How Buccaneers can finish the season stronger than they started

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 6-2 going into their bye week, but they haven't played perfect football. With the talent they have and the roll they're on, they have the potential to be even better in the second half of the season.

Tampa Bay has three really tough games ahead of it (New England Patriots, Buffalo Bills, Los Angeles Rams). If the Bucs wanna get out of that stretch relatively unscathed, there are at least three things they could do to improve their game ahead of this next run.

Re-establish the run game

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving (7) attempts to stiff arm Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper Dejean (33) | Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Tampa Bay's run game has severely dropped off from where it was last year. As it stands through Week 8 (today's Sunday games not included), the Bucs are 24th in the league in rush yards per game and are 28th in yards per rush, which makes their offensive gameplanning much more difficult.

A part of that is the absence of running back Bucky Irving, who should be back soon, but he's still averaging below 4.0 yards per attempt this season. The offensive line being beat up too doesn't help, but offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard has got to get creative with his playcalls in the run game and try and kickstart it in a similar way that Liam Coen did last year.

To Grizzard's credit, the Bucs actually rank sixth in the NFL in EPA per play on rushing attempts on third and fourth down with 0.485 EPA/play. They're converting on 63.0% of their third downs rushing and 80.0% of their fourth downs rushing, per SumerSports. A lot of that is likely Baker Mayfield' scrambling heroics, but perhaps the Bucs can find out what works there and then apply it to the rest of their run game as a whole.

Find a solution at inside linebacker

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebackers Lavonte David (54) and Sirvocea Dennis (8) against the New York Jets | Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images

The Buccaneers have a big, big problem at inside linebacker, and if they want to improve on defense, they'll have to find a solution for it.

Per Pro Football Focus, linebacker SirVocea Dennis has given up 484 yards in coverage this year — more than any player in the NFL by their metrics. He's also missed nine tackles in coverage, the second-worst number in the NFL behind Patriots linebacker Robert Spillane. If you look at his coverage grade, too, his 29.1 is the worst among any NFL player with a minimum number of snaps.

Simply put, Dennis has been a liability in coverage for Tampa Bay all year. The Bucs need to find a solution to that problem, either by adding another linebacker at the trade deadline or perhaps trying other players, like Deion Jones, a bit more often on obvious passing downs.

Keep up the turnovers

Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. (31) reacts after a touchdown during the second quarter against the Saints — Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr. (31) reacts after a touchdown during the second quarter against the New Orleans Saints | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

The Buccaneers have a good thing going when it comes to the turnover game. Todd Bowles said he wanted ballhawks at the NFL combine, and so far, that's been working quite well.

As it stands, the Buccaneers are tied for fourth in the NFL with total turnovers (12) and are also fourth in turnover differential (+7). That's winning football, and it shows that the Bucs are able to take the ball away while Baker Mayfield (despite some close calls) is also doing a great job keeping the ball out of the opposing team's hands.

The Bucs defense got four turnovers on the day against the New Orleans Saints last week. While that's quite a lot, a steady margin for the rest of the year should translate into some big wins.

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