2024 Week 7: Ravens 41, Buccaneers 31
Tampa saved face and this was only a 10-point loss, but they were actually blown out. The score was 34-10 and the Bucs scored after a fumble and recovered the onside kick leading to another score. TB falls to (4-3) and plays the Falcons in a game that could determine the division… Tampa needs the win to stay alive, and they need to do it without Evans or Godwin.
The Ravens are (5-2) and winners of five straight. They’ve faced a lot of easy opponents to start the year but they are going to get a bunch of AFC North showdowns coming at them soon.
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A Report on the Entire Buccaneers Offense:
- The big news of this game, Chris Godwin (7-65-0/9) dislocated his ankle and is now out for the season… this is one of those injuries where, depending on severity, could change not just his career trajectory but his entire life after football. I think the most likely fill-in for Godwin will be Sterling Shepard (1-15-0/1). Shepard is a long-time vet, played his whole career with the Giants until this year, and is most importantly a sure-handed slot receiver. The slot position is so important to how the Bucs offense works that having an experienced player there makes the most sense, and that should fall onto Shepard’s shoulders.
- Mike Evans (1-25-1/3) was also hurt and he’ll be out with a hamstring issue for at least 3 weeks. What Mike Evans does is something that can’t be replaced by an X-position player. Evans is a big-bodied and technical receiver who is the best in the league in basically every aspect of playing his position. The most difficult thing to replace is the attention he draws… when you play the Bucs it’s Mike-frickin-Evans teams are worried about, not Baker, not Irving, not anyone.
Jalen McMillan (3-15-0/8) has been seeing reduced snapcounts because he’s dropping passes, so Trey Palmer (1-16-0/3) will try to fill Big Mike’s shoes and fail. He’s not nearly as dominant of a presence as Evans is… he’s just fast.
- With Godwin and Evans both out, the best receiver that Tampa now has is Rachaad White (10-40-0; 6 catches for 71 yards, 2TDs) who, despite being in the doghouse, just put on an amazing showing, scoring two receiving TDs. If I were Todd Bowles I’d let Bucky Irving (9-23-1; 3 catches for 54 yards) and Tucker fight over the main RB role, bring in someone for depth, and put White in the slot… he’d be a YAC machine.
- No surprise here, Sean Tucker (5-29-0; 1 catch for 9 yards), the lord and savior of the Tampa offense last week hardly played. In classic NFL fashion, no good performance is rewarded with a second game of opportunity.
- Lastly, let’s talk about Baker Mayfield (31/45 for 370 yards, 3TD/2 INT; 5 rushes for 12 yards).
Obviously, Baker is having a great season but he’s not infallible, going from Evans-Godwin to Palmer-Shepard is going to hurt his production. I’m not saying Baker is totally unusable in fantasy now but expectations need to be tempered, and he’s not guaranteed starter anymore. It’s time to play matchups with Baker.
The change to Baker’s production is the hardest to predict as you’re dealing with the whole offense rather than just ‘who gets touches’, this one we will really need to watch a game or 2 to get a sense of the damage done to his qazi-MVP campaign
Ravens Offensive Report:
- On the Ravens side of the ball, Rashod Bateman (4-121-1/4) had the biggest night. This was a combination of Tampa’s poor defense and Zay Flowers (1-11-0/1) hurting his ankle and playing limited snaps the whole night.
- Mark Andrews (4-41-2/4) has now scored in back-to-back games and two this performance. Andrews is dominating the target share like he used to, he’s just getting the TD opportunities.
D/ST Report:
Everybody knows that the Bucs and Ravens have bad defenses, but they are very bad right now.
Tampa has allowed 34.6 ppg in their last 3 matchups, which coincides to when Baker went ‘full-Jameis’. Baltimore isn’t doing much better as they have allowed 30.6 ppg in their last 3 games. There’s something wrong with these defenses and I intend to exploit their passing weaknesses for as long and as often as I can.
image source: (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)