NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Mike Glennon Will Be X-Factor For Tampa Bay Buccaneers In Week 8

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By @RoKnowsDFS

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It’s safe to say that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have underachieved this season and the pinnacle of that underachievement was their Week 6 embarrassment courtesy of the Baltimore Ravens by a score of 48-17. Some may say that their 56-14 loss to the Atlanta Falcons was worse, but at least that game was in Atlanta against an extremely explosive offense. The loss to the Ravens happened in Tampa Bay and it wasn’t expected to be that much of a blowout especially since they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers and lost a close game to the New Orleans Saints on the road in their last two games. They now get to face the Minnesota Vikings after coming off of a bye week and will look to start “righting the ship” for the remainder of the season. The X-factor for Tampa Bay building momentum in this game and for the remainder of the season is QB Mike Glennon.

Many would say that the Tampa Bay defense would be the x-factor for this contest. However, it has become apparent that the learning curve for them adapting to Lovie Smith‘s “Tampa 2″ defense is steeper than originally expected. Therefore, in order to balance out that deficiency, the Buccaneers will need to keep scoring to keep up with other teams, and they have offensive weapons adequate enough to do this. For starters, they have a twin towers duo at the WR position with Vincent Jackson and Mike Evans who both stand at 6-foot-5. Both of them, Jackson more so than Evans due to a longer career, are extremely dangerous vertical threats in the passing game. Additionally, they usually present favorable mismatches when the CB defending them is usually in the range of 5-foot-10 to 6-foot-2. Along with their dangerous WR tandem, Tampa Bay also has RB Doug Martin. Even though he has been a disappointment so far, he still has the ability to be the same game-changer that he was in 2012. The last weapon to mention is rookie TE Austin Seferian-Jenkins, who is starting to develop into another huge target in the passing game as he is also 6-foot-5. Considering the fact that he was the most recent recipient of the John Mackey Award for being the best TE in college, the upside is there.

After listing most of Tampa Bay’s potent weapons, it becomes clear that they need a viable and competent QB to throw them the ball. Glennon has flashed positive signs of being able to be very successful in terms of doing that. However, there are other times where it’s clear that he is still young, inexperienced and a work-in-progress. His current completion percentage of 57 is evidence of that and his completion percentage over his young career so far is 58.8. To his defense, Glennon currently has seven TDs to go with three INTs and those numbers could be much worse considering his issues with accuracy. However, Glennon holds the keys to driving Tampa Bay’s success in the right direction since any improvement to his accuracy should result in more completions and, more importantly, TDs.

Facing a decent yet exploitable Vikings’ secondary, Glennon will be the main reason why they win or lose. Jackson will be dealing with CB Xavier Rhodes most of the day which should leave very favorable matchups for the other passing options. Glennon has proven that he is not afraid to throw deep and, if successful, can easily put up over 300 yards and three TDs. It’s all up to the former NC State Wolfpack star on Sunday to restore faith within Tampa Bay’s organization and fanbase. Therefore, he is the true x-factor for this game.

Roje Smith is a Fantasy Sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @RoKnowsDFS, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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