Ian Beckles: Bucs Are Kings Of The NFC South
October 7th, 2023
“Elated.”
“Elated” was the word from a former Bucs offensive lineman and popular local sports radio personality when talking about where the Bucs stand after four games.
Speaking on his podcast “In the Trenches” former Bucs guard Ian Beckles said fans should be in the partying mood for the Bucs jumping out to a 3-1 start.
“If you are a Buccaneer fan you should be elated,” Beckles said. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming.”
In fact, Beckles said that in the wake of the beatdown of the slimy Saints on Sunday, the Bucs are and should be Kings of the South.
“I’m going to be as real as I can: I don’t know if the Bucs going to lose a game in the [NFC] South,” Beckles said. “The Saints don’t look good: We just dismantled the Saints in their house. That doesn’t ever happen, I’m telling that doesn’t ever happen.
“Carolina is godawful. Atlanta has scored 13 points in the past two weeks. And the Bucs are 3-1. If you go undefeated in your division, there is no way you won’t go to the playoffs, there is no way you won’t get a home playoff game. That’s the way it goes.”
Beckles added that all things are not perfect. And these have to be cleaned up if the Bucs are going to do damage in January. Beckles also noted this list is not “large.”
* “They did better stopping the run yesterday,” Beckles said. “Could be better still.”
* “They are not a running team,” Beckles said with a pained look on his face.
* “Offensively, I’m not quite sure that their strength is,” Beckles said. “Right now, the Bucs’ strength is winning.”
* Beckles enjoys the energy and spirit Baker Mayfield brings to the Bucs but had one piece of advice for the Bucs’ quarterback: “Get your ass down, Baker.”
* On Mike Evans: “Mike Evans is at the back end of his career. You can’t expect him to play 17 games. Not the way he plays. I think Chris Godwin is the guy. Beckles added he’d rather see Evans rest up than the Bucs pushing him to play at 60 percent.
In short, Beckles said, folks should be wearing their Bucs gear all over town.
“To this point, 3-1 is fantastic. You are supposed to be wearing your Buccaneer gear. I’m elated.”
October 7th, 2023 at 8:19 am
Bucs offense is in its infancy too!! They haven’t even opened up the playbook. I’m so excited for the rest of the season.
October 7th, 2023 at 8:22 am
Well HE has certainly come around
October 7th, 2023 at 8:38 am
I saw it coming. I predicted a 11-5 record before season. This team has top tier talent at all position levels. Let Bowels build his team and let him coach.
October 7th, 2023 at 8:48 am
I’m not convinced that Evans is at the backend of his career. That will IMO be determined on how long he wishes to play. I have no doubt he picked Brady’s brain and knows how to extend his career should he wish to.
It takes more effort and time to get one’s body into shape at his age so it just is a matter of how much longer he wishes to do it. Once he does what he needs to do to assure he’ll make it into the Hall of Fame then he might decide to retire, and he’s not far off from that point. But if he does retire it won’t be due to his ability dropping off. I would bet he could continue to play at a high level for another 5 years if he wished to, as long as there are no serious injuries of course.
October 7th, 2023 at 8:48 am
I’m taking it one game at a time. Gotta say 3-1 feels pretty darned good.
October 7th, 2023 at 8:52 am
^^^^^^My name is supposed to be Bucs fan, not bucks.
Auto-incorrect got me. 😉
October 7th, 2023 at 8:54 am
Way too many penalties , Bucs will not beat Kittens with 11 penalties. Ian is wrong, Evans has 4-6 more good years.
October 7th, 2023 at 8:58 am
Beckles stating the obvious again…….rarely does he have an original thought…
October 7th, 2023 at 9:04 am
I agree that it sure feels like we could run the table in South. For sure 5-1 in the division. Just gotta find about 3 or for wins on the rest of the schedule.
October 7th, 2023 at 9:05 am
4*
Sorry for the typo. Still drinking my coffee!
October 7th, 2023 at 9:37 am
Tampabaybucfan Says:
“Beckles stating the obvious again…….rarely does he have an original thought…”
_______________
I definitely don’t agree with you on this. Ian DEFINITELY has his own thoughts & ideas about all things BUCS related which is what has always made him interesting. Now I will freely admit there are alot of times I have vehemently disagreed with him, lol. But he definitely is not lacking original thought.
October 7th, 2023 at 9:50 am
It doesn’t even have to be ORIGINAL if everyone is saying the same thing.
What’s he supposed to do, disagree?
Baker getting down IS important, but I’d actually like to see more designed runs from him. He is more athletic than people give him credit for.
Option type keepers at the goal line especially.
Sometimes QBs “Walk” in on those.
If we are going to beat the good teams, he needs to continue to scramble.
One of the reasons we are winning is because we no longer have a STATUE at QB. He has easily saved 5 or 6 sacks.
October 7th, 2023 at 9:57 am
If I may, want to throw a huge THANK YOU to the Joes and Ira. Fantastic site!
To and our fellow Bucs fans – great comments! Bucs family!
PS – I’m a south Tampa native at 54 years old. Dad got tickets in ‘74 when the team (no name yet) was announced. Richard “Batman” Wood is probably my all time favorite. For those that don’t know – the OLB put black bat stickers on his helmet and elbow pads, and would dive over the pile for sacks. As a kid, how do you not love that.
Anyway – let’s rock this season! Go Bucs!
October 7th, 2023 at 10:08 am
Sitting at the top with a bye this week, let’s see what our division rivals are facing tomorrow:
Houston @ Atlanta. Houston is coming on and their young QB is improving quickly. A loss for the dirty birds looks promising.
Carolina @ Detroit. Nuff said. Hopefully Detroit will have so much fun against the Kitties that they look past us next week.
Saints @ New England. This one worries me a little. NE (1 – 3) hasn’t been good but their defense has. Unfortunately they’ve lost their rookie sensation at CB (Gonzales) for the season and Judon is also out, maybe for the season. Add in that they still have whiny Mac Jones at QB and it might be ugly. If Carr (questionable) is out, you never know which Jameis shows up so hopefully it’s a NE win but ya never know.
No matter what happens tomorrow, our Bucs will still be all alone in 1st place when we don the Creamsicles against the Lions.
October 7th, 2023 at 10:35 am
@BillyBucco… last year our “statue at QB” was sacked a league-low 22 times. Was it stellar o-line play? Baker has been sacked 4 times in 4 games (extend that out thru 17 games = 17 sacks) which is incredible.
Hopefully it can continue. Baker’s avg sacks per game is a whopping 2.31 over his career so that translates to a tad over 39 sacks for 17 games (ouch). Since most were when he was still young (and he still is young but much more experienced) I think we have the best version of Baker yet, even with our still-improving o-line.
The record low for a 16 game season is the Dolphins at only 7 sacks in 1988 with a 27 year-old Dan Marino, known for the quick release and being hard to sack. That one might hold up for a while.
October 7th, 2023 at 11:05 am
Thank you 74!👍
October 7th, 2023 at 11:25 am
Beckles crapped on the Bucs all preseason. Look at Joe’s archive.
“No one saw this coming” …?
Joe, show some love to your commenters. Almost all of us did. 10-7, 11-6 … was the consensus in most blogs.
October 7th, 2023 at 12:18 pm
As a long time Bucs fan, I got to remind you the Bucs have enjoyed strong starts before, and then screwed the pooch. This season feels different, however. I think the success is sustainable. I don’t think we have seen the best performances by this team yet. We are, at some point, going to really rout some bad team we catch at at the right time by a ridiculous score.
October 7th, 2023 at 1:10 pm
Beckles, “Nobody saw this coming.”
Me, “I totally saw this coming.”
October 7th, 2023 at 1:11 pm
Sly Pirate Says:
October 7th, 2023 at 11:25 am
Beckles crapped on the Bucs all preseason. Look at Joe’s archive.
“No one saw this coming” …?
Joe, show some love to your commenters. Almost all of us did. 10-7, 11-6 … was the consensus in most blogs
_____
I said 10+ wins. Was that a cop out? 🙂
October 7th, 2023 at 2:03 pm
My name is supposed to be Lovelorn For Brady.
Damn auto-correct changed it to Lovelorn For Mayfield.
(Even auto-correct is a Bucs fan right now)
October 7th, 2023 at 3:00 pm
74 BF: you bet your azz I remember Batman Woods. He was part of the 1979 Defense that missed the NFL Championship game by 9 (3 field goals) points! LA Rams won that one at Tampa Stadium. Bucs set a positive record—- youngest team (4 years) to make it to the playoffs in NFL history. I was there in person and it was a gorgeous day! However, after that, the Dark Ages began.
October 7th, 2023 at 4:43 pm
orlbucfan. That game was televised in Maine. I watched. Wierd game. I don’t remember much but I do remember the day. There was about 18″ of snow on the ground and cold. Reception was good. I had followed the Bucs because they had cool uniforms and were in Florida in the NFC. Yeah, I was a Pats fan. They played the Rams I think. Gotta check that out.
October 7th, 2023 at 4:45 pm
Yes of course they played the Rams and the saying was ” The Big Sombrero”.
October 7th, 2023 at 4:59 pm
Life is strange. After all the years keeping my eye on the Bucs from afar, that I would move to the Tampa area just as they changed uniforms from the creamsicles I liked so much to the digital alarm numbers and pewter and red, here I sit passionately involved in a “website” and about to see the rebirth of the old uniforms. If it would only snow! I hope we kick the Lions all the way back to Michigan.
October 7th, 2023 at 5:11 pm
A thought. My only sources of info for the Bucs back in the day were newspapers and magazines. When I moved down here in ’95 I had the Trib and the Times ( hi Ira)
and in ’96 Bay news 9 came on with Rock Riley. I never missed his 11:00PM show and was sad when he was dumped. But here we are today. I didn’t even get a computer till 2000.
October 7th, 2023 at 7:08 pm
If the Bucs can beat the Lions….who are good…..at Rayjay…….while wearing the Creamsickles……and go 4-1….
then it will be very hard to argue that this isn’t a good team
October 7th, 2023 at 8:36 pm
But they didn’t.
The Bucs went to classic pewter and red in 1997. They wore those until 2014 when they broke out the alarm clocks. Sanity was finally restored when the Bucs went back to the classic pewter and reds in 2020.
October 7th, 2023 at 9:12 pm
You are right Joe, I stand corrected. It’s funny, one can be sure he remembers something correctly until he’s proven wrong. I guess if I’m going to be a commentator I need to brush up on history and take some memory enhancing supplements. Thank goodness those alarm clock numbers are gone. To enjoy a game I have to sit in my desk chair 2 feet in front of the tv and still can’t tell who’s who.
October 7th, 2023 at 9:48 pm
I never listened to sports radio. At least not very much. I found the nature and noise of it a little irritating. Rock Riley’s show at 11:00 was a great format and even though JBF is the new web page model I find real similarities between the two and is why I like you so much. I don’t need to be saturated with stats, analysis, and college draft projections. The little football I played was see the ball catch the ball and the most points wins. Ain’t that what it’s all about ?
October 7th, 2023 at 11:19 pm
I saw it coming. Yeah I am going to be that guy, I still had questions that needed answering, mainly can Bowles be a winner and can the OL be decent? Canales and the defense had me very optimistic and it’s coming to fruition. Injuries could still derail this squad and I don’t expect a SB but if they get back to the playoffs and are healthy, I expect a better showing than what we were given last year. I guess through 4 weeks that’s obvious.
October 7th, 2023 at 11:25 pm
74 BF: you bet your azz I remember Batman Woods. He was part of the 1979 Defense that missed the NFL Championship game by 9 (3 field goals) points! LA Rams won that one at Tampa Stadium. Bucs set a positive record—- youngest team (4 years) to make it to the playoffs in NFL history. I was there in person and it was a gorgeous day! However, after that, the Dark Ages began.
This was only 2 seasons later after winning their first game
BTW personal favorite LB was #57 David Lewis, I like Batman #54 for sure , but Lewis was the best of the LB’s. He never got his just due.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:47 am
Citrus they didn’t change to the alarm numbers until about 15 years after switching to pewter and red.
October 8th, 2023 at 7:56 am
Sorry I just saw Joe’s comment. The throwbacks next week will be cool. I’m 52 and was 7 when began my Bucs fandom. As a kid I loved their uniforms, especially the white jerseys with the white pants. They had such a Florida look and were unique. When they made the switch I loved it and thought it was needed after all this awful seasons. Now I’ve come circle and wouldn’t be mad if they switched back to them at some point.
October 8th, 2023 at 8:07 am
Yeah, those alarm numbers and red pj unis stunk up the planet. Man, did we raise holy h3ll on here and other sites. Finally, enough stink got to 1BP, and they changed back to the original pewter and red fashions. I’m still partial to the Floridian orange, red and white. I’m also sick of comments indicating the pirate on the helmet is gay. What a load of stupid! I have gay friends, and there were gay pirates/bucaneers in historical records, but get real! My favorite Bucs player on that ’79 Defense will always be Lee Roy Selmon (RIP-HOF).