LA Chargers: Why the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a nightmare matchup

(Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports) – LA Chargers

3. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have thrived in taking the ball away

If you simply look at the overall turnover differential then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may not seem to have that big of an advantage. The Bucs have just a +1 differential while the LA Chargers are at -3. It is still a very small sample size and that could be flipped.

However, the Bucs have turned the ball over quite a bit, which in large part is probably due to the team’s unfamiliarity with each other. Don’t get me wrong, Tom Brady doesn’t have a great arm anymore and he can be picked off, but I would bet that the turnovers continue to go down as the year transpires.

What is scary about the Bucs is that they are tied for the third-most takeaways in the league thus far with six while being one of just six teams with four or more interceptions.

That does not look good for a Chargers team that just committed three first-half turnovers and has a rookie quarterback under center that is going to get pressured all day. The key to the Chargers winning these games is winning the turnover battle and I am not confident that they can do that.

Plus, the Chargers are not a team that forces many turnovers because of the way that they play defense. The team’s only two turnovers, quite frankly, were fluke accidents and were lucky.

Joe Mixon fumbled for the first time since 2017 and Joe Burrow made a massive mistake trying to make a shovel pass, simply tossing the ball to Melvin Ingram.

Tom Brady won’t make that mistake. The Chargers need to flip the script in the turnover department and hope that Justin Herbert can hold-up against this front seven if they are going to sniff a victory.