Fresh Legs For The Playoff Push
November 30th, 2020
They made it!
The Bucs have arrived at their December bye with an upright and firing Tom Brady, a healthy starting offensive line, low mileage on their young running backs and a stable of healthy Pro Bowl receivers. Plus, Jason Pierre-Paul looks fantastic and Rob Gronkowski is peaking and hasn’t missed a game.
There have been very troubling aspects of Buccaneers coaching this season, but Joe has to give Bucco Bruce Arians a standing ovation for getting his team to the money stretch of the season in such great shape physically.
Some of it’s luck, but Arians also is extremely focused on keeping veterans fresh and deserved credit.
For a “really tired” team (Arians description last week), the Bucs sure looked like they had plenty of juice and hunger against Kansas City. The shortcomings were mental, coaching and matchups, as Joe sees it, but at least the team had plenty of gas in the tank against the Super Bowl champs.
Now the Bucs get a week off. Only the Bucs and Panthers have a Week 13 bye. Every other NFL club has had its bye, and no team had a Week 12 bye.
Yeah, Joe knows the Vita Vea loss (broken leg) was significant, but the Bucs are extraordinarily healthy by NFL standards. And that sets them up for an absolutely zero-excuses date with the Vikings on Dec. 13 at the Den of Depression. Under no circumstances will a loss be acceptable.
Everything will be on the line. Everyone should be fresh and ready. A three-game home losing streak and a 7-6 record for this roster of talent would send Joe into a complete mental breakdown. It can’t happen.
November 30th, 2020 at 10:10 am
Eye..would not announce the playoffs push just yet. The Vikings and one of those Falcons game will be formidable. Rah got them dirty birds playing good ball since he took over. Their defense has gotten much better. And the Vikings are gonna bring it. So not just yet braggarts. Get healthy O line. We need you for the great immobile on at QB. And please do something..anything about our secondary.
November 30th, 2020 at 10:28 am
Now, if somebody would just explain to Brady that the NFL does not have any rule that prevents the home team from scoring in the first quarter, maybe we watch the Bucs in a play-off game.
November 30th, 2020 at 10:32 am
Good timing on many levels.. a ton of film on good QB’s shredding the Bucs secondary!
November 30th, 2020 at 10:32 am
joe the optimist…
i’m liking it
November 30th, 2020 at 10:33 am
I wasn’t expecting to win yesterday, I was hoping but not expecting. What I was hoping was that we wouldn’t have any injuries. I’m looking for a 4-0 or 3-1 finish. I agree though it’s a must win against the Vikings. Stay healthy my friends stay healthy, and watch out for the virus! That is the biggest thing during this bye is to avoid the virus.
November 30th, 2020 at 10:37 am
so…
carlton davis is gonna need a full week or therapy sessions with a shrink to remain sane after sunday…
or nah ???
November 30th, 2020 at 10:46 am
Time for the great todd bowles to straighten up the defense and the equally great byron leftwich to figure out some creativity to score some points and maybe leave rojo in near the goaline
November 30th, 2020 at 10:47 am
No way they beat the Vikings and ATL (twice). I suspect they finish 1-3 down the stretch. That makes them 8-8.
Kiss the playoffs goodbye as the long drought will continue.
Bye, bye to the entire coaching staff and GM.
The time to jell was weeks ago.
November 30th, 2020 at 10:50 am
Willy with the absolutely abysmal take
November 30th, 2020 at 10:59 am
Playoff push Joe? Winning out (11-5) gets us in, no question. Losing 1 of our last 4 (10-6) SHOULD get us in, but that’s still not a given. Losing 2 of our last 4 (9-7) MIGHT still get us in, but we’d need quite a bit of help.
I’m not penciling in Minnesota as a win at this point. Yes we’re healthy, but this Dr Jekyll-Mr Hyde act seems to still be in-play. And I seriously doubt we’ll take TWO from the Falcons. Nothing they’d love better than to play spoiler.
November was ugly. Historically Decembers have been even uglier to our Bucs. Take nothing for granted with this team.
November 30th, 2020 at 11:11 am
They are not beating the Vikings. The largest coaching staff in the NFL is the most inept and stuck in the 90’s.
November 30th, 2020 at 11:11 am
This is a collection of under achievement warriors who play like individuals and not like a team. This is not a playoff caliber collection of players and coaches. We may sneak into the playoffs by beating losing teams the last quarter of the season but that will just set up one more nationally televised debacle.
November 30th, 2020 at 11:16 am
I think of myself as an optimist…but also a realist. And I have to agree with Wee Wille up there…this team (offense) should have been jelling by now. I hope I am wrong!
November 30th, 2020 at 11:26 am
This team needs a bye real bad so they can sort out this passing game. They’ve got to be on the same page. They now know what they don’t know, and can tailor their approach to those things. Tom had to literally go tell AB what to do specifically on one play yesterday. Mental development and physical healing has to happen.
November 30th, 2020 at 11:30 am
I said last week that if Fournette was still the 3rd Down back, I’d start losing faith in the coaching staff. Well, they put Fournette in when the Bucs had 1st and Goal from about the 7 yard line. On 1st Down they hand off to Fournette, and this clown made Charles Sims seem like Mike Alstott, I’ve never in my 55 years of watching football seen a 228 pound RB run so soft. They didn’t even tackle him, he just went up to the line and stopped. You’d think with such a poor effort by Fournette he’d be taken out of the game, never to see the field again, but they leave him in to catch a pass for a 4 yard loss. Two touches in the red zone for this Bozo? Terrible, terrible coaching by the Bucs.
November 30th, 2020 at 11:53 am
There you go with the negative waves
November 30th, 2020 at 12:20 pm
Despite the flock of Chicken Littles I believe I’ll remain a fan and hope for the best.
I see a lot of good things. We feel very close. We came from behind against the best team in the league. We had the ball and a chance to win against the Rams with 2 minutes left.
However…we are still one of the most stupid teams in the league. How do you give a team a free first down with back to back defensive offsides. Our defenders simply have to stop guessing and pay freaking attention to when the ball is snapped.
JPP’s roughing the passer call was truly tough. It absolutely changed the game.
I don’t view that as much as stupidity though JPP was simply trying to block the pass and his follow through hit Mahomes in the head.
Still we seem lost at times with talented players like D White out in space looking like…where or who am I supposed to cover.
Looking at the talent on this team I think ultimately the coaching staff will have a lot of explaining to do if we don’t win ten games.
November 30th, 2020 at 1:28 pm
Trying to remain optimistic but the lost decade has taken its toll on me. For what it’s worth let’s go Bucs.
November 30th, 2020 at 1:28 pm
Joe thats a very astute point you brought up. Aprecviate the good context. Something really overlooked.
To piggy back off your point I think fans can think of that a little bit whenever Fournette gets into the game. Yes, Im sure they are trying to give him touches but some of the reasoning and benefits to using Fournette is keeping RoJo fresh in game and for the longhaul. I think fans could think of this before they have fits of rage at the mere sight of Fournette.
And this is nothing new. Almost every team that uses a single backfield like we do has a secondary runner to spell the feature back.
November 30th, 2020 at 1:38 pm
ST Pete. We might be the only two fans not melting down today.
I am wildly dissapointed that we are having bad struggles competing but alls I know is we playing win or lose for a playoff spot next week. Thats a good enough start for me and Im darn excited.
Yes SB was my fantasy goal for the year. But my realistic goal was a playoff victory. Not just an appearance.
We do not look ready yet to beat any non NFC Yeast Division Champs but that is a month away. I do think we are a consistent offense away from being a true contender……Hard to say after yesterdays 1st Quater but twice the offense had the ball at 3-0. If they can put on in the endzone there it changes the game flow and play calls. Our defense did have the intensity needed to play well with a lead.
Heck even if we get a TD on the 2 drives at 10 it could of turned the game. But our offense did not even mange a singular 1st down. The Bucs are not built to win like that.
November 30th, 2020 at 1:41 pm
On the 2 drives down 10-0*****
Thats four total drives. 2 down 0-3. 2 down 0-10.
We didnt get a first down. Unacceptable for this offense. Did we sign Blake Bortles this past offseason or what?
November 30th, 2020 at 2:09 pm
Finally a positive thought. You go Joe. I agree.
November 30th, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Ke’Shawn Vaughn should have extra fresh legs. Let’s see what that kid has after the bye week.
November 30th, 2020 at 3:51 pm
Uhhuh, they haven’t made chit…
Except total embarrassments out of themselves every time they play in front of a national audience.
Geeze I sound like maxipad right now..
November 30th, 2020 at 4:15 pm
Lol JimmyJack.
Yup! Say what you will about the defense, but even with that 1st quarter beatdown by the woman-beating, baby-punching, Cheetah Hill, they still held the Chiefs to just 3 points on their first two drives!
Unfortunately, our impotent offense couldn’t even get a first down, let alone any points. THAT is why we were down 17 after the end of the quarter. How many times you wanna keep giving Mahomes the ball?!?