The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ offense was entirely crippled by the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football.
The Bucs were outgained 275-58 in the first half of the contest and quarterback Baker Mayfield completed just 56% of his passes on a whopping 50 attempts. The team looked shaky all night, and as a result, only put up nine points in a rough 24-9 loss. So what exactly happened to a Bucs offense that was piloted by an MVP candidate heading into this Week 7 matchup.
As it turns out, Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard did something against the Bucs that no other team has done — and other defenses could try and do the same thing when they face off against the Bucs from here on out.
Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard watches a replay against Tampa Bay Buccaneers. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Detroit Lions played almost a 50/50 split of man and zone coverage against the Bucs on Monday night, and their strategy paid off dividends.
Per SumerSports’ database, the Detroit Lions played zone coverage on 55.7% of their snaps and man coverage on 43.0% percent of their snaps. That 43% is still much bigger than the average man coverage rates of the other teams the Bucs have played at 24% man coverage, but that gap gets more interesting when you just look at passing plays — the Lions were in man coverage 52% of the time, up from just 21.4% of the time from the rest of Tampa Bay’s games this year.
That’s a big departure from the rest of the year. There are a few reasons why this game plan could have worked.
First, Detroit’s vaunted defensive line got a ton of pressure against an injured Bucs o-line, and that allowed Detroit’s defensive backs to be stickier in coverage without having to spend too much time doing so. PFF credited the Lions with an insane 40 pressures, and as a result, Mayfield had to get the ball out very quickly. That allows Detroit’s DBs to get more aggressive, which can suffocate wideouts.
That split between man and zone is also something quarterback Baker Mayfield hasn’t ever seen this year, so it may have come as a surprise to him — prior to this game, the highest rate of man coverage he’d seen on passing plays was 34.5% against the New York Jets. The Lions came into the game with the NFL’s fourth-highest man coverage rating in the NFL at 38% man coverage, so seeing it quite a bit is to be expected, but the Lions were in zone 73.3% of the time the week before against the Kansas City Chiefs. Mayfield was rattled all night, and keeping up with the balanced defensive attack could be a reason why.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard watches the action against the Pittsburgh Steelers / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images
As you can see, a lot of things went into why this strategy worked. In order to combat it, the Buccaneers need to ensure protection is better and Mayfield can’t be as jittery with the changing coverages — but the onus also falls onto offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard, who can also ensure his wideouts are schemed open to prevent lack of separation from becoming too much of a problem on Tampa Bay’s offense. With Mike Evans out for a while, the Bucs are losing a contested catch wideout, which could make a lack of separation on offense even more glaring.
Head coach Todd Bowles was asked about this balanced approach on Tuesday after the game, and he mentioned that mixing up coverages can make scheming players open quite tough — but that the Bucs have to do a better job of that anyway.
When you’re chipping with the tight end and the [running] back and trying to just get three guys open, it’s awfully tough when they were mixing the coverages like that,” Bowles said of the split in coverage. “They were getting pressure up the middle [and] even if they weren’t getting there, they were kind of disrupting where his feet were. We’ve got to do a better job of protecting, but we’ve got to do a better job of getting open, as well.”
With the Lions shutting down the Buccaneers’ offense on Monday night, it will be interesting to see if other defensive coordinators will attempt to do the same thing Sheppard did against Tampa Bay. And if they do, the Bucs will have to figure out how to scheme receivers open and attack man coverage better — if they don’t, the Lions could have handed other teams the blueprint for how to attack Josh Grizzard’s offense.
READ MORE: Buccaneers get major boost with key defender back at practice
Stick with BucsGameday for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the 2025 season.
Follow BucsGameday on Twitter and Facebook
• Buccaneers may have hit jackpot with standout rookie
• Buccaneers starter who fans wanted cut is having a huge 2025 season
• Stephen A. Smith drops bold take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers