[](https://www.joebucsfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/nelson-1026.jpg)
Anthony Nelson holds the ball aloft after walking into the end zone with his first NFL pick-six Sunday.
Did Anthony Nelson visit “The Zone” on Sunday?
Nelson had one of the greatest games in recent Bucs history yesterday. He had two sacks, a pick-six, a forced fumble and two tackles for loss.
Some might say Nelson visited “The Zone” yesterday.
So what is “The Zone?” It’s when an athlete has a game or moments in the game where he can do no wrong. That everything comes easy like he’s a kid again playing in the backyard and he fully dominates whoever he is playing against. When a player simply cannot be stopped.
Joe always associated “The Zone” with Michael Jordan when he would have his legendary games in the biggest of moments. There are other instances of players reaching “The Zone” too, but Jordan always comes to mind for Joe.
Mean Joe Greene used to scoff at players always talking about “The Zone.” He said you only visit “The Zone” once or twice in your career. That’s a damn high standard because Greene is widely considered the greatest defensive tackle who has ever played.
Given how Nelson, in his first start of the year, damn near beat the slimy Saints all by himself, and simply dominated the slimy Saints, did he reach “The Zone” yesterday?
> “Yeah, you definitely get in that zone,” Nelson said after the beatdown the Bucs handed the slimy Saints. “And I think a lot of that has to do with the guys around you, like I said, punch a ball.
>
> “But we had a lot of guys going after the ball getting strips, punching at the catch, even some that were close that ended up being incompletions. So, when everybody is doing it, it kind of gets contagious, and you can feel it, it gives you confidence. And then, everybody joins in on it. So, it feels good to get so many.”
Joe maintains that Nelson had the best game for a Bucs outside linebacker maybe since Shaq Barrett went wilding on the Packers in the NFC title game for the 2020 season. If that game didn’t meet high standards, then when Shaq went bananas in Nelson’s rookie season at Carolina in Week 2 when he had three sacks in a win.
(Shaq actually had four sacks the next week against the Giants, but the Bucs lost that game.)
So the way Nelson blew up in New Orleans, Joe wonders if Nelson’s game met Greene’s standards for visiting “The Zone?”