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The Jacksonville Jaguars get a much needed bye this weekend after their trip to London, but the 0-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers will not get much of a break as they head to Seattle this weekend to face the stingy defense of the Seahawks.
The Bucs will have an advantage in terms of rest heading into the match up as they last played on October 24th, a Thursday night game against the Panthers. On the other hand, the Seahawks are coming off a Monday Night Football performance in which the offense was anemic (135 yards of offense, 7 first downs) in a 14-9 victory over the Rams. Bucs cornerback Darrelle Revis says he expects a much better performance from them on Sunday.
“They’re a good team, they’ve got a lot of playmakers,” Revis said. “You’ve got to give it to them, [head coach] Pete Carroll is doing a great job.”
Former Gator All-American and current Seattle wideout Percy Harvin will not be active for Sunday’s game, as he still recovers from injury and the Seahawks will also be without receiver Sidney Rice who is out due to a season-ending knee injury. Rice was their tallest receiver at 6’4″, so not having him lined up on the outside will certainly be a factor the Tampa Bay secondary keys on. However, the defense will still need to contain dual threat quarterback Russell Wilson in order to keep the game close. Revis says even without Rice, he expects Russell Wilson to be aggressive.
“He has a very strong arm, he can launch it. You look at their passing attack, they take a lot of shots downfield,” Revis said. “In the secondary we’ve got to be ready to go.”
Tampa Bay will look to avoid its worst start since losing its first nine games in 1985 by earning a fourth straight victory over Seattle. The game kicks off at 4:05 from CenturyLink Field.
The other notable matchups this weekend include Falcons-Panthers, Steelers-Patriots, Colts-Texans and Packers-Bears.
