Gameday Tampa Bay
October 21st, 2018
Game 6
Browns (2-3) at Bucs (2-3)
Kickoff: 1 p.m.
TV: WTVT-TV Channel 13, DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket Channel 711.
Radio: Buccaneers Radio Network (WXTB-FM 97.9 in the Tampa-St.Petersburg region; 97.9 FM ESPN Radio in Tallahassee); Spanish language broadcasts on WTMP-FM 96.1 and WMGG-AM 1470 in Tampa; SiriusXM Channel 81.
Weather: First nice day of the season for Bucs fans to be outside at the Den of Depression. Per AccuWeather.com, temperatures are expected to be in the low-80s. Tailgaters will actually enjoy temperatures in the 70s with a kickoff temperature of 81 expected. At the end of the game, that may bump up to 82, all under partly sunny skies.
Odds: Per FootballLocks.com, Bucs -3.5.
Outlook: This could be a make-or-break game for a lot of folks, a proverbial crossroads game for not just the season but the careers of a many players, coaches and front office suits. The season could tip wildly to a wild card run or a chase for a top draft pick.
All of that teeters on today’s game. No team in the NFL has a longer playoff drought that the Bucs — except the Browns. No team has a worse home record in the post-Chucky era than the Bucs — except the Browns.
The Browns play in the Factory of Sadness; the Bucs play in the Den of Depression.
The Browns are widely thought to be the laughing stock of the NFL. The spittoon of professional football. The Mistake by the Lake. A loss to the Browns and the Bucs will be the fire hydrant in the dog park known as the NFL.
With a loss, Tampa Bay will be the new Cleveland.
A defeat to the Browns and the Bucs’ franchise will be known as the Bungle by the Bay.
With a loss, Joe can easily see this season tailspin out of control, dudes playing for themselves, guys tuning out coaches. It would then be the second straight season of losing for Bucs coach Dirk Koetter and we all know what happens to coaches employed by Team Glazer who have two straight losing seasons without first winning a Super Bowl.
With a loss to the Browns, the Bucs could easily finish with a worse record through five seasons than the team’s of former Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik. Dominik, of course, is a favorite whipping boy of Bucs fans.
If the Bucs don’t want another coaching change, if they don’t want upheaval in the front office, if they don’t want to be mocked, ridiculed and laughed at as being the new sewer of the NFL, they have to beat the Browns and their rookie quarterback, Baker Mayfield.
The future of the Bucs and the fate of so many suits, coaches and players and their families are at stake today.
Trinkets: Since 2011, the Bucs are 1-10 facing rookie quarterbacks. The lone win came against E.J. Manuel and the Bills in 2013. … The Browns allegedly have a much better defense this season but the numbers suggest they aren’t a whole lot worse than the Bucs. Cleveland is allowing 406.5 yards a game, No. 28 in the NFL. The Bucs, No. 31, are getting gouged for 440 yards a game. … Cleveland is also No. 21 in total points allowed with 151. The Bucs are No. 27 having coughed up 173 points. … QB Baker Mayfield passed for 295 yards with two touchdowns and two picks in his lone road start at Oakland last month. Mayfield also has 275+ passing yards in two of his past three games. he ranks second among rookies with 1,076 pass yards. … RB Duke Johnson had 109 scrimmage yards (73 rec., 36 rush) last week. He has 75+ scrimmage yards in five of his last seven road games in NFC stadiums. Since entering the league in 2015, Johnson leads NFL running backs with 1,905 receiving yards. He ranks second with 202 catches. … WR Jarvis Landry had 95 receiving yards and a touchdown last year against the Bucs at Miami. Landry has a touchdown catch in 3 of his past 4 games against NFC teams. Since entering the NFL in 2014, Landry has 431 catches, third-most in NFL over that time span. … TE David Njoku had a touchdown catch last week. … WR Antonio Callaway ranks third among AFC rookies with 189 receiving yards. … WR Damion Ratley had a career-high 82 yards receiving last week. … LB Jamie Collins has 23 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for a loss and a pass defended in his past three games. … DE Myles Garrett has seven sacks in his past eight games. … CB Damarious Randall aims for his third straight road game with at least two passes defended. He has eight passes defended and two picks in his last five road games. … Rookie CB Denzel Ward is tied for the NFL lead with three interceptions. … DT Larry Ogunjobi has six tackles for loss in his last five road games. … LB Christian Kirksey had an interception last week. … QB Jameis Winston completed 30 of 41 passes (73.2 percent) for 395 yards with 4 touchdowns and two picks last week. In his past four games against AFC opponents, he has 1,329 passing yards (332.3 per game) with six touchdowns and two interceptions. Aims for third game vs. an AFC team with 300+ pass yards. … RB Peyton Barber had 106 scrimmage yards (82 yards rushing, 24 yards receiving and his second-career game with 100+ scrimmage. He had his first career touchdown catch at Atlanta. … WR Mike Evans has 5,063 career receiving yards, most in franchise history. Has 18 catches for 317 yards (105.7 per game) and two touchdowns in his last three games against AFC teams. Since 2016, Evans is one of three receivers (the others are Antonio Brown and DeAndre Hopkins) with 2,800+ receiving yards and 20 touchdown catches. … WR Chris Godwin has a touchdown in five of his last six games. He is looking for this fourth straight home game with a touchdown. … TE Cam Brate had a touchdown catch last week. Since 2016, he is tied for the NFL lead among tight ends with 17 touchdowns catches. … TE O.J. Howard has three touchdown catches in his last three games against AFC teams. … DE Jason Pierre-Paul has five sacks in his last four games and in on pace for 16. In his last game against the Browns in November 2016, JPP had three sacks, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. … MLB Kwon Alexander led the Bucs with 11 tackles and two tackles for loss last week. He has 51 tackles, a sack and a forced fumble in his last five home games. … LB Lavonte David has 38 tackles, five tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries and a forced fumble in his last four games against an AFC team.
October 21st, 2018 at 1:17 am
No pressure lol 😝
October 21st, 2018 at 1:17 am
If the BUCS do win the game does not mean everyone is safe due to we still have 10 games to go and If we do not make the postseason everyone is gone.
October 21st, 2018 at 2:23 am
Go Bucs!!!
October 21st, 2018 at 3:03 am
Factory of Sadness? Mistake by the Lake? Bungle by the Bay? Wow Joe, you’re HOT today. Now if you can just transmit some of that heat to the Bucs.
No excuses for the Bucs’ offense to NOT put up tons of points today … at home … against a hurting Cleveland defense. And no excuses for the Bucs defense to NOT hold this Browns offense to 3 TDs or under … even without GMC & Curry.
October 21st, 2018 at 3:15 am
41-27 Bucs and That’s all I got to say about that.
October 21st, 2018 at 4:08 am
Nice weather, though a bit of humidity would be good to wear down the Brownies. Something that I have always been curious about Joe is how the field at RJS holds up after USF plays a game the night before and if this can have any impact on the game ala gash turf etc??? Fortunately it was not rainy last night so I suspect the Bulls did not tear it up too badly even though they tried to torpedo their season vs UConn which is what the Bucs will do if they let Cleveland do to them what Denver did to Phoenix on Thursday…… Anyhow, curious to how much effort the field crew puts into shoring up the field besides repainting the hash marks and changing the emblems at the 50 and end zones from USF to Bucs (I do remember back in the early USF days they simply left the Buc logos on the field)…..
October 21st, 2018 at 4:12 am
BTW Bucs 34 Browns 30, hanging on by a thread. This should be a lot like the game afew years back vs the Jags where people were calling for Lovie’s head if the Bucs lost to 1-3 Jacksonville. I think the Bucs won 38-31 or something like that. Look for a repeat with the D actually forcing a punt in the first half!
October 21st, 2018 at 5:55 am
Let’s not forget that the Browns beat the Ravens, tied the Steelers and lost to the Saints by three—holding Drew Brees to 21 points. Their only bad game was last week against the Chargers. They have a decent defense while the Bucs give up ground as fast as the French in May/June of 1940.
The Bucs clearly have the better offense.
The obvious question is whether the Bucs defense can stop anybody on offense. Rhetorically, that answer would be an incontrovertible NO! But the French “freedom fighters” are under new leadership. Let’s hope Duffner de Gaulle can put up enough resistance to halt this recent slew of defeats.
End of historical analogy, albeit some of you will have no idea what the hell I’m talking about. If so, don’t fret. Sometimes I don’t know what I’m talking about either!
October 21st, 2018 at 5:57 am
I expect D-Jax to burn by Denzel Ward rather easily
October 21st, 2018 at 6:04 am
…..,.and Jameis will overthrow him.
October 21st, 2018 at 6:05 am
Lets go Bucs!
October 21st, 2018 at 7:00 am
The first game of the year where the Bucs are favored to win? Against probably the only team in the NFL that is more of a laughingstock than the Bucs? Yeah, you’ll have to forgive me if I’m a bit cynical, but I’m sure the Bucs will find some way to lose this one.
Am I bitter? Nah… I’m not bitter.
-_-
October 21st, 2018 at 7:23 am
Cleveland has 10x brighter future and hope.
Bucs under glazers and cancer93 leadership have zero hope.
October 21st, 2018 at 8:05 am
Licht has put most of his eggs in the basket on offense so they have to perform at a high level. No better time for
Jameis to have a hot start and consistent game.
what will Duffner do to jumpstart this pass defense, First step is to eliminate the total disarray that Sapp highlighted. We need Beckwith back in the worst way.
There were a lot of good players available in round 2. Licht reaching for M J Stewart in round 2 seems like a big mistake at this point. Somebody needs to be hired to evaluate the right defensive pieces to add this team and where they will fit in best if he is here next year. Licht has not done a good job in this. You never Know if one one Licht’s
free agents signings to shore up the Middle will be available,never mind two. No rotation possible and McCoy hasn’t been effective this year.
October 21st, 2018 at 8:39 am
Notice Koetter is on his “Our guys are our guys” agin. Sounds like last season all over agin. This team is such a joke. I see the Browns dancing all over the field today. I feel sorry for anyone going to the game today. This could be the nail in the coffin for Koetter.
October 21st, 2018 at 10:50 am
I’ll crawl out a few inches on a short limb and pick the Bucs to win somehow.
October 21st, 2018 at 11:24 am
Ohio Bucs fan here. Trust me, Cleveland is no pushover, not this year so far, at least. They’ve got playmakers on both sides of the ball, and now with Nick Chubb at RB full time it could get even more interesting for them. As atrocious as this Bucs Defense is, I cant see this game being anything less than a nailbiter til the end. IUnfortnately, I see Cleveland on a steady upward trajectory, while the Bucs seem to be flat-lined. If I was a betting man, I’d take Cleveland with the points.