How will Tampa Bay’s defense fare against the Lions?
The Detroit Lions have had one of the best offenses in the NFL since last season, and they haven’t shown any signs of stopping.
On Sunday, the Lions will travel to Tampa Bay and take on the Buccaneers, one of the league’s best defenses. Tampa Bay inside linebacker coach Larry Foote spoke to the media Monday on the challenges the Lions will bring and how the Bucs matchup against the dangerous offense.
“That offense is high-powered,” Foote said. “The guys have got to buy in, and you’ve got to win your one-on-one matchups.”
When it came to the discussion of one-on-one matchups, the Buccaneers linebacker coach didn’t hesitate to mention the importance of a few players. Bucs linebacker Devin White has excelled in coverage throughout the season and been a huge reason why Tampa Bay has failed to allow a chunk play so far, he said.
“We did the breakdown, we self-scouted — he was doing a great job,” Foote said. “As middle linebackers, you want to eliminate those play actions and the easy seam balls that get a chunk and get the offense going.”
It will be extremely important for the Buccaneers to eliminate the play-action pass against the Lions in particular. Detroit quarterback Jared Goff was the most effective quarterback on play-action passes in 2022, according to Next Gen Stats. He threw 17 touchdowns off play action.
“I put him in that group with [Tom] Brady and [Peyton] Manning as far as the play action,” Foote said. “They sell it. They do a good job of selling it.”
In addition to White’s role of stopping the pass attack, the defensive line will have an equally difficult challenge stopping the Lions’ ground game.
“It’s going to be a big challenge because everybody knows that they’re coming in here to run the ball and that’s their identity,” Foote said. “The last time [we faced] a good running team, they won it.”
The Lions recorded 159 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns against the Carolina Panthers Sunday — even without their rookie first-round pick Jahmyr Gibbs.
The Buccaneers and Detroit will face off 4:25 p.m. Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. The game will be broadcast on FOX.
