Attitude Against Strength
October 4th, 2025
Does Sam Darnold frighten you?
This is sort of a Lavonte David story without David being the focus.
Not sure if fans have picked up on it through the years, but whenever David does interviews, especially with national media, he loves to talk about “attitude” and “mentality.” That’s a big theme for him.
Well, Seattle coach Mike MacDonald is an attitude and mentality kind of a guy. He comes from the Harbaugh tree (coached for both John in Baltimore and Jim at Michigan). MacDonald believes in old smashmouth football combined with a physical, stingy defense.
That could be playing right into the Bucs’ hands.
Seattle ranks sixth in the league in rushing and averages 3.6 yards a carry. (The Bucs actually have more yards rushing and a better average but Joe has a hunch that’s because of Baker Mayfield.) But as Gene Deckerhoff would say, by golly, Seattle is going to run the ball come hell or murky water. Effectively? That’s another story.
The Bucs are fifth in fewest total rushing yards allowed, and in average rushing yards allowed per carry. And the Bucs are coming off a game in which they held the great Saquon Barkley to just 43 yards, his lowest total since joining the Eagles last season.
So to Joe, this game comes down to one simple question:
Does San Darnold scare you?
October 4th, 2025 at 12:05 pm
No. But Njigba does, so we should double cover him all game.
October 4th, 2025 at 12:11 pm
Don’t blitz Darnold
Make him uncomfortable by pressuring the middle he panics
October 4th, 2025 at 12:39 pm
Darnold is completing 70% of his passes thorugh 4 games. Smith-Njigba is his main target and has accounted for 43% of Seattles first downs through the air. Granted only 5 TDs through the air, they’ve also gotten 5 TDs on the ground from their top 2 RBs.
Seattle runs a pretty balanced offensive attack, but they’ve also turned the ball over at least once in every game so far this season with 6 total turnovers. If our defense can get a bead on what they’re tryin to do early and stop it, while our offense start fast enough to generate TDs(not FGs) in the first half. We can maybe establish a lead and force Darnold to beat us through the air.
If that’s the case I’ll like our chances our chances of stealing a W in their house
October 4th, 2025 at 12:43 pm
Sam Darnold is coming off a Pro Bowl season
He stunk with the Jets and Panthers( Who haven’t )
But he’s a good NFL QB
October 4th, 2025 at 1:02 pm
Fake the blitz, flood the zones. Let Vea, who for this is a homecoming, rattle Darnold and if Yaya and Reddick can help, this could be a crushing Defense this week.
October 4th, 2025 at 1:33 pm
Soft shell turtle off coverage cover-zero-receivers is what scares me, it’s been enough to make Desmond Ritter or Tyrod Taylor or Cooper Rush look like superstars. So, unless Todd’s defense is going to play tight like we saw second half against the Eagles, hell yes, Sam Darnold is scarey as hell.
October 4th, 2025 at 1:35 pm
Bucs have play tight over under coverage on Smith-Njigba. They also can’t give Darnold the chance to go deep and need to put a safety in the middle where Darnold likes to throw. Think the Bucs can stop the running game, but not sure how much pressure the D can put on Darnold? A few turnovers would be nice….
October 4th, 2025 at 1:39 pm
From how I’ve read it, it seems the BUCS have taken it pretty easy this week. Probably the best approach for such a beat up team. Hopefully, I get to watch this one. Spectrum didn’t show the game on the Fox channel here in Orlando for some reason. They showed some stupid movie or something. Maybe cuz it wasn’t sold out??? No clue as to why, but it happens once or twice a year hear in Orlando. Most years, anyway. Go BUCS!
October 4th, 2025 at 2:43 pm
Joe … ‘So to Joe, this game comes down to one simple question:
Does San Darnold scare you?’
Nice simple question to end with Joe. And given that Seattle is 3-1 with the #2 offense (scoring almost 28 PPG) and with Darnold completing 70% of his passes, the answer is YES. Darnold must be doing something right .
October 4th, 2025 at 3:01 pm
Make him see “ghosts” again, Tampa defense. Then clamp down on the run for the win.
We got this game! (Or, mehopes we got this game).
October 4th, 2025 at 3:24 pm
Apparently some of you haven’t been reading stats for the defense this season… Strange to me because last year it was all about pass D and beating one specific horse (= pass yards gained) to death.
AI stats
Total Defense: 4th in the NFL, allowing 272.8 yards per game.
Yards Per Play: 5th in the NFL, allowing 4.58 yards per play.
Points Per Game: 22nd in the NFL, allowing 24.3 points per game.
Rushing Yards Per Game: 5th in the NFL, allowing 85.0 rushing yards per game.
Yards per Carry: Tied for the 2nd-lowest in the NFL.
Tackles for Loss (TFLs): Leads the NFL through the first four weeks of the season.
Fox sports stats
Total defense: 4th
Pass defense: 9th
Rush defense: 5th
Scoring defense: 20th
Red zone defense: 16th
3rd down defense: 2nd
Obviously scoring D and red zone need to improve but our overall defensive scores/stats are significantly improved.
If you listen to some people you’d think the only acceptable defense we’ve shown was the last half of the Eagles game 🙄
October 4th, 2025 at 3:47 pm
Your thesis and conclusion feels awkward. Your talking smashmouth, and then Darnold pops up. Just because the bucs excel at stopping the run and seatle likes to run doesn’t mean either will be successful or poorly. Tbh, I was hoping the “simple question” referred back to which team has the more formidable “attitude/mentality” to impose their will for a little literary continuity.
October 4th, 2025 at 3:53 pm
No.
But, I respect him.
Darnold = Baker in the sense that he just needed a change of scenery to show what he could really do.
Our D is going to have to play like it did during the 2nd half of the Eagles game. If we can hold Saquon to 40 yards, we can stop Seattle’s run game.
We also need to pressure Darnold and make him scramble. He can’t scramble the way Baker or Jalen Hurts does. My concern about blitzing him is his 70% completion rate and Smith-Njigba. We’ll need all hands on deck in the secondary and some really sticky coverage to keep that tandem in check.
Offensively, the next man up is really going to have to step up, and we can’t start slow. TDs not FGs.
October 4th, 2025 at 4:49 pm
Sam Darnold does not scare me as much as our recent Special Teams play. But since the Coach of that unit was up front and saying things are being fixed, I have hope that we will show up and surprise some people.
Adversity does bring challenges, good people excel in that environment.
Now, if only my blood pressure can stay level during the game..
October 4th, 2025 at 5:00 pm
Darnold dont scare me. The defense should stop the run. Just need to bring pressure and Darnold will fold.
October 4th, 2025 at 5:03 pm
Seattle hasn’t played world beaters this season. 49ers and Steelers, ok, coming off a division win in AZ.
Bucs coming off a loss, OL should be better, Godwin should be better… I think we present a lot of problems for Seattle. Might need to involve our TEs a bit more this game. Even without Dean and Bucky, we have the horses to win this one.
Sidenote… Bucs were asking players boarding the plane how long they can sit on the plane without getting up. Alarming answers for athletes that big. Most were saying 4-6 hours, won’t even get up. That’s crazy to me. Hydrate and stretch fellas! More than 2 – 2.5 hours should be a no no.
October 4th, 2025 at 5:28 pm
Saskbucs
I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure that they’re not flying coach on Spirit Airlines. XL seats and plenty of legroom. I do agree on the stretching though.
October 4th, 2025 at 5:51 pm
I just saw the Bucs Take Drake London away week 1 Held Nico Collins in Check week 2 also shut down Garrett Wilson week 3 an totally shut Down AJ Brown an Devonte Smith in week 4 while also shutting down the Eagles Run game I don’t think people realize just how Good this Defense is playing an I see thee Bucs controlling Smith this week as well while shutting down the Run what they need to do is watch for Seattle’s TEs they are going to attack our LBs with there TEs I have a Strong feeling our LBs will need to come to play an be ready But as this OLine plays together longer they will be.fine Seattle has some really Key guys.out this week on defense an Bucs should be able to expose that this week an Use Chaad an Tucker in the Run game as well Godwin will be better this week an Emeka is a Start also start using Cade Otton this week to catch them off guard
October 4th, 2025 at 8:00 pm
Bucs killed Harbaugh and the Chargers last year. Maybe they match-up well against that type of approach.
Njigba is really good but there aren’t any other scary names at receiver. It should be a defensive battle.
October 4th, 2025 at 8:51 pm
Nope, Darnold doesn’t scare me so he sure as h3ll’s bells doesn’t scare the Bucs. So, they have this Njigba. Bucs have CG14, EE2, White, Otton and Feisty Bake. Bucs have won out there. No reason why they can’t do it again. Plus, they’ve been a pretty good road team.