Michael Jordan (left) and Graham Barton.
Nobody would know it by watching the Bucs tonight, but the Lions do _not_ have a special defense by NFL standards.
There was no Lions defensive metric entering the game tonight that Joe would consider special, other than forcing turnovers. Detroit ranked 17th in yards allowed per pass attempt and 12th in yards allowed per rushing attempt. Teams were averaging 23.7 points a game against the Lions.
And then came the Bucs, which made Detroit’s secondary filled with backups look like the Legion of Boom.
At right guard for the Bucs was veteran Michael Jordan, a summer pickup who played well at left guard in Weeks 1 and 2 before a knee injury took him out of the lineup. He had a very rough night against Detroit in his first game back from injury. Alongside him at right tackle, backup Charlie Heck had plenty of struggles, too.
Backups are backups for a reason, and that caught up to the Bucs tonight on the offensive line and at receiver.
Joe is not just pounding second-teamers, it wasn’t Graham Barton’s best game at center, either.
Heck may be entrenched for the season as right tackle Luke Goedeke’s foot struggles [are a national conversation](https://www.joebucsfan.com/2025/10/booger-mcfarland-claims-bucs-right-tackle-is-not-returning/). Jordan probably gives way to practice squad guard Luke Haggard when he returns from a non-major injury.
Haggard did a hell of a job at right guard after Cody Mauch was lost for the season after Week 2.
Tonight, however, after weeks of standing tall and probably overachieving, the Bucs’ offensive line showed its cracks.
If Tampa Bay can squeeze one more game’s worth of Crazy Glue out of the tube for the O-line next week in New Orleans, the Week 9 bye should go a long way toward tightening up the line.