Booger McFarland: Bucs Can Win Low-Scoring Game
January 23rd, 2021
Booger McFarland breaks down NFC Championship.
A man with two rings to his name, one of which he won in Tampa Bay, said that can you forget about how the Bucs played against the Packers back in October when trying to break down tomorrow’s NFC Championship game.
Drag the mental file of that 38-10 game to the trash bin. It doesn’t matter. However, that doesn’t mean McFarland, now a talking head for BSPN, is of the mind the Bucs will lose.
He can see the Bucs beating the Packers, if the following plays out, so he said on the “Eye Test for Two” podcast.
“I don’t think it is going to tell you much about what is going to happen Sunday,” McFarland said of the Bucs beating the Packers in October. “These two teams are playing differently now. It is going to come down to who can play their best on Sunday. Who can minimize turnovers as we saw in [the Bucs’ win] against the Saints [last week].”
McFarland seems to think the key to the game for the Bucs isn’t so much the pass rush, though that is important. It will be the Bucs’ secondary.
“I think the game can be bore down to this: The Bucs don’t have great one-on-one rushers,” McFarland explained. “If you remember back in the day we could line up Simeon Rice and Warren Sapp and they could beat one-one-one blocking.
“The Bucs don’t have that. So Todd Bowles has to create pressure through his blitz scheme. At that point, usually, he is playing man-to-man in the back end. Now can [Sean] Murphy-Bunting, can [Carlton] Davis, can [Jamel] Dean hold up in man coverage against [Packers receivers Marquez] Valdes-Scantling, against [Allen] Lazard, against Davante Adams before Aaron Rodgers can get the ball out under pressure?
“If [the Bucs] can, then the Bucs are going to minimize how many points the Packers are going to score. Tampa is going to score points.”
Booger seemed to think the Bucs, if they win, would be in a 17-14 kinda’ game with the Bucs going ground-and-pound. If Green Bay wins, McFarland sees a shootout, in the 38-35 range.
McFarland isn’t overly impressed with the Packers defense, specifically against run and the second-level defenders that he said, “could be had.”
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:25 am
Bucs have a better defense. Especially Bucs RB vs GB run defense. Run the ball up they arse all day and create balance and PA.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:37 am
Booger never gets the credit he deserves as part of the Bucs Super Bowl team. He was a great player, overshadowed by Sapp and Rice.
January 23rd, 2021 at 2:31 am
@ buccos
Thats because booger only played 10 games and only had 1.5 sacks and 21 tackles and miss the strecth run and did not play in the superbowl. Outside of one season like 3 years prior when he had 6 sacks, he never had more than 3. How much credit do you think he deserved? He in no way lived up to his draft hype. The bucs let sapp walk in 04 because they paid booger big money based off potential which they later traded him to the colts where he had 2.5 sacks. The bucs paid booger to be the next sapp or sapp like which he was FAR from. I dont think booger and great should ever be in the same sentence. Good for him because he does have 2 rings though.
January 23rd, 2021 at 3:06 am
Love Booger, but still having a tough time deciphering his prediction. I think what I heard was that it’ll either be a low-scoring Bucs 17-14 win (based on us pounding the rock, not making turnovers & playing great defense) OR a high-scoring Bucs 38-35 loss (apparently assuming we air it out but don’t play solid defense).
Guess the part I don’t understand is if Booger “isn’t overly impressed with the Packers defense, specifically the run game and the second-level defenders”, then why in the first scenario does he see the high-scoring Bucs’ offense only scoring 17 points?
Bucs can score on the Packers. Heck the Bucs can score on anyone right now. Can’t see any reason to expect that we won’t score at least 30 points against that Packers’ defense. Only question is … how many points will our defense allow? If it plays aggressively like it did against the Saints, I could see us holding the high-scoring Packers to 20-25 points. If we hold back like we did against Washington, I could see the Packers scoring in the 30-35 point range. But even in a high-scoring game, I think the Bucs’ offense could still put up more points than that. We got this.
January 23rd, 2021 at 3:42 am
Agee with you DefRules, regardless of how well the defense plays (or not) the Bucs are going to get their25-35 points with the low end of that range only happening due to weather, not because of the Packers’ defense.
With the Bucs OL protecting while OC Leftwich and the GOAT keep feeding all of the RB and WR options available, it will be too much for that defense to handle. Though I’m conservatively predicting a Bucs win at 27-17, they may very well add two more scores to that total and their just no way the Bucs defense gives up near that many points.
January 23rd, 2021 at 6:31 am
We can’t let Rodgers escape the pocket or beat us with his legs…..we’ll put pressure on him….
This game may come down to what most games usually do…
Turnovers, Penalties & Special Teams
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:24 am
Yah. I dont get that. Maybe cause playoffs its more of chess match?
No clue.
Look at last 5-7 or so games of bucs
30 points is kinda normal for bucs offense to accomplish
Not sure about this 17 pts cause weather should not be a factor
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:30 am
Booger=Meh
January 23rd, 2021 at 7:53 am
diagnosing a Bucs win is this simple. Weakest link on the field is the Packers run D. If the S don’t come up to help, we run; if the S do come and help, thus loading the box, we beat them one-on-one with our superior WRs.
January 23rd, 2021 at 8:58 am
Bucs can win low or high scoring. Just protect Brady and run some. GO BUCS!!!
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:05 am
I understood that the rift between Sapp and Kiffin came about because the Bucs couldn’t keep both Booger and Sapp and Monty backed Booger. Booger couldn’t hold Warrens jock.I keep going back to the fact that the Packer defense is nowhere near as good as Washington or New Orleans.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:15 am
Señor Harry in Costa Rica Says:
Agreed.
Green Bay can pick their poison: stop the run at the LoS with safeties and get gashed by Brady, or play deep safeties and get gashed by the run.
I do think the Bucs can score on GB, the variable being the weather.
The question comes down to the Bucs D slowing down Green Bay. If they play soft zones, Rodgers will have their way with the Bucs. If they play pressure man-2 and contain Rodgers, they may slow the Packers down.
I disagree with those who say the Packer’s offense is superior to the Bucs. Statistically, for the entire season, it appears that way. However, the Bucs O didn’t really get going until later on, and are now on a roll. You have to give some credit to the Saints D for containing the Bucs O to some extent.
I do think the Buc D is better than the Packer’s D by more than the Packers O is better than the Bucs O.
IMO, if the Bucs can run the ball effectively, I think they should. Nothing breaks a players’ spirit more than making tackles on his back. Burn clock, frustrate the Packers, take the crowd out of the game, and force long drives against a rested Bucs defense.
Bucs 27-24.
January 23rd, 2021 at 9:56 am
Doubt that it’ll be that close (3 points) Cobraboy; I don’t think the Packers’ defense can contain our offense IF we don’t play into their hands but rather take what they give us. Bucs can roll up points with the run, with play-action, with the deep pass, with all three. Brady is a master at taking what the defense gives him; like you said, it’s a matter of the Pack defense ‘picking their poison’. We got this.
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:16 am
DR, I hope you are correct.
I have faith in the Bucs O. I do not have faith in the Bucs D.
Brees’s entire upper body was a wreck and he had an ankle issue. He could not throw deep or escape the pocket to save his life.
That is not the case with Rodgers. If I’m the Packer OC, I look at the TFKATR tape and turn Rodgers into a RPO QB with sprint-outs and an occasional run.
The key is keeping the game close in the early stages. I don’t think Rodgers is that mentally tough. Bucs need to get into his head and apply pressure.
I can’t say that about Brady.
January 23rd, 2021 at 10:35 am
If the Horseman gets hold of Rodgers a few times… A-Aron will curl up in the fetal position.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:14 pm
Booger is an idiot.
January 23rd, 2021 at 12:39 pm
I ZERO use for snotty Booger’s commentary.
January 23rd, 2021 at 1:44 pm
Only thing I agree with booger about is it being a close score if we win. But it will be closer to the 38-35 mark. No way we hold green bay to less than 20, and no way we don’t also score more than 20. ( Unless we just start turning the ball
Over left and right )
My predictions:
Bucs win 34 – 31, or
Bucs lose 38 – 24
But I think we win! Better show up boys! LFG Bucs!
January 23rd, 2021 at 1:44 pm
*38-27
January 23rd, 2021 at 2:12 pm
Run the ball keep Aaron on sideline
Play action and that’s it
GB defense can’t stop me running the ball they allowed 115 yds a game