Mankins, Smith Say Winning Mentality Must Take Hold For Playoff Run
November 15th, 2015
A couple of Buccaneers know a lot about making playoff runs.
Yeah, that’s right. Joe’s talking playoffs. The Bucs are 4-5 and in the hunt. Joe will break down the fuzzy math tomorrow, but the reality is upon Bucs fans in mid-November.
Looking to talk playoffs after today’s glorious victory, Joe found a guard with a Super Bowl ring, and a guard who spent a career with the Belicheats.
Joe’s talking about Logan Mankins and Evan Smith, who owns a shiny ring from his days with the Packers.
Mankins said there is a change in practice intensity when your team is good and the calendar ticks toward the holiday season.
“I had a coach one time that used to always say football season really starts at Thanksgiving,” Mankins said. “Because it gets harder as the year goes on if you’re in contention. Each game gets bigger and bigger and bigger because you have a bigger reward or a bigger fall if you lose. When you’re still in the hunt it’s a big time of year.”
Evans said he doesn’t buy that things get more intense in a playoff hunt during practices or film time. But Evans was clear that teams only get to those meaningful December games if they believe they’re a winner and have the practice habits all season that led them to that spot.
“You don’t get there if you’re not working properly and you have the wrong mentality,” Smith said. “So at this point, we have to keep doing a good job cleaning up the penalties, like we did today, and keep the same work habits going.”
Mankins said winning two in a row is the Bucs’ massive next step. In the “simple as that” Lovie Smith mold, Mankins said the Bucs can’t call themselves good until they pull that off.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:41 pm
Don’t say the P word Joe. Unless you’re talking the P word and Rachel. Don’t jinx us please.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Not to go all Jim Mora, but can we please not not talk playoffs until the Bucs either have a winning record in November or December? The Panthers have guaranteed that the NFC south winner will have a winning record this year, so if we have any hopes of getting to the playoffs, we must be over (not at) .500.
I’m rooting for the Bucs every week, but we get ahead of ourselves when we talk playoffs when we have yet to post more Wins than Losses.
#FireLoveNow
#GoBucs
November 15th, 2015 at 7:45 pm
Congrats on the win Bucs and Lovie. A win is a win…. -ish. So let’s not pound our chests and act like we weren’t a flag-away-from-the-play away from losing that one. That was a bad Dallas team! A lot, including a winning mentality, needs to be built upon.
November 15th, 2015 at 7:57 pm
We are starting to at least beat the bad teams.
Progress… It’s a start
November 15th, 2015 at 7:58 pm
Man I love seeing Jerry Jones’ face after a loss. Classic!
November 15th, 2015 at 7:59 pm
mike …I think the D played well against the G-men too though. This team never gets breaks and we got one today. Humphries tipping that poorly thrown ball to give the pick to Dallas when we were in the red zone. If he doesn’t tip that ball, who’s to say the Bucs don’t punch it in on that drive? Certainly not me.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:09 pm
And we need more than just Barth and Winston to put points on the board. Real teams are going to stop that sooner or later.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:24 pm
Now if we can get a few key guys back…..
Who knows.
Other than Panthers I don’t see anyone on our schedule we would not stand a Chance to beat if we play well.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:28 pm
The Cowboys were licking their chops……come into Tampa, get a win……pound the ball down our throats…….didn’t happen.
There are fewer pleasures for me that are greater than seeing Jerry Jones lose…..the only thing better is if we beat him in Dallas.
If the Cowboys get beat…..I’ve had a good sports weekend…..and when the Bucs win & Cowboys lose…..it’s heavenly……
November 15th, 2015 at 8:37 pm
Win two in a row and cut down on the dumb penalties and they have a chance but I think the Washington loss will be the loss that kills any playoff talk
November 15th, 2015 at 8:39 pm
Howard just went to the Cowboy message boards to enjoy their misery. Mostly they just want to fire Garrett. Another popular subject was putting Romo on IR and tanking for the draft.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:44 pm
Most teams try to at least to win 1 back to back game over a 2 year period before talking playoffs.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:49 pm
Joe. No matter what happens you can still find something good in the Bucs. Love it. Me too, since the franchise was announced. My team win or lose.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:56 pm
Oh please. There is no playoff run this year, lol.
7-9 if we are lucky. And if that somehow gets us in the playoffs? It’ll be one and out.
This is not going to be our year. The Bucs are developing this year. Next year is when the shine will come.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:57 pm
I do think we’ll hit .500 next week though.
November 15th, 2015 at 8:58 pm
87, no doubt. We SHUT DOWN their running game. McFadden and their OL had been playing well the past few weeks and they were a non factor. The middle was clogged and LVD/Lansanah held their edges on almost all but a few plays. I’m just allergic to Lovie ‘coach talk’ where I’m dumb for thinking there’s anything to improve upon.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:17 pm
I liked how our linebackers would show blitz, cowboys would adjust thier protection and our guys fell back into coverage. The lbs and secondary seem to have improved thier communications and coverage assighnments. Good job.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Bucs may run into some luck with playing cassel Sanchez and hasslebeck in consecutive weeks
November 15th, 2015 at 9:26 pm
I must be the only fan who isn’t thrilled with this victory. And before you say it, no, I’m not rooting against the Bucs on purpose, for whatever reason. I’m happy, I got to see a team that was competitive until the very last second of the game, and that’s all I can ask for, really. But am I overjoyed and hopeful for the future? Not at all. Today we got lucky. It doesn’t seem like so, but Lovie has been kissed by blind fortune more than once this year. I’m sorry, but I need to see way more than this to stop believing that this team is going in the wrong direction. Namely, I need to see convincing victories against playoff caliber teams. Today’s W was more a fluke than anything else. I appreciate the effort, I appreciate everything, but it isn’t enough for me just yet.
And for the love of all that is good, if you’re serious about Winston, then give him some real WEAPONS! Evans is NOT THAT good, V-Jax is OLD. Get a clear-cut 1st WR and a couple of GOOD ones that can GET OPEN more often than not. You want a formula for success? This is it. Give Winston some weapons.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:34 pm
Evans is very good.
We (for the first time in decades) have the makings of a 1st class offense with
just the guys who are on the roster now.
What we desperately need is continuity, development, teamwork, focus
and all that happy stuff. Basically reps.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:37 pm
After 2-14, i would be satisfied with 7-9 or 8-8.
November 15th, 2015 at 9:39 pm
We have the nucleus in place, wr need to build around it. In Licht we trust
November 15th, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Don’t mean to nitpick Joe but Mankins never won a Superbowl with the Pats, he was drafted after they won in ’05 and went to 2 but lost both.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:01 pm
Jameis winston brings the attitude of a champion. This will change the way the rest of the team plays.
November 15th, 2015 at 10:27 pm
The guard with the ring is EDS lol
November 15th, 2015 at 10:31 pm
Actually if u read the article Joe makes it clear that Smith is the one with the ring from GB and Mankins went with the Belicheats to a few…
Not to not pick but this is my problem with all these other fans that all they can do is look for something wrong or negative … You always see what you want to see… Life is to short… Look for the good in everything and things get better… Look for the bad and well what do u expect to find???
Just saying… WE ARE PLAYOFF BOUND BABY!!!!
November 15th, 2015 at 10:57 pm
Winston is a spark plug and he HATES to lose.
That in itself makes Howard optimistic.
Winning.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:05 pm
Must get Marpet, VJax, and ASJ back. If the defense plays like that and we get those players back we have a chance of beating any team in the NFL (I didn’t say a good chance, just a chance.) The key is defense tho. We’ve got 3 guys that are or should be stars there, and if the other 8 can try to emulate them, we’ll be fine.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:22 pm
We need to get healthy and then the playoffs are a possibility.
November 15th, 2015 at 11:40 pm
How crazy would that be if the Bucs came out of nowhere to make the playoffs?
November 16th, 2015 at 3:10 am
The two WC teams are gonna come from the NFC South and NFC North respectively. To make the playoffs they could lose one, MAYBE two more games tops.
@PHI: winnable.
@IND: winnable.
ATL: winnable.
NO: winnable.
@STL: tough game, especially being a Thursday nighter on the road.
CHI: winnable.
@CAR: if the starters are resting, why not?
Again, it’s unlikely, but if they can beat Philly and Indy things will start to get interesting.