Welcome to The FitzMatrix, a dream world where nothing makes sense
By Josh Hill
We’ve officially graduated from FitzMagic to The FitzMatrix — an alternate reality where nothing makes sense and the Buccaneers are good.
It’s hard to not like Ryan Fitzpatrick. His story is one that almost every football fan knows; Harvard grad who has carved out a career as a journeyman in the NFL unlike any before him. There have been guys, like Josh McCown, who have made a name for themselves as a backup in the league but there’s only one Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The joke has become that if your team has Fitzy on your team it’s bad news for the starting quarterback. Jameis Winston’s issues are bigger than football, but the formula for the man we’ve all dubbed FitzMagic exists in Tampa. Through the first two games of the season, Fitzpatrick has eight touchdowns and is closing in on 1,000 yards passing.
We’ve moved past FitzMagic and are now in The FitzMatrix — a dream world where the Buccaneers are one of the best teams in football.
What makes this so incredible is that the expectations were so low heading into the season. Jameis Winston was a dark cloud hanging over the team, last season’s 5-11 finish left a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths, and Dirk Koetter was a popular pick to be the first head coach fired.
Two games into the season, Tampa Bay is one of the best offenses in football and are alone atop the NFC South. Nothing about it makes much sense, but it’s starting to look less and less like a fluke. Sometimes teams get caught on the wrong week, which was the assumption after the Saints allowed 48-points to Tampa in Week 1. Every touchdown the Buccaneers scored, including the opener against the Eagles, were home runs; the offense wasn’t scoring subtly. Big swings were paying off, but that’s not what a good unit is built on.
But Fitzpatrick led the Bucs on actual scoring drives, pieced together by actual plays, against a Super Bowl caliber defense. There was a home run to O.J. Howard, but Tampa scored on two other drives that consisted of six and seven plays respectively, the latter taking almost ten minutes off the clock.
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The team is still bigger than Fitzpatrick, no matter how unconscionably well he’s playing. The defense needs to prove it’s worth its salt and the Bucs still don’t have a kicker. Dirk Koetter still has a losing record as a head coach and not even fans in Tampa would be able to pick Todd Moeken out of a grocery line. But the Buccaneers have something they haven’t had in years — a quarterback in a groove who can be relied on. It cannot be expressed how much stress that takes off the rest of the team.
Saying that Tampa Bay will be this year’s surprise Super Bowl champion is still extremely facetious, but to call Ryan Fitzpatrick the real deal is not. On a long enough timeline, opportunities to be great will arise. Fitzpatrick has been consistent in being present for those moments but it seems he’s finally seized one in a big way.