Nice Stats Driven Study of the Bucs' New Found Success

[Delhommey]

 

Remember when the dysfunctional Buccaneers were an 0-8 dumpster fire fueled by MRSA and ineptitude? Greg Schiano and his Men have somehow won three straight, with some legitimate play from both sides of the ball—especially rookie quarterback/intrepid middle schooler Mike Glennon. Which leaves us with the same question Team Schiano has left for us all year, if inflected slightly differently: Are these assholes for real?

 

The transformative change at quarterback is as well-worn as any story in football, but for the Bucs, it's as good an explanation as you'll find for how this team went from viscous poo to something resembling competent. Especially because, through all this, the defense has been rather good. As a team, they're -5.8% in weighted DVOA, good for 10th in the league. Gerald McCoy is a total stud, and before his groin injury, every metric available had Darrelle Revis re-ascendent as the best corner in the league. (Our favorite CB metric, PFF's yards gained by a cornerback's assignment while that cornerback is in coverage, has Revis well ahead of the league at 0.44 yards per snap. Quarterbacks have a 53.4 QB Rating throwing against him. He's been very good.)

 

All that is to say, the big change has been the rookie and his play. After Josh Freeman and his 59.3 QB rating were shipped off to terrorize poor Vikings fans, the Bucs turned to Glennon. He had a rough start, fumbling in each of his first four starts, and struggling to crack even 6 yards per attempt. But over the past month or so, he's improved to the point where Schiano considers him to be a long-term solution. (That'd be neat, if Schiano still has a job at the end of the season.)

 

http://regressing.deadspin.com/how-mike-glennon-and-the-tampa-bay-bucs-sort-of-stopp-1471632812/@kylenw

 

Glennon being accurate with deep balls could spell trouble.

[PhillyB]

this would be a bad game for our secondary to have a bad game.

[the butch]

Glennon has an NFL-caliber arm, and he is a smart player. But he is slow . . . really slow. And he is still a rookie. Should be fun for our defense.

[Chaos]

I hope Revis is out Sunday.

[Your GFs favorite huddler]

The Kracken is going to have a big day....write that down

[Carolina Cajun]

The Kracken is going to have a big day....write that down

 

I won't say anything because I thought that about this past game, but it didn't happen.

[Your GFs favorite huddler]

I won't say anything because I thought that about this past game, but it didn't happen.

Yea I was disappointed but he even said they weren't focused and came out flat......I expect that junkyard dog mentality back in full effect

[Delhommey]

Bad case scenario: Their D shuts us down for long enough for Glennon to get a couple of long bombs behind our Cover 2. Then Cam starts to press to catch up and then it just snowballs from there.

 

Good case scenario: A possibly Johnson-less front 4 still gets to Glennon enough to rattle him into a few mistakes. The running game does enough to keep drives alive and wear out their D, causing them to lose focus which opens up the zone read. Death and destruction. 

[Jakob]

How fuging bad was this draft class, mike fuging glennon was the best qb drafted.

UNC gave this guy fits.

[!stUp]

Could be a long day for Glennon. Remember...............

 

[MadHatter]

I still have a strange feeling that the Bucs have been lucky the last couple of weeks (especially the Lions game where Stafford gift wrapped a probable blowout for the Bucs and they still almost (and should have lost).

 

I am just feeling a beat down come Sunday.

[Delhommey]

I won't really feel anything till I watch our first couple of offensive series. 

[MadHatter]

I won't really feel anything till I watch our first couple of offensive series. 

 

Valid point....Panthers are a real easy team to read.  Start out slow and will be a long day.

[TheRed]

The Lions turned the ball over 5 times against the Bucs, and still only lost by 3.

 

I think the Bucs are playing better, and I won't underestimate them, but there's no reason that we can't beat them. Especially here at home.