Todd Bowles: Bucs Beating Bucs
October 27th, 2023
Outs the culprit in loss.
Joe’s trying to look at the bright side. If you can’t win, at least you can cover. 🙂 ($$$)
The Bucs did that for short-term investors last night by showing good fight in the final quarter when they easily could have bagged it.
(Oh, Chris Godwin. Dang, what a steal that could have been!)
After the game, Bucs head coach Todd Bowles pointed the finger directly at what he believed was the culprit in the loss. To use a favorite phrase of Bowles’ predessesor Bucco Bruce Arians, it was Bucs beating Bucs.
Penalties killed offensive drives.
“Again, we’ve got the penalty problem,” Bowles said. “Thought we moved the ball when we didn’t have penalties. … The penalties held us back.
“We had 11 penalties. Might have been seven or eight on offense. It killed the momentum that we had.”
As Joe stated after the game, the Bucs are simply not a good enough team to overcome getting shot in the foot.
The Bucs have some good talent and some good coaching. They don’t have enough good players to navigate the mistakes and they don’t have good enough coaching to cover for the lack of talent at certain positions.
So when teams like the Bucs commit dumb penalties, well, those are drive-killers.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:12 am
That was his take away from that game? Not that his offense sucks, and the head coach sucks, and you need to make a change at QB, that 18 points isn’t good enough in the year 2023?
Typical loser take with the bumper sticker response.
Also the Bills penalties on that 2nd to last Bucs drive is the only reason it wasn’t a blowout.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:13 am
And when penalties are an issue every game, whos fault would that be Mr. Bowles? The one guy who you never ever seem to want to blame…. The man in the mirror.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:14 am
Toilet Bowls…Dave Caneatass
October 27th, 2023 at 12:15 am
wirfs seemed to be pretty hurt and playing thru it…
doing the best he could under his current circumstances…
is it the same ankle that gave him issues last season ???
October 27th, 2023 at 12:16 am
big wirfsy probably has a ballooned up ankle once all the tape comes off
October 27th, 2023 at 12:17 am
I have a difficult time remembering a clean drive by our offense…….this is why we need to air it out…..it’s taking far too many snaps to move down the field…..we are a penalty waiting to happen.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:18 am
One million articles blaming Super Bowl winning offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and the running backs but not a single article blaming our sorry as offense on our incompetent OC Dave Canales? Smh
October 27th, 2023 at 12:18 am
Penalties were awful and lots of prior offenders like Palmer, Goedeke and Palmer. Wirfs was new. Bowles has a point that the penalties were debilitating but it is true that good teams overcome that sloppy play.
Bad football team and starts at the top with management, general management.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:19 am
Canales is a good hire he doesn’t pair well with Bowles
October 27th, 2023 at 12:19 am
…Palmer, Geodeke and Mauch
October 27th, 2023 at 12:21 am
Interesting the Bucs beat the spread which was as high as 8.5 and as low as 6.5. They also beat the over on the Bucs score of 16.5. Obviously just a coincidence right?
October 27th, 2023 at 12:41 am
Let me explain the story of this season for anyone who is curious.
They signed Bowles to a five year deal – giving them the benefit of the doubt because of the timing of Arians’ retirement perhaps, but it was a bad contract term.
That set a few things in motion.
They had the lousy underperforming year in 2022 – objectively bad and really they should have fired Bowles then, but when they knew they had zero money for a QB they decided to keep Todd on for another season. The logic here is – Why take on another HC contract when you have a cap reset year upcoming? Nobody expects to win this season.
So they hand the keys to Bowles on everything except the draft process – that they keep to Licht and scouts. Here you go – it’s your team.
Bowles knows if he wants to stick beyond this year he has to show they he can win – tough task with a cap reset roster and no QB.
Bowles wanted to draft Mayfield back in the day – Baker’s the guy he wants and he can be had for cheap.
Bowles figures I can run the ball and with Baker we can play a hard nosed conservative brand of football with a short passing ball control offense – and with his defense he can win enough games he can stay on another year maybe two if it all comes together.
Someone has to take the fall for 2022 – its Leftwich. With Trask being a high flier in the passing game and the WRs they got – I’m guessing OC candidates trying to sell on a passing offense. Bowles doesn’t want that. He wants a guy to scheme Baker. He interviews a dozen guys for the OC job. Finally gets to Canales who is a slick talker and pitches the run first offensive scheme. It becomes a done deal.
On day one Canales knew Baker was the guy. They’re all full of it.
Here’s where it gets fun for the Trask mob. We know Trask can play. Trask shows up and balls out in TC and preseason. Everyone gets nervous. Uh-oh this isn’t going according to plan. Bowles pulls Mayfield out of the Jets game names him the starter. Canales backs him up. They’re both FOS.
Now we all know Mayfield’s history – its not a good one – especially coming off of a really bad season like he did. So we know this is going to be an ish show sooner or later.
You know the rest – the good the bad and now the ugly of this season.
The bottom line is – the Glazers aren’t going to break the rules with a tank season. But Bowles and Baker are going to lead to a top 10 draft pick. That’s fine with them. Expect them to start negotiating with Bowles’ replacement around Thanksgiving.
I think the smart plan is to start Trask and get him ready for 2024 so you can target other gaps – but the politics of that move doesn’t fit the situation. They’ll draft a QB and Trask will be the backup – but young draft picks are no lock and there is a pretty good chance Trask gets the job in 2024 anyway.
Only thing that could change this is if Bowles starts Trask and then Kyle blows up second half of the season and saves his job. I sincerely doubt that seeing that Bowles complimented Mayfield’s happy feet garbage performance.
So strap yourselves in for a terrible season – and keep trolling the clown show.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:44 am
So Coach Bowels, are you actually going to make some changes with the roster or are you just going to give us fans a bunch of scripted BS and maintain the status quo on the road to 5-12 and your imminent firing the day after the Bucs finish off another wasted season?
The penalties are an issue, playing soft zone so that Allen could pick apart your D is a problem, Ryan Neal is a huge problem. Caneres has basically said he is learning as he goes which is a nice way of saying he is clueless and does not have a plan. This year’s 2-0 start is kind of like the 2-0 start with Koetter in his last year with Fitzmagic wins over the Aint’s and Philly, he won 3 more games that year. I think we can expect the same from Bowels: 5-12 unless they make some changes pronto and the sad thing is, 5-12 will probably not be bad enough to land the marquee 2024 QBs in next April’s draft as a lot of teams royally suck in 2023.
October 27th, 2023 at 12:56 am
STFU Bowles!
If you weren’t an incompetent pansy, this team would play better.
But of course Bowles won’t take the blame. Too stubborn and incompetent to realize what a failure he is
October 27th, 2023 at 1:11 am
Bowles’ job is on the line…if Trask was the answer he’d be playing.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:27 am
PowerOfPewter not after he’s over committed to Baker. He’s all in. His fortune is going to rise or fall with Mayfield. That’s a hilariously bad place to be.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:29 am
The repeated 3 and Outs when we were backed into our end zone were the difference in the game. It wasn’t the penalties.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:30 am
Of course cross armed Bowles blames somebody else. In this case, it isn’t even a select few, it’s the entire team, AGAIN.
Does he not realize, Bucs beating Bucs is a reflection on HIM.
I don’t care if Trask playing well supposedly saves Bowles job, to me, it just makes him look like an idiot. If you spend millions of dollars on an investment (2nd round pick) you HAVE to find out if the guy can play. Teams misevaluate peoples potential all the time. Even Canales said QBs lie. You can’t tell me Trask didn’t wow them with some throws, but that was never the plan. He had to learn a new offense too, but didn’t throw 57 picks in training camp. Look at Purdy, NOBODY in the 49ers camp gave him a shot until EVERYONE got hurt. Then comes in a guy who won his first ten games.
The politics of this team is obvious and Bowles and company have their guy. Now eat it, own up to it and shove it, because your guy sucks.
The Glazers should step in and demand he start Trask because of said investment. If they are so hands off that they let Bowles play Mayfield until the bloody end, then somebody has SOLD them that Trask is terrible. Which I’m not sure I would trust Bowles and company on evaluating talent, I’m the owner and watching the Clown show that is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 3 years removed from winning a SB.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:44 am
Oh and for the Mini Me Moxie crowd, Baker is not gonna sit because of injury. That guy could be missing a leg, and he will hop out on the football field. He has a wife to feed and he knows if Trask comes in to play, it might be the last time he throws a meaningful football in his NFL career.
Hell, he got kicked out of Cleveland for trying to play hurt. Who knows, if je had waited until he healed, he might still be there, LOSING.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:50 am
Sly Pirate you have to drive the ball out at least to midfield to change the field of position.
Its still a fail.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:51 am
BillyBucco everyone took the blame – except Mayfield. I’m sure that will get old inside the locker room real fast.
October 27th, 2023 at 1:59 am
Mike S. nailed it.
October 27th, 2023 at 2:50 am
Ditto regarding Mike S. Nailing it
October 27th, 2023 at 2:55 am
He never takes responsibility . He’s a terrible coach . When you see him on side line he looks like he has to poop
How are you supposed to respond to that
October 27th, 2023 at 4:08 am
TBBF … ‘I have a difficult time remembering a clean drive by our offense…….this is why we need to air it out…..it’s taking far too many snaps to move down the field’.
That pretty much sums up what I’m seeing out of this offense. On the season we’re averaging 4.9 YPP. Last night we averaged … 4.9 YPP. Takes too many plays to march down the field & creates too many opportunities to shoot yourself in the foot, which our offense gleefully manages to do far too often.
Mayfield isn’t THE GUY, and certainly not the way he’s being used. Against lesser defenses he did OK escaping the pocket; against better defenses he was hemmed in most plays & couldn’t get it done. I have no idea if Trask could do any better, but we’ve got to open up this offense & increase our current 4.9 YPP average to at least a 5.5-6.0 YPP. Trask might give us a better chance of doing that, IF this OLine can protect him.
October 27th, 2023 at 5:45 am
WOW. So many seem to think Todd Bowles job is on the line this year and it my be. My god think about this if that is the case. Don’t you think he would play the BACKUP quarterback to save his job. Most of you all are way smarter at footballs X’s and O’s than I am. Last year Tom Brady had no run game to help him nor did he have time to throw the football and the bucs LOST. Very very few QB’S in the NFL ever have won without 2 things on offense somewhat of a running game and time to throw the football. This is an O-Line problem they can not open holes for our running backs and they can’t protect Backer and give him time. Joe’s always says the tape doesn’t lie. Joe watch the O-line tape and write about how these guy SUCK. Over and over everyone loves the backup quarterback, teams put them in for time to time not because they want to but because maybe the main QB gets hurt. People they are backups for a reason come on BUCS arm chair coordinators think with your heads and not your hearts. ( Backer is not the issue with this team neither was Tom Brady) it’s the O-Line. WOW
October 27th, 2023 at 6:22 am
Good point Stan! The QB is low-hanging fruit. And people think Trask is going to fare better?!
If the expectations were EVER that Baker would carry the team, we are in big trouble. Bad OL play+horrific run-game+no pass rush+average QB=Bad season!
And please stop with the Trask talk. He will not fare any better in this scenario.
October 27th, 2023 at 6:48 am
Baker is NOT the problem. Absolutely zero run game and Absolutely zero time in the pocket. Poorly coached team. If Trask was in the same situation he would throw 3 picks a game. Plus terrible game plan not only on offense but on defense too. Every team picks up easy, non contested 1st downs. Remember Arians thinks Baker is the best choice also.
October 27th, 2023 at 9:14 am
Penalties and that bend but don’t break defense, when you can’t get a three and out, even if the team punts , they flip the field, that is why the Bucs had terrible field position the entire game except for the exceptional play by Winfield and Gholston
October 28th, 2023 at 11:28 am
Bucs beating Bucs, hmmm kinda like Jets beating Jets!
So Bowles best record is 8-9…..with the Goat!