Lions Seemed Intent On Taking Out Emeka Egbuka
October 21st, 2025
Lots of targets.
The NFL official “book” of the Bucs-Lions game from Monday night says it all.
For Bucs receivers, Emeka Egbuka was targeted a crazy number of times. How does 12 targets sound to you?
Wanna know how many catches Egbuka made last night? Try four.
So only a third of Egbuka’s targets were receptions. That’s not winning football.
No, Joe is not ragging on Egbuka here. Detroit’s defense was like a page out of the Bill Parcells/Bill Belicheat handbook: Always take out the most dangerous player on the opposing offense.
With the Bucs all banged up on offense, even with Mike Evans starting, it was clear to Joe the Lions were more worried about Egbuka. Several times last night the BSPN replays showed Egbuka double-teamed.
And, of course, when Evans went out with his broken clavicle/concussion, at times it seemed all Detroit was worried about was Egbuka.
Now did Bucs Baker Mayfield have a good night? He did not. There were two or three times in the second half that Mayfield sailed passes on Egbuka who was open. Joe knows a potential touchdown pass to Egbuka was underthrown.
So last night, Mayfield didn’t do Egbuka many favors.
Joe had no problem with the Bucs attacking backups. That’s called “mismatches.” The key offensively was Mayfield never got into a groove with Egbuka, though the Bucs’ franchise quarterback sure tried.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:12 am
The Lions are a Superbowl caliber team……the Bucs aren’t
The Bucs has to improve the offense somehow……How? ….now that’s a HUGE question mark???????
October 21st, 2025 at 12:12 am
Baker was off tonight…missed a hand full of throws tonight
Shake it off and bounce back vs the aints
GO BUCS
October 21st, 2025 at 12:16 am
This team is cooked.
EE is the only legit WR left. The rest are practice squad scrubs and has beens. Doesn’t seem like we’ll see either Evans or Godwin again this year.
This year is cooked.
The defense sucks and now just lost Reddick.
The right side of the OL is manned by camp meat.
This has the feeling of an epic collapse coming.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:19 am
Barf bags are so necessary. The 2025 Todd Swoon is underway.
Physically obliterated by an injured defense. Hutch wrecked Baker and bartenders and waitresses blanketed our receivers, the rookie play caller was in over his head and the head coach. Did. Nothing.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:21 am
I believe Shepard was 7 for 7.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:25 am
Getting beat by a superbowl contender in their crib is not surprising. I was worried tampa would force feed the ball to evans on his return and thats exactly what happened until he got hurt. Baker played a bad game, it happens.
The d showed that they are up to the task. 24 points with a stagnant offense is pretty good.
The game was ugly. That doesn’t mean they are in store for an epic collapse. Just like the lions getting beat by the chiefs the week before, it happens. There is still a lot of football to be played, I think the offense needs to square some stuff up after that one.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:30 am
Averaged under four yards a catch.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:32 am
Stormy it is premature to call for an epic collapse. The Bucs and especially Bake have showed tremendous resilience to adversity through six games. If you want to see a season with an epic collapse, go back and look at Raheem Morris’s final season as Bucs HC (perhaps 2011).
If you want to see a single game epic collapse look at yesterdays giants- broncos game.
Anything can happen, but collapse is unlikely.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:33 am
Yes they took out our most potent weapon even though he wasn’t at 100%.
Just like Todd took out Jamyr Gibbs.
Oh, wait.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:34 am
The Lions patchwork secondary took out all our receivers. When receivers were wide open Mayfield overthrew them. Mayfield has been great so far this season until tonight. Terrible performance from our Bucs QB.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:36 am
PS – CJ Stroud, Todd’s 500 yard rookie, is showing he is no better than Justin Fields tonight. Todd is good at allowing different opponents career games. That’s a talent.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:37 am
Joe says:
Averaged under four yards a catch.
😮. OH! I should have looked at the yards column.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:40 am
“Bosch Says:
October 21st, 2025 at 12:21 am
I believe Shepard was 7 for 7”
Shepherd is a scrub that literally no DC in the league worries about.
October 21st, 2025 at 12:49 am
Go watch on how much they were holding. Took a page right out the Eagles script. NFL is becoming a mockery of the WWF. It’s a shame. Go Bucs!
October 21st, 2025 at 12:53 am
Egbuka got open plenty of times. Baker just couldn’t hit him or anyone consistently this game. Was too amped up and jittery from the start of the game
October 21st, 2025 at 1:05 am
This is what happens when you don’t practice (Ebuka) during the week.
So far this year Baker has been the reason we’ve won. This team is littered with holes, mostly due to injuries. But one thing is clear, if Baker doesn’t play at an MVP level we have no chance.
…
October 21st, 2025 at 1:10 am
Nine points against a ravaged defense. And Todd. Did. Nothing.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:17 am
Baker was very off. Real tough game. Bad from the moment he tripped preparing to juke the only defender within 25 yards.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:21 am
Baker was pressured all evening. Biggest problem was no separation by receivers. Making a bad situation worse, Baker missed some open receivers such as Tez in the end zone. All around bad game against a motivated top flight team. Bucs are not as good. Going into this game with a 5-1 record, Bucs season points scored vs points allowed was +15 points. That is not the stuff of championship football whether you play Detroit or any NFL team. Need to get to the bye and get some players healthy. Most did not expect this team to be 5-2 at this point. Win over Saints gets team to 6-2 and a week of rest which is badly needed for second half of season.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:34 am
Injuries finally caught up this week. I don’t think egbuka was his normal selfz neither was Evans.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:36 am
Todd is not beating the Saints. 5-3 at the bye, staring at the 2025 swoon. It could be Raheemian. No head coach, just three coordinators taking turns abusing a sheep every game.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:53 am
Bucs receivers were open all night, Baker just kept missing them. Hopefully it’s a one off and he got it out of his system.
October 21st, 2025 at 1:54 am
Stormy, with all the injuries Shepard has really stepped up fo the offense. I don’t know what “scrub” means. But the Bucs would be less than 5-2 without him.
October 21st, 2025 at 2:29 am
The close games masked the reality of this team. We’re not one of the elite teams.
The injuries are finally catching up to us.
This team isn’t going anywhere without a pass rusher playmaker. We just don’t have one. NONE.
Our Offensive can’t do much with 2/5 starters out. That whole right side of the line is terrible. Heck & Jordan both completely WHIFFED on some plays and their guys ran right by them.
October 21st, 2025 at 2:31 am
Baker definitely had a HORRIBLE game accuracy-wise. So many bad passes.
October 21st, 2025 at 2:31 am
Having just reviewed the game film on condensed (until the ALL22 comes out tomorrow) I would say that Embuka took himself out of the game by routes to the wrong depth, missing his landmark, and being unable to sell his routes and separate enough to be open for what turned out to be well-placed throws.
Embuka was not near 100% and it allowed replacement DBs to take him out of the game.
Similarly, Tez missed his landmarks and route depths as well.
This is what happens when your rookies don’t have enough practice reps. The film looks very similar to last year with Miller and McMillan when Godwin and Evans were out.
Even still it took 17 points off suspect penalties for the Lions to beat a misfiring Bucaneers team down 3 of its WR and its entire right side of the oline. We have no run game to speak of.
Cheer the f*ck up, friends. Bad execution games happen. Goff was taken out of the game as much as our QB.
October 21st, 2025 at 5:00 am
detroit came to play, in their house…
we didn’t bring it…
we deserved to take the L…
i’m a little concerned with the pats game, coming out of the bye…when looking ahead
October 21st, 2025 at 5:21 am
Joebucsfan is in mourning as promising Bucs season is circling the drain. Joebucsfan watched Eagles yesterday and realized that the SuperBowl champions will have a lot to say who goes to Santa Clara in February. Hurts perfect QB rating is no joke.Eagles have a tough schedule after bye so we will if yesterday was a figment of Nick’s imagination.
October 21st, 2025 at 5:50 am
The not ready for prime time players (and coaches) strikes again! Too bad because this was a winnable game…and a big game. The Lions players and coaches seamed to realize that!!
October 21st, 2025 at 7:51 am
I bet Baker spent the week only throwing to Evans, trying to get back into the groove with him. Something was strange mentally today that messed Baker up. Was he playing injured? Was it mental? I’ve said this since watching Baker in 2018, he plays best on confidence. He needs some play action easy 1st down plays to get into a rhythm. Though recently it seems he needs a good run play to get his brain knocked into place. Maybe they should have designed some run plays for him lol. If the game plan isn’t working he needs to play out of the pocket like back yard football.
October 21st, 2025 at 7:56 am
Bucs offense didnt show up….
simple as that….a lost i what crow eaters like aqua want just so they can say they’re right….BUT they’re still wrong!!!!!!!
bucs are 5-2….we’ve beat good teams and we’ve lost to good teams….bucs are still contenders!!!!!
offensive turnovers and lack of execution doomed us….
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 21st, 2025 at 10:05 am
E² had alligator arms all night, and I don’t blame him. Baker was floating balls and no name DBs were frothing at the mouth to hit anyone close to the ball. E² looked scared and that is what separates him from Godwin (or Otton for that matter)
October 21st, 2025 at 10:35 am
Still, Egbuka was wide open for two TDs that Baker underthrew.
October 21st, 2025 at 11:03 am
If Baker was accurate lay night, Egbuka would’ve had a bunch of cashes and multiple TD’s.
Baker was off all night, except for a few throws
October 21st, 2025 at 12:04 pm
IMHO, this was by far BM6 ‘s worst game this season. He missed all the receivers at least once or twice. He’s entitled to have a bad game after doing so well this season! Hopefully he doesn’t have back to back bad games. This road game to New Orleans is huge! Way better to be 6-2 then 5-3!!
October 21st, 2025 at 12:07 pm
813LadyBoi has a crow fetish. Her Pom Poms are made of crow feathers, and everyone knows where she likes to store them when she’s not waving them around like a spasmodic imbecile. No idea what is happening on the football field.
Curb stomped. Obliterated. And she has the ignorance to proclaim “everything is great!” Ignoring the fact that the head coach is ultimately responsible for the performance of the whole team, and did nothing, does nothing and won’t do anything to help his rookie play caller and veteran QB emerge from the sewage of last night. A beatdown like that destroys any confidence that might have been building in the Matadors manning the right side of the O-line . Baker had zero confidence early in the game and it magnified throughout.
The swoon of 2025 began last night and this 813 buffaroon will still be proclaiming “All is well” like Kevin Bacon’s character from Animal House even after Todd turns to 5-6 towards the end of November, as tradition calls for.
October 21st, 2025 at 2:48 pm
EE was scared? Not buying that. Baker missed him when he was wide open. Now Baker, he looked spooked, never seen him like that. He did not seem to even try to scramble.
October 21st, 2025 at 3:11 pm
aqua has obviously eaten bad squid again!!!!!
dont worry!!!!
you’ll return to your favorite dish on sunday!!!!!
12wins!!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!