4 Lions that can have the most success against the Buccaneers
Here we go. The Detroit Lions have moved on to the next round in the playoffs and they will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home this Sunday. The Lions faced this Bucs team once already in Week 6 in Tampa Bay. They were able to walk out of that one with a 20-6 win. […]
Here we go. The Detroit Lions have moved on to the next round in the playoffs and they will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home this Sunday.
The Lions faced this Bucs team once already in Week 6 in Tampa Bay. They were able to walk out of that one with a 20-6 win. Can they beat this team for a second time? Here's four Lions that stats and analytics say could help the Lions the most.
Amon-Ra St. Brown
It’s not a big stretch that the I would include one of the best receivers in the NFL here. Of course he’ll help right? There’s an expertise that St. Brown brings to the table that could really hurt this Bucs team. That’s yards after catch.
St. Brown is second in the NFL in that category this season with 668 yards after the catch. The Bucs defense allowed 2,254 of their 4,232 total receiving yards after the catch in 2023. That's sixth in the NFL this season. They also allowed the fourth most catches has well. This team can be passed on and St. Brown, who had a big YAC touchdown in the first meeting, should be able to work well against that.
Jameson Williams
Sticking to the receiving game, the Bucs haven't been all that great against the deep ball or the explosive pass game this season. The Bucs have allowed the seventh most deep passing yards in the league this year with 1,035 and the second most deep passing touchdowns with nine.
That's just deep passes. The Bucs have a real problem stopping the explosive play through the air. Like a Lions secondary type problem. The Lions have allowed 70 explosive pass plays this season. The Bucs are right behind them with 66.
Williams can be explosive for sure. This should be the game where Ben Johnson looks to work in that explosiveness.
Aidan Hutchinson
I include Hutchinson in here every week it seems. There’s a clear reason for that. The man is on a bit of a terror right now. He’s racked up seven sacks in the last three games. He has a chance to get another couple on Sunday against the Bucs.
Baker Mayfield has been sacked 40 times this season. That's sixth among all quarterbacks. He's been sacked nine times in the last three games. Part of the Bucs issues stem from the right side of their offensive line. Luke Goedeke and rookie Cody Mauch have allowed 14 sacks this season. Mauch has allowed 53 pressures. That's fourth among all offensive linemen this year. Goedeke isn't too far behind with 42. That's 17th.
Hutchinson, who leads the league in pressures with 110, should be able to take advantage of that side of the Bucs offensive line. As for the left side with Tristan Wirfs, that will be harder, but Wirfs has allowed five sacks this year. So he's not unbeatable.
Whoever returns punts
At this point we don’t know if Kalif Raymond is going to play in this game. He has not practiced this week, but Lions head coach Dan Campbell said on Monday that he was improving and that, like LaPorta last week, this would be something the Lions would have a better idea about on Friday.
Even if it's not Raymond returning punts, whoever the Lions go with there should have a chance to set the Lions up with good field position. We talked last week about how the Rams have allowed the second most punt return yards with 495, well the Bucs are right behind them with 455.
As a special bonus fifth player, We did a full breakdown of how Jared Goff is able to be successful against the blitz.
Jared Goff is the perfect weapon to thwart Bucs defense
The Eagles sure had a lot of problems with the Buccaneers defense on Monday night. Jalen Hurts spent much of the night running for his life and he got sacked three times and wasn't able to get much going in the way of passing the ball. The Bucs blitzed on 69.2% of the Eagles drop […]
