Todd Bowles: “We’re A Smarter Team”
October 8th, 2025Joe can’t argue with this.
The Bucs have been playing cleaner football this year, from being less sloppy with the ball to improved clock management and game decisions. Yeah, special teams has made costly mental errors, but overall, Joe sees the Bucs looking a little sharper mentally.
Head coach Todd Bowles said yesterday he sees great mental improvement.
“I really think we’re a smarter team,” Bowles told the Buccaneers Radio Network yesterday. “We went into the season trying to be smarter than we were last year, especially at the end of ball games in two-minute. In certain situations, you can see Rachaad [White] go down inbounds (Sunday) after getting the first down, [his decision] brought the clock all the way down. Last year we were probably running out of bounds of scoring on those plays and everybody has attention to detail and understands what’s going on. I think we really are playing smarter.”
Smart is good. Joe was very impressed the Bucs offfensive line was so clean Sunday in a super-loud stadium. Their silent count had no hiccups and there were no false-start parties killing drives.
A mental edge is critical to winning playoff games. Just look what happened as a result of Graham Barton’s mental error against Washington in January, and look how Bowles inexplicly waved a white flag in Detroit two seasons ago with time still on the clock.
October 8th, 2025 at 10:17 am
Get the defense playing better like the second half of the Eagles game and we’ll be good to go!
October 8th, 2025 at 10:24 am
Our offense looks championship level.
Can we get the offensive players, to each pick a defensive player, and spend time with them. Just explaining how the game is played.
Because that bunch ain’t playing smart.
October 8th, 2025 at 10:24 am
Something is seriously missing on defense. They certainly are not playing smarter, especially giving up a TD on 4th and 2. While the Dline has an issue getting to the QB, the secondary is a total mess. Poor communication and dumb play. Not sure if it is poor coaching, poor play, or both. The defense can’t play like this against the 49ers.
October 8th, 2025 at 10:36 am
We have built them Stronger, Faster and Smarter. We give to you Tampa Bay the 600,000,000 Million Dollar Men
October 8th, 2025 at 10:36 am
Another smart move…#Trade4Trey
October 8th, 2025 at 10:36 am
GO BUCS
October 8th, 2025 at 10:50 am
That special teams unit needs to go back to school.
October 8th, 2025 at 10:57 am
Can’t get over how much Bowles has improved in end of game scenarios.
You can really see the difference in the Texans game v the last Texans game.
October 8th, 2025 at 11:05 am
Offense is operating like a well-oiled machine. Defense needs a major tune-up. Kick-off coverage is broke and needs to be replaced.
October 8th, 2025 at 11:11 am
We had a lot of people out- especially corners- on defense.
October 8th, 2025 at 11:15 am
The secondary will improve and even get picks if the Bucs can get an edge rush. YaYa’s pass rush has shown no improvement, and even declined, since his rookie year. They need to sub him out on pass plays for anybody, maybe Nellie.
Edge Rush Joe beat the drums for Reddick coming here for a year or two. Reddick has done absolutely nothing and will be let go at the end of the season. Sometimes Joe and Licht make bad calls, and Reddick is a prime example.
If the Bucs have no pass rush, the Bucs will have a long Sunday against the 49ers.
October 8th, 2025 at 11:16 am
todd is a better coach this year, better decisions less penalties and turnovers
October 8th, 2025 at 11:17 am
Now I agree whole-heartedly about the special teams.
You could hire a HS coach and he would do better than this clown.
There is no excuse for letting this go when you have a legit SB team.
It’s not just a 1 year deal either. What they do now could mean the difference in a couple SB wins or none.
We legit have a franchise QB that could play for 10 more seasons.
A great O line, great RBs, elite WRs, etc.
If we don’t swing a trade for a DE, I think I’m gonna barf!!!
If we go get Trey Hendrikson, who immediately knows he is on a SB caliber team, we win period.
Problem is, now they know they have to pay Baker $50 Million+
October 8th, 2025 at 11:48 am
The clock management this year has been spot on. Great hire and smart humility by Bowles
October 8th, 2025 at 12:06 pm
People look at one game where the defense was missing two CBs and now say the sky is falling. This defense has played a lot better this year than they were last year. Before this Sunday they played closer to the line of scrimmage and played more aggressively. One INT was called back by penalty, Diaby had an interception go through his hands, Darnold should have been sacked on the 4th down play. Any two of those things happen the defense looks differently.
October 8th, 2025 at 12:17 pm
Too bad the defense being called exhibits soft, confused buffoonery. But Todd’s an offensive genius so…Oh, wait.
October 8th, 2025 at 1:22 pm
Sorry the same can’t be said for the so called “fans” Coach.
October 8th, 2025 at 2:29 pm
Ready for Baker to break 0-4 streak against 9”ers! LFG!!!!!
October 8th, 2025 at 2:44 pm
Todd’s an offensive genius so…Oh, wait.
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Todd is also a chef!!!!
he cooks crow for you every sunday night!!!!
will you have yours fried or baked this week?
4-1!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
October 8th, 2025 at 4:33 pm
Things definitely seem to be operating smoother this season. As a fan, there are very few things to gripe about.
As far as the White slide goes, enough. It was meaningless. I wanna say that’s just being a team player and that’s a good thing but the clock was going down without them touching the ball anyway and you can’t convince me that slide didn’t make the FG kick 6-7 yards longer than it needed to be.
If we were winning at the time, great job, but we needed to kick a FG still. Leaving Seattle a timeout with 38 seconds left… 1st down Bucs … that hurts us in that scenario … how? Get the yards next time Rachaad. I wanna see a 30 yard kick not a 38. Maybe that doesn’t mean anything but if we were talking 40 yards instead of 48… i feel it means something then.
October 8th, 2025 at 5:03 pm
Has Bowles ever admitted the white flag against Detroit was a mistake.
October 8th, 2025 at 5:17 pm
i agree that the end of game clock mgmt has been better as the outcomes prove it out.
the rest of it? i dunno, cant have half the team with mental breakdowns and not doing the basics and yip and yap about smarter. thats just todd rambling on in his starring role as positive polly. there are plenty of mental mistakes still being made, busted coverage. smarter? no. dumber? no. more hogwash from todd? yes.
October 9th, 2025 at 9:50 am
Nothing smart or savvy about special teams play.
Or the complete inability to generate a pass rush without blitzing.
Offense is playing smart though, I agree.