One Good Thing
June 24th, 2023
Can Bucs take advantage?
Can the Bucs take advantage?
That’s what Joe thinks about when looking at the first few weeks of the 2023 schedule And so too does John Breech of CBS Sports. When studying all NFL schedules, Breech tried to point out one good thing and one bad thing for each team.
The good thing for the Bucs, maybe, is that the early schedule lets the Bucs load up on home games. The Bucs must take advantage of this to repeat as NFC South champs, Breech believes.
One good thing for the Buccaneers: From Sept. 11 thru Oct. 25, the Buccaneers will only be playing one road game. During that six-week span, they have four home games and a bye to go along with their one road game against the Saints.
And the Saints are the Chiefs or the Bengals. On face value, the early schedule does look good. We shall see.
Before Tom Brady arrived, the Bucs were the Browns of the NFC. In the post-Chucky era, no team had a worse home record than the Bucs in the NFC.
For some reason, Joe bringing this up always enraged people both inside and outside One Buc Palace. Hey, it wasn’t Joe who was missing tackles, throwing picks and unable to run or call dumb Benn’ed Around plays.
Joe never understood why folks freaked. If anything, Joe needed to write it more to remind folks how bad things were and to demand better.
This rotten play at home only stopped when Tom Brady showed up. Now he’s gone.
Have the Bucs snapped the hex of home losing? They were 5-5 at home last season, including playoffs. If so, then they can take advantage of this schedule quirk while breaking in a new offense.
June 24th, 2023 at 12:20 am
Totally opposite of what this or other southern teams without a dome should be doing by NFL.
June 24th, 2023 at 1:35 am
One good thing would be if Bowles could go next. Get somebody else in there & not somebody that’s already part of the staff that you’re just gonna move up to head coach & crap. Let’s not make somebody like Captain Fear the next coach. Although I’m kind of wondering if he could probably do better than Bowles.
June 24th, 2023 at 5:03 am
Joe I have some theories about why the Bucs really have no home field advantage but most people these days won’t like them, including the Glazers.
Screw the Bucs organization if they refuse to take a look at their part in the lack of a so called home field advantage. BTW it has little to do with the heat and sun.
When the visiting teams fans out pace the “real” Bucs fans its time to take a hard look at what you are doing and what you are not doing Glazers. And no, painting the seats to hide lack of attendance ain’t it. Hiring a new PR lady ain’t it either.
I was priced out of the (publicly owned) stadium many years ago and consider myself among the most steadfast of fans since before we were even called the Buccaneers. And yes I attended almost every home game at the Old Sombrero with season tickets and without. For a few years I got free tickets for various reasons.
June 24th, 2023 at 6:22 am
@garro: “I was priced out of the (publicly owned) stadium many years ago”
I’m with you on that. My last Buc game was Dec. 2007 against Atlanta.
3 tickets
1 Parking fee
3 Buc Hats
3 Burgers
3 Fries
3 Cokes
Cost: $700.
That was it for me. Priced me out of ever attending again, and I haven’t.
June 24th, 2023 at 6:38 am
A lousy product on the field for most of their existence is the real reason why they usually have no home field advantage. It’s really that simple.
June 24th, 2023 at 6:55 am
Predicting strength of schedule based upon last season’s results is always unreliable … yet home games are a good test of how good a team you have. If you can’t win at home, you’re crap, it’s safe to say.
Having home games early is good for developing teams, as the Bucs clearly are with a large number of new faces starting, and a new and very different offense being installed. If always takes time and gameplay for a new team to gel. So loading up on home games early while the team is learning how to play is a significant advantage.
Looks like the league did the Bucs a favor with this first post-GOAT schedule.
So if the Bucs are winning early, that’s a good sign. But if they can’t win early at home then even if they eventually gel it will be difficult to build a winning record late with a road heavy schedule in the second half of the season.
June 24th, 2023 at 7:42 am
@garro & Akickinthebucnuts
@garro: “I was priced out of the (publicly owned) stadium many years ago
Been saying this for years; a family of 4 can easily blow a grand any given Sunday at Ray J Stadium. Why do that when you can watch the game at home on your 80′ TV (for free) get beer, pizza, and wings for $50 or $60 bucks…It’s not that Bucs don’t have diehard fans that love and support their team; you’ve simply priced out the casual every day fan…
But anyway,
I honestly believe the Bucs can repeat as NFC South Champs because of our schedule and the fact that no one in the division has a bona fide star at QB…Lastly, I still believe that despite everyone we lost this off-season, we still have the most talented roster overall in the division…
June 24th, 2023 at 7:44 am
Early home losses will turn the last remaining fans against the head coach.
June 24th, 2023 at 7:59 am
Guys who have posted about WHY the composition of our fans in the stands for all but the Lightning…and they used to suffer as well…is because of the price of tickets.
How much would you pay to fly into Green Bay in December to watch a football game even IF you could get tickets. How much would you pay if you lived in Green Bay and home seats were incredibly difficult to score and you could book a cheapo airline into our sun and beautiful weather as well as AFFORD GREAT seats by Green Bay standards.
I wish I had an answer to this. I do not. The NFL is local in some cities. Do people really crave a vacay trip to Atlanta or Charlotte…two wonderful cities but not major tourist draws. New Orleans perhaps does have a similar problem as us but I doubt it.
I think of Eddie Money’s great ole hit…”Two Tickets to Paradise”. Yeah I’m prejudiced but I made St. Pete my home three decades ago not because I was born and raised here but because Tampa Bay is an AWESOME place to live and visit!!! So I guess the disparity in our stands is the price for living in Paradise.
June 24th, 2023 at 8:58 am
Nice change to get a decent schedule to start the season.
June 24th, 2023 at 9:00 am
Da Bucs Guy Says:
June 24th, 2023 at 7:44 am
Early home losses will turn the last remaining fans against the head coach.
^^^^^^^^^
Is this Peter King’s burner account? Thank you for your optimism, Mr. Positive!
June 24th, 2023 at 10:16 am
Bucs have the 5th most expensive tickets and one of the lowest average employment wage. My paradise would include average families being able to afford their mortgage/rent. Being able to take their family to a football game every once in awhile would be nice too.
June 24th, 2023 at 10:48 am
Attendance will pick up now that the Bucs are a perennial winner. As they rack up the chips the attendance will continue to pick up. The young talent this our team has it should not surprise anyone that we can have 5 superbowls by the end of 2030.
June 24th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Agree with Garro and Kick.
My last game was in 1997, the last at the Sombrero against the Lions.
I’ve been to RJS a couple of times for USF games and wasn’t overly impressed with the facilities.
Thru the years I’d get an itch to go to a Bucs’ home game and then I’d price the tickets (the nosebleeds), factor in 5-6 beers and always ended up saying “no effing way!”
Could I afford it?
Yeah, but why?
I could only start to justify it if it were a playoff game and then of course the tickets would be even higher.
Sorry Glazers need to come off their ridiculously high horse.
June 24th, 2023 at 2:23 pm
The Glazers are only doing what businesses are supposed to do…maximize profits. They do not care any more about us than Exxon, Wells Fargo, I could go on but you get my drift.
While I totally agree with the expense of attending sporting events…Wednesday I went to the Trop…$20 to park…took two friends..average $50 seats in right field…3 meals..burger..chicken and pizza with cokes no alcohol…dipping dots during the game and you add another $100. Luckily I’m blessed and can afford this the two guys I took cannot.
Again I have no solution but I’m pretty sure it’s not asking the Glazers for charity…as in taking less $$$ for their PRODUCT…than the MARKET will bear.
June 24th, 2023 at 4:20 pm
DoooshLaRue Says:
“My last game was in 1997, the last at the Sombrero against the Lions.”
.
.
I was mixing tropical drinks under a tiki umbrella on the concourse that season. I cleaned up early during that last Lions game so I could watch the last couple of possessions. 😁
June 24th, 2023 at 5:21 pm
Give a sh!t about their workers instead of maximizing their shareholders profits. Invest in something other than the next quarters bottom line. Seems like a good start.
June 25th, 2023 at 1:28 am
You all sound like a bunch of alcoholic fat kids , nobody said you have to have ten beers and buy four hats and eat 7 pounds of crappy stadium food. Those are dumb choices y’all made.
June 25th, 2023 at 1:12 pm
JFC that video clip of all those Benn Arounds to nowhere was tough to watch…
Don’t make the nightmares come back, Joe!