They say that all good things should come to an end, right, especially in the beautiful game of American Football. Good things such as the Seattle Seahawks’ “dynasty,” the 18-year career of “the Sheriff,” Peyton Manning, and, as of Monday night, September 24, 2018, Fitz-Magic, as the Ryan Fitzpatrick-led Buccaneers rallied back from a 20-point deficit against the Pittsburgh Steelers, only to come up three points short of beating Big Ben’s squad. Final score; Steelers 30, Buccaneers 27. So much contributed to the end of a magical run for the Buccaneers, but there were three main factors; pressure up the middle by the Steelers defense, Steelers offensive weapons just too much for young Bucs defense to handle, and the reappearance of Fitz-Tragic.
Pressure up the Middle
Earlier in the week, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin told the media that the point of emphasis going into Raymond Jones Stadium was to put pressure on Fitzpatrick in the pocket. Fitzpatrick is a pocket passer with a rocket arm and loves to take chances down the field. And he can do that because, through the first two weeks of the season, Fitzpatrick was only sacked once. His offensive line had done a good job keeping Fitz upright, along with the fact that Fitz is shifty in the pocket. All that combined result in Fitzpatrick being able to make plays like this to DeSean Jackson;
And that was against a loaded Eagles front seven so one would think that it would be way easier against a Steelers defense that has allowed 388 total offensive yards per game (24th in the league).
Unfortunately, that was not the case Monday night, as the Steelers front seven turned up the heat against the Bucs offensive line, getting to Fitzpatrick three times and forcing him into making mistakes, like this interception in the red zone by cornerback Mike Hilton;
along this pick-six by linebacker Bud Dupree;
That same pressure also did a pretty good job keeping the Bucs’ running game well contained, allowing only 63 net rushing yards on 16 carries, with third-year back Peyton Barber leading the charge with only 33 yards.
Overall, the Steelers front seven came into Tampa Bay hangry (hungry and angry, for all you non-modern slang understanders), and they never let up the pressure, even if the secondary gave up over 400 yards in the passing game (more on that later).
Getting beaten Black and Yellow
Ok look, no one expected the Buccaneers defense to hold the Steelers offense down at any point of the game. In the beginning, that didn’t seem to be the case, as Buccaneers safety Justin Evans jumped farther than Michael Jordan to make this interception;
Throughout the course of the game, the front seven did their best to keep the Steelers running game from gaining any traction, as they held James Conner for 61 yards on 15 carries. They were also able to sack Roethlisberger three times, with defensive end Jason Pierre Paul garnering two of those sacks. But that’s about all the good the defense contributed to the night.
And who could blame them? For goodness sake, the Steelers are loaded at pass catcher with marquee players such as the incomparable Antonio Brown, social media star JuJu Smith-Schuster, and ol’reliable in tight end Vance McDonald, just to name a few. At the end of the game, Big Ben completed 78.9 percent of his passes for 353 yards and three beautiful touchdowns, including this crossing route by McDonald that went from a gain of 15 yards to a 75-yard catch-and-run that included one of the nastiest stiff arms of the season against safety Chris Conte;
Along with this simple wide receiver screen pass to AB that turned into a 27-touchdown pass;
Much of these big plays came because the Buccaneers could not figure out how to cover these weapons. If they went into man coverage and brought pressure to the pocket, these pass catchers are left in single coverage, and no one in that secondary can match up. If they went zone, there isn’t a consistent enough pass rush to make Big Ben panic, allowing him to hold onto the ball long enough for his playmakers to find a hole in the secondary to expose.
Schuster and McDonald both finished with over 100 yards receiving, while AB only managed an even 50, but that’s all they needed to put up 30 points against a secondary that employs an injured Brent Grimes, an inexperienced Justin Evans, the flattened Chris Conte, and a rotation of Ryan Smith, Javien Elliott, and Marcus Williams at cornerback.
From Fitz-Magic to Fitz-Tragic
Coming into Monday night, Ryan Fitzpatrick had 819 passing yards for eight touchdowns and one interception, with an average QB rating of 150.4 and a 78.4 completion percentage. Tonight was somewhat of a similar performance for Fitzpatrick, as he put up 411 yards in the air against a shoddy Steelers secondary, including these dime touchdown passes to Chris Godwin on a crossing route in the end zone;
An over route to tight end Cameron Brate;
And Mike Evans on the vertical route;
Heck, the 35-year-old signal caller out of Harvard even showed to have a little pep in his step on this 17-yard scamper;
That was all done by Fitz-Magic, the elite-level gunslinger that has nothing to lose and takes chances early and often.
Then Fitz-Tragic reared his ugly head into Western Florida;
Now, to be fair, this interception was more on Evans than Fitzpatrick. Evans was running a deep route to the left side, so he should be fading up toward the left side of the field. Instead, Evans stopped in his tracks in the middle of the field, and by the time Fitz realized that, he had already thrown the ball to where he thought Evans was going to be, making it easy pickings for rookie linebacker Terrell Edmunds.
But no matter what, interceptions are the fault of the quarterback, and Fitzpatrick is no exception. The final stat line should have been four or five total interceptions for Fitzpatrick, as quite a few Steelers defenders dropped a couple of would-be picks throughout the course of the game. There were two chances for the Steelers on the Bucs’ final drive to end the game right there, but they just couldn’t hold on.
In the end, despite the three picks, Fitzpatrick has done enough to cement himself as the Buccaneers’ starting quarterback going into week four, at least, we here at the Diverse Review believe he has. Fourth-year quarterback Jameis Winston, who was suspended for the first game of the season because he sexually-assaulted an Uber driver, will be relegated to the clipboard until Fitzpatrick starts to mess up. The only solace for Winston;
The Diverse Review 