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. To Joe, Detroit’s defense was like a page out of the Bill Parcells/Bill Belicheat handbook: Always take out the most dangerous play 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 by Detroit defenders.
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 quarterback Baker Mayfield have a good night? No 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 is that Mayfield never got into a groove with Egbuka, though the Bucs’ franchise quarterback sure tried.