Todd Bowles’ Angry Workers
February 8th, 2021
Former Bucs head coach Raheem Morris used to say he wanted “angry workers,” meaning perpetually pissed off football players.
The Bucs had plenty this season.
The young defensive backs never quite got over the preseason NFL Network report that ranked Bucs cornerbacks as 32nd-best in the NFL. Players mentioned that through the season at various times, including last month.
And then there’s savior linebacker Devin White, who thinks he’s the greatest linebacker in the NFL playing for a bone-crushing defense. And not only does White want everyone to know it, he wants the love to flow to him and the Bucs from around the world. When White doesn’t get it, he gets fired up.
It’s an edge that matters, defensive coordinator Todd Bowles told NBC uber NFL insider Peter King after the Bucs’ blowout Super Bowl win.
“My guys were pissed off,” Bowles [said] an hour after the game.
“The biggest thing they do is read and they got TV all the time. Nobody picked us and gave us a chance to win. They were really pissed off about that. Combine that with the things we missed the first game against them, they really wanted to prove something tonight on the biggest stage against the best team. They played Drew Brees with [Michael] Thomas and [Alvin] Kamara. They played Aaron Rodgers with [Aaron] Jones and [Davante] Adams. Now they faced Mahomes with Kelce and Tyreek. You know, we earned it. We beat three of the best, the top five in the league.”
The funny thing is that plenty of media did pick the Bucs to beat the Chiefs, including Joe. It wasn’t the majority, but the voices were out there. Bowles, however, apparently didn’t catch a whiff of Bucs believers and neither did his players. If that’s true, then what a stroke of luck it was, because Bowles told King that made a difference.
“It was crazy to us that we were still underdogs,” White told King. “We defeated Drew Brees, we defeated Aaron Rodgers and then, like, he was the MVP and we still was underdogs. We were just out there like finish them, finish them, finish them. We didn’t want them to score.”
Cornerback Carlton Davis emphatically expressed his anger about the Tyreek Hill overhype after the Super Bowl win.
Joe sure hopes the Bucs defense finds a similar rallying cry next season.
It’s going be damn hard to do after turning in the greatest defensive performance in franchise history.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:31 am
Defense wins championships. True in 2003 and in 2021.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:36 am
Agreed Joe. Today is the greatest day in JBF history. I’m happy that you both finally have an opportunity to professionally cover a Super Bowl championship winning team!
February 8th, 2021 at 10:40 am
TB may have gotten mvp, but the defense really won the game. It helped our offense because their defense got so frustrated that they could not stop us and their offense could not put up points. A true complete team win!
watching honeybagger lose it was priceless, as was mahomes walking around with turf in his helmet!
February 8th, 2021 at 10:42 am
Let this sink in Joe & JBF posters…
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have the most SB victories in the NFC South
Tampa Bay 2
New Orleans 1
Atlanta 0
Carolina 0
How ’bout dat…..
February 8th, 2021 at 10:46 am
TBBF…..and the Bucs have the best QB in the NFC South.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:47 am
Love the win, take nothing away from our boys. But KC’s offensive game plan was a train wreck.
They thought their 5-man line featuring backup tackles could handle JPP, Shaq, VV and Suh on 92% of their plays I believe the stat was with no additional protection. The scrambles were effective in the 1st quarter but Todd Bowles adjusted and Eric Biennemy didn’t.
He should be baker-acted along with every GM who passed on Todd Bowles, but we are the beneficiaries. Love it!
February 8th, 2021 at 10:48 am
Total team effort, no weak links in the chain = a huge win. Followed one of Joe’s links above and Florio is giving the Bucs a ton of love, I think he was one of the national pundits who were in the minority in picking the Bucs to win. This win is going to keep us Buc fans flying high through the combines, draft, Lynch’s HOF induction and all the way up to the start of next season @ RJS! Gotta love it!
February 8th, 2021 at 10:48 am
Most of the D will be back. Lots to look forward to. They got better – more coordinated – the more games they learned from.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:51 am
Joe, please look at the non interception by LVD. I didn’t see the replay yet, but it looked like an INT to me? I was screaming for BA to throw the red flag? Anyone else see that play?
February 8th, 2021 at 10:51 am
Comparing this Defensive performance with 2003 is fun.
It is really a good argument. We had 3 pick 6 in 2003, hard to out-do that, but last night they may just have? What say you
February 8th, 2021 at 10:53 am
Buddhaboy this might answer it for you: 29 pressures, a Super Bowl record. Furthermore, they only blitzed on 2 of those pressures
February 8th, 2021 at 10:53 am
Best defensive performance in franchise history.
No more Sapp/Brooks/Barber/Lynch is best ever.
Suh. JPP. White. David. Shaq. SMB. Davis. Whitehead.
These are THE players on the BEST Defense.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:55 am
So, any intel on the streaker (not really a streaker but from still pics I have seen, pretty cute outfit…lol) from last nights game? Was it anyone from this forum? He had more yards running forward than the Chiefs. I can’t remember the last time TV cameras actually showed someone running across the field.
February 8th, 2021 at 10:56 am
Buc4ever. I’m almost positive that was a n interception and my bud texted me the same. Guys hand stopped it from hitting the ground. He tried to make the difficult catch
February 8th, 2021 at 11:01 am
Mahomes around 468 yards behind the line of scrimmage before throwing his passes or getting sacked.
Brady ran 37.
Unbelievable pressure. Running for his life
February 8th, 2021 at 11:03 am
This is fantastic, our team won not just because Brady and Gronk, but because our Defense Was Incredible!
February 8th, 2021 at 11:06 am
Too bad the entire defensive couldn’t have been MVP. They truly are the grave diggers ☠️
February 8th, 2021 at 11:07 am
Curious about this can Gill kid. Was undrafted this year.. only activated near end of year where I saw him make a play or two. Believe he sacked Rogers once and got in on one with Suh near the end… Could have some talent but so far only clean up duty
February 8th, 2021 at 11:07 am
Absolutely Mike C.
Brady will be the first to tell you it was a team effort.
That said, his leadership and him instilling the belief that they are good enough and can win throughout the year is a major factor
February 8th, 2021 at 11:08 am
Just heard Chris Sims with a fantastic quote-
“There were times I thought they were going to throw a screen pass because everybody got through and then I realized no, they were actually trying to block them!”
February 8th, 2021 at 11:08 am
Let’s be real guys, the defense played lights out but they didn’t score any points. They did give the offense opportunities to score which they did but the offense put up 28 points and the defense sure enough secured that win.
That non interception was kinda like Scooters where his hands were clearly under the ball but this guy’s fingertips only, still it was close enough for BA to challenge but no one is complaining since it didn’t affect the score!
February 8th, 2021 at 11:09 am
Only 25% of experts picked the Bucs. I would say that is pretty heavy on the side of the Chiefs.
Whatever motivates ’em!
February 8th, 2021 at 11:12 am
Without Brady, we wouldn’t have gotten there
February 8th, 2021 at 11:13 am
Brady needed us as much as we needed him for this championship, he may have been able to drag New England into the playoffs this year but they would not have won it.
February 8th, 2021 at 11:13 am
Feel like most of media picked chiefs, but seems like players and coaches (at least in NFC) picked bucs
February 8th, 2021 at 11:14 am
Let’s goooooo
February 8th, 2021 at 11:18 am
Team effort.
Just saying Brady brings a leadership quality that people buy into. He instills the belief they can win. It matters, greatly.
On another note, the 8 game winning streak they’re on…
They’re averaging 34 points a game and giving up 19.
Next year can be historic
February 8th, 2021 at 11:19 am
Agreed Mike. Brady pretty much won wft game for us, but defense saved him in the green bay game when he turned it over 3 times and they didn’t let them score after
February 8th, 2021 at 11:24 am
Coburn, you’re right about that. It really impressed me — it was totally unexpected — that Sean Payton and Matty Ice had really nice things to say about the Bucs days before the game. NFC South represents.
February 8th, 2021 at 11:58 am
And don’t forget the real MVP of SB 55, THE Defensive Line, The Bucs Wrecking Crew😀❗️And I will close with Joe’s Favorite Quote from AL Davis “The Quarterback must go down and go down HARD ❗️“ After the game, Chiefs QB Pat McHomes said physical beating he received was the worst of his football career 😀❗️To The Victors Go The Spoils😀❗️GO BUCS 😀❤️❗️
February 8th, 2021 at 12:48 pm
After the Philly game long ago, I felt that we were going all the way. I felt the same way after the Packers game.
February 8th, 2021 at 12:49 pm
Definitely an interception for LVD! I also was screaming for a challenge!
February 8th, 2021 at 1:43 pm
bojim….yep i was worried about the Packers and Saints…a lot.
For some reason I thought the Bucs were going to beat the Chiefs.
I actually think that reason is Tom Brady.
February 8th, 2021 at 2:29 pm
Yes, a large percent of the national picked the Chiefs to win. However, many of our local pundits said it would be close and we would win games like 34-30 or 31-27. No one I saw predicted that we would shut them out with no TDs and confine their points to field goals.
Our offense played a fine game. Our offensive line did a great job. Our defense rose up and played a superior game.
We ARE the Super Bowl Champions. 🌞