Bucs In The Zone
September 13th, 2025
Todd Bowles kept what seemed to be an offseason promise Sunday against the Falcons.
The Bucs played far less zone defense than usual.
A season ago, the Bucs played zone defense on an average of 84 percent of quarterback dropbacks. That’s a huge number and it ranked second-most in the league per NFL data queen Cynthia Frelund on her NFL IQ & Numbers Game show. However, the Bucs cut that down Sunday to playing zone on 59 percent of dropbacks. That’s still a big number by league standards, but obviously a significant change.
How well did it work in Week 1? Well, Joe will let Bucs fans answer that. The Bucs won, which is what’s most important.
As for Monday night against the Texans, Frelund notes that Texans QB C.J. Stroud has 9 touchdowns versus 11 interceptions against zone since the start of the 2024 season.
Look for lots more zone Monday, even with the Texans’ depleted receivers corps.
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