[Editor’s note: Former Broncos G.M. Ted Sundquist looks at the Monday night game between the Bucs and Panthers.] Two of the best teams the NFC South has to offer tangled in a Monday Night matchup that pitted Carolina vs. Tampa Bay for the lead in the division. This was the second meeting of the two after Tampa Bay thoroughly thumped the Panthers and Carolina could ill afford to give up another win to the Buccaneers. Both teams had momentum heading into the game and both had forged ahead with the play of their defense, running game, and efficient QB play. After being knotted up at 17 through 3 quarters, Carolina pulled away with 21 fourth quarter points and sole possession of first place. The first game had seen a brutal offensive performance by the Panthers with QB Jake Delhomme throwing 3 interceptions. Delhomme had only 9 picks on the season, but another 4 came in a single matchup with the Raiders. KEY #1 would be to eliminate the “freebies” to the Buccaneers by cutting back on the turnovers. Tampa Bay had proven to be a team of opportunity and Carolina tended to provide opportunity in droves at times. As a team, the Panthers were able to keep the giveaways to minimum. Delhomme did throw two interceptions (multiples) and both would ultimately lead to ten total points for the Bucs. But Carolina’s defense was stout enough on other occasions to overcome the mistakes and keep the damage down by a tremendous goal line stand (1st & goal from the 2) in the 2nd quarter after Delhomme’s first pick. KEY #2 was the play of the Panthers’ interior defensive line, and they didn’t let me down. DT’s Maake Kemoeatu and Damione Lewis would need to step up against OC Jeff Faine and Company. The Bucs haven’t been a big play team over the course of ’08 and tend to pound away with efficient running on first down. Warrick Dunn had found his season high in the first game against Carolina (22 for 115) and the Panthers would want to limit the inside damage inflicted by the quickness of Dunn. First indicator of the job Kemoeatu and Lewis did was the outstanding production of LB’s Thomas Davis and Jon Beason. Davis led all tacklers from his MIKE position with 10 and Beason continued to add to an outstanding season with 9 of his own. Kemoeatu had 3 tackles and 1 for a loss, while Lewis added 2 tackles, a sack, one pass defense and a forced fumble. The Bucs rushed for only 84 yards on 24 carries, a long of just 12. I pointed out that in two of their previous three defeats the Panthers were held to under 50 yards rushing and Tampa Bay shut down the Carolina ground game in Game 1 (40 yards). For the Bucs to have a chance on the road they would need more of the same in Game 2 (KEY #3). Carolina has struggled a bit with efficiency in 3rd & medium to long situations and the Bucs would need to suppress the Panther rushing attack on first down (ranked 29th at 35.2% efficiency). Overall, Tampa Bay failed miserably. Carolina rushed for 299 yards and an 8.1 average. Both DeAngelo Williams (186) and rookie Jonathan Stewart (115) eclipsed the 100 yard mark and each scored two TD’s. Defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and the rest of the Bucs defense had no answer for the Carolina ground game. The Panthers knocked off runs of 9, 40, 7, 6, 11, 9, 41 & 16 on first down. Two rushing TD’s came off first downs as well and Carolina was able to manage 3rd downs much better as a result (8 of 10). Studying the League it became evident that Tampa Bay was one of the more efficient throwing teams on first down and head coach John Gruden showed no reluctance doing so. The Bucs were 59.4% in passing efficiency on first and Carolina had shut down that very tactic to a ranking of 6th in the NFL. KEY #4 would be QB Jeff Garcia’s ability to generate some production at the start of a series. Garcia had done an excellent job of spreading the wealth to his skilled positions and he had shown effectiveness in the first game against the Panthers with a 117.3 rating. The Tampa game plan was “interesting” to say the least. Garcia went 3 & out on the opening series after throwing for 5 yards on first down. The next series saw a 14 play drive end with a missed FG that included 4 runs & an incomplete on first downs. The ensuing series included 1 run and 2 INC’s that led to a FG and the Bucs closed out the half with a completion for 5 yards and a sack on 1st. Three total points and relatively an inefficient performance overall. The second half was bit more indicative of accomplishing the key with 3 completions on first down off their second drive (1 for 39 yards) and a resulting TD. Their 5th drive included completions of 20, 8 & 9 yards on first down and ended in a score as well. In contrast, two other drives ended with punts after going for runs of 6 & 2 yards, then two successive incompletions on 1st. Their first of 3 scores in the final 30 minutes came on a 50 yard “big play” scoring pass to Antonio Bryant (2nd down) that followed a first down run for -1 by Dunn. My point is that their rhythm appeared much better when succeeding on first down via the pass. KEY #5 was the production of Carolina’s Mark Jones in the punt return game. Jones did an admirable job on two returns staying near his season average of close to 12 yards. He had 2 for 21 (a long of 12) but didn’t really factor in the outcome of the game.
TED SUNDQUIST’S WEEK FOURTEEN GAME REVIEWS: BUCS AT PANTHERS
Published December 12, 2008 09:43 AM