Insight From The Last Two Bucs Opponents
November 3rd, 2025
So the Bucs struggled a week ago to move the ball on the sadsack Saints. The Bucs won with only 212 yards of offense, which is damn rare.
Yesterday, that same stingy Saints defense looked like a JV team giving up 34 points to the Rams.
In fact, the Rams took mercy on the Saints and stopped throwing on third down in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles racked up a ridiculous 30 first downs — thirty!
Two weeks ago in Detroit, the Bucs offense also sputtered, making the Lions defense look like 2000 Ravens. Detroit had a bye after facing the Bucs. The Lions came off that rest yesterday — at home — and lost to the Vikings 27-24.
Joe needed TUMS to stomach these realities last night, mosly because Joe doesn’t expect any help to arrive from healed Bucs offensive players Sunday against red hot New England (7-2). Maybe right guard Luke Haggard’s shoulder is up to speed and he can go. He played well in his four games.
Yes, Joe expects banged up and battered Baker Mayfield to be back to his old self after a week off. But will that be enough to re-start the Bucs’ offense?
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:14 am
The Bucs beat the aints by 20. What’s the problem here?
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:15 am
We need Godwin & Bucky back….
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:17 am
Hey Joe you have said a few times that you don’t expect any injured players back this week. Do you know stuff off the record that you can’t share?. Boy do hope you are wrong and we get somebody back. Several have been out for awhile. No of course we can’t expect J Mac back, and Godwin really maybe be out for the year, However, seems that Bucky, Haggard, or even Godeke might return?
It seems the O Line fell apart when Haggard left. Does anybody know what is going on with the O Line
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:20 am
Two weeks to get things fixed should be sufficient, despite the injuries. I think the rejuvenated Bucs defense is going to rattle Maye and hopefully force a couple of turnovers. I think the decisive factor will be how well the Bucs’ o-line performs. They’ve got to give Baker more time to go through his progressions. If they can do that, we win!
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:26 am
Resigning Godwin was a huge mistake by Licht. Same thing with the glass tiger Goedeke. This team is soft. While our competition goes out and makes trades to help their teams Licht sits on his ass per usual.
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:36 am
bucs beat the aints by 20 and held the lions to 24 pts just like the vikes did….
the key was TOs!!!!
hold fast!!!!
offense will improve as it gets healthy!!!!
6-2!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:37 am
212 yards of total offense and only one TD by the offense is the problem. It’s a concern area, that’s all.
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:45 am
So, how many points are we going to spot the Patsies until we wake up on offense and defense and start playing ball? I say 10 points.
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:50 am
NFL is about matchups, you cannot compare the outcome of another game to what happened in our game as an indication of how we’ll perform moving forward.
Saints is a rivalry game, it’s always tough just look at week 18 last year as we struggled against a team with nothing to play for
Lions has turned into a rival and despite some questionable ref calls and turnovers and losing Evans we still had a shot in the 4th quarter
November 3rd, 2025 at 9:51 am
Not to be sarcastic but…who got hurt over the weekend for the Bucs?
November 3rd, 2025 at 10:03 am
We NEED GOEDEKE back. Seriously.
November 3rd, 2025 at 10:13 am
An offensive line is only as strong as its weakest link. Defenses scheme to attack the weakest player on the O-Line every single week.
November 3rd, 2025 at 10:15 am
BucU Says:
Resigning Godwin was a huge mistake by Licht. Same thing with the glass tiger Goedeke. This team is soft. While our competition goes out and makes trades to help their teams Licht sits on his ass per usual.
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Goedeke is one of the best RT’s in the NFL. I’m glad you’re not the Bucs GM.
As far as Godwin, hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it? Prior to his injury last season, he was one of the top WRs in the NFL. He’s contracted through the 2027 season. If he recovers and helps the team go deep into the playoffs by the end of his contract, it will have been worth signing him, despite what’s happening at the moment.
I have no doubt that Licht would pull the trigger on a trade if we were one player away from being a Super Bowl contender, but we’re not. Now now anyways given the injuries on the team to key players.
November 3rd, 2025 at 10:16 am
Ummm…where’s the insight the title is referencing??
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:09 am
Rama had a bye and home…Bucs were on a short week. Bucs had to travel to NO while Rams were home. Pretty simple
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:32 am
Uggggh
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:32 am
BucU – I am not ready to give up on Chris yet. Give him another week or two and he should be fine. He had been out for more than a minute, and needed to shake it out somewhat.
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:37 am
Bucs need to look FORWARD, not backwards. Our next opponent, the Patriots, is 7-2. Their offense is ranked #7 (scoring 26.3 PPG average) & their defense is ranked #6 (allowing 18.8 PPG average). Guess what, that’s significantly better than we’ve been doing EXCEPT in 1 area: we’ve ALSO only lost 2 games.
Pats have beaten 5 teams with losing records (Dolphins, Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons). Together those 5 teams have a 8-34 record. They also beat the 5-4 Panthers & the 6-2 Bills, but lost to the 2-6 Raiders & to the 5-3 Steelers. So they’ve played 6 teams with losing records (10-40 combined record) plus 3 teams with winning records (16-9 combined records).
Their defense is playing excellent football in the last 6 games (they’ve won all of them), allowing less than 17 PPG average. Only 2 teams this season have run for over 100 yards on them (Carolina with 129 yds & Buffalo with 118 yds), but the Pats beat both of them. Other than those 2 though, no one’s having success running on them. Their Pass Defense is reasonably good also (ranked #19).
Bucs will have our hands full, even though we’re coming off a BYE week & playing at home. Patriots are a LOT healthier than we are, but they’re not invincible by any means. The Steelers game is probably a pretty good model for us to emulate. Steelers ran it 26 times & passed it 23 times, gaining only 203 yds total offense. But New England turned the ball over FIVE times (1 INT & 4 fumbles lost). Still, Pats went 6-of-13 on 3rd down conversions and 4-of-5 on 4th down conversions, and held the score close (they lost 21-14). If our defense doesn’t do better than the Steelers did on the conversions, we’ll lose. And we need to run less & pass more.
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:57 am
Good info, Defense Rules. For sure, the Bucs can’t take anything for granted coming back from the bye.
November 3rd, 2025 at 12:00 pm
Every game is different.
November 3rd, 2025 at 12:21 pm
Defense Rules Says:
November 3rd, 2025 at 11:37 am
Bucs need to look FORWARD, not backwards.
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SAME WITH THE FANS!!!!!!!
6-2!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!!
November 3rd, 2025 at 1:16 pm
Not having Mike or a healthy Godwin and Bucky as a running threat really makes the Bucs look pretty flat on Offense in the passing game. Why aren’t they passing to White?
November 3rd, 2025 at 1:42 pm
O line needs to provide more time to throw. Grizz needs to pick up tempo and call short drop rhythm throws like quick slants. Baker needs to look for Otton underneath coverage. They have had a couple of weeks to figure things out. Pretty sure we will see improvement vs PATS.
November 3rd, 2025 at 2:28 pm
I think bucs will get very good draft pi KS in 2026 thanks to a very sad rest of this season.INJURIES HAVE JUST ABOUT DESTROYED THIS TEAM. Only some miracle could change our situation.
November 3rd, 2025 at 3:24 pm
New England has a very quick throw offense which seems to hurt the Bucs in the first half of every game. Bowles always adjusts after halftime and they tighten it up. I saw so many New England short throws to the sidelines have missed tackles where a 6 yard throw ends up a 15-17 yard gain because the defender is one on one and takes a bad angle. The Bucs have to be wise to that and wrap up.
Maye is a good scrambler too but is young and does turn the ball over. Hoping for some more of them. Bucs have been good at stripping the ball and tipping passes this season.
The Bucs offense has been so banged up but that is the NFL. Make some deals for healthy WR and another guard to block. If I was the offensive line coach I’d be all over Barton. As a first rounder he has been not up to the billing. Likewise Wirfs has to quit with the false starts. The left side of the line is supposed to be the strength. Let’s see them play a lot better so Mayfield doesn’t get hit every time he throws it.
November 3rd, 2025 at 6:42 pm
The insight to be gained from the Bucs last game is that the OL players were hurting on short rest from the abuse they suffered in the Monday night game when Grizzard lost his mind and abandoned the run with only five attempts in the first half.