Ira Kaufman’s 10 Takeaways From Bucs-Dolphins
October 10th, 2021
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BY IRA KAUFMAN
There’s that killer instinct Buc fans have been pining for.
Clinging to a 24-17 advantage through three quarters, the Bucs put the hammer down and nailed a 45-17 victory that gives Tampa Bay undisputed possession of first place in the NFC South.
That 21-0 blitz within a 6-minute span afforded Tom Brady a seat on the bench as Blaine Gabbert mopped up with aplomb. The Dolphin defense had no answers all afternoon as Tampa Bay rolled up 33 first downs and 558 yards.
Twenty-six of those first downs came through the air as Brady posted a passer rating of 144.4 before calling it a day.
In their most complete effort of the season, the Bucs finally put the clamps on Myles Gaskin, who looked like Marshall Faulk for most of the day, catching all 10 balls sent his way, including a pair of TD receptions.
Now it’s on to Philly off a short week, with the Eagles buoyed by a comeback victory against the Panthers that may have salvaged their season.
The Bucs had it all going on offense and Byron Leftwich did a nice job keeping Miami off balance. That’s three consecutive games without a giveaway for Tampa Bay, which coughed it up four times in Week 1 against the Cowboys.
There are some issues to correct — but not many.
The offensive line continues to shine, especially at right tackle, where Tristan Wirfs obliterated anyone Miami sent his way. Even with Rob Gronkowski sidelined, Buc fans saw the multitude of weapons at Brady’s command. Brady threw short, he threw long and most of all, he threw accurately behind stout protection.
Here’s how the Bucs went to 3-0 at home and raised their scoring average to a juicy 33.4 points per game:
* Give Leonard Fournette his props. The guy is running hard, breaking tackles and displaying reliable hands to earn Brady’s confidence. Fournette accounted for 110 yards from scrimmage while averaging 5.6 yards on his 12 carries. At the moment, he has deposited Ronald Jones in his rear-view mirror.
* Antonio Brown is putting on a show, folks. In his last 10 games as a Buccaneer, including the postseason, Brown has 48 catches for 672 yards and NINE touchdowns. Not bad for a third option behind Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Man, is he smooth.
* If you watch a replay of the game, check out Wirfs. He’s back to form from his rookie year, when I voted him the best right tackle in the league on my All-Pro ballot for the Associated Press.
* Some Buc fans were relieved when Bruce Arians said it looks like a high ankle sprain for Lavonte David. Yes, it could have been worse, but that injury usually puts you out for at least a month.
* Some trends continued on Sunday — nobody runs on the Bucs and opposing quarterbacks generally have their way. Jacoby Brissett just completed 27 passes for 275 yards, despite nursing a bum hamstring. Many were short throws, but Miami also registered six completions of 21 yards or more.
* Since the loss in Los Angeles, the Bucs have dominated time of possession with a balanced offense. They converted 8-of-11 on third down against the Dolphins, punted only once while enjoying 21 more snaps. In Foxborough, the Bucs had 20 more snaps than the Patriots. That’s called winning in the trenches and that will pay off big down the stretch.
* How lopsided was it? Every Buc player who dressed on Sunday got into the game.
* It’s never easy to be on the road for Thursday Night Football, but the Eagles are nothing special. The biggest challenge for Todd Bowles? Making Jalen Hurts beat you with his arm rather than his legs. He’ll be the first ultra-mobile QB the Bucs have faced this season, so look for Bowles to substitute freely up front to keep the Hurts hunters fresh.
* Brady continues to amaze. Coming off a mediocre (for him) evening in New England, Brady just posted his third game of the year with at least four TD passes. He’s got 15 through five weeks, only one behind his pace in 2007, when he finished with 50 while leading the Pats to a 16-0 regular season.
* Remember when the Bucs couldn’t win at home? Those sickening days are over. In regular-season play, Tampa Bay has run off five consecutive victories at Raymond James Stadium, averaging 39 points per game. Warren Sapp used to ask for 17 points from the Buc offense.
Yes, times have changed.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:11 pm
Getting over the old man Brady worship. The Bucs won cos this is best offense they ever had. Miami put up a fight in the first half and the start of the third quarter. For a team in the pits, they played solid ball. JPP needs to retire. He’s an old fossil now with two SB rings. What is his mindset?
October 10th, 2021 at 9:14 pm
OJ needs to be traded when Gronk comes back. Dude can’t block.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:21 pm
Orlbucsfan
Any chance we can get you to stop posting ?
Yah – it sucks with the brady praise
The best qb ever came to the losingest franchise ever
And we can maybe start a small dynasty now
You know the guy that has brought a ton of allstArs to this teAm
And funny how you like to praise other teams heart. 😂
Get lost
October 10th, 2021 at 9:23 pm
What starter gets traded from the Bucs? No one will take Howard. Unless you throw in someone or something another team values.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:25 pm
Everyone on this website wants to trade OJ.
Who wants him? Name one team.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:33 pm
This ain’t Madden, you need a partner to make a trade. We may be able to get a 7th rounder for Juice at this point.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:38 pm
And A.B. is our #1 WR. Guy is precise route runner, catches damn near everything and gets yards after the catch. A.B. for life!
October 10th, 2021 at 9:39 pm
Our 3 wideouts are on pace for 1100 yards plus each. Brady is on pace for just over 6,000 yards. He wants that record.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:40 pm
Orlbuc Im just going to assume due to the 1:00 start you have been drinking for 10 hours now.
Get over Brady worship? Bro we outta build the guy a statue!!
The Dolphins were solid? They lost by 5 TDs ha ha ha ha
JPP should retire? If you know anything about the guy you can almost guarantee he was playing through injury today.
Overall one of the crazier posts Ive seen in a while. Well done.
GO BUCS!!!!!
October 10th, 2021 at 9:45 pm
JimmyJack, we need to build a Colossus of Rhodes type statue of Brady guarding the entrance to Tampa Bay.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:48 pm
Hey maybe we can trade the the Chiefs for that Hunny Hair guy to help our secondary…….Pretty sure them and their losing record will be sellers at the trading deadline HA HA HA HA.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:50 pm
Colonel better idea we can drop a statue that big right on top of that Yankee stadium and kill 2 birds with 1 stone.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:53 pm
Orlbucfan- winner of worst post of the season. Get lost.
October 10th, 2021 at 9:58 pm
For the first two commenters: JPP will probably retire after the season. Right now he’s better than Anthony Nelson. And what if Gronk gets hurt again, re: OJ. McElroy proved he’s not ready for prime time.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:01 pm
The Chiefs just seem out of sync all over the place. Lot of penalties. Bad defense. Offense inconsistent. Etc. Maybe they turn it around the 2nd half of the season. But right now they got issues to work out. Still a dangerous team though.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:02 pm
Antonio Brown is the de facto WR1 on this team, not the third WR option.
High ankle sprains can be nasty. Depending upon the severity, David could miss more than a month, and even then the aftereffects can linger for the rest of the season.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:04 pm
Hopefully the Brady thumb injury isn’t a big deal, but we’ll know more soon as game day is Thursday. I hope there isn’t any ligament damage.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:28 pm
@PassingThru it wouldn’t be that bad if he was still out there.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:30 pm
Philly on the road is no cupcake. The team will have to show up. They must win all these games coming up to keep pace.
October 10th, 2021 at 10:41 pm
I would be shocked if Brady’s injury keeps him from playing. This guy plays through anything and he played with this injury for most of the game today. Hopefully it isn’t an injury that nags at him all year. Need a win Thursday night and then get the mini-bye.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:03 pm
I agree that we have to play well to beat the Eagles………keep up the no turnovers would help greatly…..Their offense doesn’t scare me….like ours would.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:12 pm
Ira–here are your style points that Derek brooks was asking for!
October 10th, 2021 at 11:14 pm
Beautiful close Ira.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:18 pm
Keep OJ he is eventually going to regain full strength and get better
October 10th, 2021 at 11:26 pm
That game was insanely hot, just unbearable. Give us shade Glazers.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:27 pm
Orlbucfan, who even asked you what you getting over, your just a stooge anyways if you can’t figure out alk of this is because of “Old man Brady”. We all thought you are stupid but you left that post and left us no doubt about it.. Tool.
October 10th, 2021 at 11:46 pm
well said ira…
complete game indeed…
and it reminded me in a way, slightly, how they took control of the game against atlanta a few weeks back – as they hung around for a while in the second half as well, before a bucs onslaught and shut ’em down…
brady is just amazing – once again belichik, what were you thinking bro!…
(the problem with belichik was he wanted brady to always grow as a quarterback, but over 20 years you grow a ton as a person, from essentially a boy to a man, and belichik didn’t want to recognize that growth, letting him lead, speak up, take the bull by the horns, like he does with the bucs, and by not doing so he wasn’t treating tom as he deserved to be treated…in a sense it was a respect thing amongst men…daddy can rule over his son, but as daddy gets older, son eventually takes on more responsibility from daddy – there’s a balance that seemingly was lost between the two, and it’s probably belichik’s fault to not be mature enough to relinquish some power to an older more mature goat…so tom was out…and boy does bill silently seem to really regret it now)
brady and AB have a bit of a special connection – it seems to shine thru at times…
oj just can’t seem to level up and was actually preforming at a higher level early on in koetter’s system…it’s like what can we do with him now – at this point…geez
the lavonte situation is pretty bad if accurate…a high ankle sprain lasts a long time…for a sideline to sideline backer, than will last the whole season to some extent…if accurately diagnosed, we’re lucky if he is back after the bye and can move well…high ankle sprains are a fairly long process…
unless we just have some road woes, we should take philly approx 31-23…maybe 34-20…we should win – and it all comes down to shutting down the run game and containing hurts feet…if you’re a philly fan you’re probably saying “this bucs team is just a bad match up for us”…
not too much to correct after this week – pretty darn complete ball game right here…if we play like this next week we could thump philly 34-20 in their home stadium with many haters in attendance…
lenny is playing like a man with a fire under his azz now…and if this keeps up he will get the contract as rojo marches off into free agency…tommy now has faith in lenny – and rojo is currently a man without a country – and soon to be a man without a team…
if everything stopped right now, we resign lenny, keep vaughn and sign bernard and let rojo take that hike…picking up another back elsewhere along the way…weird because rojo has talent as a fierce hard runner…we can’t sign them both…
turning this thursday’s game into more of a shootout is sort of a goal, as hurts simply won’t be able to keep up…personally i think he’s a “not for long” starting nfl quarterback…he’s actually just a bridge guy in philly – but the team won’t tell the fans that since he’s young and potentially can occupy the position for 10+ years…but really he is just another trendy quarterback of that type that is getting some run in the league right now…
hopefully we get more guys back this week…and banged up players like jpp and dean and them can elevate even more as they get closer to 100%…
also philly is a tough place to play – tough crowd…
(i went to the vet back in the day with my former gf and she put her nice prada bag under the seat…dilfer was qbing it was like 1999 – i think we won like 19-5…well the guys behind me spilled out a ton of beer on the floor right behind us and it dripped into our entire seating area like a waterfall, saturating the bottom of her bag…my feet were in a big puddle -that’s how i noticed…we remove the bag from the beer – bottom soaked…i turn around to look at them both and they’re literally smiling at us as we’re decked in our bucs gear…no apologies…nothing but smirks…i wasn’t happy, stayed cool tho, realized where i was….took a deep breath and watched the game…later i was told by others “luckily you were’t in the 700’s sections…you’da been brawling and there’s a jail in the basement of the stadium”…lol…the early sapp and dilfer days)
sorry to type so much…but hey it’s sunday night and i’m vibing on these bucs !
October 10th, 2021 at 11:59 pm
Watching this KC game, I was thinking I’d like to see a movie where an F5 tornado hits a full football stadium during a nationally televised game. I think that would be an awesome movie. Has to have a weatherman who knows something is going to happen, and some NFL executive who says the game will go on, we’re not canceling or delaying a nationally televised game. It has to hit in the final minute of play, just as the home team makes a winning play. Then you hear a roar, and the fans start pointing at something, then screaming and running for the exits.
That’s a brilliant idea.
Joe, you can have 10% ‘finders fee’ if any big Hollywood executive is reading this site, and my post, and wants to purchase the rights.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:18 am
adam from ny..good Lord what a long post…it was just the Fins.
Calm down.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:29 am
adam from ny…I have a couple of stories about scumbag Eagles fans too BTW.
October 11th, 2021 at 12:36 am
@ Bucs1987 :
i know…right about now i am suffering from “post shame” 🙁
October 11th, 2021 at 1:11 am
Adam your story in Philly sounds like Tampa Stadium in 1997 as the Dolphins come to town for a Sunday Night football game, it’s Marino vs Dilfer. LOL! No, it was Marino vs Sapp, Brooks, Nickerson, Lynch and more.
Back then the away side of the stadium would be filled with thousand and thousands of visiting fans, all seated together — and the Bucs thought it would be funny to sell $125 season tickets and put them right in the middle of the visitors section.
Anywho, Dolphins fans were all around us, and there were many non-political correct things said that night, and as we know, words hurt, so lots of people were very hurt that night. It’s just like what you experienced in Philadelphia.
Oh, and we Bucs fans all teamed up to get some Dolphins fan kicked out of the game – someone poured beer on him, then when he turned around and starting yelling and security came up, we all said he was trying to start a fight and he got kicked out.
Also, late in the game, when we sealed it, there was a mass beer throwing ritual that took place, literally hundreds of beers being thrown into the Dolphins section.
One of the most fun games I’ve ever been. Super rowdy and mean crowd, made the Dolphin pukes unwelcomed. That’s what home field should be like.
As for Philly, when they did that you, you should have turned around and said, ‘hey fellas, I know you’re just proud of your team and frustrated that you’re a bunch of losers that live in a city that smells like a garbage dump, but I’d appreciate it if you’d be more careful with your beer.” Had you handled it that way, I’m sure they would have apologized and helped you clean up.
October 11th, 2021 at 7:14 am
beer is just so expensive now at stadiums…
you must covet and guzzle every last warm watered down droplet…
isn’t tossing a large beer on someone the equivalent of tucking a 20 spot in a strippers g-string these days…
#TheGreatBeerVsPoonannyDebate
🙂
October 11th, 2021 at 12:20 pm
Only idiots want a team to trade valuable depth, especially when the starter has been injury prone his entire career. OJ can’t block? How many TEs can block a DE one on one in pass pro? Not many. How many of those TEs can run and catch like OJ? Almost ZERO. Kelce and the others aren’t asked to block DEs. Kittle can… and Gronk… and that’s it. Stupid people will always say stupid things.