Playoffs Run?
September 5th, 2018
There may be a scent of playoffs in the air come Christmas time.
Or will that just be Ira Kaufman after wolfing down a beet salad?
Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com is looking at his Christmas cheat sheet (in September no less!) and he believes Santa may just have a present for Bucs fans.
The Bucs will be a win away from a potential playoff berth while fans are changing the TV channels often to avoid those dumb foreign-made car commercials, where they try to con innocent folks that one cannot have a pleasant holiday season without buying their significant other a $40,000 rig.
And why will the Bucs be in the thick of a playoff chase? Because America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, puts this team on his back, types Rosenthal.
The final team in the mix for the final playoff spot is perhaps the most surprising. The high-flying Bucs have won four of five games, with an 8-4 overall record since Jameis Winston’s return from suspension. The tiebreakers are mostly unkind for Tampa, and the Week 17 opponent (Atlanta) remains daunting, but the Buccaneers have been counted out plenty of times before this season.
Joe truly believes if the Bucs are a win away from a potential playoff berth, this area will go bananas. That would set up a home finale against the Dixie Chicks in the biggest game played in Tampa for the Bucs since they tanked for Jameis to end the 2014 season.
And if the Bucs have eight wins right after Christmas, would it be fair to suggest the Bucs finally turned the Den of Depression into a home field advantage?
September 5th, 2018 at 12:07 am
You drinking way to much koolaid joe. The only run this team is making is straight to the basement
September 5th, 2018 at 12:14 am
Make it happen!
September 5th, 2018 at 12:34 am
Last year, even with the disaster of a season that it was, the Bucs were 4-1 versus teams under .500, and there really wasn’t too many games that Bucs were truly out of. The Bucs played a ridiculous 10 games versus playoff teams, you’d have to hope something breaks well for the Bucs and their schedule. Meanwhile the puffcakes in the AFC South, the Jags and Titans, both beat the same number of playoff teams as the Bucs did in the regular season, one.
The Bucs could, perhaps, make a big turnaround this year. When Winston is back the team could legitimately go on a big run, there’s no reason to think that isn’t a possibility. As the saying goes if you have a franchise QB, and you let him play and don’t tell him to play for FGs, or that QB just ignores the coach saying play for a FG and goes out and wins the game himself, then good things can happen.
September 5th, 2018 at 12:36 am
I’m not drinking that koolaid this time of the year!
September 5th, 2018 at 12:52 am
I was listening to Sirius radio NFL channel and they are forecasting three wins for Tampa Bay this year WTF ?!
September 5th, 2018 at 2:01 am
I’ll believe it when I see it.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:31 am
Well yeah Soofierce, somebody in the NFL will win 3 games or less virtually every year since the latest divisional realignment occurred in 2002. And the Buccaneers are a strong candidate for that with 3 future HOF quarterbacks in the NFC South while the Bucs are stuck with a man child for a quarterback who’s also a walking suspension thanks to his poor judgement and character off the field while refusing to follow the gameplan the coaching staff give him when he’s on the field.
Really, especially after the Khalil Mack trade I cannot find any other team in the NFC that’s in worse shape than the Buccaneers. Frankly, I suspect by the beginning of October most if not all of us rational posters here on JBF will agree with me as we witness the horror show of 2018 before leading us into the real light (not #LichtsOut) at the end of the tunnel with a regime change and especially a high draft pick used to grab our new franchise quarterback in 2019.
By the way, please no Will Grier, how many damn times does this franchise has to draft a QB with off field problems in the 1st round?
September 5th, 2018 at 2:37 am
I have heard predictions ranging from 13 losses to around 0.500, case in point: BSPN has the Bucs at a power ranking of 28 or so just ahead of the mighty Fins, Jets, Browns etc and are saying the Bucs will be 6-10 so the predictions are all over the place but a double loss season will likely mark the end of the Koetter era and could help run Jason Licht to boot. I hope Greg Rosenthal hits paydirt but December is a long ways away but a lot of people are really burying the Bucs a tad early as well, perhaps they will surprise much as the Rays are doing over at the Trop at 75-63 and already nudging past their over/under for wins that everyone was betting the under (if not 110 losses or so according to some of the same media outlets that have the Bucs as a bottom feeder) on after their rash of injuries and cost cutting trades so anything is possible……..
September 5th, 2018 at 4:07 am
Great minds and all that.
Alaskan Abdominal Snowman Says:
July 12th, 2018 at 6:38 pm
Sorry doom and gloom crowd but we are going 10-6.
If not…bye bye coaches and GM. I like our GM very much too, especially in some of the drafts but I can’t excuse another losing season. You’ve had time to build and develop, so now it’s time to put it together.
Fitz goes 1-2 and Jameis 9-4 with a top 12 defense and another top 5 offense. Oh and hopefully a kicker that isn’t a choke hazard.
Jameis has a coming out year and all the nancy-boys retreat to their mom’s basements, secretly hoping Jameis does something else to prove you were right about him all along.
Go BUCS!!
September 5th, 2018 at 4:11 am
I’m as hopeful as most Joe that our Bucs will have a winning season, BUT … predictions by Rosenthal that we’ll be a playoff contender BECAUSE America’s QB “puts this team on his back” are laughable. Oh wait, those weren’t Rosenthal’s words from what I read; sounds more like they were your words Joe.
With everyone healthy, this year’s team has a LOT of POTENTIAL with some decent starting talent AND some depth. We still have some holes, but every team does. We don’t need the Lone Ranger to come riding in with a hearty ‘Hi Yo Silver, Away’ to save the day. It needs EVERYONE ‘playing up to their POTENTIAL’ on game days for a full 60 minutes every game. Historically, we don’t do that very well. HOPEFULLY this’ll be the year we turn that around … as a TEAM.
I know this’ll be a shock Joe, but it really isn’t all about Jameis. It’s about TEAM. And right now what this TEAM needs is for Ryan Fitzpatrick to do HIS JOB, then for Jameis Winston to do HIS JOB when he gets back into the lineup. One game at a time.
September 5th, 2018 at 4:42 am
We’ve all had hope for A long time. I think fight is a better word. I want to see this team fight for a change instead of just rolling over and accepting the NFC south dumpster.
The article yesterday highlighted one crazy problem. It stated In the Super Bowl era , this is the toughest 3 game start to a season of any team based on the opponents record from the year before. Saints in their dome, eagles and Steelers. That’s murderers row right there
At least we will find out if this team has any fight in it while Jameis is out. Can fitz pull a magic rabbit out if his as$.
I sure hope so ! Go bucs !
September 5th, 2018 at 5:42 am
6-10
September 5th, 2018 at 5:59 am
We have a real shot now that Fitzpatrick will be leading us for the ENTIRE SEASON
Let’s go Bucs.
September 5th, 2018 at 6:56 am
Getting tired every year of dishing out kool aid, trying to pump up ticket sales.
No more…..dont talk about it,show me
September 5th, 2018 at 6:57 am
We’ve all been excited by most of our offseason moves. A lot of change.
But that change is par for the course. As DK likes to point out…NFL teams turnover 1/3 of their team each year. Nobody knows how those 1/3 are going to work out for us or our opponents until the season kicks off.
As I’ve pointed out before…generally…not always…the good teams end up playing much better the final three games than the first three games. They are figuring out how to work in that new 1/3…but the GOOD teams usually do figure it out by the end of the year. And by design they are peaking for the playoffs.
We could not be facing these teams at a better time! Ingram out of the Saints lineup…Philadelphia’s QB situation is up in the air…Foles may have won a SB but he’s not lighting it up right now…Wentz is still coming back…and Pittsburgh…Big Ben isn’t getting any younger and guess what…their very best player will probably still be sitting it out over money! Would we rather face the Steelers with or without Leveon Bell?
Here’s a fact….these teams had success in 2017…I’m looking at the calendar and lo and behold it’s 2018!!! Chucky’s Buc’s went 7-9 the year after the SB and 5-11 the year after that
.
That team was loaded…what happened.
Can none of you remember when that household name Jaquies Smith threw Brees around like a rag doll…when another true stud Mike Glennon led the Bucs to a come from behind win over the Steelers in Pittsburgh with a TD in the last seven seconds.
Some of us and virtually ALL the experts have blown these three teams up so far out of proportion it’s getting silly. They ALL lost games last year and they ALL will lose games this year! They are NOT invincible.
On any given Sunday baby and again as the late great Chris Thomas always said…NFL stands for No Freaking Logic.
I can easily seeing us winning all three…I can see us losing all three…let’s just tee it up and see what we have. These three teams will not dictate our future.
WE will determine that future.
September 5th, 2018 at 7:30 am
Hey anything can happen. I love the optimism and know that one day very soon we will be in the playoffs. If our defense can be respectable we should make the playoffs period.
September 5th, 2018 at 7:51 am
We have to coach better and stay healthy and we have problems with that here in Tampa.
September 5th, 2018 at 8:02 am
Which talking heads are “they?”
September 5th, 2018 at 8:09 am
Me personally, I’m drinking some good chit!
My koolaid is extra SWEET!
The Bucs go 10-6 with a playoff berth!
GO BUCS!!!!!
September 5th, 2018 at 8:19 am
It’s the perfect team and perfect time to make the naysayers wrong. One national media scribe had the Bucs as the worst team in the league with 2 wins. Unreal.
September 5th, 2018 at 8:20 am
I love the sound of this…
SHOW ME.
GO BUCS!
September 5th, 2018 at 8:36 am
I’m pretty sure the defense will win 3 games by themselves.
No way you can predict this talented team only wins 3.
September 5th, 2018 at 8:55 am
Stpetebucsfan- Excellent post! Nice to read a post that isn’t total gloom and doom. NO team knows what they have before it is on the field against real competition. “On paper” teams have never won a game. You never know who the talent or game changer will be week to week. Except for a few SWAGs, who saw Brate, Hump and Marpet being huge cogs to this team? Quite often it’s not the new, shiney stone that glitters the most. We will start to see what we have in a few more days. I feel that we have the makings of a decent team in the house. Players need to play. If they do, who knows? Go Bucs!
September 5th, 2018 at 11:06 am
I’ve got a couple of pals who run a fan site. Their business will go through the roof if we’re 8-4 to start December. Many of us who currently post a lot won’t be able to get a word in edgewise and Joe will aggressively wield his moderator power to substantially improve the overall quality of comments.
September 5th, 2018 at 11:10 am
With Jameis suspended for the first 3 games, our Oline basically on crutches, and draft picks 1 and 2 looking to be busts, a 3-13 season is likely. Wish it was otherwise but….
September 5th, 2018 at 11:25 am
We’re going to the ‘ship!
#FreeTheAmishRifle
September 5th, 2018 at 12:02 pm
Just left the barber shop in ATL, of course football season makes it interesting conversation, it I s crazy how the ATL fans really like the Bucs chances talent wise, but they thanked me for taking Mike Smith and Dirk off their hands
September 5th, 2018 at 12:25 pm
That would be a great christmas gift,however i have been disappointed before.
September 5th, 2018 at 2:11 pm
PLAYOFFS??? My man in the photo will live in infamy. Great use of the word.
Joe..I’ll ne watchin our Defense closely Sunday. We have to improve from last year. If We don’t win at least 2 of the 1st 4? We are in deep Kimchi. Well..Koetter/Smitty>Licht are in Deeper.
September 5th, 2018 at 3:32 pm
Let’s GO!!!! I will be on 10000 this sunday and I will be on drugs if the bucs get into the playoff’s…..