Bucs Nation
The Buccaneers continue on the road this week, this time in Houston on Monday night football. Tampa Bay is 1-0 and are looking for their fifth straight 2-0 start to the season meanwhile the Texans are looking for a bounce back game after their opening week loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
To preview the game, we sat down with Scott Barzilla of Battle Red Blog to break down things from a Texans perspective. Let’s get into it.
“The biggest story from this game was the inability of the Texans passing game to get going. Christian Kirk was out and that left C.J. Stroud without a reliable second target. However, most of the attention throughout the offseason was on the offensive line. The Texans went from 5th in offensive line salary to 26th in one offseason. The working theory was that they would find a way to do more with less by simplifying the blocking scheme, asking Stroud to get the ball out quicker, and allowing Stroud to change the play and/or protection schemes at the line. Stroud generally did well with pressure in this game, but the 41 percent pressure rate is likely unsustainable. Left guard Ed Ingram was out the first week and that caused them to shuffle almost the entire line. If he is able to play we will likely see some improvement, but he is questionable at this point.”
“I’m not. You don’t cut the amount of money you spend on a unit nearly in half and somehow expect improvement. I was generally on board with trading Laremy Tunsil. He was officially the highest paid player on the 2024 Texans and his production didn’t match the cost. Whether he was committing yet another false start or simply not run blocking with the kind of ferocious nature you want, I felt like moving on was the right move. That being said, the expectation is that you would roll that savings into legitimate starters at the other spots. Laken Tomlinson was technically a starter last season, but he wasn’t a highly rated one. Ed Ingram lost his job in Minnesota in the middle of the season. Jake Andrews was a career backup in New England. Cam Robinson was good in Jacksonville, but he didn’t perform well once he moved to Minnesota last season.
That was the extent of their additions in free agency. Aireontae Ersery is a good looking young tackle, but he is a rookie. Cobbling together that group (along with Tytus Howard) into one functioning unit would be a jedi mind trick. The hope is that...
