The Tampa Bay Buccaneers failed to exploit two of the five areas I identified last week leading into their Monday Night match-up against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and didn’t fully challenge one until later in the game when they were in full-blown catch-up mode.
Had the Bucs been able to keep Juju Smith-Schuster from turning short catches into big gains, and had Vance McDonald not come up with his one big play of the night, it’s safe to say the Steelers would not have grabbed the early momentum they did.
A lack of creativity in the offense allowed the Steelers to diagnose and react to the Tampa Bay offense all night, leading to many hits on Ryan Fitzpatrick which contributed to his poor night securing the football.