“Otherwise, They’re Not Winning”
April 8th, 2025
Tough talk about the Bucs defense.
Yesterday, Joe brought word of Bucs legend Rondé Barber revealing his frustration with the Tampa Bay defense.
Barber also let that weave into his chatter about Baker Mayfield during his chat with Forbes.
“Baker’s really showed that he can be the guy,” Barber said. “They’ve been fortunate that they have Baker Mayfield and the dynamic offense. They can go out and score points and keep them in games. Otherwise, they’re not winning.”
Ouch.
Man, Barber was harsh on the Bucs defense. It was the defense that kept the Bucs in their must-win, Week 18 game against the slimy Saints. As hard as it is to believe — and most Bucs fans have blocked it out — the Bucs trailed 19-13 in the fourth quarter at home against the Saints before clinching the division with a win.
The Bucs defense also played a stout game against the Chargers in December in a huge road win. Los Angeles ran for just 32 yards and did not convert on third or fourth down all game.
The Bucs defense also was big in early wins against the Eagles and Detroit.
Joe can’t call the 2024 Bucs defense “good,” but take it easy, Rondé. The defense had its moments.
So how great is the Bucs offense? It was elite last year, but Joe doesn’t think it got commensurate respect in the national media.
Tampa Bay averaged 29.5 points per game, fourth-most in the NFL. Were the Bucs the fourth-most hyped offense entering the playoffs? No chance.
For 2025, the entire starting offense has returned, and nearly every backup. That’s how confident the Bucs are in the offense. At the NFL owners meetings last week, Joe asked Todd Bowles about needs on offense in the draft and the head coach didn’t offer one specific position or area of need.
Bowles was much more direct about his defensive desires.
Joe can’t wait to see the crop of defensive talent the Bucs score in the draft. This defense is not a rebuild job. If the defense can at least generate an extra handful of big plays this season and a consistent year from new edge rusher Haason Reddick, that should be enough to be very dangerous in mid-January.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Todd saying he can field a competitive defense with what he has shows his growth.
Also tells me he believes injury was the biggest culprit.
Don’t be surprised if they add another stud receiver in the first 3 rounds.
They have shown to get studs on offense in the 3rd and 4th.
There is still also plenty of time to sign guys we don’t get after the draft.
Maybe Kyzir White comes down on his asking price or the Bucs pay more because we missed out at LB.
Either way, this season is gonna be fun.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:35 pm
Gonna be a fun season.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:47 pm
How many times did the Buccaneers have a great late game drive only to have the defense give away a field goal in the end. The defense choke the game away in the playoffs. That’s all I need to know.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:56 pm
Nick
The defense made a stop in the fourth quarter and gave the offense a chance to go up two scores.
A fumble stopped that.
The defense struggled all year, but they did what was necessary then.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:56 pm
Barber has certainly earned his stripes. But it hurts to hear him bash the defense like this. Maybe he’s trying to light a fire under their butts.
April 8th, 2025 at 12:57 pm
Bowles calls the defense to give up chances for the other team to kick field goals in steady of give up TD’s. He calls the defense as if he would rather die from a thousand paper cuts rather than just get your head chopped off.
It’s obvious from the way the defense plays on the field. The players know they aren’t getting put in a position to make big plays, they’re getting put into a position to not give up big plays. Nothing more, nothing less.
Bowles’ style of defense takes possessions away from the offense. Period. Go ahead and give up a big play on defense once in a while and give up 3 points in a six play defensive possession that only takes 4 minutes off the game clock rather than give up 3 points every single time on a 10 minute twelve play defensive possession.
April 8th, 2025 at 1:02 pm
Barber will always judge the D more closely than the O. Trying to give them some motivation.
April 8th, 2025 at 1:04 pm
@BillyBucco
That is precisely the problem with Bowles. He overvalues the players he has on defense, and the result is him calling a soft game and letting the team die a slow death on Sunday when the offense isn’t hunming.
Most of our defensive back depth has zero business ever seeing the field, but Bowles thinks they’re serviceable, so those guys end up starting when a couple injuries stack up, and before you know it Vita Vea is covering the deep middle of the field in a Tampa 2.
April 8th, 2025 at 1:12 pm
Bucs Defense gave up 22.9 points per game through the 2024 season and gave up 23 in Wild Card Round.
Bucs Offense scored 29.5 points per game and scored 20 in the Wild Card Round.
Defense may have given up some games during the season but the Playoff loss is on the Offense.
Game should have been 30-20 with the Commanders needing two scores to win down the stretch and not just a field goal. Offense choked or should I say dropped the ball. Literally.
April 8th, 2025 at 1:47 pm
our defense aint that good
the commanders showed us zero respect and converted 4th downs
we’re just not good enough
April 8th, 2025 at 1:56 pm
Make or break season for bowles, i believe. If his defense chokes on final drives and continues to play that GD soft zone, then he is done. Talk is cheap, todd. Or as they say, actions speak louder than words
April 8th, 2025 at 2:09 pm
Ronde the turncoat
He benefited from having all those players in the end he struggle until move to safety
Great players don criticize simple
April 8th, 2025 at 2:12 pm
^^^
Ahh Michael Jordan criticized.
April 8th, 2025 at 2:23 pm
Fully respect Ronde. I was disappointed reading the earlier post with what he said. It wasn’t perfect last season but we were not the worse in the league.
Understandably, Ronde is coming from a different time and place. Yes, he could be trying to motivate the players. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the correct way to do it though.
April 8th, 2025 at 2:26 pm
Fan of the South- yeah, what’s wrong with the offense. Couldn’t go 96 yards for a TD to make it 30-20. It’s not just one player or side of the ball. It’s a team game. I’ll bet you were a heck of a player. Probably rivaled Rod Munch.
April 8th, 2025 at 2:27 pm
Its not a mystery…
The offensive side of the Bucs is their saving grace….
The defensive side are poorly coached and seemingly none existent in most drives!
April 8th, 2025 at 2:30 pm
No, when we fumbled we were up 17-13. Then down 20-17. Then tied at 20. Then doink off the goalpost with 0 on the clock. Doesn’t matter.
April 8th, 2025 at 2:36 pm
They should hope reddick works out. With the way the eagles hate the chiefs I just think everybody will be drafting edge rushers this year. I don’t think a top guy will be there but just an opinion I hope I’m wrong
April 8th, 2025 at 2:58 pm
“Tampa Bay averaged 29.5 points per game, fourth-most in the NFL. Were the Bucs the fourth-most hyped offense entering the playoffs? No chance.”
The Cowboys could average 23 points per game as they moved up from the 20th best to the 17th best, and all the talking heads would yammer about their offense being “back” and “exciting again”.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:21 pm
Ronde the HOF defensive back that helped lead us to the first title.
He gets it and isn’t afraid to call out the defense and effectively Bowles along with them.
I’ll take his word over the Joes any day.
The defense was a dumpster fire that nearly derailed the season.
No lipstick on that pig at all.
28-27 Fire Bowles Now!!!
April 8th, 2025 at 3:31 pm
If Reddick is that 11+ sack guy again then it makes Kancey, Yaya etc. all better. If 4-5 can get to the quarterback and consistently put pressure on them, the rest of the defense benefits, turnovers will come.
Consistent pressure from the front line can make them a top 10 defense.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:33 pm
“They can go out and score points and keep them in games. Otherwise, they’re not winning.””
The defense last year was miserable. It was, as I have said before, a sieve. Citing a fist full of good moments, as was done in this article, does not change that. If last year’s defense could have matched the level of last year’s offense the fine folks at OBP would have been forced to create more space in the trophy cabinet. Bottom line, Ronde was right.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:37 pm
Just stop BucDawg…..
Geez – we get it – you don’t like our head coach with a winning record…..
But calling for Bowles to be “fired now” just makes you look dumb…. because as you well know – there is ZERO chance of that happening.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:40 pm
I’m not disappointed in the least over Rhonde’s defensive observations.
They either improve their pass defense drastically or this fun season you all are expecting could turn into a bummer season.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:44 pm
Frankly, Ronde’s right to criticize. Isn’t Bowles supposed to be a defensive guru? Isn’t he supposedly the architect of the lights-out 2020 Bucs defense? That same guy was allowed the defense over the last couple of years… not just last year… to devolve to at best lackluster. At best.
Is the team getting better? Looking at the record over the past 3 seasons, I guess you could argue that because there’s been one more win each of the last three seasons, which would be excellent if we’d started with 11 wins. As it is, Bowles is barely .500 as head coach and best described as mediocre. At best.
Yes, it’s a put-up-or-shut-up season for Bowles, because frankly, only certain parts of the fanbase are going to put up with mediocrity year in and year out, and mediocrity is all that Bowles has delivered year in and year out.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:44 pm
And yes – of course the defense needs to play better and be ‘good’ more consistently – if the Bucs have Super Bowl aspirations that is….
Our offense alone will get us to 10 wins – even if the defense doesn’t improve…
But it WILL improve. And if the points allowed goes from 16th (in 2024) to say 8th (in 2025) – the Bucs will be legit contenders for a deep playoff run and perhaps another Super Bowl.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:49 pm
Correct. The O has to score more than the Bowles D keeps it close, which is all he is capable of.
April 8th, 2025 at 3:56 pm
Well Joe if you wanna say that the Saints execution and Rattlers performance in the first half was just so good that not many teams were stopping them… fine I guess. I do recall him making a couple tight window throws right on the money.
BUT the Saints got to that 19 total cause the Bucs D couldn’t get them off the field. Rattler was marching those guys and then they fell apart in the 2nd half and Bucs took control.
I get you are saying that Ronde can’t completely discount the D but showing up and limiting the opposing offense needs to happen more than 3-4 times in 17 games. Yes personnel, injuries etc etc. Philly was missing 3 top guys from their O. If you shut down the Lions for the most part you should be able to shut down the Falcons!
April 8th, 2025 at 4:11 pm
Bowles defens could always be counted on for 2 things.
1. Keep the offense fresh and on the bench.
2. Bend and break to keep it close.
The loss of JTS is a heartbreak for Bowles. Plan 9 was his favorite player.
April 8th, 2025 at 4:15 pm
There’s gonna be games when your offense doesn’t get the job done. You can’t always put 30+ on the board. When you have those days, you need an above average defense. We didn’t have that.
April 8th, 2025 at 5:46 pm
@Pickgrin
I’m just getting started sir.
If you can’t handle it, go elsewhere.
You could also just scroll past my posts and not read them.
My posts aren’t meant to get a rise out of people.
Just my expression of my discontent of the direction Bowles has taken the defense.
28-27
April 8th, 2025 at 5:49 pm
Ronde speaks the truth, the Defense is terrible. Bowles doesn’t help the situation with his play calling. The backups on defense are not NFL material and the whole group is injury prone. The only thing that keeps the team afloat is the offense. Reddick will help but he isn’t answer for a backfield that has been unable to stop 3rd string QBs, cause turnovers or get interceptions. Maybe some of the problem is how they have to play soft zones? The Bucs need more free agents on defense, a good draft, and to get rid of players that don’t produce or are injury prone. No confidence in Bowles, the guy is a loser.
April 8th, 2025 at 5:50 pm
He’s not wrong. Defense needs to improve big time.
April 8th, 2025 at 6:39 pm
BucDawg, Pickgrin, Buc4evr … I love great defense, and I doubt there were very many Bucs’ diehards more horrified with some of the play that we saw on the field last year than I was. It’s easy to get all emotional about it, because we all love the Bucs & want them to win the Super Bowl every year. It’s a lot harder IMO to try to be more ‘analytical’ about it, trying to figure out what the primary problems were and most importantly, how to fix them.
From the time that Monte Kiffin left after 2008 until Todd arrived in 2019 (10 years), Bucs went through 4 HCs & 8 DCs. They averaged a #23 ranking in terms of Points Allowed. That’s sad.
Todd Bowles now has a 6-year track record as a DC since arriving here in Tampa Bay in 2019. That first year was a major rebuilding year for our defense (lots of new players, transitioning to a 3-4 defense, etc) and we ended up ranking #29 in Points Allowed. Jameis certainly contributed to that horrific ranking by throwing 30 INTs (putting the defense in horrible field positions), of which 7 were Pick-6s (interestingly, without those 49 points provided by Jameis, our defense would’ve tied for a #22 ranking; not great, but better).
Starting in 2020 though, our defense has ranked #8, #5, #13, #7 and #16 for an average ranking over that 5-year span of #10. I’m sure that there are several other NFL teams that can also say that their average ranking in the past 5 years was in the Top-10, but not many. Especially considering that we’ve been undergoing some considerable personnel changes over the past 3 seasons as we’ve had to ‘pay for’ our salary CAP issues generated in 2020-2022 in pursuit of another Super Bowl.
But the fact of the matter IMO is that we’re emerging with a much stronger & better ‘balanced’ team. We’re in a position to ‘fix’ this defense now & emerge as viable Super Bowl contenders. And not just this year, but next year too. We all have different ideas of how to ‘fix’ this defense, and that’s great, but let’s let it play out. Well, as long as we draft another giant in Rnd 1 to rotate in with Vea.
April 8th, 2025 at 6:49 pm
@Pickgrin
He’s right – hes not going to stop – he’s been beating that drum daily for years.
I do think he changed names recently but he’ll be on here til he drops or they fire Todd and hire the Kool aid man (Mike McCarthy) as our new head coach.
Commitment bordering on obsession….. He HAS to make sure he’s letting the world know, daily or multiple times daily, that he hates our coach and will be happy with nothing until they fire him. It’s the ONLY thing he brings to the conversation.
April 8th, 2025 at 7:01 pm
3 good games and 15 crappy games. Rohndé is correct the Bucs were terrible on defense last season.
April 8th, 2025 at 7:28 pm
I’m with Ronde … The defense grossly underperformed.. Let’s get it going .. I’m hoping to see a defensive turnaround similar to the offense last season
April 8th, 2025 at 8:03 pm
Ronde might know more about the subject than just about anyone else in the universe. He played zone pass coverage better than almost anyone. What we watched last year was among the worst zone pass defense in team history.
Here’s hoping that Todd Bowles tales heed.
April 8th, 2025 at 8:16 pm
Yep Defense Rules. Sometimes taking a deep breath and putting one foot in front of the other is the best option. And then, just as quick as you can, draft another Giant in Rd 1 to rotate in with Vea!
April 8th, 2025 at 8:19 pm
And I’m pretty relaxed right now. But I won’t be if I don’t think we’ve got more than hope waiting in the wings and learning how to play some middle linebacker from LaVonte!
April 8th, 2025 at 9:30 pm
Bowles defense is too conservative and soft too often. If you are going to blitz , you need to bring the aggressiveness behind that blitz at certain times and stages and field position areas in games. It is passive aggressive at times. And I hate to see bottom offensive teams go on long time consuming drives against bowles like it was nothing. Bowles needs to change it up on the back end sometimes. These 10 yard cushions coinciding with a blitz are paradoxical. Bowles shouldnt be scared to release the hounds on 3rd and 17 and the opponent is at their own 18 yard line and throw a 3 yard pass and convert a 1st down because his lbs an dbs checks are a second late to what could happen in the short field. He is so scared to get beat deep that he inadvertently helps creates these long time wasting drives for the opponent. It is frustrating to watch at times.
April 8th, 2025 at 9:50 pm
Well said @Defense Rules. As you stated the team has been dealing with the all in Brady commitment to win the Lombardi and they did! If TB was candid he would admit he has been forced to put lip stick on a pig with the hand he has been dealt with in addition to the untimely injuries. With AW being injured and being a shell of himself when he returned was devastating. Todd Bowles knows more about this team and defense than anybody reading these words. The culture he has built and the team respect he has is envied in the league. I know hard for a lot of the keyboard warriors to accept but true. Give the man a chance as he deserves it without the shackles of the all in Brady years. Of course TB is stubborn in some respects but his positive attributes are pretty impressive.
April 8th, 2025 at 9:52 pm
I am just not sure the best cb and lb drafted are going to change things much , if his philosophy doesnt change. I suggest another impact stud Dl with kancey and vea with quality rotation behind this..logan hall. Hell, I wouldnt be upset with 3 def line drafted..one 1-3 tech, one 5 tech, one edge. And less reliance on 5 man rushes. I would include a jalon walker , jihad campbell as an edge / linebacker versatility in this instance. Ive mentioned this before but give me a Jalon Walker/jihad campbell versatile weapon , with a jt timoloal/ty robinson, and jemaree caldwell/josh farmer type of mix.
April 8th, 2025 at 10:04 pm
7 interceptions all season 🙄 and you wonder why Barber is bashing the D
April 9th, 2025 at 12:11 am
Defense Rules Says:
We all have different ideas of how to ‘fix’ this defense, and that’s great, but let’s let it play out.
********************************************************
Well said.
I am not a football coach, either offense or defense, nor do I play one on TV.
I would submit that very few if any of those who are posting their opinions here are either.
Over the years, the Buc’s have developed a bit of a reputation for having a stronger defense than offense.
As a matter of fact, other than the past few years, our offensive efforts have mostly been just that…Offensive.
We have all dreamed of having a decent offense to go with our decent defense.
It seems like such a waste to have a very good offense offset by a struggling, at best, defense.
It is easy to blame the coach.
I find several faults with our coach, such as playing a soft defense that doesn’t get off the field to let our offense do what it is capable of, mismanaging the clock at the end of games, and giving up with time on the clock in a win or go home playoff game. I could find more specifics, but that will do.
Realistically, last years injury bug took too large of a toll to put all the blame on the coach. So he is still… our Coach.
Our off season moves have protected our offensive talent (go Griz) and improved our defensive talent. Presumably, the draft will be more of the same.
For those of you who argue either side of our win loss record, consider this.
This franchises all time win loss record is so bad, that we would have to have nearly perfect seasons for nearly twenty years JUST to get to .500 all time!
There are also franchises in the league with a great all time win loss record, who DON’T have a Super Bowl trophy.
As a fan, I always enter a new season with the expectations of a great, possibly perfect season. This is year fifty. Can anyone think of a more fitting anniversary to achieve those lofty goals?
April 9th, 2025 at 1:15 am
Todd has grossly underperformed while trying to do two of the three most important coaching jobs on the team half time.
April 9th, 2025 at 5:55 am
gp, nice post. Almost poetic. 50 years scurries by. May the stars align this year and may the thrill of victory lead the charge. Go Bucs!
April 9th, 2025 at 10:24 am
Aqualung
I do have to admire your time management. You waste no time thinking and perhaps no time typing since all your post are the same you can just cut and paste over and OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
Do you not own an original thought?
April 9th, 2025 at 10:27 am
D.R.
I feel like I’m being redundent here but as always excellent analysis backed by thought and actual pertinent stats.
I’m a huge AW fan. He didn’t show up at all last year due to injuries. If he’s truly healthy and returns to being the incredible game changing playmaker with the other changes you mention I think the Bucs will be Golden.
During his incredible preceding season I thought he might be the next coming of Troy Palamulu…but was it only for one season?
April 9th, 2025 at 5:49 pm
Thank you Kenton,
I was channeling my inner stpete!
I didn’t get too verbose, did I?
April 10th, 2025 at 12:59 pm
gp
Great job. Indeed sometimes my verbosity is a challenge! 🙂
You handled it very well in that post with an excellent attempt at injecting some nuance and perspective into the discussion. This factoid caught even me off guard.
“This franchises all time win loss record is so bad, that we would have to have nearly perfect seasons for nearly twenty years JUST to get to .500 all time!”
It’s funny whenever I’ve brought up the Bucs early misery for perspective folks instead with to use it to DEMEAN the FACT that Todd is only one of FOUR of the 13 coaches to post a winning record. They say it diminishes his achievement so I bring up Chucky who most here admire as NOT being able to win in the same position as Todd following a SB and dramatic change and cap challenges.