Big plays will kill Bucs.
It pained Marcus Spears to say it, but unless Bucs coach Todd Bowles can repair his suddenly porous defense, it will be the defense and not the Bucs’ injury-riddled offense that will drag the Bucs down in the playoffs.
If they get to the playoffs.
The Bucs’ defense in the past two games has given up 849 yards. Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen tied his Super Bowl-era record of being a part of six touchdowns (three touchdown passes, three touchdown runs) against the Bucs on Sunday.
The 10 touchdowns total the Bucs have coughed up against the Patriots and Bills, the Bucs’ last two opponents, have been for an average of 33-yards.
This has Spears nauseated. Spears is a Bowles guy. When he was a young defensive end breaking in with the Cowboys nearly 20 years ago, Bowles was the Cowboys’ secondary coach. So the two go back a ways.
Still, Spears has to call it like he sees it. He said yesterday on BSPN’s NFL Live that Bowles’ defense as it is currently designed, is just giving up way too many big plays and the Bucs won’t go far in the postseason with that defense, if the Bucs make the playoffs.
“For as much as I love Todd Bowles and how he calls defense, this team gives up too many, entirely too many, explosive plays,” Spears said. “And it’s not just coming off of the Josh Allen performance.
“Because, obviously, we saw those explosives, but this has been a recurring theme. And obviously Jamel Dean went out of that [Buffalo] game.”
Spears said the Bucs’ inability to get quarterbacks on the ground is very worrisome.
Not putting quarterbacks on their rear ends “it’s turning into touchdowns and explosive plays,” Spears said. “I’m worried about that.”
So should the Bucs and so should Bucs fans.
And it would help greatly if a certain someone on the sidelines grasps that his defense since the bye is not an asset, but a liability and currently cannot be trusted in a close game.