“That’s Football”
November 17th, 2024
Leaning on backups.
The Bucs must win five more games to have a prayer of a wild card berth and those five may not be enough.
That would push the Bucs’ record to 9-8. But six more wins down the stretch (10 total) ought to be enough. Not much wiggle room with seven games remaining.
Joe can’t embrace the notion some feel that the Bucs will run the table to finish the season. The biggest reason is the lousy defense.
Do the Bucs remotely look like a team that can four games in a row?
Todd Bowles discussed how the defense, because of injuries, has been forced to play guys with scant experience. He spoke about that last week.
In short, Bowles sort of said what former Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter (2016-2018) used to say about injuries after the trade deadline and leaning on backups: Our guys are our guys.
“You don’t anticipate those [backups playing so much],” Bowles said of the rash of injuries. “But they make the team for a reason.
“Everybody is in the same game plan meetings. You have to mentally prepare if you can’t physically prepare so when you go out there and you get an opportunity, you have to make the best of it.
“That’s in football, that’s in life.”
Joe can’t bank on the Bucs defense snapping its fingers and turning things around. Could they? Sure, but that looks like it would be a massive outlier and Joe doesn’t like banking on outliers.
How long will starting cornerback Zyon McCollum will be out with a bad hamstring? And Jamel Dean is still on injured reserve.
It’s not out of the question that the Bucs may be looking at starting Josh Hayes and undrafted rookie Tyrek Funderburk at cornerback when the Bucs return from the bye a week from today.
Don’t think Danny Dimes or dummy Drew Lock won’t love to test those guys?
November 17th, 2024 at 9:47 am
Todd Bowles career coaching record including playoffs is 48-66 for a . 421 win percentage. I know this pisses off the ra-ra crowd but Todds been a loser… Is a loser .. and will always be a loser. Numbers dont lie. I challenge anyone to name me the nfl head coaches that had losing records after there first 114 games who turned it around and had highly successful careers. Ill be waiting
November 17th, 2024 at 10:01 am
I’m not a Todd Bowles fan. He is a stable influence, but never a fiery one. He can come up with incredible schemes, occasionally. But before you just fire an experienced HC like that you have to ask, who is available to replace him? There are not many great HC’s out there. But there are some good defensive coordinators out there. Are the Glazers willing to take a shot with Coen as HC? He seems as smart as anyone else, and guys will buy in to intelligent game planning, IMO. I like that idea.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:07 am
Buchen61. Chuck Noll first 3 years with Steelers was 12 wins and 30 losses. He went ahead and won 4 Super Bowls. They played 14 game seasons. Bill Walsh was 12 wins and 30 losses his first 2 years in S.F. They played 16 game seasons. Once a loser always a loser. Right Buchen61?
November 17th, 2024 at 10:12 am
Jimmy Johnson was 8-24 his first 2 years with the Cowboys. What a loser.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:16 am
Bill Belichick was 83-101 without Tom Brady. Surely you can agree that he was one of the suckiest coaches out there Buchen61.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:25 am
Why wouldn’t Izien or Isaac or T.Thomas be getting some CB snaps over Funderburk and Hayes? Winfield, Whitehead, Edwards, Merriweather, Tykee… that’s a lot of bodies for S and NCB.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:30 am
Kenton Smith 12-30 is 42 games not 114 and Bill Walsh didn’t play 42 games in 2 years. Math isnt your friend and im the loser. Fan is short for fanantic and thats just what you are. Ra-ra-ra
November 17th, 2024 at 10:32 am
Sorry Bill Walsh was 8-24 his first 2 years. Should have been fired!
November 17th, 2024 at 10:33 am
Would we be 4-6 withOUT all the injuries? Doubt it
November 17th, 2024 at 10:39 am
Nope, 5 more wins isn’t enough. Need a minimum of 6.
9 wins will not give us a better record than:
Detroit
Minnesota
Green Bay
Washington
Philly
Atlanta
San Fran
Seattle
^ unless one of those teams has a historic collapse.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:42 am
Has anyone informed Bowles that he’s allowed to make the team have actual practices with physical hitting and tackling? Why is he so insistent on continuing with this soft as ice cream pansy arse training / practices?
November 17th, 2024 at 10:44 am
You guys quit saying bad things about Todd or Kenton Smith is going to hold his breath until he turns blue
November 17th, 2024 at 10:46 am
@ Buchen61, I was going to post about how your claims above were BS but Kenton Smith beat me to the punch.
Bowles doesn’t have a great win-loss record with the Bucs but ANY coach would have difficulty when the front office has been digging itself out of salary cap hell as the Bucs have been doing since Bowles has been promoted to HC.
When evaluating a HC in the NFL you can’t look ONLY at the win-loss record. You’ve got to take the circumstances he’s dealing with into consideration as well. Some of the starters on defense are clearly dealing with injuries which is making them less effective. You can’t blame that on the HC.
November 17th, 2024 at 10:53 am
Bucfanaince1996… Todd must have had the same problem in New York… Was it the front office who call Todd on the side line and tells him to make bone headed decisions that cost us games. You are defending the indefensible… Ra ra ra
November 17th, 2024 at 10:55 am
For all you Todd Bow6lovers this very site just ran a poll where 3 out of 4 have little to no confidence in the mans coaching ability… Give me a break… Hes a loser!!!!!
November 17th, 2024 at 11:03 am
Going into the season we knew Dean would miss a bunch of games but I was OK as I thought Bryce Hall would be good backing up Dean. When Hall went down, Bowles and Licht didn’t bring in an experienced CB because Bowles wanted to play Funderburk and Hayes. Big mistake. Bowles remains overconfident in his defensive coaches and players, look at his end of game decisions too.
November 17th, 2024 at 11:06 am
Hes been a head coach for what 8 seasons and has 3 playoff games to his record. Lost 2 if those. Yep lets sign him to an extension
November 17th, 2024 at 11:09 am
@Buchen61, when a front office evaluates a coach they care about how good the coach is NOW, in the present, not how they were 6 or more years ago.
Coaches do get better in time with experience just as players do.
And the quality of a GM/front office (or lack thereof) will have an impact on any coach. Any fifth grader that follows football should have noticed there were issues with the Jets front office when Bowles was there.
November 17th, 2024 at 12:00 pm
There was no free agency when those legendary coaches were coaching, hard to compare with today’s game. Bowles is a below. 500 coach even if you dig up Lombardi to compare him to. If he ends up .500 this season he’ll be gone.
November 17th, 2024 at 12:03 pm
Buchen61 is right on the money. Losers lose and bowles was a loser, is a loser, and will always be a loser. This isn’t a small sample size like the other guys that were mentioned. Oh and don’t forget bowles is responsible (as HC or DC) for 12% of the 500+ yard passing games IN NFL HISTORY! The super bowl was an AMAZING defensive game plan. But overall we’ve had WAY more embarrassing games (Bo Nix coming out, Stroud HoF game to name a few recent) than dominating games like that one under bowles. And let’s not forget, to be fair, KC was down both their starting OTs.
BFS1996:
Evaluate coaches NOW you say? Like when a defensive guru HC has the second worst D in the league?
Yards given up recently, NOW, in the present, by our HC’s unit:
Ravens: 508
Falcons: 394
Chiefs: 384
49ers: 413
Is that winning football? As it turns out, NO!
In NFL history, there have been 1353 times a team has scored 180+ points in a 6 game span. Of those 1353 times, there have only been 2 where the team went 1-5 during that 6 game stretch:
2019 Bucs
2024 Bucs
Another dubious record! And what do those two teams have in common? Where the offense was getting it done but the defense was (blanking) the bed? If you guessed your favorite defensive guru, todd bowles, you’re correct!
The coping & excuse making for this guy is UNREAL. He’s had his time here, he has unsurprisingly failed & lost (cause he’s a loser). It’s past time to move on.
#FIREbowles
#NOconfidence
November 17th, 2024 at 12:15 pm
Wrong, no way we get in at 9-8. Only way we get in is if Atlanta falls apart the rest of the way, which I think and hope they can. Just look at the stats, plus Kirk is battling injuries. Kirk has 8 tds against teams not named the Bucs this year… I have hope
November 17th, 2024 at 12:16 pm
Stay the course, go on a run, figure out how to get Bowles his defensive needs next season – WHILE keeping Liam Coen.
That’s the only way we win, and have the best chance of continuing to win.
Continuity, consistency, and innovation, that’s the way to long-term success. It’s not flashy, it’s not sexy, but it works.
You can’t always buy a Jon Gruden, or Tom Brady, for a one year rumble – every 10 years…then fade back to mediocrity. Every once in a while you have to build something that lasts. We have that chance – figure it out and stay the course.
November 17th, 2024 at 12:23 pm
Lol….who cares besides the blowhards?
3 out of 4 JBF commenters don’t know their ass from their elbows 🤣
November 17th, 2024 at 12:34 pm
Buchen61, thank you for the factual dissection of the abject failure masquerading as head coich / defenseless uncoordinator. I like the guy — seems like a stand up good dude who would be fun the mow down a rack of ribs with and crush a bunch of beers with.
He’s horrible as a head coich, and the cat is out of the bag — his defense is horrible too. Has been horrible. Will be horrible. The league has turned the page on “surprise blitzes.” They don’t work. Neither does giving receivers a 15 yard cushion on 3rd and 4, or a 35 yard cushion on 3rd and 19.
Being a loser for four years with the Jets and now three years with the Bucs is an amazing accomplishment. In most lines of work, that kind of failure gets you fired. We look forward to January for that reason.
November 17th, 2024 at 1:16 pm
GoneGator so glad you were here to set me straight. Not often someone with your intelligence and insight takes the time to shed their intellect with us blowhards.. Your argument for Todd’s coaching acumen has left me speechless. Thank you said no one
November 17th, 2024 at 1:45 pm
No problem…. BUT if YOU had more intelligence, you’d realize that I wasn’t arguing for Todd’s coaching ability, just commenting on (some) JBF members, like yourself.
But No worries buddy, I’m here to help. Unfortunately, I can’t “shed” my intellect with you…. you’re going to have to work with what you got 🙂
November 17th, 2024 at 1:50 pm
My Magic 8 Ball says…Outlook Not So good.
November 17th, 2024 at 2:10 pm
Beeej
Would we be 4-6 withOUT all the injuries? Doubt it
We were 4-7 last year without all the injuries last year!!!!! lol and WTF kind of hallucinogens would make people compare Bowles record to that of hall of coaches?
Stop with the injury excuses or blaming licht. A head coach chooses his players. For some reason of all the cornerbacks including veterans in camp he chose Funderburke and Hayes as backups.
November 17th, 2024 at 2:11 pm
Gone gator so you weren’t arguing about Todd’s coaching ability you were arguing about me arguing about Todd’s coaching ability. Thanks for clearing that up…smh
November 17th, 2024 at 4:56 pm
It’s hard to be a Lovie Loyalist. Some credit is deserved for that.
The NFL is a performance based business. When you count on a guy who has a reputation as a defensive masturmind to field a good defense with the same players from a defense many thought was good last year (myself not being in that camp), and he and it turn to suck, the result is inevitable. Sorry Lovie Loyalists. Truth hurts.
Even with the Cover Who Swiss cheese defense, 4 games came down to the end. Four times, game management (a responsibility of the head coach) looked like a new waitress in a restaurant dropping a full tray of dishes. So he has that going for him, too.
November 17th, 2024 at 7:28 pm
@Bucben1961
For the record I’m kinda supportive of Todd but only to a point. He’s the coach at least for this season and he has NOT, as far as I can tell, lost the locker room. Guys are still playing hard for him. We’ve played the hardest schedule imaginable, been ravaged by injuries to key players etc etc
If I thought blowing up the coaching staff mid season would help the team I’d be all for it. I just don’t think most of us fans really understand what these guys have on their plates. We’ve suffered some heartbreaking losses and a lot of us are looking for a scapegoat but if you look at shlt honestly and objectively there’s plenty of blame to be shared… It’s not ALL on Todd imo.
And I haven’t seen any alternative plans by commenters here that aren’t short sided and potentially disastrous. Coen DOES NOT need to be promoted NOW. He’s still learning the job he has now and just because he’s done a great job SO FAR as OC I don’t think it would be smart to make him HC. I don’t see any of the other names being handled about as replacements for Todd being a real improvement.
We may need to make a change at HC but if we do it should be after the season, and in the meantime I’m going to pull for a Todd to pull off a miracle and save his job cause that means the Bucs do well and that’s all I really want. I’m in win now mode… I have my reasons.
For NOW…. Todd is the leader of the team and our best (only?) option for this year. Rooting against him is rooting against the Bucs.
Nothing wrong with criticisms but good gawd, the relentless negativity and scapegoating gets so old around here.
November 17th, 2024 at 7:43 pm
Not sure Bowles will be the head coach next year. not sure he deserves it. Defense allows too many wins. It is defense which is losing the games for us.
November 17th, 2024 at 9:00 pm
I think fans are growing indifferent with the Bucs because the status quo is the philosophy du jour. No changes, no effort to improve, wasting great players’ best years, banking on draft choices the “we know he had an injury in college”—-guess what? He has the same injury in the NFL. Who would have thought?
November 17th, 2024 at 10:19 pm
Just think
If we had fired Bowles (rightly) after he quit on the playoff game in Detroit last year…
We could have been in the running to get Harbaugh
A coach who plays to win as opposed to playing ‘not to lose’
What a difference this year would have been.
Oh well……
November 17th, 2024 at 10:35 pm
Just to let some of you know, when a head coach is hired he knows that he takes on the responsibility of the success or none success of each season so if his team is losing it’s his sole responsibility to see to it that they start winning and if they don’t he knows his fate. It’s Bowels fault no matter what..
November 18th, 2024 at 12:53 am
Right on, Proudbucfan.
There are simps who don’t understand the term “the buck stops here.”
Accountability is a lost concept in the modern era.