Todd Bowles’ Patience Paid Off
October 5th, 2025
Waited for right moment.
Joe is wondering if Todd Bowles would be a sharp poker player.
Let’s be honest here: The Bucs won in spite of Bowles’ defense, not because of it. Well, Bowles’ defense did directly lead to Chase McLaughlin’s game-winning field goal.
But as Lavonte David said, if the defense had just played OK in the second half, the game wouldn’t have come down to the key play of the game.
Antoine Winfield forced Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold to unload a pass early, which grazed the helmet of Logan Hall and ended up a pick by David. After monitoring the replays, Joe thinks David still picks that pass off even if it cleared Hall’s noggin.
As it turns out, Bowles was saving his cards until he needed to go for the kill. And it worked.
“We were saving that blitz for a rainy day and we brought it out,” Bowles said. “We’ve been running it a lot, and we didn’t run it the entire game, and everybody was waiting on it, and it finally came, and [Lavonte David] made the veteran play that he made.
“He caught the ball just like [Jamel] Dean did [against the Jets]. It was a heck of a ballgame, and for our leader to step up and make that play was huge.”
Obviously, it was huge. It changed the game and set the Bucs up to win it.
If Joe told you in training camp the Bucs would be without the following players for parts of the first five games — Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Tristan Wirfs, Calijah Kancey, Cody Mauch, Luke Goedeke, Jalen McMillan, Jamel Dean and Bucky Irving — you’d think Joe was drunk saying the Bucs would be 4-1.
Well, here we are. The Bucs are 4-1.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:33 pm
Joe
Did you speak to Chris after the game? How’s he feeling?
October 5th, 2025 at 11:40 pm
4-1 with the injuries they have had is incredible.
Throw in unable to block for kicks/puns and falling apart on kickoff coverage, it is pretty remarkable. (Will give a shout out to Chase McLaughlin and Kam as a returner).
They need to take care of San Fran because Detroit is going to be tough in Detroit.
When (if?) this team gets healthy they can go really, really far.
I am just getting really really concerned about the edge rushers… Yet again.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:40 pm
Get healthy. Hopefully no one injured today. Get Evans, Bucky, Goedeke and McMillan back we’ll be deadly. We have some depth on offense. Next draft shld be all defense unless a Evans WR clone is out there.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:43 pm
Hopefully Mike is back this week, Goedeke and Bucky for Detroit.
6-2 at the bye even 5-3, #1 seed will be in play. 7-2 after the bye if Bucs are healthy is not unrealistic.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:45 pm
Todd Bowles defense was down right disgusting. I understand a couple men down but his defense was terrible. Thank goodness for a steller offense. If Bowles is a supposed mastermind of defense, then where is it?
October 5th, 2025 at 11:48 pm
Todd and the rest of us had a lucky horseshoe up our azzes today.
Sometimes better lucky than good, and we’ve got four wins to prove it.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:52 pm
4-1 is commendable but Bowles got so lucky on the David pick. Otherwise it would be the JBF forum demanding Bowles give up play calling after a 38-35 loss. Plus Seattle missed a field goal on their opening drive, that was the difference in the game on top of the turnovers.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:53 pm
While I am happy with a win, Todd Bowles defensive genius is not shining through. I understand we are down Dean and Morrison, that secondary performance was embarrassing. Bowles a defensive genius? I don’t think so.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:54 pm
Did not. Bucs don’t wait around so Joe had to hustle to get the guys he wanted to talk to before they bolted (guys that had big impacts in the game).
October 5th, 2025 at 11:58 pm
And to follow that up, we have no pass rush.
Maybe sounds petty to complain about a 4-1 team, this team can be so much better with solid defensive play. Defense stiinks and that’s supposed to be Bowles expertise.
October 5th, 2025 at 11:59 pm
You could see Godwin limping in the 4th qtr.
October 6th, 2025 at 12:03 am
Bucs need to draft 4 pass rushers in the draft. I’m not even kidding. Pass rush is non existent unless they blitz. Diaby & Reddick are awful.
October 6th, 2025 at 12:15 am
I knew the defense will come tru at the last moment. Darnold duck isnt clutch
October 6th, 2025 at 12:40 am
After monitoring the replays, Joe thinks David still picks that pass off even if it cleared Hall’s noggin.
————
Agreed, watching that replay, David was absolutely in the right place and might have even had an easier catch as it looked like he had to adjust to it slowing down just a tad. Great call, great play by David.
October 6th, 2025 at 12:59 am
If not for Darnolds one errant throw, the results could be totally different.
Bucs pass defense was dreadful, very fortunate to win that football game.
October 6th, 2025 at 1:09 am
Strength of this Bucs team is the high powered offense. The head couch is a supposed defensive mastermind.☹️
October 6th, 2025 at 2:35 am
Hey Joe…new fan poll…
Bucs are NOT allowed any more throwback games UNLESS WE ARE IN ’76 WHITE ON WHITE.
My vote? Absolutely! Retire ALL OTHER throwbacks except ’76 white on white.
October 6th, 2025 at 3:43 am
NFC south undefeated this weekend.
October 6th, 2025 at 4:56 am
I understand all the comments about our defense, but I think some of our Buc faithful need to relax. Seattle is a top 10 offense for sure and we are missing some key players. Plus, I think Bowles has a game or two per year when his game plan isn’t good and this might’ve been one of them. We normally lose a game like today’s in past recent years and didn’t today. I think this team is better and deeper and Bowles’s defense will have better games coming! I also think Bowles is a better HC this year so far! Go Bucs!
October 6th, 2025 at 5:54 am
Bowles couldn’t be a sharp poler player. He’d miss the game for showing up three hours late. Can’t read a clock!
October 6th, 2025 at 5:59 am
Joe respects the Seahawks defense and acknowledges how well the Bucs offense played but shreds the Bucs defense. A defense shredded by injuries. A defense down two corners, a safety, and a shell of the planned defensive line. Come on, Joe. Let’s wait for the defense to get healthy too.
October 6th, 2025 at 6:26 am
TBBucFan,
The defense wasn’t down Reddick n Ya Ya. I’m now beginning to wonder if Ya Ya’s 2023 rookie 7 sacks season was a fluke n Reddick’s 2023 11 sack season was the last he could give. We came into the season with high hopes on both. I’ll give both the benefit of the doubt n see how they’re playing first game after the bye week.
October 6th, 2025 at 6:53 am
Happy for the win but I cant say that the performance made me more optimistic for the future.
Playing this kind of our favorite (seems like) Defense wont get us far.
There will be a Washington game again in the playoffs and we will be wondering what went wrong.
Giving up 5 consecutive TD drives with zero resistance and waitng for one play to make a stop. ONE. What if the Offense cant score on every possession ?
This passive and soft Defense is not a recipe for success.
Yes its all fan and smiles, yes a win is a win but we cant continue to mask this issue. We only made ONE play on Defense for like 40 minutes straight. What is going on.
Fix the Defense. Change the mentality and approach to the game.
Unless you believe that a team with this Defense can make a deep Playoff run. With one play on D all game.
Go Bucs
October 6th, 2025 at 7:10 am
Why was Seattle so successful after receiving a kickoff? Our defense looked awful. Bowles has had weeks now to improve defense, but it’s getting worse.
October 6th, 2025 at 7:16 am
Defense is so important, especially for a championship. We all know just how good the 2002 Bucs D was. And, I do seem to recall it was Bowles that orchestrated our excellent defensive response to KC/Mahomes in SB55. Lets get this D playing a full game, so we occasionally have a lead in the 4Q.
October 6th, 2025 at 7:58 am
Great article, Joe.
It’s a reminder that Head Coaches have to work very diligently to come up with new looks on defense and to decide when to use that new look. Seattle might have been ready for that play if they used it at any point during the season.
October 6th, 2025 at 8:02 am
Patience on letting Darnold do whatever he wanted.
October 6th, 2025 at 8:20 am
The same fans crying about the defense yesterday are the same fans who took our defense for granted the first 4 games.
Also hilarious watching all this and nobody mentioning the injuries, but boy say something about how our offense was struggling before yesterday or Grizz calling uninspired calls and all you muppets come out and say “oh the OL is injured”
LOL I wonder why the double standard? Hmmm 🤔
October 6th, 2025 at 9:00 am
Joe … ‘As it turns out, Bowles was saving his cards until he needed to go for the kill. And it worked.’
Uhhh, ‘saving his cards until he needed to go for the kill’ Joe? Sorry, but anyone who plays poker like that has probably lost all their money long before the game is almost over. Correct. Bowles was the guy with Aces checking to the river. –Joe
I’m still trying to figure out WHY our defense looked like Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde in the 1st half vs the 2nd half. In actuality they didn’t wait until the 2nd half, but started their ‘winddown’ with about 2 minutes still to go in the 1st half. We had them shut out until then. It’s like someone threw a switch & our defense went to sleep. Surrendered FIVE TDs in a span of roughly 30 minutes.
One killer … for Seattle … was the 2 explosive runs by Walker in the 2nd half (one for 31 yds around RIGHT END and the other for 22 yds over the RIGHT GUARD, both on TD drives). Walker also had a 3rd explosive run in the 1st qtr for 14 yds around RIGHT END, but that ended in a missed FG).
A second killer was the deep passes. Darnold was 4-of-5 deep for 144 yds and those deep passes were critical on THREE TD drives.
And the third killer IMO was the return yardage on our kickoffs like you’ve already mentioned Joe. It blows my mind how our S/Ts coverage & tackling that be THAT bad. It gave them great field position several times & made it very easy for them to stay in the ballgame. That HAS to be fixed if we’re gonna make it through the rest of this season successfully.
IMO it wasn’t Todd ‘saving his cards’ yesterday. It was Baker saving Todd.
October 6th, 2025 at 9:02 am
WBL, when you find yourself waist deep in sh.t maybe it’s time to put down the shovel and stop digging. Anyone who has read your enlightened opinions knows that you have one agenda. To spin our QB into being something that ANY reasonable fan can see is BS. Which is what you are full of.
October 6th, 2025 at 9:13 am
DR, our defense got 2 turnovers the second being the game winner. Lavonte never quit. Noone did. Offense can look just as bad as the defense can look. We need better kick coverage for sure but we did good on that last kickoff. Making plays when you need them is key. We’re doing that. We’re a good football team with alot of upside. It’s a long season. One game at a time and getting the #1 seed should be our goal. Things will come together as the season goes. Because we’re the best team in the league.
October 6th, 2025 at 9:18 am
Everyone is talking about how bad the Bucs D was today and I agree but the Seattle offense was lucky too. The Seattle D was just as bad in the 2nd half so not only the Bucs D that was bad.
October 6th, 2025 at 9:33 am
Kenton … Seattle has a very good offense, but we gave up 35 points in a 30 minute span … FIVE TDs. That’s hard to do. You’re right about the 2 turnovers … THAT’S what allowed us to win that ballgame.
But take a look at the explosive plays (runs AND passes) that our defense allowed. This defense plays soft (much of the time) so that we DON’T allow those explosive plays. And yet we did.
Baker was 29-of-33 yesterday … 87.9% completion rate … for 379 passing yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs. He was only sacked once. That’s an incredible performance (interestingly, his completion percentage this year came up from 59.7% to 65.1% in ONE game). Our running game did relatively little to help him (24 carries for 56 yds … 2.3 YPC average) although it did help us control the clock & was critical on 2 rushing TDs. That was the BAKER SHOW yesterday. Thank heaven.
October 6th, 2025 at 9:36 am
ballwasher61 … ‘The Seattle D was just as bad in the 2nd half so not only the Bucs D that was bad.’
Thanks for noting that Ballwasher; you’re exactly right. The 2 defenses were almost mirror images of each other. I’ve never seen our WRs & TEs running so free as I did yesterday (Seattle’s pass coverage looked like it mirrored ours). They did a great job stopping our running game, but couldn’t stop the passing game for anything. And a lot of that I think had to do with their LACK OF A PASS RUSH. Duh, sounds eerily familiar.
October 6th, 2025 at 10:17 am
DR, we all look at things differently. But I don’t often look at things differently than you. You’re reasoned about your convictions and have data to inform all of us. Watching, I saw our defense give up 5 straight scoring drives yesterday. A week or 2 ago I saw our offense go 5 straight drives without a point. You have made the point that most teams beat themselves. I’m always big about Make That Play! Lavonte made that play. Antoine helped to force that play. Tykee made a play on that pitch that turned into a touchdown. Our kicker made it look easy. What I’m saying DR is that it was a Team Victory! I think you, as much as anyone out here, know that. I know that I know that! Sure, Baker had a great game. So did Wirfs.. and Otten…and White..and… this thing has been building since Baker signed and Wirfs showed him around Tampa. Then Mike and Lavonte and Chris and Vita and Antoine accepted him- because they play like he does. We have the GM, Coach, QB and culture to put together 5 or 6 special years here. Keep this Coach and QB that will happen. Sure has been fun watching and now that this group is over the hump it’s really going to be fun. 14 or 15 wins wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
October 6th, 2025 at 10:20 am
You play the game you’re in. This was a shootout, and the defense won the game, +2.
October 6th, 2025 at 12:42 pm
Kenton … it’s ALWAYS a team victory but in certain games 1 or 2 players can really stand out more than others. Baker & Egbuka both did that yesterday. Most assuredly several others made a great play or two, but Baker & Egbuka made them all day long, one right after another.
When a team has FOUR 4th qtr comebacks in their 4 victories, that catches my attention. Take away just a handful of plays, and (heaven forbid) we could just as easily be 0-5 right now.
October 6th, 2025 at 1:42 pm
Frodd Bowles
October 6th, 2025 at 3:12 pm
Aqualung! What did you think of Lavonte laying out on that pick. He had to be worn out! And Baker throwing darts like he was in the backyard. Gotta admit, old Coach Bowles is fielding a team we can all be proud of!