“Effort Was Horrible”
January 4th, 2024
A player’s take clashes with that of Todd Bowels.
Todd Bowles didn’t question his team’s effort after Sunday’s bad loss to the slimy Saints.
Oh, he was way down on their play and the Bucs’ coaching performance, but not the effort.
“Effort’s there. I thought we started slow,” Bowles said Monday after studying the game film.
Enter Rachaad White.
The Bucs’ No. 1 running back spoke to media yesterday and was asked to name the key to Sunday’s win-and-you’re-in game against the Panthers.
“The biggest thing we’re harping on, the biggest key is effort,” White said. “Effort was horrible last week.
“So, the biggest thing this week is effort, energy. … As a unit, all of us together, we wan’t ready to play. I mean, it goes to show, and that had nothing to do with coaches or things like that. Like we got to be up and ready to play.”
So which is it? Was the Bucs effort lousy with everything on the line, or were they “just in a daze,” as Bowles said?
How what happened Sunday with a division title on the line at home against a major rival remains a giant head-scratcher for Joe.
January 4th, 2024 at 3:46 pm
Lack of effort is 100% on the HC……there is no way that should happen. He needed to light a fire under their a$$es and turn up the flame.
This week is simple……win or clean out your offices.
January 4th, 2024 at 3:51 pm
This team is so weird…
At this point I have to blame Todd Bowles.
I’m not looking for any “Ra-Ra Poo-Poo” speeches but this guy has the personality of a gold fish.
Unfortunately I believe he will be back next season for another below mediocre performance.
January 4th, 2024 at 3:59 pm
GOOD ORGANIZATION VS A BAD ORGANIZATION
One of the ways you can judge a good company from a bad company is through perspective. If everyone has a different perspective, it shows leadership communication is lacking. No real surprise Bowles and his players say opposite things. He’s a bad leader.
January 4th, 2024 at 4:26 pm
They were a direct reflection of the HC….
January 4th, 2024 at 4:45 pm
Bowles game plan sucked he is an idiot.
January 4th, 2024 at 4:52 pm
Bowles is a coordinator, period! He just doesn’t get that modern football means you are a week to week team and cannot show tendencies.
What they Bucs put out on film is very predictable and stale. The plays are not designed to fool anyone. Why are they the worst running team in the NFL? Mainly because everyone knows when they are going to run and teams with good defensive linemen know where the runs are going and they blow up the Bucs offensive lineman.
The only way the Bucs look like a decent offense is when games are out of reach and they get into hurry-up. They can pass the ball deep for sure but they can’t convert enough first downs in the earlier parts of the game. Way too many punts and field goals. Its difficult to watch most of the time.
January 4th, 2024 at 5:04 pm
@ Marine
You’re right. At this point even if bowles tries to give some Knute Rockne speech, it won’t matter. It’s just not who he is. And as much as I think his low energy, dispassionate personality negatively affects the team, adding being fake on top of it isn’t gonna help. We just need to replace him. I think we’ve all had that experience with a gf/wife where you want it to work and you try really hard to make it work, but it just doesn’t work. And then with the next one you don’t have to work at all and it’s way better with way less effort. bowles is a square peg in a round hole, we just need to get a round peg.
Look at the coaches at Miami and Detroit. Are they perfect? Surely not. But I get the feeling their players can’t wait to get in the game and play their @sses off for their coaches. Maybe part of that is they are genuinely “Rah-Rah Poo-Poo” (lol) guys, but I think part of it is they buy in to the game plan. Think about in your own lives, boss tells you to do something you don’t agree with, what do you do? Most of us probably do it, but do we do it with gusto? With maximum EFFORT? Probably not with as much as we would if we agreed with the plan. Do you think Evans & Godwin & White (39%) agree with being targeted as much as Otton & Edmonds (36%) in a win and you’re in home game against a bitter division rival? Do you think White thinks “just a few more runs up the middle is what we need” game after game? CDIII & Dean are gung ho about playing soft zone, getting no PDs no INTs, giving up the most passing yards in the league instead of playing man? I think not. I think not. So between not buying in to what they’re being asked to do, and the message being delivered by “goldfish” bowles, is it any surprise the way we came out and played last week?
#FIREbowles #NOconfidence
January 4th, 2024 at 5:10 pm
I can see only one reason why Bowles isn’t fired regardless of Sunday’s results. The Glazers MAY intend to keep him around for one more year in order to groom Canales
January 4th, 2024 at 5:30 pm
WHY ?
January 4th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
The most likely scenario is the Bucs win against the Panthers followed by an ugly elimination loss at home. If this plays out, Bowles will have two complete seasons with mediocre records and playoff embarrassments. That was enough to get Tony Dungy fired. Will the Glazers hold Bowles to a lower standard than Tony Dungy? IMO it would be UNTHINKABLE to retain Bowles. But then again, they are billionaires, and I am not.
January 4th, 2024 at 5:32 pm
He’s worse than his brother lovie smith.
How can a team like this play that badly 3-4 games out of the year and think it’s not effort? So someone comes out and punches your team in the mouth and you go down on the first punch? Either they didn’t care for your game plan or the game or the core is soft. I think it’s you Bowles
January 4th, 2024 at 5:38 pm
I understand, why would u be up to win the division on ur home field in front of your crowd paying to watch it, and the chance to rest injuries players for a big playoff game …of course u wouldn’t, better to risk it all on final game
January 4th, 2024 at 5:46 pm
I saw great effort from the Stinky Saints, not the Bucs. I hate to say it but win or lose this Sunday I think the Glazers will bring Bowles back next year.
January 4th, 2024 at 5:51 pm
@ I remember 21
Exactly.
This team just isn’t buying what Todd Bowles is selling… After their performance last week I just believe this team does not respect him and he is incapable of motivating anyone.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:19 pm
This happened with Brady last year. He blasted the lack of effort, and Bowles said the effort was fine.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:56 pm
Marine Buc Says:
This team just isn’t buying what Todd Bowles is selling… After their performance last week I just believe this team does not respect him and he is incapable of motivating anyone.
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I wish we could go back to having Bowles as a DC because he was good at that for the most part, sometimes outstanding (such as in the Super Bowl!)
But for a team to have as much on the line as the Bucs had last weekend and not play with maximum effort and energy is a giant red flag.
I wish I was a fly on the wall in the locker room and in the offices of the various coaches to see what is really going on.
January 4th, 2024 at 6:57 pm
Joe … ‘So which is it? Was the Bucs effort lousy with everything on the line, or were they “just in a daze,” as Bowles said?’
Hmmm, playing White off against Bowles? And that’s why coaches & players are so guarded when talking to the media. Y’all applaud Dave Canales’ candor & honesty, then use those types of comments to create ‘Well which is it?’ scenarios that make one or the other look like they’re not being truthful.
Couldn’t it be that they’re just looking at it from different perspectives, like head coach & player? Does anyone in the media really know what Bowles said to the players behind closed doors?
January 4th, 2024 at 7:26 pm
Marine Buc … ‘This team just isn’t buying what Todd Bowles is selling… After their performance last week I just believe this team does not respect him and he is incapable of motivating anyone.’
After reading various comments from Bucs’ players regarding Todd Bowles, can’t buy that they don’t respect him. I don’t see that as THE ISSUE. I’m convinced that he’s got 3 major issues he’s trying to deal with, and is just about in overload mode right now:
1 – Trying to wear 2 hats simultaneously. He didn’t do that when he was Jets’ coach, and his defense sucked after Year 1 (went from #9 ranked defense in 2015, to #28 in 2016, then #22 in 2017 and #29 in 2018). That’s pretty damning for a defensive coach, and I’m sure he didn’t want a repeat of that. Still, there’s only 168 hrs in a week, and trying to do 2 full-time jobs simultaneously is impossible except for a very select few. Bowles isn’t one of those. He’s doing NEITHER job well.
2 – Young inexperienced team. He’s trying to develop a BUNCH of youngsters, and some just aren’t that good it appears. It’s one thing to try to develop 1st Rnd & 2nd Rnd picks, but he’s dealing with a bunch of guys who went undrafted. And worse yet for him, he’s having to play them because of injuries to various starters.
3 – Experienced players not providing the necessary field leadership. I’m disappointed in the play of a lot of veterans on the team this year. Just on defense, White, Davis, Dean, Neal, Shaq & a number of others just aren’t getting ‘er done. We’re missing those stalwarts on the field (like JPP & Suh?) who set high standards & whose play motivated others on the field. I think that’s why it seems so often that this team isn’t really playing together. Where are the 11 Musketeers when you need them? One for all and all for gang tackling.
January 4th, 2024 at 7:53 pm
Dream scenario: Bucs win at Panthers and fire Bowles immediately anyway. They promote Canales HC and they Pass 80% of plays in the playoff game and play aggressive press coverage on defense. They win and then play a close game at SF. Canales is fired then Bucs hire Harbaugh.
January 4th, 2024 at 8:57 pm
No toilet bowl do not blame the whole team. This loss was mainly on you trash qb who managed to score zero with 7 minutes left in the game with three turnovers all by himself. Can you actually score zero ? I do not know. Ask Baker he is used to do that.
January 4th, 2024 at 10:36 pm
Here we are talking about millionaires mostly that did not care enough to go play like they are payed. Why in the biggest game of the year, did they come out flat. This is on the Coaches yes, but it is an indictment on the players to just come out and sleep walk, thinking somehow the Saints would lay down and get beat. Sorry but that game is a microcosm of Bowles time overall as a head coach in Tampa.
January 4th, 2024 at 11:34 pm
“Inexplicable!” says Todd.
January 5th, 2024 at 12:23 am
Sunday is a win-win. Manage to beat a lousy division rival and we get to host a playoff game. Lose to said lousy division rival and we likely get to welcome a new coaching staff—and some new/fresh faces in the locker room. Too many players still riding on their 20-21 reputations and not enough accountability.
January 5th, 2024 at 3:00 am
I know people are free to say and think what they want.
Rachaad and one or two other players really need to stick with the script and give those blah blah answers when speaking to the media or posting on social apps.
His own effort has seemed to me to revert to dancing around in the backfield ala Fournette.
Go Bucs!
January 5th, 2024 at 9:02 am
Bowles is the polar opposite of Arians. Bruce didn’t accept bs-mediocre efforts from players and wasn’t afraid to push them or criticize them. Bowles is.
After the horrific season Devin White has played, it was spineless to give him playing time when his substitutes are far better at playing the run and dropping
into coverage. White should be a backup the way he plays.
Then you have JTS, another diva that has shown zero talent of the field and an avoidance of doing any of the dirty work.
Bowles is just not enough of an authority figure that the players respect. The Bucs strengths are not suited to Bowles’ philosophy. If he had a beastly offensive line, powerful backs and great pass rushers he could get more wins with his strategy but that isn’t the Bucs. He hasn’t adapted to his personel for 2 years now. He has to prove he can go on a 2 game winning streak to get to 10 wins this season or else he is a proven failure as HC for the second time.
January 6th, 2024 at 8:50 am
its not a shocker, Bowles is the coach who will lie to media thinking he is protecting his players. he did it for white, and he’s doing now to take the blame off the players a bit. He also doesn’t want that to be a mark on the few players that did go out and did have that effort in the loss. i mean even in an awful game, you cant really say baker wasn’t giving effort, in fact usually that’s his downfall when he tries to do too much.