Sad Numbers From Sunday Grow Sadder
November 7th, 2023
“Hi Todd!”
Joe might have to nurse a bottle of Big Storm Distillary’s Coyote Ugly bourbon to wash away the memory of Sunday’s shatfest in Houston.
If Joe didn’t know any better, Joe would have thought that disgraced former Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith was running the defense.
Yeah, the defense on Sunday sure did wreck sh!t. Might have wrecked their playoff chances and might wreck some coaches careers.
Joe was watching Chris Simms’ podcast “Unbuttoned” last night and heard galling information about the 39-37 gutless loss to Houston.
Did you know in the second half rookie Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud had as many touchdown passes as he had incompletions? How does that happen from alleged professionals on the Bucs’ defense?
“It wasn’t like it was a dink-and-dunk fest,” Simms said of that crazy stat. “Nine completions of 20-plus yards? That’s just insane.”
And it’s insane that a guy Joe thought was a defensive guru has the blood all over his hands.
What makes that loss a bit worse? Simms claims running back Dameon Pierce is Houston’s best player, not Stroud. And he didn’t play Sunday!
The Bucs are now on a four-game losing streak, the longest since 2019. And the Bucs have now dropped five of their last six games.
Arrow pointing straight down.
Sports anchor Evan Closky of WTSP-TV Channel 10 pointed out something that should alarm all Bucs fans. Since the bye, every week the Bucs’ defense has gotten worse.
Here are the number of yards the Bucs defense has allowed in each of the four losses in the losing streak since the bye.
Lions: 380
Dixie Chicks: 401
Bills: 427
Texans: 496.
That, boys and girls, is an ugly trend.
This is beginning to smell like that last two months of the Raheem Morris era. Yeah, Sunday was that bad.
Now before you start typing, let Joe remind you that Team Glazer has never dismissed a coach midseason. Not former commander Greg Schiano. Not lousy Lovie Smith, Not Dirk Koetter. Not Chucky. Never.
That’s not what Team Glazer does. That doesn’t mean there won’t be changes in January, especially if this type of garbage continues.
The prevailing thought about keeping Todd Bowles in the past has always been:
But what would happen to the defense?
I highly doubt he's fired mid-year, but if these results continue, it's tough to imagine management wouldn't hit the reset button.#GoBucs | @10TampaBay pic.twitter.com/JZW9YPULGZ
— Evan Closky (@ECloskyWTSP) November 6, 2023
November 7th, 2023 at 12:10 am
It’s the Creamsicle Curse!
Ever since we donned the Creamsicles we have been playing like some of the crappy Bucs teams that used to wesr those Uni’s.
We should have a public ceremonial bonfire and burn the Creamsicle and and hopefully rid ourselves of the curse.
Before that game, we were actually pretty good! Smh, dang it.
November 7th, 2023 at 12:24 am
Shameful! Say what you want about BA, but he would be going ballistic!
Bowles did exactly what I said he would do before the game. I was doing the crazy man yell at my TV the entire second half. Geez! How can this man be that stubborn with his job on the line!
This zone defense is all smoke and mirrors and it is not working! Add to that Bowles refusal to make defensive calls that do work and that our players can execute, and you get what we witnessed Sunday. Can you say poor adjustments at half time and poor anticipation of what the opponent might do? Playing scared?
When mediocre receivers have nobody within five yards of them half the time, there is a problem Todd! A rookie QB did this to us! BTW Do we have anyone who can cover a TE on the roster?
Drives of 75, 79, 52, 64 consecutively? Really? Then 75 with the game on the line? Really? Dare Ogunbowale? Really? Embarrassing!
Go Bucs!
November 7th, 2023 at 12:28 am
“Manifest Destiny”
November 7th, 2023 at 12:29 am
‘Nine completions of 20-plus yards’
All season the Bucs have been letting the opponents run wide open and then tackle… Stand strong in the red zone and hold them to a field goal…
Sucky philosophy!
The seasons are longer now and watching that many more trashy games is just torture… Cruel to make fans watch such garbage!
Raiders seem to play like a much different team after changing HC!
November 7th, 2023 at 12:32 am
Joe,
We need more than Bourbon as that ugly trend is not going to magically improve with Bowles. The Glazers have never fired a head coach mid-season, but this was the season Bowles wanted with his own handpicked staff and players (of course with the cap space hole). If there was a great coach available then Glazers would demote Bowles or fire him. There is no good to great coaches available at this time so yes they won’t can Bowles. They may have the idea that it would be better to have him coach and the season tanks so we move up the draft. The season was always going to be rough with cap space and who we have on the team and coaches. The defense seems to have quit this game and Bowles didn’t adjust. The offense keeps making mistakes. Both sides of the ball point to a bad coach. Bowles said we are in reload mode and we fired a blank. Time to accept it’s rebuild that’s on pause until our cap space is cleared up this year and next year. Bowles needs to go and we NEED an offensive minded coach ASAP.
November 7th, 2023 at 12:35 am
There’s no more buy-in on what Bowles is selling. Period.
November 7th, 2023 at 12:38 am
“What makes that loss a bit worse? Simms claims running back Dameon Pierce is Houston’s best player, not Stroud. And he didn’t play Sunday!”
False. Pierce may have been the Texans best player last season, but he has been a shadow of his former self this year while Stroud has been their best player by far.
Couple this statement with Ira’s statement on the pod about not being able to name the Texans wide receivers when Nico Collins has been having a breakout season and Tank Dell has been a rookie sensation and I’m left dumbfounded at the shocking lack of knowledge about the current state of the league from the JBF staff.
November 7th, 2023 at 12:53 am
This is true. Joe doesn’t do fantasy football at all and just about all his waking hours are spent on the Bucs. Joe knows fans have a better grasp of what is happening with other teams than Joe does. He doesn’t have the time to spend hours each week on other teams.
Joe is fully locked in on the Bucs.
November 7th, 2023 at 1:14 am
Joe, perhaps the Glazers will not fire Bowles before the end of the season, but could they “persuade” him to let someone else do the defensive play calling?
Sure, the 2023 season now looks like Rah’s fall from 4-2 to 4-12 all over again but maybe the issue is Bowles being so dang stubborn and predictable, perhaps one of his assistants can infuse a wrinkle that may actually slow down the opponent. Replacing a couple of the defensive starters may help as well. Granted if the team has quit on Todd nothing will make things better…..
Right now, it looks like the consolation prize for Buc fans is that Bowles and his staff will be fired, and the Bucs will pick in the top 5 or 6 next April at worst with a 3-to-5-win season.
November 7th, 2023 at 1:58 am
Just because the Glazers have never fired a coach midseason doesn’t mean they never will.
Didn’t they do that with their kickball team ManU once?
November 7th, 2023 at 2:30 am
Mandate to lose? Gambling debts? Cartels got a family member? The voice of God demands losing? It’s all a secret master plan? The guy has lost the team? The players found out something Bowles has done and all respect was extinguished? Glazers had everyone sign N.D.A.’s with the demand of lose at all costs? Whatever it is…. It really doesn’t matter. If Bowles, Licht, and the Glazers held themselves to the standard they demand of their players and staff. They would fire themselves immediately.
November 7th, 2023 at 2:34 am
Concerning The defensive secondary’s performance on Sunday, or lack thereof, Joe tell us that these were simply dressed imposters on the football field on Sunday, masquerading as highly paid, coached up, professional football players, because we all know that highly paid professionals would never stink up the joint like what we saw. Just say it ain’t so, joe.
November 7th, 2023 at 2:45 am
Well, at the end of the day, a new day emerged, and if I was paying for a Cadillac yesterday, and got a yugo today; I’d be very angry.
November 7th, 2023 at 3:29 am
I sure hope this puts to rest all the bloviating about “bend but don’t break” and “stout in the red zone” being something to puff our chests about. To me all that indicates is we let teams race down the field at will and then they crap the bed in the red zone on their own (as many teams, including our offense, do) due to the red zone being one of the few areas of the game where the defense has a built in advantage.
Yes the defense is better than the offense, but they’ve been suspect ALL year and have been getting a pass. But but muh scoring defense ranking! Hogwash. What good does it do us when we’re losing? And did ya ever think maybe we have (had) a good scoring defense ranking because teams didn’t feel the need to try all that hard to score on us? Hear me out. When teams are playing KC or Miami, they know their offense is gonna have to keep up. So they take risks, even early in the game: going for it on fourths, really playing for TDs instead of field goals, being extra aggressive, trying hard to score before the half. I would say teams playing us do the opposite of all those things, which to my mind leads to lower scores and making the scoring ranking of the D look better than it otherwise would. Just a thought.
#FIREbowles
November 7th, 2023 at 5:13 am
So we have co DC’s, and Bowles calls the defense on Sundays? When you have three DCs, you really have none? Todd calls his defense like a scared HC instead of a DC who’s looking to make a name for himself to move up to HC. Todd the HC was happy to play zone the second half nursing a lead rather then go for the kill. Funny he’s been in the league as a HC for awhile, and has no defensive prodogy. No seeds fall from the bowles coaching tree.
November 7th, 2023 at 5:35 am
It’s no use complaining to the Joes, they have to tow the company line or get their press passes cancelled at 1Buc
They know just like we do this is the worst team in the league because Todd is in charge, period.
The Raiders are the best example of a failing, lifeless coach getting launched to save the franchise.
We are at the same juncture…what do our owners do?? Watch this blow up even worse? Just wait – 3-8 on its way
November 7th, 2023 at 6:05 am
9 completions of 20+ yards.
I’ve been told, repeatedly, that man defense would allow such things. It would appear ZONE does also. Second game ina row, they’re just playing catch, Buc defenders aren’t even an issue for them
November 7th, 2023 at 7:02 am
WTF happened to the Buc’s defense?????
November 7th, 2023 at 7:16 am
First time for everything Joe…… why not fire him, put the OC in charge….. what? is the Defense going to get worse? The “arrow” appears to be pointing up with that side of the ball.
November 7th, 2023 at 7:41 am
When it was announced that the Texans kicker had been injured and that Dare Ogunbowale was their backup kicker – I immediately had visions of him kicking a game-winning field goal against us. It did not go down that way, but the Bucs would have won the game without the 29-yard FG he made earlier.
November 7th, 2023 at 7:58 am
I agree that they are unlikely to fire him midseason. But changes are coming. We can all see it. The Mayfield mob better enjoy(!) the rest of the season because he won’t be coming back. Maybe we can get a solid RB next year, and a better pass rush, and better pass coverage, and better run blocking, and better play calling….
November 7th, 2023 at 8:06 am
I say fire Todd, put Canales in as HC and promote Trask to starter and run the ball more on all 3 downs.
That is our best shot at moving up in the draft.
November 7th, 2023 at 8:11 am
Being a “players coach” doesn’t work.
The players take advantage of the coach’s kindness and mercy.
They love to take it easy at practice and take plays off during games.
Spoiling players, like Bowles does, is disastrous for teams.
Raheem Morris was so nice and chill with with players, he thought they were his “brothers.”
In reality, they manipulated him, took advantage of his kindness, and used him.
The same thing is happening to Bowles.
He cares too much if his players “love” him rather than respect him.
It’s the same problem for teachers of teenagers.
If you are too nice to them, they will manipulate you and take advantage of your kindness.
“If you give them your hand, they will take your arm.”- An Albanian proverb I learned when I was teaching in Albania.
I feel bad for Bowles.
His players are betraying him and taking advantage of him.
November 7th, 2023 at 8:22 am
If Joe thought Todd Bowles might get canned before the end of the season he’d write it. Bucs still are just 1.5 games back with nine to play. Not exactly the time to launch a coach.
And hard for Joe to believe Glazers may do something they’ve never done. Joe doesn’t like betting against never.
November 7th, 2023 at 8:22 am
Dean. Davis. Ryan. Tryon. White. Five starters who suck. Any surprise the Defense sucks?
November 7th, 2023 at 8:23 am
Bowles essentially said he cannot play man coverage with his highly-paid press CBs because that would expose other players that suck at man (Neal, White, etc.). Fans have been clamoring for Neal to be benched and White to be traded. Bowles is the only one defending those two fools, yet he knows full well that their poor play compromises his defensive plans.
So he explicitly schemes his defense to hide terrible players, but absolutely refuses to make lineup changes. Complete incompetence from this coach.
November 7th, 2023 at 8:28 am
Failure to fire Bowels shows the promising young players how the franchise values winning. They don’t. Winners do anything they can to adapt change and win. If you’re ok losing you’re a loser.
November 7th, 2023 at 9:04 am
I’ve been saying it the past few weeks…
“I’m getting Rah Morris vibes from this team”
Oh well – at least we will have a top 10 draft pick and the Bucs will finally be able to rid this team of BA’s leftovers.
November 7th, 2023 at 9:12 am
What numbers are sad are.
Defense is 6th in Points Allowed 167
Defense is 1st in Red Zone Defense
Defense is +8 in Turnovers including covering for 7 of their Offense
While:
Offense has scored 158 including 6 chipped in by Barrett
Offense is 19th in 3rd Conversions 38% even after all the Mayfield Success Hype
Offense is 19th in the RedZone. Has Improved but < NE CHI DEN CAR
Offense is 15th in Passing Yards per Game
Offense is 29th in Rushing per Game but Rising.
Defense plays it’s Ashe off to give the ball to an offense that gives them back 2 of 5 passing for 8 yards, 1 impressive run of 16 yards, a fortunate 15 yards penalty, and a Field Goal.
Defense won’t say it but they are about to quit on the Offense if they have not already.
November 7th, 2023 at 3:29 pm
The ‘onliest’ head coach fired mid-season was Ray Perkins in 1990. Richard Williamson, a WR coach, was named interim head coach and served as head coach in 1991.Hugh Culverhouse was the owner at the time.
At the time of firing, the Bucs had Perkins at 5-8. Williamson went 1-2. The following year the Bucs went 3-13.
Perkins was fired during the bye week after the Bucs posted a win against the Falcons.