83 Plays; Survival Of The Bucs’ Fittest
September 15th, 2024
Yeah, Joe is thinking Super Bowl. Why not the Bucs after today’s thrilling theft of a victory in Detroit?
A depleted Bucs defense proved it’s not only physical, but it’s ready to grind through major adversity.
Detroit owned time of possession today. The Lions held the ball 33 minutes and 55 seconds to teh Bucs’ 26 minutes and 7 seconds. To make matters worse, Detroit chewed up yardage all kinds of ways — 139 on the ground and 324 through the air.
The Tampa Bay defense was on the field for 83 plays. Eighty-three!!
That’s a brutal load, especially when your defense was down two starters, lost one to a knee injury in the third quarter (Vita Vea) and had other defensive players battling other issues.
Training camp and preseason are nowhere near as grueling as they used to be, but Todd Bowles not only has had his defense ready to play — and play physically — he had them ready for an 83-play ride in hostile environment against an elite offense.
Take another bow, Coach Bowles!
September 15th, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Heck yeah. So proud of these young men. Some dawgs stepping up all over the place.
September 15th, 2024 at 4:58 pm
Tackling and swarming to the ball was EXCELLENT!
September 15th, 2024 at 4:58 pm
Give the game ball to Coach Bowles.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Ravens and 9ers lost to teams they should have beat…maybe the juggernauts aren’t so juggernautish this year…we play both teams…keep grinding men and get healthy. Awesome experience for our depth D guys this week. Upgrade RT backup and I think we’re in good shape moving forward
September 15th, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Played very well in the red zone
September 15th, 2024 at 5:01 pm
Gotta give up for our backup DT guys…they were gassed and still managed to get pressures when it was critical…a lot to clean up but winning helps make those improvements and builds great confidence that we can play and beat ANYONE
September 15th, 2024 at 5:02 pm
Amazing victory. I kept waiting for this crew to finally succumb but they stood victorious at the end. So pumped for this team.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:02 pm
THREE guys with double digit tackles, another with 9. DB’s were exemplary
September 15th, 2024 at 5:03 pm
5 stars award to the Bucs for drafting and player development
I don’t see all the usual calls for Trask.
Baker Mayfield is a franchise QB.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:03 pm
Camp Cupcake keeps players healthy…
September 15th, 2024 at 5:05 pm
Best win since victory over Saints in 2020 playoffs. Hats off to Coach Bowles and the whole team.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:06 pm
Joe : we’re two games into the season and the first line of your story says “ Joe is thinking Super Bowl. Why not….” . Hasn’t taken long for a good football team to expand your horizons, huh ?
September 15th, 2024 at 5:08 pm
What a great team win against a legit opponent on the road. Announcement to the teammates who didn’t participate: Get healthy and get tough because y’all have a chance to be pretty good.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:09 pm
Don’t know if they’re a Super Bowl team, but they sure look a lot better this year than last year. The new OC is doing a lot better and Whitehead has made the D a lot better. If the D ever gets healthy I hope they’ll start getting some pressure. If they can get some pressure consistently their D is going to be hard to go against. But the need SACKS and more pressures from the end.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:24 pm
I’ve been advocating for Todd to get the game ball. Simply incredible.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:38 pm
Todd’s got us off to a great start! Don’t think we’d get the win today but glad to be wrong! Let’s kick Sean Payton’s @ss next week
September 15th, 2024 at 5:38 pm
Great TEAM win and watching replay now, and young DBs and Dennis are everywhere and making plays all over field.
Dennis should be your new starting LB.
These PITT kids can play
September 15th, 2024 at 5:39 pm
Incredible job by the Defense. Coming into the game I didn’t think the depleted secondary was going to hold up. Amazing job man.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:41 pm
THIS GAME was Todd’s greatest defensive coaching effort!!
Maybe, “blitz less & cover the back end” becomes a Bucs thing.
September 15th, 2024 at 5:56 pm
Agreed, BeBack.
September 15th, 2024 at 6:40 pm
Dave Pear. And I’ve been advocating to get rid of Baker and now he have won me over these last 2 games. I believe he can be our franchise quarterback now even if he struggles next week. Go bucs!!
September 15th, 2024 at 7:12 pm
Good to see you come around Oneilbuc
September 15th, 2024 at 7:29 pm
Should we expect someone else to go into concussion protocol or get injured during walkthrough this week?
September 15th, 2024 at 7:38 pm
Holy cow!! Oneilbuc has seen the light!
September 15th, 2024 at 8:05 pm
Mike C. He won me over these pass 2 games I’m all in with Baker Mayfield and I’ve changed my mind about winning a Superbowl with Baker Mayfield !!
September 15th, 2024 at 8:06 pm
As a side note–it doesn’t seem like the players are buying what Canals is selling. Seems like it’s like trying to sell canal water in the Everglades.
September 15th, 2024 at 8:54 pm
A lot of young guys and reserves stepped up big.Notably Sirvocea Dennis, Tykee Smith,and every reserve on the defensive line.
September 15th, 2024 at 9:36 pm
Fantastic game on both sides of the ball. Everyone doing what needed to be done. Fun game not only for the win but also the excitement all the way until the last play. Go Bucs!!!
September 16th, 2024 at 5:47 am
Funny I kept reading a whole lot from these comments prior tol the season that Baker will majorly degrees and that his inaccuracies on his passes will be the books often to downfall this year. I’m not surprised but glad you’re wrong. Went into Detroit knowing we would give them a fist fight of a game but had a slight expectation that they might not win, given the defense is beat up and all. What a way to step it up what a great game watching with my family let’s freaking go
September 16th, 2024 at 11:10 am
To all of the “Baker Hatters” in Tampa…SUCK IT!!!. Baker wants to win and will do anything and everything in his power to make it happen for the Bucs and all of the REAL Bucs fans. When he ran himself in for the TD against a strong Lions defense, that should prove his love for the Bucs, his teammates and the REAL Bucs fans.
To all of the “Talking Heads” in the NFL media that don’t give the Bucs and players the credit and respect that they deserve…you can All “SUCK IT” as well, and stop being Douchbags.
Thank you
September 16th, 2024 at 12:33 pm
A comment above said the tackling was good. I thought the tackling was quite poor at times. Definitely need to button that up to push through the end of the year.
September 16th, 2024 at 6:43 pm
It’s cool and rare to see someone change their mind. Good on you, O’Neil. Me too, with Todd. That was some wizardly shizz yesterday. Decimated with injuries and a corpse at RT and we beat a SB favorite in their crib.
I snarked at you before I saw all of this. Sorry.