On Saturday night the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced the Houston Texans in what was their final pre-season game of the season. With it being the very last tune-up game starters were expected to get some reps in, and boy did they ever.
On offense, things started out slowly for the Buccaneers, as they were forced to a three-and-out during their first drive, something you never want to see from your team while they face a lowly Texans team. Then Tom Brady awoke and started slinging passes like the Tom Brady we all know and love.
It was insanely impressive to me that Brady could be out there, at 44 years of age, and be firing passes with perfect precision and timing. If I wasn’t an NFL fan I would have never thought Brady was almost 45 years old. To me, he looked just as good as a spring-chicken 25-year-old QB.
Brady was on fire during his time in the game, completing 11 of 14 passes and finishing with 154 total passing yards, as well as one touchdown. His TD pass was thrown to Chris Godwin, who he himself looked like he was in mid-season form.
His ability to run the ball after the catch looked amazing last night, and was the reason he scored the touchdown off the Brady throw. Godwin finished with 84 yards on 3 receptions, which is quite an enormous average per reception.
It wasn’t all good news for the Bucs however, as their running game looked absolutely dismal Saturday night. The runners just couldn’t find the holes and were being stymied during every run play. I’m not discounting that the Texans had a decent defense to stop the Bucs runners, but when you’re the defending champs, you need to be firing on all cylinders.
Tampa Bay runners finished with just 52 yards the entire game. That is unacceptable. If I’m Bruce Arians I am trying to figure out a way to awaken this Buccaneers run game before the season starts. You can only rely on Tom Brady to do so much.
Other than that, the team looked solid and ready for a meeting with the Dallas Cowboys (although they do need to tighten some kinks beforehand). I’m looking forward to seeing what our boys in red and orange are going to do come week 1 of the NFL season. Are you?