The Minnesota Vikings are still undefeated, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers remain winless. Minnesota continued its winning ways on Sunday, with quarterback Kyler Murray returning and helping the Vikings come away with a 23-16 victory over the Buccaneers to improve to 3-0. The win wasn't the most impressive showing for the Vikings' offense, though, as they put up 230 total yards of offense and rode another impressive defensive performance to victory.
On the flip side, the Buccaneers might be in danger. They fell to 0-3, and quarterback Baker Mayfield might face an extended absence after suffering a thumb injury late in Sunday's game. Here are my takeaways from the Vikings' win over the Buccaneers.
All three losses have been close, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Bucs are now 0-3, and head coach Todd Bowles is getting close to running out of time. To make matters worse, Baker Mayfield left the game in the final two minutes with what looked to be an injury to his throwing hand. If it was hard to win with Mayfield at quarterback, it will be much worse with an undrafted rookie starting in Jalon Daniels.
Bowles’ defense played well Sunday, but another big special-teams mistake and an uninspired offense did them in against the Vikings. They’ll try to avoid their third home loss in as many weeks when the Green Bay Packers come to town. And as bad as Green Bay has been, it’s a game the Bucs and Bowles need desperately to win.
Tampa Bay went into the year as the team to beat in the NFC South, and that’s still in play if the Buccaneers can start turning close losses into close wins. If they don’t do that soon, you wonder how much patience the Glazer family will have. The Bucs lost seven of their last nine to finish last season and miss the playoffs.
Add it up, and they’re 3-11 in their last 14 games. Even in a bad division, coaches don’t get to stick around with too much sustained losing like that. After the Packers, the Buccaneers have a short week going to the Dallas Cowboys.
If they can’t win either of those, they’d be 0-5, and it’s possible the Bucs use the mini-bye to make a major change. The Glazer family has never changed coaches during a season in 30-plus years of owning the Bucs, but fans were already calling for Bowles’ job down the stretch last year. When the Vikings added Jauan Jennings from the 49ers, it looked like they might have one of the best 1-2-3 receiver combos in the league with Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
Jefferson missed most of Sunday's game with an ankle injury, though, so it was a chance for the rest of the receivers to step up in his absence. Addison made a big impact on one drive — with a 30-yard sideline catch and a 41-yard touchdown — but otherwise, the receivers were nowhere to be found. Addison totaled 14 yards the rest of the game, and Jennings had a single 1-yard catch, his only statistical contribution in the first three games.
Jefferson might not miss any time and play next week against the Dolphins, but the rest of the receivers need to step up in a big way to keep defenses from collapsing their coverage around the only dangerous part of the passing game right now. Tampa Bay’s defense was missing two top rookies Sunday in edge rusher Rueben Bain and linebacker Josiah Trotter, but the biggest takeaway from their first three games is the absence of takeaways. The Buccaneers got a pick-six from Trotter in their season-opening loss to the Bengals, and that was their lone takeaway in the first two games — only three NFL teams had fewer entering the weekend.
They got another Sunday when Vita Vea batted a pass at the line that caromed into the hands of defensive lineman A’Shawn Robinson, but the offense couldn’t take advantage of the short field and only got a field goal. But there isn’t enough pressure on opposing quarterbacks, so risky throws are rarely made. If the Buccaneers are unable to create pressure, then their secondary has to create takeaways.
