Mistake-Free Football
September 10th, 2023
“We were gritty throughout the ballgame,” Todd Bowles told the Buccaneers Radio Network after today’s thrilling win in Minnesota.
Joe agrees but Joe knows a bigger reason why Bowles thinks the Bucs beat a good team on the road.
Tampa Bay had no turnovers and largely played mistake-free football in a hostile, loud environment. Meanwhile, the Bucs forced two turnovers (thank you, Antoine Winfield and Christian Izien) and pounced on a bad snap for a third. The final score was 3-0 Bucs on the turnover battle.
Bowles, as Joe has written many teams, believes deeply forcing takeaways. But like all coaches, he believes more in mistake-free football. The Bucs weren’t perfect today, but they sure did limit mistakes. Tampa Bay had just 3 penalties for 19 yards.
When you have as much talent as the Bucs do, sometimes playing a tight, gritty game is enough to squeak out a “W.”
September 10th, 2023 at 4:57 pm
Ugly wins sometimes. Today was 1 of those days. Baker might be something after all. Defense definitely needs some work.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:00 pm
A combination of the Bucs winning the turnover battle, very few penalties called on the Bucs, and the Bucs making.big plays when they weresurely needed! Very good start to a long season.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:01 pm
I dont understand why we were playing so much zone in the first half
September 10th, 2023 at 5:01 pm
Anyone notice that Donovan Smith got a holding penalty on a key Chiefs drive, while our stud RT turned LT just plays mistake-free ball? The OL is still not where it will be, but every part of this team stepped it up in the 2nd half.
I think Rachaad White looks pretty bad compared to Sean Tucker. Just from what it looks like in the first game.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:01 pm
Limited penalties……very good……
I believe our youth proved to be very helpful…..
Younger players played well….Izien, Thompkins, Palmer, Tucker…..
Didn’t hear Mauch’s name called…..don’t even know if he played….If he did, that’s a good sign.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:02 pm
I guarantee the Tom Brady drama played a huge part with the psych of the players last year. While watching them today it was nice seeing them play loose and the young guys bring a nice swag to them. I just want them to be competitive
September 10th, 2023 at 5:03 pm
Mauch definitely played.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:06 pm
It’s worth repeating the refs totally tried to screw the Bucs out of a W in this game, and at the very least it should have been Bucs 23-17 – and the Bucs were moving the ball on that series were Evans was raped, if that is called I think they score the TD, but then it’s 27-17.
Really amazing how many times in key situations that Cousins failed, and that seemed to be Bowles plan, just give up all the yards in the world and give Cousins lots of chances to screw up.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:06 pm
I would bet the mood at halftime was like, “Do we want everyone to talk about Tom this whole week or do we make it about us?”
September 10th, 2023 at 5:09 pm
Team speed definitely showed up today on D and special teams
When they started feeding Mike and Chris the whole game changed
Sean Tucker is your RB1
Win #2 next week against the cubbies!!!!
September 10th, 2023 at 5:11 pm
Defense looked much faster!
September 10th, 2023 at 5:14 pm
I don’t think regression will be a problem this year. This team and the coaches (to include special teams) showed their character and ability for growth and improvement. The confidence gained from this win is HUGE. CONGRATULATIONS TAMPABAY BUCCANEERS !!!!
September 10th, 2023 at 5:19 pm
Bucs were gang tackling too. Just a few missed tackles.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:20 pm
Bucs trending in the right direction!
September 10th, 2023 at 5:21 pm
Did anyone notice the BIG IMPROVEMENT in tackling ? Did anyone notice the BIG IMPROVEMENT in penalties ? Did anyone notice the BIG IMPROVEMENT in special teams ? Did anyone notice that even the rookies and UFA’s didn’t screw up ? CONGRATULATIONS to the coaching staff.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:25 pm
Game 1: Advantage, Bowles.
To be honest, I was grousing about the pass defense in half 1. But my God, the way that Devin White played. Davis with those long arms.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:27 pm
I noticed Citrus and I just add AMEN.
It’s hard to judge “motivation” and “heart” but for this game IMHO the 2023 Bucs just embarrassed the 2022 Bucs and that included the QB spot.
This team just seemed FAR more focused and motivated and better coached than last year’s squad. There were far too many times last year when the Bucs seemed to go through the infamous SB letdown a year later than normal. But the Bucs just didn’t have it last year…they had talent but not the “IT”.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:36 pm
Special team’s coverage is so much better than previous seasons we have speed
September 10th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
Give credit to 2 small market teams who won despite blatant referee bias: Detroit and now us. Anyone who doesn’t think the NFL is rigged to give advantage to the teams that get big TV ratings just needs to open their eyes. Now that our ratings darling Brady is gone, we are going to be fighting this all year.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:51 pm
Game went pretty much as I expected, except that our defense gave up a lot more passing yardage than I thought it would. Defensively though we got 3 turnovers, 2 sacks, a bunch of pressures, held the Vikings to 6-for-14 on 3rd/4th downs (42.9%), limited them to only 41 rushing yards on 17 carries (2.4 YPC average), and most importantly … held them to 17 total points scored.
Our offense started off slow (to be expected), but was tenacious & got the job done. Bucs had 68 plays for 30:39 TOP (much better than last year). We ran the ball on 33 times for only 73 yards (2.2 YPC average) but we made several running 1st downs in the process. Mayfield started off very shaky (again, to be expected), but finished 21-for-34 (61.8%), 2 TDs and NO INTs or fumbles. I thought he showed some real grit on a couple of his runs for 1st downs.
Still, game ball should go to our Special Teams IMO. It was a HUGE improvement over last year. Camarda punted 6 times for a 54.5 average, and McLaughlin hit 2 critical FGs (one from 57 yds out). Coverage on kickoffs & punts was great I thought, and Thompkins is a gutsy return man.
And for those who continually badmouth Todd Bowles, he made several gutsy calls that ultimately spelled the difference between winning & losing. And for having so many young guys on defense, they played like they had their hair on fire. Love the gang tackling. And BTW, we ran on a tad over 48% of our plays today. Not very effectively looking at the average, but they’ve got talent & they’ll get better with more & more experience. Kudos all around.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:52 pm
Irishmist Says:
September 10th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
Give credit to 2 small market teams who won despite blatant referee bias: Detroit and now us.
———
Tampa is the #11 media market, Detroit is the #13 market and Minneapolis is #15.
Also the Lions and Vikings both have a disproportionately large number of corporate sponsors, while Tampa has a very disproportionate low number of corporate sponsors.
The NFL wants the dumb Lions to win because they’re a legacy team. The Vikings they want to win because of that stadium and the corporate money in that area.
The Bucs meanwhile – this is still a tourist based economy, and without Brady, the NFL doesn’t want to see the Bucs on national TV.
September 10th, 2023 at 5:55 pm
Defense Rules – You’re a bit skewed on your stats, but at least you put in some effort. The Bucs run percentage is inflated because of the runs to run out the clock, in particular the 3 knees.
With that said, I thought Canales called a great game. I know early in the game you thought I was mocking Canales saying he’d probably run it 3 times in a row after that opening series, but I actually wasn’t, I mean since he threw it 3 times, they’d most likely run it 3 times, not that I thought it was a bad thing.
September 10th, 2023 at 6:00 pm
I tell you what, R White goes down like a sack of potatoes when he gets hit! No burst either!
September 10th, 2023 at 6:01 pm
Is there such a thing as an “ugly win” … ??
September 10th, 2023 at 6:58 pm
Keeping the penalties limited to three was impressive. So good to see that. Having a turnovers was great. They’re going to need those things this year.
As for White V Tucker… You’re going to see them both for a while. Tucker looks more explosive, White is a patient back and it’s a hard line to be patient behind because there were not a lot of holes. He gets the snap and almost has to stop to try to find a hole which is a horrible thing to do but a lot of that is on the O line.
September 10th, 2023 at 9:39 pm
There are a lot of sportscasters hiding out tomorrow
September 10th, 2023 at 10:40 pm
stpetebucfan: You are spot on. Here’s an Amen right back at ya.
September 10th, 2023 at 11:29 pm
The best coached team won
September 11th, 2023 at 3:03 am
Didn’t look ugly to me. What a damn good game to watch. Bucs defense looked up to the task and the offense got the job done. Total Todd Bowles type win.
57 yard field goal, was that the longest in Buccaneers history??
September 11th, 2023 at 9:23 am
after all the terrible commentary on this website & bashing baker & squad I still don’t hear over & above good commentary about the best showing in 18 games since last year week 1.we no longer have a cheat as qb & it shows glad brady went to NE yesterday now stay there u freakin cheat u & belicheck cheat deserve each other.