Joe doesn’t know whether it was injuries or just that the defense was zapped. Either way, the defense let the Bucs down today in a winnable division-round playoff game.
And the Bucs’ season comes to an end.
In the second half, the defense was softer than a newborn kitten. They couldn’t get to Jared Goff and when they did, Carlton Davis got flagged with a dumb personal foul.
It didn’t help when Jamel Dean got hurt (again) and so too did Kaevon Merriweather. That meant McCollum had to play more corner and Ryan Neal had to play safety.
And man, how bad of a tackler was Neal? Good, grief!
The Lions picked on McCollum, often having to guard Amon-Ra St. Brown. Not exactly a matchup the Bucs wanted to see.
The Bucs, normally strong against the run and up the middle, got gashed time and again by both the run and the pass. It didn’t even look like the Lions were trying.
Yeah, it turned out to be a one-score game. Yeah, the Bucs had a chance to tie in the final two minutes. The Bucs would not have had to be in that position if the defense only played average ball in the second half.
