“Just Pay Attention”
October 11th, 2023
Has message for critics.
Some 10 days ago when the Bucs defense held the slimy Saints out of the end zone in a huge 26-9 Week 4 win in New Orleans, Joe joked with Bucs cornerback Carlton Davis after the game.
It was Davis’ return to the starting lineup after missing two games with a toe injury. Joe asked Davis if the Bucs held the slimy Saints to only three field goals because he was in the lineup.
Of course, he wouldn’t go there.
“I missed being out there,” Davis did admit. As for his defensive teammates, Davis said “I see confident players out there.”
Davis also remarked about how everyone on defense seems to be in step with what Bucs coach Todd Bowles wants. It’s Bowles’ fifth season running the defense.
“We have so much chemistry between us, the defense and [Bowles],” Davis said.
Now the following is cool to Joe, but in an interesting way. Joe asked Davis about his comments this summer — that so many were overlooking the Bucs and the team was going to “wreck sh!t” as a result. Joe asked him if the strong game over the slimy Saints was an example of that.
“Just pay attention!” Davis said in reference to all the folks outside the Tampa Bay area that thought the Bucs were going to crater without Tom Brady. “We are still a team!
“I don’t understand how we could not be that team,” Davis said of the Bucs being in first place in the NFC South. “We have the same pieces. We obviously lost Tom who was a huge [asset] to us. But it is a team sport. We trust each other. We play hard for each other.”
Joe has found it refreshing listening to various national sports talk shows and hearing people reference the Bucs as already hosting a playoff game in January. My, how the tables have turned. From being in the mix to draft Caleb Williams to playing meaningful games in January.
Trust Joe, Bucs players took it personally how so many shat on the team’s chances this fall without Brady.
They’re out to prove to people the Bucs were not a one-man team.
October 11th, 2023 at 4:25 am
In reality, we were never going to be in the running for Williams. That dream was in the mind of the Joe’s.
October 11th, 2023 at 4:48 am
We are 3-1.
It’s great- let’s not crown ourselves. We could easily be 3-14
October 11th, 2023 at 6:00 am
@cleanhouse you definitely aren’t paying attention if you think this team will lose 14 straight 😂
October 11th, 2023 at 6:09 am
Absent a couple missed chipshot field goals, this team would have been 9-7 even w Jameis a few years ago
October 11th, 2023 at 6:36 am
If we beat the Lions then I might start using the P word here. Until then we should temper our expectations don’t ya think?
October 11th, 2023 at 6:56 am
I watched an interview with Fred Warner , the 49ers All-World LB and he really said one thing ” It is just nice to have everybody healthy right now and that makes it so much easier”. Truer words have never been spoken. Bucs stay relatively injury free the rest of the way and hello playoffs as we have the talent.
October 11th, 2023 at 7:00 am
After being led to believe this was going to be a year in the dumpster, the season has been a fun surprise. I notice the Mayfield haters have been a little silent, so far. If the Bucs ever develop the running game, look out!
October 11th, 2023 at 7:30 am
Hell no we should NOT temper our expectations, the division stinks we damn well better expect to win it.
October 11th, 2023 at 7:37 am
Carlton Davis … “We have so much chemistry between us, the defense and [Bowles].”
That statement by Davis defines more than any other why this team is playing sound football, especially on the defensive side. Todd Bowles the teacher has an unbridled enthusiasm, curiosity & knowledge for the game, and he’s infected his ‘students’ with it. I’m beginning to see why Bowles couldn’t give up being DC when he became HC.
I suspect that Dave Canales shares those same traits on the offensive side of the ball, and that’s why Todd picked him to be his OC.
October 11th, 2023 at 7:58 am
Here is my question for our “conservative” posters.
Do the fans resemble their team? Does the team resemble their fans?
Let’s hope its not the latter and that our naysayers begin to resemble the former.
Does anybody really want the team to go into game thinking…
“It’s great- let’s not crown ourselves. We could easily be 3-14″ Really. The players thinking we could be losers?
Aside from the absurdity of ‘EASILTY’ losing 14 in row do we want Davis and the Bucs hitting the field with doubt instead of confidence?
Do we want DW45, Mayfield and the rest to think..”Until then we should temper our expectations don’t ya think?”
Yeah that’s the ticket! The Bucs hitting the field well aware of the negative possibilities instead of a total belief and confidence in themselves.
That may be the biggest thing Baker has brought this squad…CONFIDENCE that appears to some as arrogance. I’ll take arrogance over fear every day of the week.
October 11th, 2023 at 7:58 am
I don’t think Williams is going to come out this year anyway. He makes mores with NIL then he would as a rookie. He made a comment that there are only certain teams he would want to play for. I think Caleb comes back to USC for his senior year next year honestly.
October 11th, 2023 at 8:28 am
I would kinda like to know if that toe of his is going to be an annoying issue all year. His position coach wasn’t exactly choc full of positivity. More like, surprise that he was adequate and held up
October 11th, 2023 at 8:38 am
I don’t think that all of the negativity over the off-season from the media was all about Brady retiring, but it certainly was a major issue to them and rightly so.
Last year’s defense was sub-par for a Bowles defense. The offensive line was dreadful and ppl were skeptical of our off-season moves to fix it (moving Wirfs to LT, adding only one veteran of note in Feller and rookies).
Bowles was sitting with a poor career win/loss record and the Bucs were cap-poor.
The running game was bad last year (partly o-line and partly Lefty) and we lost our most productive RB in Lenny and again, added nobody that anyone thought could improve the RB room over last year’s squad.
Add in a new OC with zero experience and what was viewed as “the best we could afford to get” in signing Mayfield who was terribly underestimated and maligned as “washed” and that makes for a bleak outlook.
It wasn’t just the national media. This here site and the fans posting here were in on the doom and gloom as well. And while so far it looks to be a bad take, it wasn’t without merit.
I don’t care what the media says. I’m glad the players have confidence in themselves and each other enough to say “Just pay attention” and let their play do the talking.
I think it’s a better overall team this year due in no small part because our younger guys now have another year of experience under their belts and are showing improvement (Goedeke, Hall, Otton, Zyon, etc). Last year they were forced into action as green as can be and fans were using the “bust” word a lot.
I believe the division is ours to lose. We’re the reigning NFCS Champs and someone will have to take that from us because I don’t see this group just giving it away.
October 11th, 2023 at 9:07 am
Glasshalffull
Agree completely with your post. It did look gloomy this off season and people who held to “positive views” were considered, perhaps justifiably, as crazy.
I was glad to be among the “crazy” when Davis first made his comments about “wreck sh!t”. IMO this team will go as far as it’s D can carry it with Baker playing as well as Brad did during the original SB. The OL appears to be just as good or maybe better with continued growth as that first SB team and the targets are definitely better. Would you rather have ME13 and CG or Meshawn and Jurevicious. Of course the first SB team had FAR better RB’s!!!!
October 11th, 2023 at 9:15 am
It’s my hope that the genuine long-time (and long suffering) Buc fans here wear the FL colors Sunday with pride. I sure will! 🙂 TAMPA ……………BAY!!!!!! What’s the line on this game?
October 11th, 2023 at 9:18 am
Obviously this weekend is a great test. We, as a team need to win at home, RayJay is a problem for us. And our fans tend to sell their tickets to outsiders when it is deemed a national tv audience, that stinks. We need to beat Detroit, then Buffalo and show-up against San Francisco. They are due for a loss. If we can get two wins out of those three games, look out. We will definitely be considered national contenders. If we falter (look no further than last years playoff loss to Dallas), then the pre-season naysayers will start printing bumper stickers that say “I told you so”.
October 11th, 2023 at 9:23 am
BA’s Red Pen Says:
October 11th, 2023 at 7:30 am
Hell no we should NOT temper our expectations, the division stinks we damn well better expect to win it.
Well then I guess every NFC Conference does as we are the only one with 3 teams over 500. Outside of Carolina, every team is good.
October 11th, 2023 at 9:25 am
I don’t understand how anybody counted them out. They were perhaps the worst offense in the league last season and were a .500 team… then they went and got better on defense and special teams and had to get better on offense (no place to go but up)… Me calling this is a 10+ win team in preseason was an easy call for me even though I did wonder what other people were or weren’t seeing that i was … or wasn’t.
October 11th, 2023 at 10:08 am
I’m feeling the W this week. Shake n bake babay
October 11th, 2023 at 10:14 am
#1 BIGGEST OBSTACLE
The Saints only play 3 teams with winning records the rest of the season. Their schedule is a joke. The Bucs have a must tougher road. This team has to stay healthy and play excellent football to keep pace. They can do it!
October 11th, 2023 at 11:28 am
Easily go 3-14 is just plain ignorant. I get what you are saying but have you seen Carolina play? The high school team where I live could give them a run for their money. Now that’s a team that EXPECTS to lose. This team EXPECTS to win, ONLY because they see the work, they know the chemistry, and the attitude is one where people counted them out. People counted Carolina out too, but rhey just don’t have the horses, and whoever traded the farm for Young will be gone in 2 years. Ridder is showing you who he is when pressured. The Saints as mentioned are actually good when Carr is healthy so it’s NOT a given, but I expect to win 10 games. Unless we do get decimated by injuries and even then our backups are WAY better than ever before through great drafting. This is a team on the rise. Anyone who can’t see that is ignorant.