Catching Breaks
December 14th, 2020
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
Hey, like Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians said after the squeaker of a win over the Giants on Monday Night Football.
Arians, in his postgame remarks that night, said he will never apologize for a win. Nor should he.
That crossed Joe’s mind yesterday after the Bucs beat the Vikings to raise their record to 8-5. The Vikings were sloppy and the Bucs, were, well, fortunate.
Gary Gramling of SI.com wasn’t overly impressed with the Bucs. Oh, they played OK, he thought. It wasn’t so much the Bucs won the game, Gramling typed. It was that the Vikings played so bad.
The Bucs Have One Fall Into Their Laps: They played… fine. This wasn’t a bad performance from Tampa. But rarely do you have your opponent control the clock for nearly 40 minutes only to miss three field goals and a PAT and commit a number of boneheaded, unforced penalties.
Look, did the Vikings play sloppy? Sure did. Would it have been a different game if the Vikings could make field goals and foot-rubbing, car-littering Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski was not squeezed and sandwiched like a 16-year old girl on prom night in the end zone? Sure.
But you know what, the Bucs took advantage and won. How many friggin’ games have we watched where the Bucs’ opponent played sloppy and was almost handed games, yet the Bucs always found a way to p!ss in their pants and still lose?
At least, finally, the Bucs have a team that can take advantage and win games when the opponent is sloppy and undisciplined.
How refreshing!
December 14th, 2020 at 10:37 am
The Vikes did their best impersonation of the Bucs 2009-2019 teams and I’m Glad the 2020 Bucs took advantage and Won
December 14th, 2020 at 10:41 am
Bucs offense still looks in disarray and having AB out there instead of scotty miller just looks bad….the onle positive was lesean mccoy
December 14th, 2020 at 10:43 am
The reason the Vikes won time of possession is because the Defense made them work for the yardage. I have zero concerns about time of possession when the Defense is not giving up big plays.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:44 am
Scotty Miller only played five snaps!
Coaches still sucked
December 14th, 2020 at 10:45 am
I do have a concern with our very slow starts. And Brady overthrew a hella lot of passes. Bucs can sympathize with the Vikes kicking problems. Remember our great kicker Sir Roberto A? Although our Defense plays bad here and there, they always seem to rise to the occasion. They are our Key not the offense.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:45 am
Never apologize for winning.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:48 am
I, for one, am just happy watching the OTHER team losing with Crappy kicking.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:49 am
Even with the missed XP, many thanks to Ryan Succop for being what we have needed for a decade. Kickers MATTER! Glad to see kicking issues with an opponent for a change!
December 14th, 2020 at 10:51 am
you can call it whatever analytic name…. there is a truth behind that win, and that is: we were lucky, and were are NOT a good football club. We can be easy beaten, and most of NFL teams coaching staff, easily can out-smart Bucs staff.
BA = Lovie S 2.0
December 14th, 2020 at 10:51 am
The Bucs definitely don’t have a ball control offense. Yesterday, they had two 4 play scoring drives.
This year, they are 23rd in offensive plays per game, and 27th in time of possession.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:53 am
Never apologize for winning. Just make it to the dance and anything can happen! Any given Sunday, baby!
December 14th, 2020 at 10:53 am
Three missed field goals. Been there. We won and made the plays we had to.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:55 am
Never has it been more apparent that this team needs a new head coach. It’s either a touchdown or 3 & out. The defense becomes exposed when you play like that. Some games are about feild position. How this pickled, overated
coach has stuck around just goes to show how desperate the league is for good coaches. Get a shutdown corner, and bill o’brien or josh mcdaniels
December 14th, 2020 at 10:56 am
The very best defender on the field yesterday also made the worst play of the game.
Football is a game of momentum. The Vikes were building it in the first half when our D stiffens and gets OFF THE FIELD for a punt or very long FG attempt.
What happens in that game if the Vikes punted instead of scoring the gift six?
Suh is great and I love him but that was six points the Vikes should not have had and one less missed kick!
We lucked out when Marpets stupid offsides in the second forcing a quick three and out and a D back out onto the field when they could have used a break that the D tightened up.
December 14th, 2020 at 10:58 am
Okay, as much as I loved that touchdown by Scotty Miller my throat hurts from screaming at the tv every single time Brady goes deep on 3rd and short (3rd and 4 when he threw that and had McCoy open in the flat for a first down).
December 14th, 2020 at 11:00 am
It’s refreshing to see a game fall the Bucs way. I’d venture to guess over the past 10 years there have been at least 30 games where the refs cost the team a game or a missed FG directly attributed to a loss. Vikings fans may be saying the Bucs got lucky but the Bucs created their own luck yesterday.
December 14th, 2020 at 11:06 am
We are beating teams we should beat….that is progress. We are hanging with playoff contenders while playing really sloppy. There’s positives that can be pulled from that. I remember a Giants team that snuck in the playoffs as a wild card and got hot….anything can happen once you’re in the playoffs. The key is getting in.
December 14th, 2020 at 11:11 am
yesterday, the vikings played like the “same ‘ol bucs”. nice to see that! especially at the den of depression where we have seen many a missed kicks
December 14th, 2020 at 11:12 am
8-5 feels so much better than what we fans are use to keep those wins coming anyway you can
December 14th, 2020 at 11:14 am
The Bucs are a Group of extremely talented players.
They are becoming a team. Every week, you see signs.
AB the player us still knocking off the rust. He was considered the Best WR in football, for years. He will get back in the groove. Physically.
Mentally, the jury is out.
I think by the playoffs- the Bucs will be a very dangerous team.
If our GM can keep them together- they will be Super Bowl favorites next year.
It takes time.
December 14th, 2020 at 11:17 am
To play mediocre at best and still win by double digits shows how far this has come since MR 6 Rings showed up. How many times have the Bucs played like the Vikings did yesterday over the years? There has been more games than I would like to remember, that they were the better team for most of the game, but they would shoot themselves in the foot and lose. The makeover for “Ugly Betty” is still ongoing for the Bucs. Whether any of us like it or not, they still are very much a work in progress. If they catch lightning in a bottle and actually make it deep in the playoffs and have a chance to play in the Superbowl it would be awesome. But the reality is very few teams that still look like they do this late in the course of a season usually do not do much in the playoffs. Not what I want to see or any other fan, but still there is hope. And again, we are not having a bunch of DRAFT TALK on Dec 14 like most every other year in recent memory. So GO BUCS!!
December 14th, 2020 at 11:35 am
I am glad the Bucs won but I was not impressed. If they continue to play this way they will be one and done in the playoffs and that would be a big failure and huge disappointment given the expectations this team had coming in to this season.
The offense looked disjointed, and the run defense was soft. The pass rush showed up when it mattered but we are really thanking our stars that Dan Bailey has a case of the yips and the ref threw the first DPI flag in 20 years and 194 attempts on that Hail Mary to Gronk.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:06 pm
If you’ve watched the NFL long enough you know more games are lost than won. It’s the foundation behind NFL strategies: “Bend don’t break,” and “You run to win”.
December 14th, 2020 at 12:50 pm
So they’ve got 3 weeks left before the playoffs start.
Will the defense remember how to tackle?
Will Brady stop overthrowing wide open guys?
Will Donovan Smith ever be able to hold his own against average to above average pass rushers?
Unless the answer to all those questions is “yes”, we will be one and done. I’ll try to enjoy it regardless, but this team has too much talent to wimper out in the wildcard round…
December 14th, 2020 at 3:31 pm
and Brady could have hit a few wide open guys for touchdowns so I guess it evens out. Both played bad, Bucs were the better bad.
December 14th, 2020 at 4:00 pm
@Mickman. The naysayers don’t want to hear that. Score coulda been 46 to 14 but those that want to hack on how “lucky we were” have no time for that.
December 14th, 2020 at 5:01 pm
This was our “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good” game. We got lucky, we were fortunate but offense and the bend don’t break defense won the game. Plain and simple
December 14th, 2020 at 7:31 pm
I’m trying to understand the comments saying our coaching staff sucks a d we are a terrible team, blah, blah, blah. After one season, Bowles has built the 7th ranked defense. Check.
Our offense, though ranked 17th in yards, is 6th in scoring. Last time I looked, scoring more than the other team is the point. Check.
The team is ranked 8th in TO differential at +5. Check.
We are 8-5 in year two of the Arians regime, and the 5th seed for the playoffs, ostensibly one game shy of clinching a spot for the first time in 13 years, after four coaches tried and failed. Same owners, same GM. Check.
BTW – if you’re a student of the NFL, you know that next year under Brady, we are likely a 12-13 win team and favorite to win the Super Bowl. Yeah, get rid of the coaches. They suck.
December 14th, 2020 at 7:34 pm
Tackling by Bucs defense was sloppy. Defensive coaches do a better job
December 14th, 2020 at 8:14 pm
@CaptTim
Exactly! Which is why it is exciting to be a Buc’s fan this year. What an unusual feeling in Mid December.
December 14th, 2020 at 11:06 pm
I am loving 8-5! I also don’t remember us beating the Cardinals when BA was their Coach either. BA used to be a position coach under Bear Brian. And remember that Brady wanted to play for BA and that is why we have him and he still enjoys working for BA. I am not a big fan of BA’s Offensive System and I think his choice OC is a bad play caller. But remember BA has developed lots more players than any previous coach and our GM has suddenly been more successful with BA by his side. No we should not dump BA!
December 15th, 2020 at 9:02 am
Who cares how they win ! A win in the NFL is still a win ?
Remember any team could be like the Jets rather be them ?