Bucs Couldn’t Stop Justin Jefferson In The First Half, But Goal Was Reached
September 11th, 2023
Anyone see Justin Jefferson in second half yesterday?
Yeah, Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson, perhaps the best receiver in the NFL, absolutely gouged the Bucs in the first half.
Things were different in the second half.
Jefferson averaged 19.7 yards a catch in the first half as he rolled up 138 yards on seven catches. Guess what Jefferson did in the second half? Two catches for 12 yards — 12 yards!!!
That, boys and girls, is what you call putting the clamp down on a receiver.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles spoke almost in awe of Jefferson after the game but admitted the Bucs met their goal. Despite the obscene first half, take a guess how many touchdowns Jefferson had? Try none.
Mission accomplished, said Bowles.
“He (Justin Jefferson) got some plays,” Bowles confessed. “I don’t think you can ever stop that guy.
“We kept him out of the end zone, so that was a plus. He’s one of the greatest to play. Guys were gutsy. We got off the field in the second half, and we made some gutsy stops. I thought they pulled through.”
You could tell how happy Bowles was at the overall work on Jefferson.
Joe cannot remember a receiver having such a lopsided day: completely tore up a defense in the first half and then a total non-factor in the second half.
That sort of reminds Joe of how the Bucs shutdown Cheetah Hill and limited Travis Kelce in the Super Bowl win over the Chiefs. Hill didn’t do squat; Kelce had a bunch of yards and neither found the end zone that beautiful night.
September 11th, 2023 at 4:26 am
No JJ Griddy equals a good day for the Bucs.
September 11th, 2023 at 4:37 am
HC/DC adjusted. He made the move to play not safe but to win the close game. The team responded with grit and effort. It worked. He conserved time outs. Hardly any penalties and got turnovers. Vikes main blunder was the penaltty on the FG THAT RESULTED IN THE WINNING 4 POINT difference. They blundered and HC/DC did not.
September 11th, 2023 at 6:19 am
I think everyone knew JJ was going to get his. It bears mentioning the ridiculous stats put up by Cousins, 300+ yards. In the end, what does it boil down to?! TURNOVERS!!!
Great job by the defense!
September 11th, 2023 at 6:43 am
He wasn’t the same after trying to blow up Izien after his Int at the end of the 1st half. I think JJ got the worst of it and suddenly realized he was in for a 60 minute fight.
September 11th, 2023 at 7:36 am
Show me the tds that was a helluva hit on izien though I wouldn’t want my start doing that but I would want my star doing that lol glad I don’t coach lol
September 11th, 2023 at 8:16 am
Why are blindside blocks illegal but blindside tackles aren’t? You can still block or in this case tackle someone, you just have to lead with your hands. I thought it was a cheap shot out of frustration. That kinda hit could have really hurt permanently.
September 11th, 2023 at 8:38 am
60 minute game, 2 catches for 12 yards in the 2nd half. Love the adjustments
September 11th, 2023 at 8:51 am
First half, secondary was lost, specially Carlton Davis, who came with an extraordinary play on second half, that was one of the most important plays in the game!
September 11th, 2023 at 11:31 am
Zzbucs Carlton Davis struggles in zone coverage that’s why when the second half hit They ran more man coverage schemes and Davis delivered. This bucs team runs a stationary zone scheme with tons of different look blitz packages and when the bucs get down they run man and Dean and Davis who look weak in zones are beast in man coverage. This allowed David and white to roam and hit freely to where the ball is instead of fan out and cover the zone they have.
September 11th, 2023 at 11:36 am
But i seen what joe sees this bucs defense got faster and could be very dangerous down the road for teams playing us soft. On a side note Murphy bunting had a good game yesterday for the titans did alot of things I never saw out of him here but then again the rookie izien did some good things yesterday outside of his defensive pass interference call in the end zone his 5yard jam was good but he wrapped arms around the corners waist refs gonna call that 9 times out of 10 especially if the wr makes a play for it. But overall his size and speed he can be scary good with the talent he’s playing around.
September 11th, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Try going back a little further in the 2020 season to the first time we played the Chiefs… Not exactly the same as he still managed a TD in the 2nd half, but similar lopsided production:
Tyreek Hill 1st half: 218 yards, 2 TDs
Tyreek Hill 2nd half: 51 yards, 1 TD
Obviously we did a better job yesterday though lol.
September 11th, 2023 at 3:54 pm
It certainly seemed like nearly all the damage in the first half was Bowles going to a soft zone – when he was playing man, Jefferson didn’t do much.
In the second half, I’m not really sure what happened since it didn’t seem like the defensive calls were all that different. Listening to the crybaby Vikings podcasts, they seemed to think the Vikings OC got too cute for his own good, and tried to ‘trick’ the Bucs by going away from JJ.
However, the big thing in the 2nd half is ultimately that the Vikings only had 3 possessions. Not sure there is much more to it than that.
September 12th, 2023 at 6:18 am
While the win was great The overall the performance was not good enough to win with any consistancy. We stunk out loud through most of the first half and Bowles defense made some critical errors leaving Jefferson and others vertually all by themselves.
We sere lucky on turnovers and that we were not down by 14 at the half.
34 yards until the last two minutes of the half wont cut it Todd. we gained zero yards after a turnover at the Vikes 18 folks. We wil need TDs on those this year not FGs.
Again. We do not have a team that will win by coming from behind in every single game!
Go Bucs!