Power Against Power
October 20th, 2025
Clash of wills with Dan Campbell.
Detroit coach Dan Campbell and Bucs coach Todd Bowles are old-school football guys. They came up through the coaching ranks with the same Hall of Fame coach.
When Bill Parcells took over the Cowboys in 2003, he signed a tough, wiry tight end named Dan Campbell. Parcells also had a secondary coach on his staff named Todd Bowles.
Years later when Parcells becaeme the Dolphins’ shot-caller, he hired Bowles as a defensive assistant and Campbell as a coaching intern. He later promoted Campbell to tight ends coach.
Parcells believed in running the ball and stopping the run. That’s Bowles through and through. And Campbell isn’t a whole lot different.
Tonight, fans will see which one controls the ground attack.
Despite having two damn good running backs (Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery), the Lions have the 14th-ranked rushing attack and rank only 16th in yards per carry. This really surprises Joe. Then again, Detroit is so good at passing, they don’t need to run much. Maybe that’s why Detroit isn’t in the top five?
The Bucs, meanwhile, have been quietly thriving against the run. Their defense has given up the fourth-fewest yards in the league on the ground.
Bowles always wants to turn an offense into a one-trick pony. Joe gets the goal, but in a passing league do you really want teams to throw on you, especially when the Bucs getting an edge rush is a struggle on the same level of lifting a Ford F-150 from Bill Currie Ford with your bare hands?
Joe may find out tonight just how savvy it is to dare a good passing team to throw.
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October 20th, 2025 at 4:15 am
Big game for LVD, Voss, VV, Reddick and YaYa. Would like to see AWJ make some highlight reel plays. He’s not the same player since he got injured. And after getting robbed at KC last week Lions are pissed. Gonna be a dog fight.
October 20th, 2025 at 5:40 am
Lions are a very solid team; the can run the ball & they can pass he ball. Their defense though is just middle-of-the-pack, but ‘it’s good enough’.
Two teams (Packers & Chiefs) have beaten them this year. Both allowed minimal points: Packers won 27-13 & Chiefs won 30-17. Average? Only 15 PPG. But there were are a handful of other similarities in their wins worth noting.
1 – Lions defense has been reasonably good at creating turnovers & winning the Turnover Battle, BUT … they got ZERO takeaways in their 2 losses. In their 4 wins Lions got 9 total takeaways, and off of those 9 takeaways they scored 41 points (5 TD & 2 FG). That’s excellent Complementary Football.
2 – Lions running game has been kept to under 100 rushing yards only TWICE … in their 2 losses. They averaged 157 YPG in their 4 wins but only 72 YPG in their 2 losses. And oh ya, looked to me like the Lions love to run outside, so containment will be at a premium.
3 – Lions have been held to under 300 total yards in only 3 games; 2 of those have been losses & the other one they won mostly because their opponent (Browns) turned the ball over 3 times.
4 – Lions passing attack appears to be quite opportunistic. In 3 games they went deep a TOTAL of 4 times (2 of those 3 games were losses), and instead focused on the short passing game. But in the other 3 games they mixed it up nicely, and went deep an average of about 7 times a game, completing about 5 of those on average it looks like.
Overall it looks like it’ll be a dogfight between 2 good teams. Mistakes will likely be very costly.
October 20th, 2025 at 6:13 am
Do what works. Baker us,a second half player because by then he has figured our what works.
October 20th, 2025 at 6:36 am
DR, Thank you for another great break down. It will be interesting to see if the Bucs can stop the Lions rushing attack. But where I expect the Lions to really attack us is short to intermediate passes over the middle to their TE and RBs – a real strength of their team and a weakness of the Bucs. SVD is going to have his work cut out for him tonight.
When the Bucs have the ball, we clearly need to attack the Lions secondary with ME and EE hopefully back, that is if Leftwich is not on the field and Heck can manage Hutch with a little help. With ME and EE the Bucs can win this game. A couple of INTs off of Goff would be nice.
Bucs win a close game 31 – 27.
October 20th, 2025 at 7:09 am
So Todd was with Bill Parcels in 2023,
.
Well that explains alot of the coaching problems two years ago.
October 20th, 2025 at 7:52 am
“Overall it looks like it’ll be a dogfight between 2 good teams. Mistakes will likely be very costly.” Defense Rules. Keeping it real. As always.
October 20th, 2025 at 7:58 am
2003 was the date and Bowles emulates Parcells defense fairly closely. It is always about the talent of course or as Bill would say, the groceries. The Bucs defense tonight will be as close to full strength as we will see this year with the obvious hits to the defensive line. The offense isn’t quite there yet. In my opinion, this team is built more around the offense so tonight will be very interesting indeed. Really looking forward to it.
October 20th, 2025 at 8:06 am
Our edge rush is much improved vs. The previous 2 times we played the lions. I expect Riddick and YaYa to keep the pocket jammed and VV to feast, should lead to some errant throws.
Let’s go Bucs!
October 20th, 2025 at 8:37 am
writing in hushed tones how todd knows some secret sauce trying to take away the run. lol so what. they take away the run and give up the pass.
considering the sacrifice (giving up the pass to “excel” at rushing defense) the bucs defense doesnt lead in any category and is middle at best average…it’s like there is some sort of i dunno, lowered expectation of todd and his defense for some reason.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:15 am
I think the formula still works today. We witnessed it last night. The 49ers shut down the Falcons strength which is running the ball and ran the ball down Atlanta’s throat. Atlanta’s defense throttled Mack Jones all night although he made some clutch throws when it counted. Penix threw for a lot of yards but SF was able to stop him toward the end of the game when they knew he had to pass down 20-10.
October 20th, 2025 at 9:41 am
Should be … When Parcells Took over as Dallas coach in 2003.
I reread that a few times trying to make 2023 make sense.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:20 am
just as i mentioned last week, lions only beat 1 team above .500!!!!!!!…da bears!!
when they played a contender, those teams stacked the box, kept 2 safeties over the top, limiting the big plays and shutting down the run….
BUCS defense will play lights-out tonight!!!!!
BUCS 32
lions 16
6-1!!!!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 20th, 2025 at 10:22 am
A Baker 50 Burger might not be enough.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:25 am
And there is help for the hallucinatory.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:32 am
It may be a passing league but a 🏃♂️ running game wears down a team.
Bowles wants to stop the opponents run game in order to pin back his linemen to rack havit on the quarterback.
It’s a winning formula against most quarterbacks but the Bucs need to be careful against Goff who can unload a pass at a break wreaking pace.
Choose your poison wisely.
October 20th, 2025 at 10:34 am
I wondered about that 2023 date, too. Joe needs a proofreader. 🙂 Thanks DR for your usual excellent comment. I sure hope Cardiac Bucs pull this one out. Luck will be part of it. Echoing 813 here: Go Bucs!!! 6-1!!! (And beware of the zebs.)
October 20th, 2025 at 10:39 am
I wondered about that 2023 date, too. Joe needs a proofreader. 🙂 Thanks DR for your usual excellent comment. I sure hope Cardiac Bucs pull this one out. Luck will be part of it. Echoing 813 here: Go Bucs!!! 6-1!!! (And beware of the zebs.)
October 20th, 2025 at 10:39 am
Anyone want to bet that Goff hangs 500+ on the Bucs tonight?
October 20th, 2025 at 10:49 am
I wondered about that 2023 date, too. Joe needs a proofreader. 🙂 Thanks DR for your usual excellent comment. Cardiac Bucs, please pull this one out. Help us, Lady Luck! Echoing 813 here: Go Bucs!!! 6-1!!! (And beware of the zebs.)