Can Bucs Beat The Big Boys Of The NFC?
August 23rd, 2025
The national landscape is gushing over the Bucs’ likelihood of winning the NFC South. They’re a common pick, a smart pick and an easy pick.
But Joe sees a lot of analysts slamming the brakes right there.
Not Prickly Pete Prisco, who thinks the Bucs will be the NFC’s No. 1 overall seed in January.
Whether it be lingering Baker Mayfield doubt, or defensive questions, or Todd Bowles’ 1-3 postseason record, a lot of NFL observers don’t envision the Bucs winning a playoff game — again.
The NBC/Pro Football Talk duo of Mike Florio and ex-Bucs QB Chris Simms aren’t sure of the Bucs’ postseason line in the sand.
“Are they in position to, single elimination, go toe-to-toe with the Eagles, with the Lions, with the Rams, with the Commanders?” Florio asked, noting that is the real question with Tampa Bay.
Simms harped on the whether the Bucs have the ability to stop an elite passing attack. He’s not high on their cornerbacks but is adamant the Bucs have the necessary playmakers.
“The defense has got some freaks on it. Period,” Simms said. “Big people on the front-7, [inside] linebackers are good.”
And of course, everyone is a believer in the Bucs offense, but it’s unclear if the Bucs will find enough juice to improve on averaging a whopping 29.5 points per game last season. That’s a huge ask of rookie offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard and a currently banged up unit.
Joe expects Todd Bowles to figure it out. Any mulligans are gone. Find the apparently secret sauce to winning night games, tackling well and aggressive cornerback play, and great results should follow.
August 23rd, 2025 at 4:29 pm
If they play that soft zone against the Falcons again
The game will be out of reach before the 4th quarter
They need to start getting physical with these teams
Hopefully, they be better defensively this year
And more consistent on offense
August 23rd, 2025 at 4:51 pm
Anyone who really understands football and follows the Bucs know it wasn’t the backend that cost the Bucs wins but the front 7’s inability to put consistent pressure on the QB. DB’s an only cover do long. Even 4 All Pro DB’s last season the Bucs would have lost vs the Commanders with all the time the QB was given to either run or pass.
August 23rd, 2025 at 4:53 pm
Not with Todd Bowles as head coach.
August 23rd, 2025 at 4:58 pm
We will have fun finding out!
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:03 pm
There was a lot of ifs in that game. If the offense didn’t go flat and scored almost 10 points below their average we win also. Dean’s injury was huge too because McLaurin went nuts after he went out.
Need to be peaking heading into the playoffs with minimal injuries and we go a long way. So much talent…
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:06 pm
“Are they in position to, single elimination, go toe-to-toe with the Eagles”
————
I hope Chris pointed out to that hack that the Bucs have DOMINATED the Eagles for years now, and Hurts is 0-2 vs the Bucs in the playoffs.
That’s why Baker choking in the Redskins game sucks so bad – if he doesn’t fumble the game away, the Bucs go to Philly and beat the Eagles, I have zero doubt in my mind of that – the Bucs just have their number. Now, with that said, they then likely have to play the Rams, and, well, we all know how that ends, but still, we’d have beat the Eagles again and Baker would have already signed a huge new extension. But two playoff chokes in a row and the most the Bucs are willing to do is guarantee his money for next year.
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:09 pm
Baker only had 18 passes in that game (completed 15) it wasn’t because we were running that much, the defense couldn’t force a punt.
I think Todd’s plan after so many secondary injuries was just don’t give up the big play, and force them to waste a bunch of time to get 3 points, while we hopefully get 7
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:11 pm
If you’re playing a Soft Zone defense
Your Corners will be playing 8-10 yards from the line of scrimmage. Teams are going to attack with quick slants. In most cases the QB will not hold the ball long enough to take a sack.
Last season against the Falcons
In one game Drake London caught 12 passes
And he was target only 13 times, one incompletion
That shouldn’t happen, not in the NFL
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:29 pm
Reddick and the new corners should help a lot. Diaby, and Dennis and the safeties should be improved as well.
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:31 pm
And oh yeah, the Bucs are big boys in the NFC. They beat the Eagles, Lions, and Commanders last season,if I recall correctly.
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:35 pm
Pass rush has been our Achilles heel, period! Washingtons on-line was shaky at best, with some pressure that game was ours hands down, even with our missteps on offense as rod loves to point out
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:39 pm
In a home playoff game when the defense holds a team to 10 points at the start of the 4th you’d think this offense could score more than 10 points. The offense needs to sustain drives. The biggest drawback to this offense is that it takes 7+ plays to score. No quick strike, 2 or 4 play drives.
They need to figure out how to score quicker to take pressure off the defense.
August 23rd, 2025 at 5:51 pm
RAMS? Why wouldn’t we be able to hang with the rams? And why couldn’t we beat the lions and eagles AGAIN? Decently more hope than the last two years for Bucs fans
August 23rd, 2025 at 6:17 pm
The Reddick addition gives us a guy who can potentially be that answer in terms of a 1 on 1 beater, especially situationally when you want pressure “on demand”.
What that will help alleviate is the NEED for Bowles to dial up all those 5-6 man pressures we all got accustom to seeing last year.
The zones we lined up in, from Covers 0-3 are more about the laundry list of zone pressures which worked to some degree as I believe we finished 8th in pressure rate last season and 10th in sacks with no dominant edge rusher.
The “soft” zone you fellas are all referring to is what our defense tried to do no matter the personnel from last season was use quarters, to
August 23rd, 2025 at 6:19 pm
Joe, I don’t think we necessarily need to beat the 29.5 ppg average from last year.
And you’re right, that’s a lot to ask of a first-year OC.
Our defense should be much improved this year. That’ll take some of the pressure off of the offense.
How many one-score games did we lose last year? 2 or 3 wasn’t it?
Our D struggled last year for a variety of reasons.
If it hadn’t had some of those struggles, we might’ve chalked up another 2 or 3 wins.
We can hang with the NFC big boys this year.
We ARE one of the big boys in the NFC…
August 23rd, 2025 at 6:45 pm
Listening to pregame on Bucs Radio. I sound like a broken record: Buc Luck backs off and Grizzard proves he’s good and hangs around for longer than one season, who knows? Teams have to cut down to 53+players so this is going to be fun to listen to.
August 23rd, 2025 at 7:05 pm
Well, if Coach Bowles can figure out how to get his team really ready to play in primetime gsmes and make sure they can win in those cursed creamsicle throwbacks, then the answer to Joe’s question will be yes. The Bucs do well against the top teams in normal 1PM starts (last season: Philly, Detroit) but for whatever reason, play poorly in front of a national audience which is one reason why they often get little respect from a national perspective. Everyone is watching when the Bucs lose these marquee matchup or see Todd Bowles refuse to go for the jugular like he did in KC. Just win at night baby!
August 23rd, 2025 at 7:27 pm
We used quarters to cap vertical routes, forces teams to the seams which we had our biggest problem was being able to consistently cover TEs & Slot/Stacked WR sets on any route crossing the formation and it sucked.
We switch Tykee to safety, so now with he and Winfield we have 2 athletes that can play as down safeties, and juggle the two on a rep to rep basis. Should help take away that void in the middle of the defense along with having Sirvocea back.
Why we saw so many OLBs drop into coverage ties into our heavy reliance of using the mentioned 5-6man fronts to simulate pressure. What should be acknowledged is from an execution stand point it’s a juggling act beteeen the front and back end.
Coming into ‘25 I expect this to go nowhere, the biggest change is the talent at hand whether new addition or returning player.
I still expect 5 man pressure, but with health and what should be the ability to rush with 4 should come a lot of our defense having an answer for a QBs first 2 reads before the balls even snapped.
In theory, our defense can be one that not only takes away the deep pass, but rushes you to settle for you underneath.
Where Parrish comes in is that he’s a hybrid in he’s not only got the twitch to cover inside, but he’s as relative in coverage as a boundary CB(SMB), that’s why I say we he’s more valuable as a NB than he is as a boundary CB.
’ve read the Ronde comps made by some guys here, but think of the name Donnie Abraham in regards that potential level of talent in terms of playing the ball through his man. Both heroes in that regard to me. Added bonus with him specifically in our scheme is his being able to
Uh, I had more, but I ended up doing the chubby finger dance and copy, pasting, then posting an abbreviated thought.
What I’m trying to get at is, what we ran in terms of pressures to help out with what we couldn’t do up front can be used more effectively and built upon with what I still think injuries in my is more overall talent.
If we can get all hands on deck in the secondary, get some good contributions from Morrison, Parrish, and have Dean healthy. We should be able to match up better, and cover a half second longer. Which imo should pair well with our front 4 and Bowles nack for calling some impressive pressure packages.
August 23rd, 2025 at 8:57 pm
As long as Bowels remains HC/DC, the Bucs are in an up hill battle…
The guy often gets out coached by opponents….
August 23rd, 2025 at 11:21 pm
Re: the Washington playoff game- our defense simply could not get a stop. Literally. Washington didn’t punt once. Not once.
August 24th, 2025 at 10:02 am
Atlanta opener. Atlanta first drive.
12 minutes, 70 yards, their Penix is 12/14 on that drive with perfect 3rd down conversion rate. Bet the farm.
August 24th, 2025 at 11:50 am
A big fat no !!! the last game and parts of the other two game looked the same as last year, same old crap they don’t have any secondary COACH’S THAT IS WORTH A PLUG PENNY , I grandson can run by them for a long catch or a touch down, They play to far off of the receivers, any of the 31 teams can beat the buc’s in the back field, , here we go down the same rut in the road, , you watch it will be the same as last year but this time they will loose the divison and not get in the play off’s ., just watch, todd balls has got to go !!!!!!!