“The First Time I’ve Seen The Swagger On This Team”
November 18th, 2022
So how good did the Bucs look on Sunday against a good Seattle team?
One Bucs legend has a firm opinion.
“The first time I’ve seen the swagger on this team,” Bucco Bruce Arians told former 2020 Bucs A. Q. Shipley and Drew Stanton on the The Bobbled Exchange YouTube show. “And defensively we looked like the Bucs, shutting down the run and getting after the quarterback.”
Arians added that he loved the offensive mix, which featured the first strong performance by the running game since opening day.
“When the running game’s going, it’s easy, man,” Arians said with love in his voice. “You guys know. When you can run the ball, you got everything you want in your playbook.”
It’s all looking up for the Bucs in Arians’ mind, with what he says is Tampa Bay getting healthy and the bye week hitting at the perfect time.
Joe agrees with the “swagger” comment. Finally, the Bucs were physical for 60 minutes and they looked hungry. Rachaad White and other certainly brought plenty of juice. Hopefully, it wasn’t just the energy from the wild German crowd.
November 18th, 2022 at 3:41 pm
Not to be confused with “Swaggy”
November 18th, 2022 at 3:48 pm
That is a great picture. Sometimes I forget that 45 plays this game with a big smile on his face.
November 18th, 2022 at 3:52 pm
It’s a two game win streak. It’s a good start.
In 2020, the Bucs went undefeated after the bye. Do that.
November 18th, 2022 at 4:01 pm
Pirate – Agree. Do that. Seems doable.
November 18th, 2022 at 4:06 pm
It’s all about taking the burden off Brady with the running game. BA is 100% right in that respect. Brady threw 11 play action passes, tied for the most this year against Seattle. Dallas game was the other I believe. If they can keep that formula, and the defense continues to be stingy….
November 18th, 2022 at 4:09 pm
The Cleveland game will be the last one with Jacoby Brissett starting before Deshaun Watson makes his big debut right after we’re done with them. That timing should work well for us and help to keep the swagger going.
November 18th, 2022 at 4:09 pm
^^^^ What Redeemer said!
November 18th, 2022 at 4:15 pm
yeah let’s not get too ahead of oursevles either… they’ve had 5 good quarters… one against an abysmal Rams team, and 4 against a Seattle team that might have had an off day, playing overseas.
I remain a bit skeptical that the team is now totally fixed, no problems, but I really hope that’s just me being pessimistic. Go Bucs!
November 18th, 2022 at 4:15 pm
Redeemer – Dummy Leftwich has to actually call playaction passes for them to work, and Leftwich will seemingly got games without bothering to call one on 1st down regardless of the fact he runs it up the middle on 90% of those first downs. It’s unbelievable that with as insanely predictable the Bucs are, they don’t take advantage of that by using more playaction passes. They should literally be running like 20 of them a game, basically 50/50 if Brady is under center, and 50/50 on 1st down, then they could start doing some real damage and really open up the running lanes when defenses can’t just sit with 8 guys in the box knowing exactly what Leftwich is calling.
November 18th, 2022 at 4:17 pm
Your Mom – You’re not wrong to be skeptical, but there is also the fact that this team was not bad enough to be losing to Pittsburgh and Carolina, so you could also be skeptical of those loses, because that seems like more of the abnormality.
November 18th, 2022 at 5:06 pm
Sorry I would rather see Watson off the couch then Brisset who is used to the offense. Watson is preseason was a total bust. This guy’s days may have passed him by. Another money grab from an overrated QB.
November 18th, 2022 at 5:07 pm
Timing is everything. A team peaks too early and they miss out in prime time. Brady is the grand master. He gets it. It’s a long season.
November 18th, 2022 at 5:07 pm
I hate to be that guy but I can’t help it…… None of these guys like Arians talk when we are playing bad….it seems they only comment or give us hope when we are winning stating the obvious. Where were you when we was losing???
November 18th, 2022 at 5:09 pm
Rod, I agree BL should be calling more play action. But, they aren’t constantly running up the middle on first down. It’s just that when they do, they have squat to show for it. Only the Rams are passing more on FD. And, the bucs are dead last in FD run %. It’s a common misconception that you need a strong running game for play action to work. You just need a halfway decent one. Nobody is going to bite on play action, if the opposing defense doesn’t respect your running game. Brady has faced 7 or more in coverage, more than any QB in the league.
November 18th, 2022 at 5:09 pm
You know I think ‘playoff Lenny’ understands the objective is Super Bowl or bust too. That’s why he’s called playoff Lenny. The end justifies the means.
November 18th, 2022 at 5:18 pm
The best 2 games for this Defense were the first 2 games. Absolutely dominant. Flying around making tackles, breaking up and picking passes and getting to the QB. This game they played good and was probably their 3rd best performance
November 18th, 2022 at 5:21 pm
If I am rite, and the Bucs are timing their season; we close out 6-1, or 7-0. Time will tell.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:11 pm
TBBF. No worries. There were no palm trees in Germany that could be victimized by a guy dressed up in a Bucs uniform, that was actually retired, that liked to hump the smooth bark on targeted palms.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:14 pm
Lemarcus…while we were losing, maybe Arians and Bowles weren’t talking, but were wishing we had Jameis back at starting QB….. ROTFL.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:18 pm
Let’s face it guys. This year was never going to be easy. In a rebuilding division, where many prognosticators have you pegged for the SB, if not physically….and yes, we have had more than our share of injuries, but at least mentally it was going to be a challenge…. To play our best football at the right time. To be healthy and have momentum going into the playoffs without peaking too soon. That is the difficulty the coaching staff is facing. Can they push all the buttons at the right time to get this team to the promised land? I don’t know. But I do know you need a bigger perspective than record, or what we did four games ago, in this situation. Let’s hope for the best and take one game at a time.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:34 pm
That German crowd was amazing. Easy to get fired up for that. Then we have our crowd, low energy environment.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:36 pm
Redeemer … ‘Nobody is going to bite on play action if the opposing defense doesn’t respect your running game.’
Exactly. The whole idea IMO is to create unpredictability so that the defense can’t tee off on you, whether you’re running or passing. If the defense respects your running game, then gap control remains a priority for them & that causes that split second hesitation. That’s all someone like Tom Brady needs.
That’s where the play-calling becomes all-important, in creating & maintaining that unpredictability. And that’s where BL has floundered in the past. MAYBE the Licht has come on.
November 18th, 2022 at 7:56 pm
The German crowd was very well behaved.
I know the German people are very intelligent and well mannered, but I suspected they weren’t selling alcohol at the game. I could be wrong, I wasn’t there.
November 18th, 2022 at 9:13 pm
They are getting way ahead of themselves if they are “swag” after a game won against a rebuilding sporadic team (on a bad week for that team), and a laudable effort vs. Rams, which took a Brady miracle to win. Seahawks are not a “good” team, just a streaky one. And Bucs still made mistakes in what should have been a total blowout.
But this is what happens in a bye week. Too much time to reframe things.
The problems remain. Bowles and Leftwich. Poor roster depth on both sides. In-house youngsters still green. Injuries. Backups like Leverett and Hainsey overpraised.
Bucs are fortunate that the competition has regressed at the same time.
November 18th, 2022 at 9:43 pm
BA is on a media tour. Just ridiculous
November 18th, 2022 at 10:28 pm
One game at a time guys. Don’t look too far ahead. Not with our record. Concentrate on what’s in front of you (advice I gave to my 19 yr old son) Prognosticators like to say, we will do this or that. Screw that. One game at a time Browns are next up on the menu. They should be good and tired after their game this week. We will be rested. Jump on’em early. Jump on’em HARD.
November 18th, 2022 at 10:41 pm
Seahawks thought they had us. They looked at us like we looked at the hapless tanking Panthies. They figured it was gonna be a cakewalk. They will learn their lesson from that one game.
Meanwhile the Bucs get manhandled by Green Bay, Pittsburgh, and Carolina, teams that all suck, and don’t get any better.
Just because another team comes in one time totally looking ahead doesn’t mean the Browns or anyone else will. Last Sunday was about the Seahawks thinking they were just gonna dance with some biermadchen and get a win. Way more than the Bucs somehow found a formula.
Browns are physical.
Punch a snowflake, the snowflake melts.
Todd?
November 18th, 2022 at 11:49 pm
Swagger is good, real good. Now you need a dirty player, ot two, or three. Who me? I didn’t do that. The video is freakin lyin!
November 19th, 2022 at 6:46 am
they are not going to lose this weekend!!
November 19th, 2022 at 8:29 am
As a wise man once said…They ran the table after the bye in 2020. Do that.
November 19th, 2022 at 9:29 am
Looking forward to the Browns. Chubb will be the feature back. Bowles seems to get the defense ready to stop top level backs. Walker came in hot for the Seahawks and gained less than 20 yards.
The Cowboys were the other team the Bucs faced that with Elliott and Pollard and their offensive line, Bowles knew stopping the run was job #1. The Bucs left Dallas holding them to 60 yards rushing.
The teams that had lesser backs ran all over the Bucs. Packers, Panthers, Chiefs and Falcons all ran for over 100 yards.
Perhaps because the Bucs didn’t expect them to try and run and were playing to stop the pass?
The Browns have Nick Chubb and he is the one guy that Bowles will have them stop. If Brischette has to throw, the Bucs should be able to attack him with the blitz. He isn’t a quick release QB so blitzing is a good idea.
Joe Tyron has been making splash plays early in games. He isn’t nearly as good in the second half.
Maybe Bowles has to adapt and rest JTS more so he can be a factor later in the games. He isn’t very good most of the time but when he flashes you can see that he has the skills to be a great pass rusher.
JTS hasn’t played up to his draft status but maybe there is some dog in him and he’ll step it up for the next 8 games for the entire game. He is always hustling so its not effort, its technique and coaching.
November 19th, 2022 at 10:18 am
Get healthy. One game at a time.
November 19th, 2022 at 10:23 am
Does anyone know if Leftwurst was on the flight back from Munich? Or did he get “lost” in the Black Forest like so many of us were hoping? Oh please, oh please, oh please…….
November 19th, 2022 at 1:47 pm
Goat,
I think he misplaced his schnitzel. Ask a few frauleins where it might be buried.