“Championship Moment” Awaits Bucs
November 19th, 2023
Measuring stick game.
Large challenge today when the Bucs face the 49ers in Northern California.
In fact, Bucs offensive coordinator Dave Canales referred to today’s game as a “championship moment.”
Canales wasn’t saying this game will decide the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff picture. What Canales did say was that the 49ers are the type of team the Bucs will face in the playoffs.
How the Bucs do today, how well (or badly) they perform, will give coaches a good idea of what works and what needs major work to get the Bucs playoff-ready.
Players will get a chance to know what it takes to win in the playoffs, at least for the players who were not on the Bucs roster when the team won the Super Bowl in 2020.
“Yeah, big challenge,” Canales said earlier this week. “Championship moment, right? Championship opportunities all the way. [We were] talking about like, ‘We need these games. We need these games to go against the Eagles, to play the Lions, to play the 49ers this week to really see where we’re at when we play such a talented group.’
“They tell you the truth about where you’re at. We have to be honest and okay with that response of what that is. Just calling all the boys to see this for what it is – these are championship moments that we have to relish as we finish down the stretch. It’s going to come down to winning the division.
“We’re going to have these types of matchups. If you win the division, we get a home game and then you’ve got to go travel somewhere. That’s the reality of it. You’ve got to win on the road against really good teams. [It is] just another good litmus test for our group going forward.”
Canales is right. Playing a strong team like the 49ers will expose a team’s weaknesses big time.
If the Bucs don’t learn from playing San Francisco, when will they learn? They got stomped in September by the Eagles, the defending NFC champs this year. The Bucs couldn’t overcome the Lions, the likely NFC North winner.
So if the Bucs can’t figure out what they need to work on after today, Joe is going to guess they won’t. At least not this year.
Bucs OC Dave Canales discusses how important 49ers game is Sunday. pic.twitter.com/qB3ES1F4GJ
— JoeBucsFan (@JoeBucsFan) November 18, 2023
November 19th, 2023 at 12:09 am
‘team’s weaknesses will get exposed big time.’
We are well aware of the BIGGEST weakness of the Bucs team:
Extremely incompetent HC!
November 19th, 2023 at 12:15 am
^^^ And the O-line. LOL, Joe.
November 19th, 2023 at 12:18 am
Gut check on the road. Gotta get the ball out to Godwin and Evans early and often. Dont mess with that front 7. Big fan of shots downfield, but we gotta keep Baker from taking too much punishment. Never realized we had Godwin running wide out routes-GET THAT MAN IN THE SLOT! Baker cant find him on the wing, and CG will make the tough catches over the middle. We dont need an effort game, we need a win. Keep them under 20 and score more than 20.
November 19th, 2023 at 1:43 am
If we wouldve been the texans and falcons then this would have been a good test run for the playoffs. Now this game is a must win if we want to create distance at the head of the division. We need an upset.
November 19th, 2023 at 3:04 am
Forget any “championship moment” noise, please. Besides the unfortunate fact that the Bucs and Bowles are who they are, the NFL is parity. No dominance. Whichever “decent” teams manage to get to the last four games healthy and peak at just the right time will get to it. That’s it.
That said, the 49ers are beatable. Even if the Bucs “upset” them, it wouldn’t mean the Bucs are great. SF is the team that lost 3 straight, for reasons besides injuries. They showed themselves to be a parity team in those losses. They have a defensive coaching problem (Wilks), a bad secondary, and offense too reliant on too few stars (Trent W), and a QB who still hasn’t proven himself fully.
November 19th, 2023 at 3:32 am
This D on the Bucs flashes really good from time to time. If they can play great, if the corners man up; this game could be a low scoring memorable slugfest.
November 19th, 2023 at 5:38 am
Gut feel is that this game will come down to explosive plays. Bucs defense has given up far too many this year, and our offense has made precious few. This is the game that we’d better reverse that.
November 19th, 2023 at 6:26 am
Canales = Fool’s Gold!
November 19th, 2023 at 6:55 am
I think Baker is due to get knocked out of a game. This could be the one. Think this is the game Trask comes in, and to no one’s surprise the game goes worse for the Bucs. Get ready, it’s coming.
November 19th, 2023 at 7:09 am
McLaughlin needs to have a career day and Camarda needs to have a career day. Special teams decide this one.
November 19th, 2023 at 7:11 am
Santa Clara weather 65 and sunny , but 10-20 wind , take the wind at your back in the 1st quarter if you can.
November 19th, 2023 at 7:31 am
Run on every first down. That’ll show what doesn’t work. Then run on second down. They’ll never see that coming.
November 19th, 2023 at 7:53 am
It doesn’t take a championship team to expose your weaknesses. Atlanta exposed us just fine.
November 19th, 2023 at 7:54 am
Atl even sat their best player for the entire game and still had no trouble with us.
November 19th, 2023 at 9:02 am
Cardiac Bucs time. If they bring their A+ game, and are hungrier than the 49ers, they win. Devon White better not be loafing off. I doubt he’s injured. He’s hardly moved his butt all season. LVD has had to do it.
November 19th, 2023 at 9:08 am
You’re delusional if you believe this team will be in the playoffs.
After today another two or three game losing streak.
And disappointed demoralized fan base.
Shouldn’t even be thinking anything playoffs.
Should be thinking about how to draft,sign some interior linemen and a db that can stay healthy and a safety.
November 19th, 2023 at 10:25 am
“They have a defensive coaching problem (Wilks), a bad secondary, and offense too reliant on too few stars (Trent W), and a QB who still hasn’t proven himself fully…..Steel
Right!! Here is a PARTIAL list of the few stars:
TE- -Kittle (watch a true TE)
RB- -CMC (mid-season pick up)
WR- -AIyuk
QB- -Purdy ( yes, he has only been two partial years of running one of the best offenses in the league. We should be happy if we had half the stars)
November 19th, 2023 at 10:43 am
This game has always sat on the schedule like a mountain in the distance. Like Napolean at Waterloo, the Bucs’ offense will see the heavy cavalry today. Hopefully, the team comes out of this game intact with no major injuries and their heads held high. The schedule looks good for the Bucs on the other side of today.
November 19th, 2023 at 11:30 am
Joe you need a different picture of Dave Canales. The ones you used when he first got here made him look like a mid-20’s new OC ready to take on the world with a fresh perspective. The current photo makes him look like he’s aged 20 years in just a few months and is asking the press … ‘OK I’m ready for the next beating. Who wants to go first?’