When Bucs Held Opponents To 22 Points Or Less
June 24th, 2026
Bucs defense made Joe grimace, too.
Offense wasn’t the problem last year.
Even with all the injuries to the offense, the line, receivers, running backs, hell, even Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield, though he didn’t miss a start, the offense didn’t doom the Bucs.
Offense not being a deciding issue is what Joe’s conclusion is after he read handicapper turned stathead Warren Sharp’s deep dive into defensive play last season.
Sharp did a study to find how many wins each NFL team had when its defense held the opponent to 22 or fewer points. This happened seven times with the Bucs last season.
That one loss turned out to be a killer when the Bucs, in Week 17, when rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers, making his second career start, and the tanking Dolphins scored 20 on the Bucs. The Bucs yakked away their playoff chances in a 20-17 loss. Shameful.
In those seven times the Bucs defense held an opponent to 22 or fewer points, the Bucs lost just one game. So to Joe, the problem with the Bucs was the defense. And this always baffles Joe how a team with a defensive-minded head coach can have such a meh defense season after season.