 6 seconds before the referee intercepted a pass to Otton. At that point, it is surprising that the Bucs were not so gassed that they were puking their guts out.
To paraphrase the Beatles, “We get by with a little help from our friends.” And, without it, …
October 21st, 2025 at 12:21 am
Lions defense came to play. Bucs defense came to play about half the snaps. Let’s not pretend they’re the steel curtain. Bring the energy off the bus
October 21st, 2025 at 2:39 am
You don’t get to say the Defense played well when they give up a 14-0 lead. The opposing Offense starts easing up to manage the clock once they get big leads. You also make it harder for your Offense to execute as they start abandoning the run. The Defense had some good stops in the 2nd half of the game but we were so far behind by that point. What a horrible display of tackling in that first half.
October 21st, 2025 at 6:42 am
813bucboi … ‘Defense played great…turnovers and lack of offense doomed us.’
I don’t disagree with you at all about our takeaways & the fact that our offense crapped the bed. But playing ‘great’? Sorry, but ‘playing great’ requires a CONSISTENCY of defensive effort that wasn’t there last night. Our defense was very good at times, but horrific at other times. That’s NOT being consistent.
Bucs’ pass rush was absent for much of the game, and the Lions’ OLine did an overall good job of protecting Goff & allowed him to throw for 70% (20-of-29 for 241 yards), taking 2 sacks. Included in there were big-play passes of 30, 24, 16, 24, 15 & 28 yards (that’s 137 yards on just 6 completions, and those are the ones that break a defense’s back).
And for the most part their OLine also did a good job of opening holes for Gibbs who ran for 136 yards total (including 3 key runs of 10, 78 & 15 yards … his other 14 runs only totalled 33 yards). Looked to me like we did a decent job of holding our gaps & containment … except for a handful of big lapses.
Sorry but our defense doesn’t seem to be able to play a ‘physical ballgame’ from start to finish. I love the way that YaYa’s playing right now, but the rest of the OLBs are meh. Our ILBs are inconsistent, and I have zero clue what’s happened to Winfield (he still looks like a whole different player). Morrison didn’t impress me last night either (he needs tackling lessons).
October 21st, 2025 at 8:25 am
Not making excuses, but the Bucs struggled with turf at the beginning – slipping and sliding. The Lion had no problem with the home field. And… I thought Trask was supposed to look like Glennon, not Bake. Where was the moxie?
October 21st, 2025 at 8:39 am
Was wondering if everyone swapped out cleats after so many slipped early on
October 21st, 2025 at 9:11 am
The biggest missing piece to the defense was not playing Izien. Defense played puppies in a big dawg game.
Knuck If U Buc
October 21st, 2025 at 9:21 am
So you guys think 2025 defense is better than 2024 – insert scratches head…you have to be Srevie Wonder for real. Dennis, Haddack, Brasswell add no value to the D. If anything we went backwards not forward. The puppies rather rookies, looked lost. Morrison does he even know the plays. Parrish no match in big games. Looks amazing in smaller schemes. However, he’s not an improvement over Izien. The only player that gets props on defense is Smith. He played with heart, like a true leader. Oh, yeah where was Winfield. David, well he’ll do what he can. He’s aging. Let’s not even discuss the front line…smhh
These upgrades, not upgrading.
Knuckles if u Buc
October 21st, 2025 at 8:36 pm
Couldn’t tackle, poor angles all night long. It was luck that kept it 14-3 at half.