How Important is the Game vs. the Vikings? | Bucs Insider

As we give people a chance to start submitting some of those questions, I figured we'd start with some of the roster moves that have happened this week and what they mean for the team. Yeah, we even have one to day um. Jaden Mickens, who was waived on Monday when the Buccaneers promoted Kenyan Barner from the practice squad, has now been signed to the practice squad. So essentially you have a switch of those two guys and they're

both returnment. But the differences. Jaden Mackins is a wide receiver and Kenyan Barner's running back who coach Arians likes quite a bit and even thinks he could do a little bit on offense if they decided to do so. But what that does is give him a little more balance between his position groups there. Because we had seven receivers, he can't keep seven of them active, but he would like to keep six and four running backs. So now

he can do that. And if you really really need Jaden Nickens to help you in the return game or some way in the next few weeks, you can always use up to two practice squad elevations on him, while we were already out of those options on Kenyan Barners. So it all makes sense when you put it together

that way. We also brought Peck a blast from the past yesterday and Ted Larson, a really versatile interior lineman who started at all three positions, has made a lot of starts, has started every every place he's gone, beginning with the Buccaneers in two thousand and ten, but he hasn't played here since two thousand thirteen, so a seven

year gap is a long time. He's on the practice squad, he could he he could be elevated if need be, so if he played, would be the same gap between his time here as work done had and a lot of fans would remember that the way we worked done came back seven years later, so it's kind of interesting when that happens. That's great. I love that. Yeah, love seeing that he was with us so long ago and

now getting like a second go around. And yeah, I had been with Bruisarian, so he just gets to redo everything, which is really awesome. Um, all right, Wait a question from Reven I think is how you say it? I'm yeah, I think I'm hoping I didn't butcher that. Um. He wanted to know how many wins do you think we need to make the playoffs, and he said he's watching from Denmark, which is well, what we know for sure is that eleven will do it. If the Buccaneers went out, uh,

they're in. I am of the opinion that if they win three or four and get to ten wins, they're almost certainly gonna make it, simply because there's only one other team that has seven wins uh right now, and so everybody behind the Buccaneers has that could be in play have either six or five. And so you talk about Minnesota with six wins, they would have to run the table um to get to ten wins, and even then that doesn't bump the Bucks out of the playoffs, So I don't, I don't. I think ten wins is

almost a virtual lock. Nine is when it starts to get a little bit hairy and some of the other teams could catch you there, and then tiebreakers come into place. So you know, if you're Bucks fan and you're you're trying to decide what you you know, what you need to root for. Three wins is almost certainly going to get it done. So uh and really the biggest game

of those three is this first one against Minnesota. Yeah, that was gonna be My follow up is how important is this particular win When we talk about the kind of overall numbers of how many wins and the different combinations of which teams that could come against over these last four games, this one in particular, how much would a win or a loss be different than maybe one of the other games. It would be really big. And even coach Areas called it a huge game yesterday, and

he's right. Minnesota is right behind the Bucks in the seventh seed with a six and six record, so obviously, if they were to beat the Buccaneers, both teams would be seven and six, and Minnesota would have the tiebreaker with that head to head win and thus would jump the Bucks in the in the rankings, and you just feel more secure at six because it's seven. Somebody catches you and has a tiebreaker on you, like say the Bears, then uh, then you're in trouble. So this is a

big one. If the Bucks could win this and get to eight wins and push Minnesota down to six and seven. You know, they've won five of their last six games, so they're kind of hot right now and coming in with a full head of team. So, um, it's the Also, the buccaneers last three games against Atlanta twice in Detroite are all against teams with something like four and eight records, So, um, it's the one. It's the biggest one. It's the team is always gonna say it's the biggest one anyway because

it's the next one. But if you're just a fan looking at the next four games, this is the biggest one. And I know that we've got a little bit of media sessions since everybody came back from the bye week. Um, and some of these questions have been asked before the bye week and then again, now, um, what did you feel like the team really took the bye week to do What were some of the um takeaways or lessons or things that you think they got out of this

incredibly late bye week. Yeah, it was weird. This is the latest bye week the Buccaneers have had since bye weeks first started, and generally they've always gotten around weeks five or six. And in those years whereways, we always felt like that was a disadvantage because you figure later in the year more likely that you'll have some injuries and just basic aches and pains that a bye week would help. But this is really really late, and coach had said a few weeks ago that he felt his

team was tired. So what the bye week does for you, it's kind of different for players and coaches. For players, the main point is to rest, get mentally rejuvenated, relax. You know, if you've got minor injuries, hopefully you come back in better shape. Like say Donovan Smith and his ankle that he played through last week, Hopefully he's closer to now. Chris Godwin got the pins out of his finger. Jamal Dean was on the practice field after missing the

game with concussion, so it's helped in that regard. I did hear from Dominican sue that they did watch some film during that period, which which is interesting so but not nearly as much as the coaches did. What the coaches used the bye week for is self evaluation of what happened in the previous twelve weeks. And they went into that bye week with all of the information already

broken down. They reviewed everything, and now they were going to study it and try to figure out why and how to fix the biggest problem of the recent weeks, which is slow starts on both sides of the ball. And um Bruce says to him, he it's kind of confirmed what he already thought going in. The problem on offense is not converting manageable third downs. I mean, you get their third and five, third and four, you need to make most of those. And the Bucks weren't early

in the early in the games. And on defense, for some reason, they weren't matching the speed of the opposition early in the games, even though they could do it as the game went on. So those are two things that they were focusing on. How exactly they fixed those things, you know, is something we'll have to wait and see. All right, we had a question from Mike. I thought this is a good one. He said, with the new i R rules this year, is it possible to see

Vita back in time for the playoffs? That's a really good question. And actually somebody did ask coach that I think it was last week and he said no, he does not believe so. So that would be great, wouldn't it. But it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. You're right about the i R rules, They would allow for that to happen, but doesn't seem like the team expects it.

And does that include with playoffs versus regulars? Even with playoffs? Um, So, we had a few different people just bringing up this upcoming game against the Vikings and what are some of the keys you think it will be? The biggest players, positions, things that knowing how hot the Vikings are, how many they've they've won in a row, essentially, what are the biggest things that they bring to the table that we're

gonna have to watch out for. Yeah, did you know how good of the season the Rickie receiver Justin Jefferson was happening? No, I did not. I knew he was doing well just from hearing various things on broadcast, But when I started working on the Vikings this week, and looking at the numbers, he's having one of the best rookie receiving seasons of all time. He's he's got I think the sixth most. He's got a thousand, thirty nine yards already, he's averaging seventeen yards and carry, I mean

a catch. He's basically completely replaced any production they would have got from Stefan Diggs, who himself is having a great year in Buffalo. Uh. But that doesn't make him the number one concern. The number one concern, as we know, as Dominansue was stressing again yesterday, is Dalvin Cook and the running game and stopping at first and they get a hundred forty five yards a game. The Buccaneers allow basically half of that per game. So this is absolutely

strength on strength. No individual rusher has gotten to a hundred yards against US. I think only one team has gotten to a hundred yards against US in the running game. Uh. If. If some things have been up and down this year,

the rush defense has not. It's been good virtually every week, and even against very good backs that have had a tough time cracking that and that has That's one of the reasons why the Bucks pass rush numbers are pretty good because they've succeeded in their goal of stopping the r on early and then having a better opportunity to rush the passers. So that's goal. That's goal number one every week. And I only know that because they say that had every single week, but I think it's an

even big deal this week. And uh, you know Dalvin Cook, he's great at breaking tackles. He's really good at the cutback run, you know, the quick plant the foot and then go back to the backside. And that can be an issue because if you don't, if you're you're the defender on that side, and you don't keep your containment

over there, he could be gone. And one of the reasons why you might not keep your contain is because the Vikings with Kirk Cousins run a lot of bootlegs and rollouts, and so they'll play action and he'll roll out and you think it's a rollout plane it's actually run or vice versa. And that's really one of the big difficulties of stopping this offense. Okay, yeah, that's a that's a great point. Um, all right. I like this

when Richard asked, is Ryan suck up on pace? To have one of the best kicking seasons in Bucks history. I know, right, I know. On the it's like what Joe Buck did to Justice Tucker the other night. Did you hear that? He's like at five yard or he's made a billion in a row, and it's like, well, now you know he's gonna miss So he's he unpaced for what was the question, one of the best kicking

seasons in Bucks histor? Yeah, he's he's missed too. He's something like twenty two the record for the Bucks by Connor Barth, the guy we really liked. Fun guy was I think, and you're thinking that you're kicked. I'm doing this off the top of my head, so I apologize, but I think I've got it right. So basically, Ryan can get that record, just can't really miss anymore. And you know, hopefully he's made seventeen in a row, which

is the second longest streak we've ever had. And I don't mind saying that as a jinks because we already talked about it last week and then he still went ahead and made his kick and it's it's been in all of our notes. Prs putting it in their notes. You don't want to Jinks the kicker. But you can't just ignore these things. So I'd like to think it can't be a jinx unless it's during the game. That's my view of it is that during the week it doesn't count. It's the like right before the kick. That's

when the jinks there's like a statute of limitations. That makes sense. I'll go with that. In that case, the answer is yes, he he could have right now. He does have one of the best kicker seasons in team history, and he also is on pace to break the record for scoring um Brian a hundred one in two thousand eight I think, and he's on pace to get that, he said, I think a hundred three or a d two with four games to go, so heasually get there. That's pretty great. Yeah, and see, I I just have

my view that I am not superstitious. I am a little stitious. You're a little stitious and not superstitious superstitious that's my favorite. Okay. Delvin asked, do you feel the absence of Scottie Miller has had an impact on our deep pass attack? Well, my initial reaction that is no. For one thing, he hasn't really been absent he's been there, so we could throw it to him if we want to, and we did. I believe one time it may have been played that was intercepted down the left sideline against

Kansas City. I think that was a throw to Scotty Miller. Um. You know, Scotty had a couple of deep catches, but so of other guys when we were when we were doing well in that regard, and then we did actually did pretty well in that regard in the last game against Kansas City. So um, I don't think just his reduced playing time was the issue while that was going on. Now, okay, well that is going to do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Live presented by Miller Lte.

Thanks as always for all those amazing questions, Thanks for watching, and we'll be here next week. Gify water here, said the skil.