“Nicest” Team

December 8th, 2019

Reason he is losing hair.

Though the Bucs have won four of their last five games, it may be a bit premature to call the Bucs a nice team. They still have a losing record.

But Bucco Bruce Arians firmly believes he has the nicest team he’s ever coached. Why is that? Because they like to give away gifts.

“It’s a good thing I’m a young, healthy man as coaching the nicest team in the league is hard: Arians said after his Bucs pulled out a win despite playing too much Santa Clause in the first half. “We just love spotting 15, 17 points to the other team and then coming back to beat them.

“You probably thought I was hollering and cussing. I didn’t have to because some of the veterans did that for me. … The resiliency of this team is growing on me.”

Joe hopes this wasn’t a fluke. The Bucs have been able to come back on teams before but the Bucs didn’t have the defense to get a stop or two to enable the offense to take a lead.

Now the Bucs have a defense good enough to make a stop. Was this a corner-turning game or just a blip?

Three more games to prove this team is on to bigger and better things.

53 Responses to ““Nicest” Team”

  1. Anonymous Says:

    Three more games to demonstrate what we already know: Winston is hurting this team. The D can only do so much, can only improve so much. When they actually get good, they can win even more games. But no defense can overcome Winston’s multiple picks every week. A team that constantly gives up the ball on short fields–like Winston is master at doing–will never be better than mediocre. To many here would rather give Wisnton a pass every week and blame someone else. What is he at now, 106? Wow, that’s astoundingly bad.

  2. Anonymous Says:

    450 yards today with three picks. So for every 1.5 TD drives, he gives the ball to the other team one time…basically taking three of his own TDs off the board. This is considered good how?

  3. Bucs Fan Since ‘76 Says:

    Maddening play from “America’s Quarterback,” but I’m sorry, I love this team! Go Bucs!

  4. JimmyJack Says:

    Problem is your not going to contend if you make a habit of games like today.

    Was inspiring to see a comback like we had today but the QB and team need to look themselfs in the mirror and recgonize that gotta get better to achieve greatness.

    I’ll go out on a limb and say you will get bounced from any playoff game if you cough up the ball 4 times.

    It’s nice to see the potential like we saw today but obvisous improvements still gotta be made. And yes limiting QB mistakes is #1

  5. Couch Fan Says:

    @JimmyJack

    Perfectly put. We got lucky today. You arent going to win many games like this, especially against good teams. Im happy we wont but not happy with the performance.

  6. Adrnagy Says:

    Get over the int. That’s who Jamies is and will be. Are you in it or out. Period. If you’re in ——build a good defense. Running game and live off the turnovers. If you out then go and trade up in draft and buy yourself a Herbert, hurts or whomever. Meanwhile I love my bucs. And happy we won a win is a win.

  7. Bucup Says:

    Not the subject here but Donovan Smith is a hell of a lot better then A lot of you clowns want to give him credit for

  8. Tval Says:

    Again…average under 40 yds rushing a game, from your top rb, and Jameis will have to PIGGY-back. Carson Wentz would have 5 int’s EVERY game. Get outta here, losers.

  9. Deez days Says:

    Lol in or out … you can love the INTs… but 3 wins in a row does not make the past 5 years forgettable…. this is who jameis is yes … but he is not the reason we won 3 in a row and 4/5 … you can thank the defense … what if the defense isn’t playing up to par and it’s on jameis … lord help us … we will lose

  10. David Smith Says:

    It was more than luck man. Jameis overcame his mistakes and still put the Bucs in line with 38 points. A little more accurate on pass to an open Perriman and it would have been. You people are amazing. When we lose it’s all Jameis fault even though it’s a team game and the defense has been giving up the booty but he pretty much wins the game with his arm and all you do is hail on his ints but absolutely won’t give him any credit. It boggles the mind!

  11. Ndog Says:

    I was happy to see Ryan Griffin get a chance to play but I must admit I felt like we had chance with him on the field.

  12. Deez days Says:

    That’s what’s wrong with some of these buc fans … thinking it’s okay to throw 3-4 picks in a game like we are built to win games like this every week … add up the wins and losses the past 5 years … count how many wins we have when jameis throws multiple picks .. we got lucky this game … look at what the colts have done this season … they have consistently given up games in the second half … Bucs got lucky this week and it’s something we can’t keep going thru with a quarterback every year …. no quarterback I’ve seen has gone in almost every game of his career turning the ball over in every fashion week in and week out … jameis has been turning the ball over twice a game in almost every game … I can’t remember the last time he went into a game without turning the ball over … y’all go ahead and like that crap … that’s sad

  13. Sport Says:

    Love hearing how the players are taking ownership and holding each other accountable. You need all three phases to win in this league. We got away with one today, damn exciting team to watch. Waaaaay better product than the last few years.

    Go Bucs!

    In BA I Trust!

  14. Couch Fan Says:

    It was absolutely luck. This game is the typical game we’ve seen the last 5 years. Turnovers put us in a hole early that we usually cant get out of. This week, we lucked into a win despite the -3 turnover differential. That is rare and doesnt happen often. You fan boys just hate hearing the truth.

  15. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    Our front 7 on D is pretty good…..actually very good…..our secondary has 2 second year players and 3 rookies…..and is developing nicely…..
    Matt Gay is kicking well and Jameis is the same Jameis….

    We can win with him but our Defense, Running Game and Special teams have to be very good to make up for the turnovers.

    Now, If he’ll play for us for a good price and we can use the savings to buy another good player…..OK

  16. Adrnagy Says:

    we Can be that first team to do it. To turn it over and win. Like Bruce said it .. we give them 17pts and we still beat them.

  17. Bobbo Says:

    I want to see us win out, and then keep all the key players next year. Maybe even be in the hunt next year

  18. Jean Lafitte Says:

    One thing is for sure. You can’t enter into a game and be totally certain the Bucs will win. In fact, most picked Indy to win. Next week we’ll probably get our butts whooped. An Enigma

  19. JimmyJack Says:

    There’s only one QB in this league history(that I can think of) that compares to Winston’s decision making and gun-slinging mentality.

    That’s Brett Favre. And when you look at the career of Brett Favre his team was eliminated from playoff contention many many times on the heels of multi pick games…..You can’t win a title with games like today & I doubt it has ever been done.

    And you can’t just credit the Packers defense to the title Favre won because Brett managed to limit his mistakes on that title run. There were no multi pick games. Had there been he might of just went down like Marino.

    Now the Bucs certainly have an ascending team and look primed to actually contend next year……..But this isn’t the 1920 World Series you don’t get a nine game series to determine things. Every game is elimination in the NFL and if Winston is ever going to take us to the promised Land he will have to find a way to limit these mistakes…….He cannot have a game last keep today and expect to win a playoff game. It just won’t work. Not if winning a title is the goal.

  20. DBS Says:

    Been here before. We are playing garbage teams. Helped out by Santa . You won’t know anything until next year anyway. Who stays and goes. Don’t forget the Mike Smith defense you thought turned the corner.

  21. JimmyJack Says:

    Phillip Rivers career might also compare to Winston. I just haven’t seen him enough to say that for sure.

  22. JimmyJack Says:

    DBS……Actually we haven’t really been here before. When’s the last time you seen a Bucs team peak late in the season like this & beating teams that are fighting for playoff spots like we did today?

    You might gotta go back about 20 years or so on that one.

  23. Adrnagy Says:

    400+ yards and not one receiver/te/rb with 100yds.

  24. DBS Says:

    JimmyJack
    You talk more than any 1 female I know. Read what I wrote. We thought our defense turned the corner before. And don’t bother me as I am a Schmuck as you called us.

  25. Adrnagy Says:

    four-year, $88M pact (with somewhere in the $50M guaranteed)

  26. Jean Lafitte Says:

    One thing I can’t get past is Jameis’s passion to win.

    I like that the most about him.

  27. Little Bo Peep 🤡❗️ Says:

    If the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Starting QB was Teddy Bridgewater instead of say Famous Winston, The Bucs would never have a NFL Starting Quarterback with 23 Interceptions and 4 Lost Fumbles (That’s an NFL Worst 27 Total Tournovers) though 13 games of the 2019 NFL Regular Season 😀❗️You can sign Bridgewater for a team friendly $20 Million Dollars plus Bounes. then you get a better QB, lar less 💰💰💰❗️And less than 6 to 8 Total Tournovers for the season, and more money to spend sign quality NFL Free Agents🤡❗️In the words of Capt. Smith Of The A Team, “I love a plan that’s comes together 😀”

  28. Brandon Jeff Says:

    Jameis is showing some signs of reigning in his drive to succeed on every play as the team improves around him. To all of you Jameis haters out there who want to get rid of him. I personally don’t relish the idea of potentially having to go up against good Jameis once or twice a year and getting the crap beat out of us. I’m tired of acquiring talent and letting them get away only to excel somewhere else.

  29. Jurevicius Circle Says:

    3 straight wins. 3 straight Sunday evenings of reading comments from folks angry about turnovers, about Jameis maybe getting re-signed, about beating “horrible teams” (what are we supposed to do? reschedule better opponents mid-season?), about not making the playoffs in Jameis’ 5 seasons, etc. At least the anger over draft position has seemed to quiet down this week.

  30. JimmyJack Says:

    Ok. I probably deserved that. But hey we won. Enjoy it.

  31. ElBajito43 Says:

    Keep letting “Trash” Licht convince you that elite defense is built backwards from the secondary towards the DLINE

    WRONG WRONG!!! WRONG!!!!!!

    DRAFT CHASE YOUNG

    MOVE THE F$@ UP and get him!!!!! What a Pu$$y Az Beach you are Lichtenstein

  32. Pelsbuc61 Says:

    Keep firing. Start with Licht!

  33. Alan Says:

    They have a defense??? Until this team gets some corners and some safeties we will always be a losing team

  34. Bucaroo Says:

    Anonymous: JW is a frustratingly good QB. You never consider the amount the O line allows excessive pressure, nor arrant route running, number of int’s on tipped balls. I think he’ll be fine under BA hands.

  35. Buczilla Says:

    Three in a row is not easy to do. I have some confidence in Arians now. The game was fun as all hell to watch but did nothing good for my blood pressure. 😃

  36. Joe in Michigan Says:

    A win is a win. Keep stacking them up, this year and next year.

  37. Cobraboy Says:

    We got a chance to see Ryan Griffin.

    He looked slow and plodding, and his ball had no zip on it.

  38. Craig Says:

    A nice team does not have 6 penalties for 116 yards during the fourth quarter. It also doesn’t have to dig itself out a hole because the QB tossed interceptions back to back to start the game.

    Jameis might have pulled his nuts out of the fire today, but he is 27-40 in the win/loss column. His games are sometimes the source of magic and sometimes the road to hell. It would be better for both the fans and for Jameis to have someone else drive a bank truck up to his door and let it carry him away.

    We can’t trust him to do anything except drive us to drink. He also needs a new start, but I haven’t heard of any ban trucks coming our way, the Bucs need to just offer him a one year extension for 15 million. Maybe one more year will make real magic happen, I have doubts but maybe

  39. Blackmagic00 Says:

    The turning point for our great team in 2003 was a 38 to 35 nail biting loss to the colts which sent this franchise into a tailspin. Jus’ sayin.

  40. Brown813 Says:

    Same old sobbing stories from the same people every week, geesh! Do you’ll know we lost 2 games and won the turnover battle. We also lost the Seattle game and broke even in turnovers. 45+ throws per game will almost always end with some negative plays. High risk/high reward. The fallacy is most of you think we are one NON THROWING INT QB away from greatness.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

  41. tmaxcon Says:

    Blackmagic00

    Bucs have never had a great team. One year wonders at best most had a pathetic 5 career playoff wins. The washed up has beens were lucky one year wonders at best….

  42. DalvinCookRules Says:

    Arians & Leftwich need to do a better job coaching the bad stuff out of Winston. There are some things Winston does which will never be corrected, just pure boneheadeness–but the MAJORITY of his turnovers are fixable.

    For one thing, we see very little designed rollouts for Winston. JW is nearly as good as any QB who has ever played this game when rolling out. Yes, I said that and it is true! He will either make a jaw-dropping pass or at the minimum, get a nifty run out of it. The problem is, there are virtually ZERO designed rollouts in this offense (that is just one of 3-4 major problems with this offense and how it is NOT geared to Winston’s benefit).

    If Lamar Jackson were in this offense, he would be the laughing stock of the NFL. You have to be able to design the offense around your players’ skills not one that amplifies their weaknesses.

  43. Dapostman Says:

    Dalvin Cook is absolutely correct. I’ve said every defense knows exactly where Winston will be in about 2.5 seconds from the snap, he’ll be about 7 yards behind the center. More designed rolls with misdirection is needed and I’d like to see some end arounds and jet sweeps with Perriman.

    It is really amazing what Winston has done in terms of yards and points with this vanilla passing game.

  44. SOEbuc Says:

    OJ Howard (5 for 6, four over ten yards, three for first downs) and Cameron Brate (4 for 4 for thirty yards and a TD) were not nice today to the Colts. Hadn’t let Watson (5 catches for 59 yard, TD) put one tip of his pinky toe on the field over Perriman and Miller until today and he completed his first career tip of the pinky finger TD. It was already ridiculous they hadn’t involved our star TE’s this year. Made the Bucs offensive coaching look like buffoons today.

  45. July Joe Says:

    LAVONTE DAVID, SUH, VEA, DEVIN WHITE, ETC ., ALL RAVE ABOUT JAMEIS AS HE’S LIKE A LB PLAYING QB AND THEY LOVE THE WARRIOR HE IS … TOO BAD SO MANY FANS ARE WEAKLINGS WHO WANT A GAME-MANAGER … JAMEIS WILL GET PAID $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

  46. SteelStudBuc Says:

    Total points allowed off Winston turnovers is now 25% of total points allowed.

    381 total points allowed
    96 of those are on Winston
    That’s way too much for a player not on defense

  47. Defense Rules Says:

    Cobraboy … Yes we did get to see Ryan Griffin, but I thought he acquitted himself reasonably well given the circumstances. Coming in cold off the bench as a BACKUP with I’m sure minimal reps during the week is tough, yet he went 2-for-4. His throws weren’t zippy like Jameis’ fastballs, but as I remember the 2 completions were dead on target. Nothing to brag about certainly, but it looked like he was making the right reads and wasn’t fidgety (?) back there (no happy feet).

    As an aside, yesterday was ONLY one of two games in Jameis’ career where he bounced back from a MINUS 3 (or greater) turnover differential. It’s the FOURTH game THIS YEAR in which Bucs have had a MINUS 3 (or greater) TO differential … Panthers (loss), Titans (loss), Saints (loss) and Colts (win). Bucs actually had another game (49ers – loss) in which we had 4 giveaways but our defense screwed things up & got 2 takeaways so that one can’t qualify.

    In 2018 the Bucs had FIVE games with a MINUS 3 (or greater) TO differential: Steelers (loss), Browns (win), Bengals (loss), Redskins (loss), Giants (loss). Of course Fitz had a couple of those.

    In 2017 the Bucs had NO games with a MINUS 3 (or greater) TO differential, but it’s not because we didn’t try. Lost the Lions’ game 24-21 after committing FIVE giveaways but our defense had THREE takeaways to compensate some. Even a MINUS 2 TO differential is hard to overcome.

    In 2016, our best record (9-7) with Jameis, Bucs had TWO games with a MINUS 3 (or greater) TO differential: Cardinals (loss) and Cowboys (loss). If we’d won either of those 2 games, would’ve 10-6 and playoff bound.

    In 2015 Bucs had ONE game with a MINUS 3 (or greater) TO differential: Panthers (loss). We lost by 14 points in that one after committing FIVE TOs (Jameis had 4 INTs in that one but still threw for 287 passing yards).

    So in Jameis’ 5 years here, Bucs as a TEAM have played TEN games (out of 80) in which we had a turnover differential of MINUS 3 (or greater) … we’ve won TWO. BOTH against teams with losing records after they played us. That’s NOT playoff-caliber football IMO.

    And for all the talk about how Jameis would be so much better if ONLY he had a defense and a running game, it might be worth noting that Jameis’ turnovers have gotten WORSE in these last 2 years, not better. Not a good thing considering that the Bucs defense & running game haven’t exactly set the world on fire in any of his 5 years here.

  48. Defense Rules Says:

    SOEbuc … Yes it was nice to see the TEs get more involved in the passing game. Both OJ and Brate acquitted themselves very well I thought. So did Watson it appears, although he still looks unsure of himself (I remember one of his catches for a 1st down where he caught it & went down immediately with no defender within about 5 yards of him … he was just happy to get the 1st down I think).

    Jameis’ 33-for-45 passing day (73.3%) for 456 yards & 4 TDs was incredible IMO; very probably his best game as a Buc. Unfortunately it was sullied by his 3 INTs, but thankfully the TEAM around him pulled his bacon out of the fire & we got the win.

    Turnovers early in the games seems to me to be habit-forming with Jameis. Kinda wonder if opposing defenses aren’t ‘baiting him’ into throwing early INTs by sitting on certain routes, etc. In any event, our OC NEEDS to do a better job of helping Jameis minimize those early giveaways. Heck we were down 10-0 yesterday before we blinked because of 2 Bucs’ giveaways. And the later Pick-6 didn’t help much either.

  49. Anonymous Says:

    Uber raves about Jameis. And compare Favre from the past and Winston? Missing one thing: Wins. Compare Winston to Rviers? Missing “wins” again. Not to mention, even in TOs there is comparison but Rivers, who is playing still, is not even CLOSE to NFL leading turnover machine Winston. Some of you are so stupid it’s no wonder you are can’t afford to go to games, steal seats when you and stink up the section, and act like Winston belongs anywhere than on the slidelines holding a clipboard. As for Griffin, his first pass in the NFL was a solid completion…not a pick six like Winston’s……

  50. Buccaneer Bonzai Says:

    Cobraboy Says
    “We got a chance to see Ryan Griffin. He looked slow and plodding, and his ball had no zip on it.”

    Actually, he got benched he ball out fast. I would not call him slow. As to the lack of zip, I agree, but he had to have some nerves being his first time in.

    Would have been nice to see him for another series, but then we might not have won.

    This game was close because of Jameis. Had he not thrown those picks, we would have stomped the Colts. I think he is 3 away from the most picks in history now.

    That said, I’ll take the win. Any win.

  51. Conte Piscateli Says:

    How many games had Winston thrown a pick on his first pass now? All of them throws to Mike’s Evans, can we admit that teams know we script a quick throws to ME13 to start each game. Leonard ran right to ME13, in the Atlanta games Trufant jumped the route like he knew it was coming. Each time Jameis throws the scripted pass right to a waiting defender. We need to break our tendancies.

  52. T REX Says:

    Just say NO to Jameis.

    No!

    Dump the loser!

  53. Dapostman Says:

    T Rex?

    Sounds like a guy with short extremities.