Todd Bowles Is Upbeat About Team Health
October 4th, 2022
The beast of the Bucs’ beastly receivers.
Joe can’t wait to see what happens when the Buccaneers’ beastly receiving crops gets on the field again.
It seems that’s coming on Sunday.
Todd Bowles was on the Buccaneers Radio Network tonight talking about injuries, a problem for Bucs receivers all summer and fall. The good news is that Bowles said it was just nicks and bruises for everyone other than Logan Ryan (foot) and Cameron Brate (concussion).
And yes, when Joe writes “everyone,” that includes Julio Jones.
Bowles talked about how the challenge for offensive coaches is to craft plays for the talented bunch, now that they see all receivers on the field at the same time and are learning better what they can accomplish together rather than just individually.
October 4th, 2022 at 6:08 pm
Yes the challenge is coaching Todd. Stay out of the offense, send Lefty on a trip to Belize and tell Tom and his guys to figure it out.
Maybe you should be thinking about your soft and prideless defense.
October 4th, 2022 at 6:15 pm
Lets not get ahead of ourselves ; let’s see if no one comes up with hamstring problems after practice this wk . call me the skeptic .
October 4th, 2022 at 6:19 pm
I agree that we should not get ahead of ourselves. It is only Tuesday after all, so there is a chance a gust of wind can injure Julio’s knee.
October 4th, 2022 at 6:23 pm
Veteran roster = lots of maintenance
Let’s just get to January with everyone game ready
October 4th, 2022 at 6:32 pm
GB qb Rogers is now recruiting OBJ ,along with Bills & Rams .. Licht needs to get his ckbook out Now ….
October 4th, 2022 at 6:47 pm
Goatfarmer … ‘Maybe you should be thinking about your soft and prideless defense.’
‘Prideless’ is a cheap shot Goatfarmer. Bucs defense has had ONE bad game out of 4, but we’re still ranked #5 in the NFL in Points Allowed (68 points allowed equates to 17 PPG average). And as bad as the run defense was in the Chiefs game, those 2 giveaways in the 1st quarter, both on the Tampa 20 yard line, pretty much guaranteed our defense was gonna give up points. And let’s not forget it was Patrick Mahomes & the Chiefs. I fully expect them or the Bills to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl; they’re both outstanding offenses.
Our defense is down TWO starters right now … Akiem Hicks & Logan Ryan. The latter’s role can be filled by a combination of Neal & SMB for the next several games until Ryan’s foot heals. But we haven’t filled Hicks’ spot & that’s hurting us big-time. Vita Vea has shown that he can’t effectively handle a significantly increased workload, and Gholston & RNR are rotational players not starters for a reason. IMO we lost the Chiefs game primarily because we couldn’t handle their run game and successfully pressure Mahomes. Every team from now on will run on us until we show that we can stop that & make them 1-dimensional. The easiest fix is to stop screwing around & sign Suh.
October 4th, 2022 at 6:50 pm
Goatfarmer, not sure if you know this but KC has a pretty special qb who may have been a little extra motivated because of 2020, and that was quite a week for our boys so I would ease off the gutless bro.
October 4th, 2022 at 6:51 pm
@defense:
i second that ^^^
October 4th, 2022 at 6:54 pm
also it’s crazy they haven’t signed suh…
they already lost jpp…
also when they gave away jpp’s number it was a complete wrap…….and insulting to him too…
joe sho is turning into a bust in front of our eyes
October 4th, 2022 at 7:13 pm
@Goat,
I mostly enjoy reading your comments and I think yours was a tad harsh in this instance. We are only going on week 5 and our D has been stellar save for the Chiefs game. And that Chiefs game…starting the game pretty much down 14 points, how did you think the D would hold up?
Look, it wasn’t a pretty game and we all know the Chiefs came out on fire and stomped a mud-hole in us, but even in 2020, we had quite a few up-n-down games and ebb-n-flow to the season. Let’s ride out 17 games and not be so negative, shall we bro?
GO BUCS!!!
October 4th, 2022 at 7:16 pm
@Defense Rules
I agree that one reason we lost is because we could not stop the run, or pressure Mahomes with only 4 Men. This forced us to blitz, and he made us pay.
Good Lord, we made the KC Running back look like Barry Sanders!
We have now lost 2 in a row at HOME !
God Help us Sunday if Atlanta beats us, at HOME.
In my mind, this next game is a MUST Win for us.
October 4th, 2022 at 7:21 pm
Agree, Chris – this Atlanta game, for a plethora of reasons, is close to a MUST-WIN game.
Even if we lose, we MUST be competitive. We weren’t competitive against the Chiefs.
October 4th, 2022 at 7:49 pm
Chris … I also agree that the Atlanta game is a MUST-WIN. Both the Packers & Chiefs are very good teams, and they both used roughly the same formula for beating us: great mix of running the ball (a lot) with short passing (a lot). Rodgers & Mahomes only threw deep 5 times in each game; both completed 2 & were intercepted once. They both effectively used the running game to set up the pass (run-pass ratio was 41% for the Packers & 48% for the Chiefs). Both effectively controlled the TOP (33:25 for Green Bay & 38:38 for Kansas City).
Falcons will try to use that same formula. They’re now a running team, but their passing game with Mariota is circumspect. More importantly, their defense isn’t of the same caliber as either the Packers or Chiefs and our WRs are finally getting healthy (or at least healthier). Still, they could beat us if we come out lack-luster like we’ve been known to do and fall behind early, letting them dictate the tempo of the game. I don’t take anything for granted anymore when it comes to the Bucs.
October 4th, 2022 at 7:54 pm
Their best weapon is on IR, y’all need to realize not every team is the Chiefs geez and that Packers game was a fluke we have ANY competent receivers we blow that team out. Packers are not good and it showed this past weekend.
Y’all just need to chill.
October 4th, 2022 at 8:11 pm
Is Bowles credible?
October 4th, 2022 at 8:32 pm
Logan Ryan is a big loss not excited about that at all what about hicks hope he comes back soon more concerned about the defense then I ever was about the offense.
October 4th, 2022 at 9:05 pm
DefenseR, it wasn’t just one game. It’s now two bad games on D. Completely laid an egg for a full half vs. GB, put an offensive-challenged team in a hole. It doesn’t matter that they woke up a little, because they also failed in key situations in the second half. Those problems continued into the entire Chiefs game, four quarters of collapse.
They have to do something about the DL and the pass rush.
Falcons game is an opportunity to reset, at least head in the right direction. Falcons can still win if Bucs play the way they now have for two weeks.
October 4th, 2022 at 9:06 pm
They were not lying about Julio being injury prone. Believe it when I see it that guy can stay in for one quarter.
October 4th, 2022 at 9:19 pm
If our defense doesn’t get hands on the receiver off the LOS we’ll be in trouble. Mariota can dink us to death and then pull it and run. To me we loss to KC because we weren’t physical and when Mahomes was scrambling we came off our man and then he’d make the throw. They were over pursuing and it wasn’t until the 2nd half that they decided to put a spy on him. Superbowl David was plastered to Kelce and roughing him up off the line. There was none of that from anyone. Also can we just make the tackle instead of holding the guy up hoping someone causes a fumble while the ball carrier gets an additional 5-8yds
October 4th, 2022 at 9:33 pm
Bowles is usually very guarded when it comes to injuries….this is a good sign that he is upbeat…..that is rare!!!
October 4th, 2022 at 10:11 pm
Julio injured himself reading this post, now questionable for next game.
October 4th, 2022 at 11:34 pm
Falcons Steelers and Panthers should be relatively easy wins. Then another measuring stick against the Ravens. I can hear everyone now. We beat three crapbag teams in a row and everything’s as right as rain. 49ers and eagles are the best teams in the NFC. These next three will only be remembered if they lose one. Fast forward.
October 5th, 2022 at 1:45 am
I accept the flames I took about my comments. I respect those who issued them.
Yet again – the defense was gutless Sunday night. Reid saw that Dallas and New Orleans were gashing us on the run, they just gave up on it too fast. GB never really tried to run.
KC ran it down our throats. Until it came out the other end.
This defense is soft and gutless. Maybe we catch a break with Patterson out but if I were Arthur Blank, I would be preparing Mariota and his elves to run the same plays KC was running on with more read option, and Pitts will run uncovered. The Bucs never cover a tight end.
I hope I’m wrong.
Todd? Up to you.
October 5th, 2022 at 3:30 am
Goatfarmer: I wanna cuss you out,,,but I guess I was disgusted too
Purple pirate: Lololol! Julio should live in a bubble.
October 5th, 2022 at 1:11 pm
Goatfarmer … ‘Gutless’ works reasonably well (Webster: ‘Lacking determination’). And yes, Bucs defense was definitely soft.
I’m convinced that the problem is that the Bucs don’t have the horses in the trenches right now (DLine & OLine). The big uglies HAVE TO win their 1-on-1 battles consistently, but they’re not all too often. You could’ve literally run a Mack truck through some of the holes that I saw KC create in the middle of our DLine Sunday night. And our pass rush had me scratching my head. Yes we did sack Mahomes 3 times, but we only 5 other pressures on him (3 knockdowns & 2 hurries).
Obviously Hicks would’ve made a difference, but he’s already missed 3 out of 4 games. We’ve got to augment that DLine with a difference-maker. There are still quite a few free agent DTs out there. I prefer Ndamukong Suh because of his familiarity with the Bucs defense & leadership talent, but there are lots of others available also. Bucs are very tight on CAP space ($3.3 mil right now), but they could free up quite a bit by reworking either Donovan Smith’s or LVD’s contracts. They’re both worth a couple more years as Bucs IMO.
October 6th, 2022 at 11:50 am
These injuries suck but compared to last season, I’ll take it. Last year it was the defense piling up bodies in the triage unit. It’s much harder to overcome defensive shortages and backups.
With injuries on offense, one person (a good QB) can make a difference and cover up for some of those losses. Fortunately for the Bucs, TB12 is in the building and has proven over his career to make the most out of the least talent. There’s a limit though. I think eventually they’ll get the bugs worked out and get the offense humming even with missing key players. Faster tempo worked well against KC last week. BL just needs to get better at knowing what the strengths of the backups are and exploiting those and stop trying to “plug and play” with these guys.
If a deep threat WR is out, you can’t expect his backup who might be smaller or slower to get the same production and run the same routes. Stack some receivers to create openings and confusion with the coverage. Don’t expect Miller to be a slot receiver if he’s subbing for CG, etc.
I don’t put it all on BL. The offense just looks tired, confused and not playing with passion. Whether that ME skirmish ignited that passion against NO or not, after that was one of the few times these guys seemed to “want it more than the other guys”.
The D had a bad game against KC (understatement) but they weren’t “exposed”. They are a solid group and I guarantee they’ll be out there to prove it this week against Atlanta.
It’s been a tough 4 game stretch, good teams, lots of injuries, etc. 2-2 isn’t great but nothing Brady isn’t used to. He’s started seasons slow before (and started games slow as well) but he’ll get these guys to believe.
If this is how the Bucs look in December, I’d worry. I think their best football is still to come as long as the D stays healthy.