The Bulls-Eye Nonsense
May 30th, 2021
Joe cannot stand the pervasive narrative that the Bucs will “the hunted” this season and will feel the effects of getting every team’s best shot.
It’s accurate but nonsense at the same time.
Last season, you can bet any amount you wish that every defense in the NFL was gunning for Tom Brady. He’s The Goat.
Every player brings his A-game and mentality against Brady, especially with him on a new team in a new conference after a ton of preseason hype. Every defensive back, young and old, salivates all week to intercept Brady and tell his family about it — and watch it on NFL Network.
Secondly, every opposing QB brings his A-game when facing Brady, or Aaron Rodgers or Ben Roethlisberger. That’s just how it is.
So what exactly are the Bucs going to feel that’s different this season? It’s not going to be primetime games; they maxed out on those last year.
Former Giants Pro Bowl guard Dave Diehl is a two-time Super Bowl champion, and he is the latest to bark loudly about it on SiriusXM NFL Radio, along with his co-host and former defensive back Solomon Wilcots.
Diehl talked about a target on the Bucs’ back and blah, blah, blah. Joe maintains the target was there last year, and the Bucs didn’t blink.
May 30th, 2021 at 11:19 am
Agree that it’s a bunch of crap without any real merit. And of course we want their best shot anyways, more seasoning for the postseason. Injuries will largely foretell how this season goes. If we can stay relatively healthy we’ll be competitive in every game I would think. Regardless of the attitude of the opposing team. We are in a position to impose our will on any opponent. And I’m sure that’s the philosophy we’ll take into every game.
May 30th, 2021 at 11:19 am
You want to be the HUNTED, it means you are the BEST.
It is a privilege to be the HUNTED.
2nd place is the first loser.
This is good pressure, to stay razor-sharp, and yes JOE, Brady has been the HUNTED for most of his career.
It is good to be the WORLD CHAMPS!!!!!!!
May 30th, 2021 at 11:21 am
You better get used to it Joe. It’s real. Good teams will try to prove they are championship-worthy by attempting to knock-off the Bucs. Lesser teams will try the same as coaching staffs will use beating the Bucs as some kind of cause to rally around, and perhaps turnaround an otherwise lost season. It’s a helluva lot more exciting for the opposition to beat a Super Bowl winner rather than a 7-9 team.
May 30th, 2021 at 11:28 am
And let’s highlight that bit about other QBs bringing there A-game against TB12. But that’s been the case for years. And TB12 improves, each week. And so it goes…
May 30th, 2021 at 11:38 am
Brady will 100% make sure this team understands that we are still the hunters. The opponent is the prey, not us.
May 30th, 2021 at 11:40 am
They better bring their A game cause they’re getting ran over regardless. Odds are against our rivals no matter what they say they better be ready.
May 30th, 2021 at 12:04 pm
Brady is the Great White Lion every player wants on their trophey case for 21 years. Many have threatened and called him out Suggs, Lewis, Watt, Donald, Suh etc but only the likes of Eli & Payton Manning, Micheal Strahan, Nick Folk and a few other have stepped up to the task. The Great White Lion remains the king of the NFL jungle. Long live the King!
May 30th, 2021 at 12:30 pm
My personal experience tells me that Joe’s “pervasive narritave” is all too real.
My HS baseball team had been mediocre from the beginning. When we, after a great late-season run, rather easily won a championship, we found out the next spring how difficult a season could be: The bad teams did everything except start fights to get under our skin and throw us off our game, the good teams made sure to have their best pitchers well-rested against us and they played their best players as far into the game as possible, combined with their super-agressive coaching, (pinch-hitters and pinch-runners galore!) made those games a tough mountain to climb, while the elite teams MADE SURE to not beat themselves.
Each and every game was more difficult than the season before, without question. Some of the bad teams that we had beaten during our championship year were actually worse when we played them again the next season, but the games were actually harder, simply because their effort and will to win was so great. They wanted to beat us, and BAD. Heck, even teams that we had never heard of before were all fired-up to play us! Those games were difficult, too. We had to be ready from the first pitch.
And yes, we did win that second championship.🍻
May 30th, 2021 at 12:45 pm
It’s true you get the opponents best efforts but as a champion you adjust to it. Nobody does it with more consistency than Tom.
” Belichick’s teams have a reputation for taking the frustrations of a loss and taking it out on their opponents the following week. As their record shows, losing streaks are a rarity.
The Patriots do generally have a higher success rate coming off of a loss. But here’s the thing: It’s not much better than their usual record.
In 272 games since Brady took over, Belichick’s teams are 209-63, good for a .768 winning percentage.
It’s not much of an improvement. If anything, it just shows how dominant the Patriots have been year-in, year-out.”
May 30th, 2021 at 12:48 pm
100% @Joe. I laugh every time I hear the target take. The targets been there since last March. The New England cross over fans know as Brady’s had a target on him for a looooong time. Think about it.
May 30th, 2021 at 12:49 pm
Hey Brady fan, this is not a Pat’s site, you must have clicked the wrong link.
May 30th, 2021 at 1:37 pm
This team got everyone’s best look last season. Most of the games were dogfights. I expect the same this season as well. Not sure how much pressure you can put on TB12 considering he used it for such an edge last year. No way LVD, Evans, and Gholston are going to be comfortable with being one hit wonders after the decade of depression they experienced. There isnt going to be a letdown because we have a stacked roster of veterans and ascending players. This could be a very boring season for the talking heads if this team takes care of business.
May 30th, 2021 at 2:38 pm
Yeah, Joe, keep telling yourself that. What motivates teams? Plying the dog crap or playing the best? Where did the term “trap game” come from? How many times did the Bucs win over the years when they sucked because some team chalked it up as a win before kickoff?
Every game will be a dog fight. For the first 15 minutes. Then, the talent will take over — unless this team is having a down week.
May 30th, 2021 at 3:21 pm
Oh…… how I miss the days of when we used to just go out there and have some fun.
No pressure to win, just cash the paychecks, suit up and laugh on the sidelines when your team is losing.
Sigh….
May 30th, 2021 at 5:01 pm
This team will be prepared. Arians, Bowles and Brady will see to it. It is hard to win every Sunday…and this Sunday will be no different.
May 30th, 2021 at 5:39 pm
It’s lazy sports journalism. Cliche garbage.
May 30th, 2021 at 7:05 pm
So I’m trying to figure out how to use the term “accurate nonsense” correctly. Hmmm….
May 30th, 2021 at 8:35 pm
Repeating in the NFL is about as hard an achievement as there is in all of sports. Being *the hunted* isn’t all of it, but it’s certainly part. As is ‘the disease of more’ (courtesy of Bill Simmons). These are very real phenomena.
May 30th, 2021 at 9:56 pm
It’s psychological.
Bucs did sneak up on some people last year. I know that’s hard to imagine with Brady and a stacked roster. It’s unwise to underestimate Brady. But it is true especially after the string of awful performances in prime time and the lack of wins against quality opponents. After the Chiefs loss in week 12, a lot of people wrote the Bucs off. We were underdogs in every playoff game after Washington. Some people were predicting the Bucs were going to get blown out in the Super Bowl. I think it was like 70% of the experts were picking against the Bucs. So it did create a little bit of “us against the world” type of thinking. And that can be motivating to the right type of team, and in our case I think it was.
The Bucs aren’t going to be underdogs in very many games this year. So it changes the psychology of not just the Bucs but the opponents. It’s one of the X-factors on makes repeating difficult. You have to play with a different type of motivation and fire.
May 30th, 2021 at 11:24 pm
I agree that the bullseye narritive is overblown. I think a much bigger factor is that players let a Super Bowl get to their heads and they lose some of the edge from their game…….But I dont think we will be seeing that from this team(like we saw in 2003). Tom Brady has far too much experience defending championships. For sure, he knows you gotta keep the fire burning or youre doomed.
The only bullseye that does worry me is from the Saints. If I know Sean Payton the “A” in their A game stands for Anger……Yeah, Im a bit worried about that dog fight.
GO BUCS!!!!
May 31st, 2021 at 6:00 pm
I’d say the opposite may be true. The Bucs might be overconfident and not play their best against weaker opponents.