By By Ken Filler | Tampa Bay Sports Journal
TAMPA — Baker Mayfield should expect to see a lot of purple coming at him on Sunday afternoon.
Minnesota defensive coordinator Brian Flores has sent an extra rusher on nearly 80 percent of the Vikings’ defensive snaps through two games.
The Vikings’ defense crowds the line, shifts before the snap, and will force Baker Mayfield to decide quickly who is coming and who is dropping.
The defense is one reason the Vikings are 2-0. The Buccaneers are 0-2 for a plethora of reasons.
You don’t want to say this is a must-win game, but it is as close to a must-win game as you can have this early in the season.
The Buccaneers’ offensive line must figure out the Vikings’ blitz defense quickly, or it will be a long afternoon for Baker Mayfield.
The Bucs know what happens when they help the other team. Four turnovers helped sink them in Cincinnati.
Penalties and missed red-zone opportunities followed against Cleveland.
Minnesota’s pressure is built to turn one uncertain protection call into another drive-killing mistake.
Todd Bowles knows what his offense is facing.
“They have very good chaos, but they understand where it’s going,” the Bucs coach said of Flores’ defense.
That is a useful distinction. Minnesota may look frantic before the snap, but the Vikings know the assignment.
Watch Tristan Wirfs against Dallas Turner
There will be plenty happening near Mayfield on Sunday, but keep an eye on the left edge of Tampa Bay’s line.
Vikings outside linebacker Dallas Turner has three sacks and 20 quarterback pressures through two games.
He can rush from either side, so this will not be a one-on-one matchup on every snap. When Turner lines up across from Tristan Wirfs, though, it will be one of the best battles on the field.
Wirfs is the man the Buccaneers trust most with Mayfield’s blind side.
Turner has the speed to threaten the corner and the closing burst to reach a quarterback who thinks he has escaped.
Winning that matchup would give Mayfield room to step into throws when Minnesota sends help from somewhere else.
It would not, by itself, solve the blitz. Flores can show pressure over Wirfs, drop that defender into coverage, and send someone through the middle instead.
A tackle can do his job perfectly while a free rusher arrives untouched from another direction.
That is why the protection call, the back’s pickup and Mayfield’s read matter as much as any individual block.
The Bucs cannot spend Sunday staring at the rush and hoping Wirfs saves every play.
Give Baker somewhere to go with the ball
The Buccaneers’ best answer begins before the snap.
Mayfield and the offensive line have to identify where the pressure is most likely to come from and decide how to handle it.
If Minnesota sends more rushers than the Bucs can block, Mayfield needs a receiver ready for the ball immediately.
That means quick throws with a purpose: a slant behind a blitzing linebacker, a tight end settling into open space, or Bucky Irving slipping out after the defense commits.
Screens and draws can punish defenders who charge upfield. The run game must keep Tampa Bay out of third-and-long, when Flores has even more reason to bring everything but the kitchen sink.
None of those calls is a magic fix. They require clean timing, secure catches, and the discipline to take a modest gain when that is what the defense gives up.
Against the Vikings, a six-yard completion can be a winning play. Trying to turn every snap into a rescue mission is how the ball ends up on the ground or in the wrong hands.
Mayfield has already put his finger on what has been maddening about this start.
“We’re moving the ball at times, and then just shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said this week.
“We just can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over.”
He is right. The Bucs have shown enough to believe they can move the football. Now they have to finish drives without handing away the work they did to get there.
Tampa Bay needs a full-game answer
Flores will adjust. If the Bucs hurt Minnesota with quick passes, he can change the coverage behind the pressure.
If they keep extra blockers in, he can make Mayfield find an open receiver with fewer route options.
The Buccaneers’ offensive coordinator, Zac Robinson, needs answers ready for the next adjustment, too.
That is the test Sunday. Wirfs must hold up when Turner comes his way. The interior line must sort out the rushers crowding the middle.
Irving must recognize when to protect and when he can become Mayfield’s outlet.
And Mayfield must know when to attack the space Minnesota leaves open and when to live for the next down.
At 0-2, the Buccaneers do not need a lecture about urgency. They need a clean Sunday against a defense that makes clean football difficult.
Flores is going to bring pressure. Everyone in Raymond James Stadium will see it coming.
What matters is whether the Buccaneers have an answer once the ball is snapped.
