Sports

Bucs take down Jets 13-6 in preseason game 2, tighten things up

Bucs vs Jets Notes

The Tampa Buccaneers won their second preseason game 13-6 over the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford New Jersey.

The Bucs had made several improvements in the game after last weeks 27-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Starting QB Kyle Trask improved over his game 1 performance, playing the whole Game. 

Trask went 20-28 for 218 yards and one TD, but it looks like Baker Mayfield getting the starting QB nod makes sense. 

Todd Bowles didn’t come out and name Baker Mayfield the Bucs’ starting quarterback on Saturday night in Tampa Bay’s 13-6 win over the New York Jets.

With a minute left in the third quarter, Jets defensive end Jalyn Holmes brought down the Bucs third QB John Wolford, who took a hard hit on the play as his head slammed onto the turf.

Wolford was carted off of the field and looks like he suffered a neck injury after the play, the Bucs players surrounded him as he was on the turf, getting medical attention.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles provided an update on Wolford.

“He’s feeling better,” Bowles said. “He’s moving around, so that’s the best we can offer right now. The tests came out pretty [well], so we’ll just see how he recovers.”

Several rookies stepped up on Saturday night against the Jets, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

Wide receiver Trey Palmer continues to shine. Just days after smoking Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner in the team’s joint practice, Palmer, the team’s sixth-round pick, caught his second touchdown in the preseason, hauling in a 33-yard strike from Kyle Trask, while tipping the ball to himself and keeping it away from the cornerback in the end zone.

The Bucs’ ground game has been slow to get moving this preseason, but that changed in a big way when Sean Tucker, an  undrafted free agent, raced 26 yards on fourth-and-1 to set up Palmer’s touchdown pass on the next play.

Actually, it was three areas – penalties, tackling, and takeaways. 

The Bucs really cleaned up some of their problem areas from last week’s 27-17 loss to the Steelers. That game was quite sloppy, as the Bucs had 12 penalties for 127 yards, missed a slew of tackles, and had two turnovers on offense while forcing two on defense.

On Saturday night versus New York, Tampa Bay only had seven penalties for 67 yards, cleaned up the tackling on defense, and won the turnover battle 3-0.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was pleased with his team cutting down on the mental mistakes and penalties

The Bucs’ defense forced three takeaways against the Jets. Inside linebacker J.J. Russell kicked things off in the second quarter by forcing a fumble that was recovered by outside linebacker Anthony Nelson.

As the preseason moves forward, look for mayfield to be the started in the final game against the Ravens as well as the Vikings, and look for continued tuning up of the Bucs secondary as well as the full staring squad tightening up for the upcoming season.

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