Feelin’ Good, Feelin’ Bad
April 1st, 2025
Todd Bowles holds court.
Don’t worry, Bucs fans. Bucs coach Todd Bowles still tosses and turns at night over the way his team finished the 2024 season, just like you and Joe.
In particular, in recounting the 2024 season today from the owners meetings at the swanky Breakers resort in Palm Beach, Bowles pinpointed some areas he is focused on to ensure the Bucs aren’t a one-and-done team in the playoffs again.
“I feel good that we know how to win,” Bowles said. “I don’t feel good about us finishing the season from a playoff aspect and the middle of the season having a drought two years in a row.
“We have to be better from that standpoint.”
So what does Bowles plan to do about it? It seems Bowles has put starting (?) cornerback Jamel Dean on notice from the things Bowles said and didn’t say this morning.
Bowles also seems to think more leadership from veterans is key to avoiding mid-season slumps. Both last season and in 2023, the Bucs went into hibernation in the middle of the season, costing them a better seeding in the playoffs.
Bowles noted that everyone, from himself to his assistants to the veteran players need to be held more accountable to ensure the mid-season collapse does not repeat itself this fall. Again.
It sort of reminded Joe of when, after the Bucs crapped on themselves against Denver after beating the powerful Lions on the road, Lavonte David read his teammates the riot act after the loss.
News of this arse-chewing seeped out of the Bucs locker room. When David was asked about this, he smirked and smiled and said, “Things needed to be said.”
Maybe more things need to be said more often?
April 1st, 2025 at 10:37 am
One small thing about the 2024 Bucs, man they were sloppy with the ball at times
April 1st, 2025 at 10:45 am
What does Bowles say about his defense’s tendency to give up game winning drives in the last 4 minutes and overtime like they were Halloween candy? (Yeah we beat Carolina — Carolina! — in OT…….If not for Anthony Nelson, the Bucs have a new head coach right now. )
What about those 12 yard cushions on a 3rd and 5?
He has to know, that needs to be fixed.
April 1st, 2025 at 10:49 am
baker has to limit his TOs(turnovers, fumbles & INTs)…
baker cant lead the NFL in INTs again this year….
GO BUCS!!!!!
April 1st, 2025 at 10:56 am
Yeah, Baker threw ints. The offense had some hiccups. But the defense blew chunks more times than i can count! Cost us games. Lets see how accountable the coach hold himself to over that
April 1st, 2025 at 11:06 am
Some of those turnovers were not on Baker. You know who else had 16? Cousins, but Baker had 41TD’s, Cousins had 18…..4500 yards completion compared to 3508. Big difference…but yeah it would be nice to see less TO’s this year. Im pretty sure there wouldnt have been as many had Evans and Godwin played more too.
April 1st, 2025 at 11:36 am
The ‘mid season slump’ was partly caused by some very good opponents during that stretch and the winning at the end of the season by poor opponents.
Night games are dismal and makes the Bucs look bad nationally.
Finishing games: the defense couldn’t stop opponents and Bowles’ strategy indicated he trusted his defense more than the offense – big mistake.
Turnovers: Sure, Baker gave up the ball too much but generally the turnovers didn’t kill us. The lack of turnovers on defense is a bigger issue for me.
April 1st, 2025 at 1:23 pm
The Denver loss AT HOME to a much less talented team was straight up mental weakness.
Too much big head after a good start to the season. Sean Payton ain’t no schlub. An azzhole, but no schlub.
April 1st, 2025 at 2:08 pm
They’ve had that “championships are won in December” mentality for awhile now. If I was the boss, I’d put signs up everywhere that say “Championships are won TODAY!” And I mean everywhere: throughout the locker room, on every piece of gym equipment, in the dining room, hell, I’d have it engraved in the cutlery, everywhere. Drive that simple message home. Players and coaches should know that each day is an important step on the road to success but it needs to be emphasized.
April 1st, 2025 at 2:24 pm
^ Yup, and before every game, we’re nothing, 0-0 until we win this one and prove we’re something….Even if we’re 11-0 at the time.
April 1st, 2025 at 2:28 pm
JimBobBuc … ‘Turnovers: Sure, Baker gave up the ball too much but generally the turnovers didn’t kill us. The lack of turnovers on defense is a bigger issue for me.’
The big concern should be with Turnover Differential … takeaways minus giveaways. They BOTH impact the bottom line (TO Differential). Last year for instance Bucs took the ball away 18 times but gave it away 23 times, for a MINUS 5 Turnover Differential. Anything in the Minus column normally guarantees that you won’t make the playoffs. And yet we made it last year.
If you take a deeper look at the giveaways & takeaways, something kinda interesting pops up.
o Of the 23 Bucs’ giveaways, our defense held the opposition to 5 FG & 6 TD … 57 points. But on 1 of those we got a 2-point safety, so we really surrendered 55 points. We held the opposition to no points on 12 of those 23 giveaways.
o Of the 18 Bucs’ takeaways, our offense scored 4 FG & 6 TD … 54 points. The opposing defense held us on only 8 of the 18 takeaways.
So all-in-all, despite us having a Minus 5 Turnover Differential, all those turnovers last year resulted in just 1 point differential. That speaks well for our offense AND our defense IMO in terms of maximizing & minimizing (respectively) the impact of those 41 turnovers. They BOTH performed admirably.
April 1st, 2025 at 2:58 pm
Defense Rules, They “Both” doesn’t surprise me. Our”team” plays hard nosed good football on both sides of the ball. Alot of reasons why our defense ought to create more turnovers this year. And with less (zero) rookies on offense we ought to drastically cut down on turnovers. But no doubt they should still perform admirably. Both of them!
April 1st, 2025 at 4:39 pm
“We have to be better from that standpoint.”
The clown show just rolls on. Bowles defense is the only thing holding this team back.
28-27
April 1st, 2025 at 6:23 pm
I literally said this every single week after we heard about Lavonte’s actions…
April 1st, 2025 at 6:39 pm
I guess he also tossed and turned after Cooper Kupp caught that pass over the top of Antoine Winfield Jr’s head. I did, for a very long time!
April 1st, 2025 at 8:15 pm
I think it boils down to what he said a while back:
Ballhawks.
As others have mentioned above, we have a lot of things to work on.
Adding ballhawks to our defense will go a long way toward fixing many of those other things.