This was a chance to avoid the cellar in the AFC South and seize the mythical State Championship by sweeping Miami and Tampa, a feat not achieved sine 1998. We blew it again.
My thoughts...
1. Bortles had two bad throws the whole game, one on an INT to the left sideline to Marcedes when Robinson was open over the middle. The other on a second half overthrow where Robinson was open deep. However, overall, Bortles had the best statistical game of his career throwing four TDs and only one INT. There's lots of blame for this loss, but it doesn't fall on his shoulders.
2. If there is a main bad guy to be found, it is the run defense. Stout all year long, it became a sieve against Tampa Bay, allowing close to 200 yards rushing and 3 TDs. Yes, missing Poz hurt, but that is far from the only reason. Guys were blown off the ball. Outside leverage/contain seemed like a foreign concept. Cyprien seemed to revert to taking bad angles, blitzing himself out of a long run by Martin. On top of that, the defense missed on a couple of sacks and those misses led to huge plays by Tampa that flipped the field. When they needed to get the ball back for the offense down 14, they couldn't stop the Bucs and allowed them to take some 6 minutes off the clock.
3. That was followed by a very poor showing by the OL-the worst showing since week one. They gave up 6 sacks today. Six. Besides that, they couldn't run the ball very well. What the heck happened on runs to the left? There were a couple of tosses to the left that got completely blown up, including the disastrous pitch to Grant that got fumbled, giving Tampa the lead and momentum. It doesn't get any easier next week, as J.J. Watt and company come to town.
4. After having a decent start, missed FGS notwithstanding, special teams reverted to the disastrous form of last year. Punt coverage took the day off, as Rainey flipped the field 2-3 times. The team narrowly averted disaster before half when Myers kicked the ball out of bounds.
5. I thought Hurns, Robinson, Walters all had good games. Nice to see Thomas finally contribute. Hopefully we will see more from him in the future.
6. Bottom line: another ostensibly winnable game slipped through this team's fingers, and this team is now 1-4 and off to another slow start. This team has lost low scoring games and shootouts, nailbiters and blowouts. I suppose it is an improvement of sorts over simply being blown out hte first four weeks last year, but it isn't close to being enough. We need stronger run blocking, run defense, smarter play on both sides of the ball to turn this around. Will another draft produce this, better coaching, or simply experience? I don't know...but this continues to frustrate the faithful.
Worst to 1st. Curse Reversed!
