NFL Columnist: Bucs Will Win NFC South
September 19th, 2022
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
Now Joe is happy as the next guy, the Bucs are 2-0.
One of the Joes thought the first four games of the season would be brutal and the Bucs would be lucky to come out with a 2-2 record.
They are 2-0 already and next will face soft Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Rodgers, historically, melts like a slice of Velveeta on a sizzling cheeseburger in warm weather games. Plus, he’s always whining about the turf at The Licht House.
The high temperature for Sunday’s late afternoon kickoff is expected to be 89. Oh, and Rodgers has a losing record in games played in Tampa.
Joe fully expects the Bucs to be 3-0 a week from now. Great start to the season. Still, there is a ton of football to be played.
Long-time NFL writer/columnist Clark Judge of SI.com thinks the race for the NFC South is done after the Bucs punched the slimy Saints in the mouth near the French Quarter yesterday and stole their lunch money. Why? Defense, the schedule and the rest of the unimpressive NFC South.
Tampa Bay will be the first to clinch its division. Two reasons: Defense and competition. The Bucs have the defense, allowing 13 points in their first two wins, and they don’t have the competition. Tampa Bay is 2-0. The rest of the division is 1-5.
Judge makes a helluva point with the rest of the division. The other three teams already have five losses. Big advantage early.
But Joe cannot sit here on a Sunday morning and proclaim Tampa Bay the NFC South champions right now. You just know the slimy Saints will come to Tampa in December breathing fire and looking for a brawl, both metaphorically and literally.
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