Since being humiliated on Thursday night football against the Falcons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have bounced back positively. Second year quarterback Mike Glennon has replaced injured veteran Josh McCown as the starting quarterback and played well. The Bucs have been involved in two shoot-outs since that loss to the Falcons, beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh 27-24 before losing in overtime in New Orleans to the Saints, 37-31. With McCown as the starter, Tampa had failed to score more than 17 points in a game. With Glennon, they average 29 over those last two games.
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Clearly, the Bucs have got something going on offense with Glennon under center. The biggest threat to Baltimore’s defense this Sunday is Vincent Jackson. Tampa Bay paid a lot of money to land Jackson in free agency back in 2012. He’s had back-to-back 1200+ yard seasons since his move, and is starting to build a strong partnership with Glennon.
Glennon shows a huge amount of trust in his number one receiver. Jackson is a big target that can go up and get the ball, and Glennon makes the most of that.
Here, Jackson is facing man-coverage, running down the sideline.
Glennon trusts Jackson so much in one-on-one match ups that he’s more than happy to throw it up to Jackson without Jackson knowing the ball is coming. He trusts Jackson to locate the ball and adjust to it.
Jackson turns his head and realizes the ball is in the air. He puts on the breaks to stop his route and works back to the ball.
Jackson works back inside to a poorly located pass, but the corner has no idea it’s coming. Jackson’s sudden adjustment catches the defender off-guard, who’s momentum takes him past Jackson’s adjustment.
Jackson makes the grab and the defender has no chance of stopping him.
This is just a small glimpse of Glennon trusting Jackson to be on the same wavelength. Jackson repaid that trust and made the big play for the first down. Later on, Glennon and Jackson hooked up again.
This time, Jackson lines up as the inside receiver in a trips right set. He runs a quick in-breaking route.
But after Jackson comes out of his break, Glennon feels pressure and is forced to scramble out of the pocket. Jackson initially works back to the quarterback to give him a target.
But Jackson has two defenders trailing him. He’s aware enough to peel off back inside to the open field.
Glennon spots the move from Jackson and adjusts his body and feet to allow himself to get a throw out in front of Jackson.
The throw is perfect, hitting Jackson in stride, who is able to bring in the catch and pick up a critical first down on their way to beating the Saints.
This connection could cause the Ravens defense troubles, particularly in the red zone where Baltimore have been so strong this year.
As a 6’5” receiver that can high-point the football, Jackson is the ideal candidate to run the fade route on the goalline.
Some quarterbacks have trouble throwing the fade, not trusting their receiver to go up and get it over the defender. But Glennon has no such qualms throwing the Jackson. As soon as Glennon’s back foot hits the top of his drop, he’s releasing the ball, trusting Jackson will come down with it.
Jackson uses every inch of his length to go up and high-point the ball. The defender has no chance of disrupting the catch and Jackson comes away with the touchdown.
Tampa Bay is a team Baltimore should beat. But the Ravens will have to find a way of keeping Jackson quiet if they want to stop this game turning into the Bucs third shoot-out in as many games.
Mark is an NFL follower from across the pond. He began analyzing Redskins football for SBNation’s HogsHaven.com, before moving on to The Washington Post. He also helps with NFL Draft coverage on FanSpeak.com. Mark was born and still lives in England, often battling the time difference to watch every minute of football he can.