Key Defensive Stats For 3-0 Bucs

The Bucs offensive statistics don't carry much weight because of all their injuries, but defensively Tampa Bay is posting some impressive numbers with one notable concern.

Pass Rush

Per Next Gen Stats, the Bucs are 15th in the NFL in sack rate (sacks per dropback), which is maybe a little bit disappointing. But they are third in the league in pressure rate at 47.4 percent! Right now their pressure-to-sack conversion rate is a pretty brutal 13.8 percent, good enough for just 24th in the league. You’d certainly love for them to be finishing more of those pressures with sacks.

Having said that, most of that is probably small sample size theater. If you are generating pressure at the rate the Bucs are, the conversion rate is going to increase with all those bites at the apple. It’s more important that they are consistently in position for sacks than that they aren’t finishing enough of them right now. The Bucs are currently second in overall pressures with 58.

The bottom line - although the sack numbers are more good than great, if they can sustain their process without Calijah Kancey moving forward, the sacks are going to come in droves. There are very few teams, maybe just the Broncos, Browns and Packers, getting pressure in more sustainable ways than the Bucs.

That’s a big reason why I think the Bucs defense actually should get even better results moving forward. Right now, they are 29th in EPA/dropback allowed on plays where they get pressure. That’s still a negative EPA/dropback for opposing offenses, but not as negative as it should be. Here are two things the Bucs need to do better in order to plummet the success of opposing offenses on plays where Tampa Bay gets pressure: