Todd Bowles Laments Bad Tackling
September 13th, 2026
Keionte Scott, Alex Anzalone, Benjamin Morrison and others had shoddy tackle attempts today.
Those and more were on the mind of head coach/defensive guru Todd Bowles after the loss to Cincinnati.
Bowles said he is interested to review the film and see just how sloppy the tackling was, he repeated that about the Bucs defense failing to get off the field late in the game before the Bengals got in victory formation.
“We missed two chip-shot tackles that were two-yard passes that went for about eight or nine [yards] and it kind of cost us [late],” Bowles said. “And there were a couple within the game that kept drives going, as well. So I’ll be very interested to see how many there, and those were just fundamentally sound things.”
Yes, tackling around the NFL is poor overall in Week 1 because starters don’t practice real tackling enough.
For Tampa Bay, though, shoddy tackling is a recurring annual theme. Hopefully, it disappears soon.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:15 pm
Todd light a fire under there ass bro
That’s on u
September 13th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
Anzalone looks like a mistake after this game..Old and slow.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
Next he will say they have to work on ‘fundamentals’ again. Same old 50/50 sideline stiff.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
UNPREPARED TEAM 100%
THIS IS ON THE COACH
SLACK PLAY BY BAKER
BY VITA
SCREEN DOOR LINE
DEFENSELESS LINE
HORRIBLE
These players should apologize to fans
BOWLES should ask for forgiveness
GLAZERS KEPT A LACKADAISICAL COACH AND THIS IS THE PRODUCT
Oh and this isn’t the first time we have seen an unprepared team
September 13th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
So it’s exactly like it was last year. Cool.
Not one of Gas Licht’s vaunted FA signings showed up today either.
$10M Anzalone
$10 Robinson
$6M Muhammed
$7M Gainwell
The guy burns money with the best of em
September 13th, 2026 at 6:16 pm
Anzalone was terrible i never thought i would say this but Dennis might be a better option
September 13th, 2026 at 6:17 pm
Maybe Todd Bowles could talk to the head coach of the Buccaneers and see if the head coach could do something about the sloppiness of the play – oh wait – Todd is the head coach – but the way he’s been responding to things for years – it’s doesn’t seem like he has a lot of influence on the team. At least not in a good way. The Jaguars looked good however. I wonder if their head coach is doing positive things for their team?
September 13th, 2026 at 6:18 pm
Yeah Scott and Anzalone each missed one badly.
All fingers pointed at the O… fumbles aren’t picks though. Good defensive play by the bengals never giving up on the chase, ripping balls and unfortunately none bounced our way to recover.
Those are the definition of turnover luck where regression is bound to happen. I also thought that was a weak call on Tykee but we might as well get used to it.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:18 pm
I think this effort has more to do with sitting players during preseason
The starters should get more work in preseason games
September 13th, 2026 at 6:19 pm
Scott made one bad tackle that I remember.
Morris got beat in coverage once, but I don’t recall him missing a tackle. The only tackle I recall with him was an excellent TFL.
Analzone, meanwhile, was historically terrible. I can remember off the top of my head AT LEAST 4 missed tackles – and I’m almost certain there were 2 more missed tackles. That doesn’t even account for him being out of place in zone (on the first TD given up) or being too slow to chase Burrow to the sidelines and giving up a 1st down that lead to that TD pass.
I see why the reaction to Analzone leaving Detroit last year was being celebrated by half the Lions fans — and the other half said he had slipped, but were just sad to see him go since they liked him, but they didn’t want him actually playing.
Hopefully it was just a bad game. I mean it was a historically bad game, but hopefully it’s a one off.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:20 pm
We’ll see the effort next week
Hopefully, they have a solid week of practice
September 13th, 2026 at 6:22 pm
Maybe when you keep changing everything else and the results are the same the problem lies with the one piece you didn’t change. This defense looked exactly like every other Bucs defense in the last 3 seasons.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:23 pm
Bowles should have been fired after last season.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:23 pm
Dennis was spectacular on special teams coverage. So we have that going for us, which is nice.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:24 pm
Anzalone is trash bengals attacked him all game through run and pass he’s worse then lavonte last year. Detroit released him for a reason because he’s a$$. We’ll see how great his “leadership” is once he’s in the film room getting juked giving up 3rd downs all the time is…
September 13th, 2026 at 6:25 pm
Anzalone was horrible in New Orleans for 4 years
He was good in Detroit, but he was also surrounded by good defensive players
This is the first game of the season, players are rusty
Next week should be better
September 13th, 2026 at 6:25 pm
Todd….I can save you ALOT of time. The tackling AND overall scheme were sloppy!
September 13th, 2026 at 6:25 pm
Bucs played complementary football today…they did not punt once, but gave up four fumbles, and then of course Bowles’ wonderful defense only forced one punt.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:28 pm
I thought Morrison made a couple of great tackles, don’t recall him missing any.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:30 pm
When a middle of the road FA like Alex Anzalone gets voted to be a team captain, that should tell you everything you need to know about the state of the roster.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:31 pm
HeartyDickerson Says
“Not one of Gas Licht’s vaunted FA signings showed up today either.
$10M Anzalone
$10 Robinson
$6M Muhammed
$7M Gainwell”
I just finished watching the game on NFL+.
🏈 HeartyDickerson, Anzalone showed up pretty big. Gainwell had a couple good plays, including a first down. So…you are mistaken.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:31 pm
dumboldguy, Exactly!! Bowles should have been canned last year before the season ended IMO. He is just a terrible coach, bad with Jets bad here. Can’t guard TEs, HB left wide open in flat. DEs in coverage, CBs play way off wr. Where is the pass rush???????? Bowles can’t adjust either he is terrible coach. Great guy I’m sure, but we ain’t doing anything with him as coach.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:33 pm
trotter was just as bad azalone except for sack and int. he was killed by Tight end and RB and Bucs gashed up middle. Grant it he had a great quarter and a half but game out of reach by then
September 13th, 2026 at 6:33 pm
Lakeland … ‘The starters should get more work in preseason games’.
I agree Lakeland. Every year we complain about crummy tackling. One way to improve on that is to play defensive starters more in the preseason games. Come to think of it, might not be a bad idea to play offensive starters more too. They looked rusty as all git-out today.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:34 pm
run the live game chat and for 2 and half quarters folks slammed trotter
September 13th, 2026 at 6:37 pm
Bucs fans LAMENT bad coaching!!!!!!! Thanks Todd Bowles, your team was absolutely NOT READY to play.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:39 pm
My thoughts on the game:
🏈 Going into the game, I made some predictions. One was that there would be more penalties than we wanted because of jitters and other reasons. We did have quite a few…but the Bengals had a lot more I think.
🏈 As I stated last week, Morrison has greatly improved. He’s still go room to grow, and he will…but he made some great plays.
🏈 Felt like Bain was invisible (for this game).
🏈 Anzalone is a beast of a hitter. He made some pretty good plays in the first half of the game, and they reminded me of John Lynch hits.
🏈 Irving is a beast. Still.
🏈 Special Teams were much improved this game. They’ll only get better.
🏈 That new kick returner should be returning punts as well. For a second, I thought he was taking it to the house.
🏈 Keeping in mind how tough the Bengals are, I thought our defense looked much improved…not good enough just yet, but they will get better from game to game.
16-1 until they prove otherwise!
September 13th, 2026 at 6:42 pm
Also: Tedd Hurst needs to be thrown to more often. That kid can ball!
September 13th, 2026 at 6:44 pm
Oh..and Josiah Trotter is going to be huge!
September 13th, 2026 at 6:45 pm
Bad tackling is a staple of a Todd Bowles defense. This is a problem every year one Todd can’t seem to solve. Glad we stuck with a defensive coach who can’t teach his team how to tackle. Can’t make this up.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:45 pm
Tony1775 Says:
“Bowles should have been fired after last season.”
Not if they are targeting Mike Tomlin.
September 13th, 2026 at 6:48 pm
👍
September 13th, 2026 at 6:49 pm
@Bonzai – thank you for silver lining. 🤜🏼🤛🏼
September 13th, 2026 at 6:52 pm
Buccaneer Bonzai Says:
September 13th, 2026 at 6:31 pm
🏈 HeartyDickerson, Anzalone showed up pretty big. Gainwell had a couple good plays, including a first down. So…you are mistaken.
Lol if you think Anzalone “showed up pretty big”, you’re not worth having a discussion with.
And so happy to hear our backup RB making $7M had one first down. The bar is set pretty low with you, huh?
September 13th, 2026 at 7:01 pm
So tired of the lousy play.
September 13th, 2026 at 7:13 pm
Hopefully. They coach it better and play it better.
September 13th, 2026 at 7:15 pm
Lost 8 out of their last 10. This team collectively sucks.
September 13th, 2026 at 7:34 pm
Bad tackling
No pass rush
Losing
These are the core elements of a Todd Bowels defense.
September 13th, 2026 at 8:15 pm
I predict Anzalone will be benched before the 4th game. He was awful and is old and slow so don’t see his play improving. It’s amazing we payed Gainwell all that money only to have him touch the ball 5 times. Where was the pony package with him and Bucky. Jameis Mayfield is a turnover machine. He has led the NFL in fumbles by a QB the last two seasons. Needs to learn to live for another play. As for the defense, I was extremely disappointed in our lack of QB pressure against a mediocre at best Oline. All preseason I heard how much improved our pas rush would be. Defense still can’t tackle, cover tight ends or make a stop on 3rd and long. Thought the corners played exceptionally well and special teams were solid.