Easy Does It
December 7th, 2020
Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians.
As you can guess, there are empty beer bottles and discarded pizza boxes being thrown around at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters this morning.
One Joe chortles openly at how the Bucs are going to mow down the lowly Vikings in a few days.
The other Joe sees a hot team (winning five of their last six games) and an offense with studs at each skill position. Well, maybe not quarterback, but Joe won’t forget his career signature game.
And no, Joe didn’t like that!
In short, the other Joe thinks the Bucs will be in the fight for their playoff lives come Sunday at the Den of Depression.
Now John Breech over at CBS Sports did some research, and he believes the Bucs have a pretty safe path to skate towards the end of the regular season and make a playoff appearance.
The Bucs, he writes, have the fifth-easiest schedule among playoff hopefuls the rest of the way out.
1. Ravens (Opponents have a .336 combined winning percentage)
2. Seahawks (.364)
T-3. Raiders (.382)
T-3. Cowboys (.382)
5. Buccaneers (.386)
The way Joe looks at it, the Bucs likely will split with the Dixie Chicks. They should beat the Lions. Yeah, it may be easy to point to win over the Bears and say the Lions have a renewed focus under interim coach Darrell Bevel. Besides, they beat the Bears. Big deal! Oh, wait…
The Vikings? Well, all Joe has to say is one team’s arrow is pointing up and the other team just finished a bad month of November.
And the Bucs are playing at the notorious Den of Depression where they regularly shat the bed.
December 7th, 2020 at 3:05 pm
Ughhhh…why do I feel like we’ve been here before – alot. Oh wait….because we have?
December 7th, 2020 at 3:12 pm
Jaymiss, not in a decade we haven’t.
Anyone who watched the Vikings the last two weeks saw them struggle with the Panthers and one-win Jaguars; whereas, the Bucs played the Rams and Chiefs to the finish.
The Bucs should beat Minnesota handily.
Should.
December 7th, 2020 at 3:13 pm
“ make a playoff appearance “
No thanks… I want to make a statement!
No more loses !
December 7th, 2020 at 3:18 pm
The bye week should help us…..I think we can stop Cook….& stopping Cook is stopping the Vikings….
December 7th, 2020 at 3:29 pm
But we just love pissing away Golden opportunities.
It’s what we always do.
December 7th, 2020 at 3:34 pm
TBBF
Yes in theory that should work but we’ll probably play soft zone and let Cousins have another career day.
I hope not
December 7th, 2020 at 5:25 pm
Anything less than 4 wins to finish the season at 11-5 is not what you would expect from this kind of talent. Got to have a playoff mentality from here on out to have a chance.
December 7th, 2020 at 5:34 pm
I just hope that the bucs play all 3 phases, for however long the game takes and play balanced football, I have this uneary feeling of over running obvious run plays that dont work and not make adjustments
December 7th, 2020 at 6:14 pm
If this team misses the playoffs, I’m certain heads within the coaching staff are going to roll.
Licht doesn’t put together that roster to miss the playoffs.
December 7th, 2020 at 6:20 pm
Would you rather have won 5 out of your last 6 games?
Or have lost 4 out of your last 6?
December 7th, 2020 at 6:21 pm
Joe, point out that we have the third easiest schedule in the NFC ! That makes it look even more likely, no ? If you remove the Cowgirls, since they likely have no chance of getting back into the race, there is only one NFC team with an easier schedule the remainder of the way which counts is competing for a playoff spot.
This is always our end of season discussion. Evaluate the likelihood that the Bucs get into the playoffs.
December 7th, 2020 at 6:48 pm
I agree that the Vikings are playing well enough that we cannot take them lightly, or any other teams on our schedule for that matter. This is my first post by the way on this site, but with that said, I am not in the camp that feels as if the sky in falling. I was at the Rams and KC games and felt we were better than the score. Still, we did not play well enough to win either game. If we can get our act together during the bye, which would require some deep soul searching, we can definitely go 3-1 or 4-0 (wishful thinking) in the last quarter of the season. To give some perspective about Sunday, the record of Minnesota’s opponents over the last six games is 27-44. In contrast, the Bucs’ opponents have a 45-27 record over the last six games. I don’t think we are a bad team and I don’t think it is necessary to panic. Minnesota started their run after their bye. Let’s hope the Bucs start their run this Sunday. It would be perfect timing. Cheers!
December 7th, 2020 at 6:54 pm
This blog is the den of depression. Do you know the definition of fan? I bet you know the definition of depression because you would drive pollyanna to depression. Get positive man for gods sake. We are going to destroy every one of our last four opponents. No, we arent losing anotjer damn game and winning in T town Superbowl. Now shaddup with the negatives. I pray to God my players dont read your cloudy crap. Now, strap it on and lets go dominate.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:05 pm
The Bucs had played so poorly in important games this season, I said two weeks ago odds are they are due to win. I lost. LOL! I’m not counting on this football team right now.
That said, oh sure, mow them down. The Bucs can really go after a sub-par QB, unless his name is Daniel Jones, Paxton Lynch, Sean Mannion, and the all-time great Case Keenum. Yeah, they did manage to bother HoFer Curtis Painter back in 2011! Kirk Cousins is still dangerous for the Bucs. Worse, ANY backup QB is more dangerous.
December 7th, 2020 at 8:11 pm
If the Bucs are the team they’re supposed to be they’ll win every game to finish the season. Even the Dixie chicks should be an easy win both games if everyone is healthy. The bye week should do wonders for the Bucs and 100% ready for the Vikings. I’m sure if you look up Brady’s win total after a bye I would bet it’s pretty high. Last positive point is nothing is in Prime time!
December 7th, 2020 at 9:59 pm
Really we are still giving Bucs automatic wins? They have no identity and that is a bad sign when the coaching staff is in their second year. They could easily lose any of these games especially falcons and Vikings. No pass rush against the Vikings will equal a loss. I do expect us to win out though
December 7th, 2020 at 10:29 pm
Chris l. This freak out is so unnecessary. We’re 7-5 and a good team . Look at the team over the course of a season and not just the last game. It’s recency bias. Should we assume the Steelers suck because they lost to Washington and barely beat RG3? Like come on. Each game is independent. Games are meant to be close in the nfl. We lose a couple games and all of a sudden we’re the jets
December 8th, 2020 at 6:39 am
No playoff’s. Count on it.
December 8th, 2020 at 11:44 am
Playoff’s will be a no-can-do situation.