NFL: Coin Toss: Will Fitzmagic hit Pittsburgh?

Week 3 ends with a bang: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-0), the surprise team of the first two weeks, welcome the Pittsburgh Steelers (0-1-1) – who already have their backs to the wall. Can the Bucs extend their perfect start to the season? In the Coin Toss is discussed, you can see the game from 2.15 a.m. live on DAZN!

mySPOX user Moo_NFL: After four years, the Buccaneers are back against Pittsburgh. The signs are as expected: An undefeated team against a team that wants to prevent a false start – but the roles are reversed. The Steelers last forgot to send a competitive defense on the field and Fitzmagic makes sure that the bucs are really excited about the game, not about Jameis Winston’s ending suspension.

So the answer to how the bucs can win this game is quickly given: Keep playing like this. The performance of the Tampa offense so far is well described by the following fact: After two weeks, Fitzpatrick (QB), Marpet (O-Line), Jackson (WR) and OJ Howard (TE) are the best rated players on all important offense positions according to Pro Football Focus.

Mike Evans (3rd place WR) and Chris Godwin (11th place WR) also rank where they had been hoped for before the season. This dominance can also be seen in the ANY+/RR statistic, in which the previous top 10 consists of three Bucs players.

Much of the praise is due to Todd Monken, who announces moves in the NFL for the first time, attacking the opponent’s schematic weaknesses and contributing his own strengths. The big plays are memorable, but it is above all the consistency that is convincing: 54 percent of all dropbacks have so far resulted in a new first down, an absurd value.

The duel against the Steelers Defense seems to be a mismatch. In 1-on-1 matchups, Receiving Corps should be superior to the Secondary (Joe Haden’s return should help the Steelers) as well as O.J. Howard against the Linebackers and Monken has proven that he can take advantage of this.

However, there are also problems: The extremely high level of the bucs open will regress, as will the low level of the steelers defense against KC. While the Chiefs’ first three drives were almost completely defenceless, the Chiefs were made to work at least for their money as the game progressed.

In addition, there is also a mismatch on the other side of the ball, with much less than 30 points the bucs will have a hard time winning this game. Hope is that Brent Grimes will return to the shaky secondary and McCoy and Curry could attack the right side of the Steelers’ O-Line, where DeCastro is likely to fail and Gilbert (also doubtful) did not prove himself saddled up against the Chiefs against the bull-rush.

The Bucs are suddenly thinly occupied in the Interior D-Line, since Beau Allen drops out and Vita Vea has trained again after his seven-week laughing fit, but still cannot be used. All in all, the hope therefore definitely rests again on the offense breathed in by magic.

Adrian Franke (SPOX): The big question about the Bucs at the end of the day is: When does the Ryan Fitzpatrick flight end? I think we both agree that Fitzpatrick’s whole career was marked by these roller coaster rides, and we are currently experiencing – admittedly particularly high – highs on this ride.

Fitz has such a barely constant combination of successful downfield passing game with few turnover risk plays, and of course he benefits from the great play designs and play calling in Tampa. Against the Eagles he was, like before against the Saints, again strong against the Blitz and against Pressure, he is determined in his reads and the vertical approach suits him – so how does Pittsburgh stop this offense?

Joe Haden will be a key factor. The Steelers play a zone coverage that often turns into man coverage during the play and against Kansas City we saw that Pittsburgh doesn’t have the individual class to begin with. The zone concepts were too transparent for this, so that Patrick Mahomes repeatedly found the gaps between the zones.

Currently everything points to the fact that Haden can play and that may also give the Steelers more courage for coverage variety. It must be a goal not to give Fitzpatrick those clear reads he had too often in the first two weeks. He has already shown a tendency to run in sacks and pressures again and Tampa Bay cannot rely on his run game; Peyton Barber stands at 2.6 yards per run and has scored two first downs on 35 runs.

But when I argue for the best way for Pittsburgh to win the game, I also look at the matchup against Tampa Bay’s defense. The bucs are having trouble putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks again this year; currently they have six players with at least 35 pass rush snaps, these six players have a total of 31 QB pressures in their account.

If the Bucs are not able to put Roethlisberger under pressure, then they have a problem. Against the Chiefs without Pressures, he made over 68 percent of his passes for 358 yards and 7.6 yars per pass, and Tampa Bay’s secondary is no better than Kansas City. At least Guard David De Castro’s retirement should make Tampa’s job a little easier.

At the same time, however, there are no answers in the Bucs Secondary to JuJu Smith-Schuster, who has played an outstanding season so far, especially in the Underneath Passing Game, in combination with Antonio Brown Outside of course. If Pittsburgh succeeds in getting Smith-Schuster against the bucs’ zone coverage in matchups against the linebackers, then he can have a decisive influence on the game.

I don’t expect miracles from Pittsburgh in the run game, here Tampa’s investment in the defensive line is more noticeable – the Buccaneers only allow 3.6 yards per run. The question will be whether Pittsburgh even needs the run game to win this game.