Not only did the Bucs lose two in a row, so did I because I picked Tampa Bay to beat both New Orleans and Washington. I don’t see the Bucs losing three straight games, especially with Tom Brady at the helm. The only time Brady has lost three games in a row was in 2002, which was his first full season as the Patriots starter. New England lost four games that season and finished 9-7 without a playoff berth. If Tampa Bay loses to New York at home where the team is undefeated (4-0) then sound the alarm bells.
With the NFL’s new 17-game schedule, there’s no longer a defined halfway point to any team’s season. But coming off their bye week with eight games still left to play, it’s fair to say the New York Giants are set to embark on the second half of their 2021 season. Sporting a record of 3-6, Big Blue has certainly put themselves behind the proverbial eight-ball in their quest for a playoff berth. The cause has not yet been lost, however, as a shallow NFC has rendered the conference’s 6th and 7th playoff seeds entirely up for grabs, even for a three-win team like the Giants.
Before the season, if we’d told you that Daniel Jones would have fewer turnovers than Tom Brady when these teams met in Week 11, you’d have thought we were crazy. But that’s exactly where we are at this point in the season; Jones has turned the ball over eight times (five interceptions, three lost fumbles), one fewer than Brady’s nine (seven INTs, two fumbles lost).
Brady and the Bucs’ offense has struggled over the past two games – losses to the Saints and Washington Football Team – in large part because of Brady’s ball security…or lack thereof. Over the past two games alone, Brady has five turnovers, more than doubling his prior season total. The season started with turnover issues for the Tampa QB, but they didn’t hurt the team.
Giants must look to get Barkley going the same way they did against another one of the league’s best run defenses, the Saints. In that game, Barkley managed only 52 yards on the ground but caught five of six passes for 74 yards and a touchdown. Because the second level of the Bucs defense has been more concerned with blitzing or dropping back into coverage to help its injury-ravaged secondary, it hasn’t been able to devote as much attention to backs in the flat, and the team ranks just 26th in DVOA on passes to running backs.
When Daniel Jones drops back to pass, he will face a Bucs defense that has generated pressure at the 12th-highest rate , but used the NFL’s highest blitz rate (40.3%) to achieve it. Partly because Jones isn’t exactly a world beater from a clean pocket, his numbers don’t fall off as far as most quarterbacks under duress.
Prediction: New York Giants +11