Giants (4-4) vs Buccaneers (3-4) Last
Sunday in Atlanta the Bucs had a nice 20-3 lead going for them in the third quarter.
They allowed the Falcons to come back and take the game into overtime, but still
managed an upset 23-20 win. The Giants duked it out with the Saints in a wild
shoot out of a game in New Orleans. Somehow 49 points wasn't enough to win in
this game as they ended up with a 52-49 loss. Giants
- Saints Wrap-Up Tampa
Bay Buccaneers The Bucs posted a 10-6 record
in 2010 and they haven't managed a winning season since then. In 2011 they finished
4-12, closing things out with a 10 game losing streak, and head coach Raheem Morris
was gone. Greg Schiano took over and tried to impart his college style perspective
on the NFL. Schiano got the Bucs up to 7-9 in his first year, but they slipped
to 4-12 in his second and Schiano was gone. During that year they parted ways
with their former first round draft pick, quarterback Josh Freeman. Rookie Mike
Glennon started the final 13 games and played well. In 2014, Lovie Smith's first
as the Bucs new head coach, they picked up Josh McCown in the offseason and immediately
named him the starting quarterback. They lost
all six division games, all their home games, and finished 2-14. The only
thing the fans could be happy about was that Tampa
Bay also owned the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft. To be fair to Smith, his
offensive coordinator went on medical leave a quarter of the way through the season
and they lacked direction in that area. McCown is now with Cleveland and Jameis
Winston was drafted by the Bucs. Winston was named as the starting quarterback
by Smith at his first press conference in training camp. New offensive coordinator
Dirk Koetter has them ranking 11th in total
offense, including fourth in rushing and seventh in net yards per passing play.
The Bucs, at 3-4, have already won more games than all of last year, and one of
those wins was against the Jaguars at home in front of their loyal fans. Buccaneers
Offense Rookie
quarterback Jameis Winston, as expected, is
learning as he goes. Winston threw four interceptions in one game against the
Panthers to bring his total to seven over his first four games. At that point
his team had a 1-3 record and Winston had six touchdowns to go along with those
interceptions. Winston hasn't thrown an interception since, but he has added four
more touchdown passes. The Bucs went 2-1 over those three games, losing by just
one point to the Redskins, and in that one loss Winston threw for his most yardage
and best completion percentage on the season. Mike Evans was his main target
in that game and he had season high numbers, with eight catches for 164 yards
and one touchdown. Evans was the 7th overall draft pick in 2014 (Odell Beckham
Jr. was the 12th) and in his rookie year Evans led the team in touchdowns (12),
receiving yardage (1051), and yards per catch (15.5). Last
week the Winston to Evans connection didn't pan out, as he caught only three of
nine passes. Evans was under a heavy workload with Vincent Jackson, the second
leading receiver, sidelined and with their third, Louis Murphy, having just been
placed on injured reserve. Evans also mentioned later that he suffered injuries
to his groin on one pass play. He won't be catching any breaks, as Jackson will
be out for this game as well. Running back Charles Sims has 19 catches with
two touchdowns on the year. Doug Martin is the lead rusher, averaging 4.6 yards
a carry with 3 touchdowns. Martin can sure help take pressure off the receivers
if he could come up with another strong running game. He gained under 500 yards
in each of the past two seasons, and already has 612 in seven games. Martin credits
the offensive line and his team is fifth in the league in rushing.
Buccaneers Defense They
had their work cut out for them last week in Atlanta, especially when their head
coach Lovie Smith decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Bucs 40 yard with
2 minutes remaining. When they failed, there was a short field to defend and sure
enough, Julio Jones pulled in a touchdown pass with 17 seconds left to tie the
game. Jones was thrown to 13 times and had 12 catches for 162 yards and one touchdown,
and now they'll be contending with Odell Beckham Jr. The one thing they did
do well against Jones was cause him to turn over the ball. Rookie linebacker Kwon
Alexander stripped the ball away from Jones and returned it 20 yards to the Atlanta
21. That was just one of the four turnovers the defense caused. Alexander, for
his part, ended up with a team high 11 tackles, an interception, a forced fumble
and fumble recovery. All this just days after his 17-year-old brother had passed
away. Alexander was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week. Their weakest
area would be in the secondary and Eli Manning has clearly demonstrated that he
can take full advantage of that. They will be without pass rusher Jacquies Smith,
who is responsible for 5 sacks and 3 forced fumbles on the year. Giants
offense The Eli Manning to Odell Beckham
Jr. connection was at its best last week, good for 8 completions out of 9 and
three ended up being touchdowns. It's possible that Beckham is the healthiest
he's been in a long while and that's just what the Giants need at this point.
Dwayne Harris caught 3 passes for 37 yards and had 2 touchdowns and Rueben Randle
caught 5 passes for 55 yards, while still dealing with a hamstring issue. Manning
also made good use of running back Shane Vereen who caught 8 passes for 60 yards
and one for a touchdown. Victor Cruz won't
make it back this week, and unfortunately Larry Donnell is out as well. The
offensive line will have to watch out for defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. Last
year he led the team with 8.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits and he has 4.5 sacks
so far this season. Of course fielding a good ground game would help quell his
eagerness. One problem last week was that the
four running backs combined for only 87 yards playing against a team that's been
allowing on average 129 rushing yards a game. Orleans Darkwa gives them a nice
boost and he rushed for 23 of those yards on 4 carries before he was hurt. He
is listed as probable for this game and hopefully gets more carries this week. Giants
defense Quarterback Jameis Winston is
fine tuning his game with strong performances over the last three, and he finds
himself up against a Giants defense that has played their worst over their last
three. The Giants have given up just short of 500 yards a game (498.7). Overall
they rank last in the NFL with their 427.5 average. They are also last in the
league with just nine sacks through eight games, and the lack of quarterback pressure
makes it tempting to pass on them. With the secondary being tested, 13 of their
18 takeaways have been interceptions. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is in the lead
with three. They'll have to watch their coverage on Mike Evans. Last week on
two third-down plays he drew pass interference penalties and had another in overtime
that helped set up the go-ahead field goal. They have activated Jason Pierre-Paul
for this game and that will certainly help up front, as the Bucs won't know what
he's exactly capable of at this point. The Falcons were able to break running
back Doug Martin's three-game streak of rushing for at least 100 yards, as they
held him to just 71 yards on 23 carries for a 3.1-yard average. That was his lowest
average per carry on the year. The Giants haven't been playing as strong as they
had in that area, but they need to this week. They're up against an offensive
line with two rookies, left tackle Donovan Smith and right guard Ali Marpet. Making
the game one dimensional will certainly open up more opportunities playing against
a team led by a rookie quarterback. Overall One
interesting thing to watch in this game will be the top receivers on the field
for each team. General Manager Jerry Reese once hinted that Mike Evans (6-foot-5,
231 pounds) may have been ahead of Odell Beckham Jr. (5-11, 198 pounds) on their
2014 draft board. Both have done extremely well so far and both will be playing
against subpar secondaries in this game. Our call last week was 'They may
have to unleash Eli Manning in order to win this one, and win or lose, that's
what I would like to see.' Well we got to see that, and somehow they still managed
to lose the game by forgetting the other two important ingredients, namely defense
and special teams. This week we'll state things differently. If the Giants want
to leave Tampa Bay with a win they will have to perform in all three areas.
NFC East Games Sunday
at 1:00pm Redskins (3-4) at Patriots (7-0). Sunday at 4:05pm Giants (4-4) at
Buccaneers (3-4). Sunday at 8:30pm Eagles (3-4) at Cowboys (2-5). The Giants
and Eagles are the NFC East teams favored to win in these games.
Check out.
The Team
Giants Store, and see some of the really unique items we put together.
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out our site. Giants DVDs
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TeamGiants on Twitter. Notes
- Giants.The Giants started 0-2, and
have won four of the last six games to lead in the NFC East. The
Giants lead the NFL with a plus-eleven turnover differential. The
Giants have outscored the Bucs by a combined score of 48-14 In the past two trips
to Tampa Bay. Odell Beckham Jr. has 141
catches for 1,959 yards and 19 touchdowns in his 20 career games. Notes
- Bucs. The Bucs have forced a turnover
in every game this season. Mike Evans
has 92 catches for 1,437 yards and 13 touchdowns in his 21 career games. Jameis
Winston has gone three games and 86 straight passes without throwing an interception.
Next Games
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