Where Was Thursday In December?
October 9th, 2026
Joe loved last night’s Bucs win. The team played with great energy, hunger and there was enough fight to overcome (and overlook) a bunch of mindless penalties, another sackless pass rush game and a somewhat reckless coaching decision.
Where was that last year in Miami with the season on the line against a tanking football team? What about in the three weeks prior when the Bucs lost to all the crappy NFC South teams?
The 2026 Cowboys, of course, are not tanking and are far better than the Quinn Ewers-led Dolphins were in late December.
Joe was impressed by how the Bucs seemed to play with pride last night. But it was a bitter reminder of how they couldn’t muster that kind of effort last season with so much on the line week after week.
Have the Bucs turned a corner? “This Joe” will consider it if the Bucs can win two of their next three games (Steelers, at Carolina, Falcons).
October 9th, 2026 at 1:29 pm
lol… it was one game… against a team that shot itself in the foot more times than you could count
October 9th, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Well, three key plays…Bucky’s run, Tez’s big catch and dont know his name, but cowboy’s cb dropped a sure pick 6…and of course Jalon making great decisions.
Now, Im not taking anything away from the team effort….everyone had something to do with this win, the take aways (on D) which were key….and special teams. But lets keep it together and see how we do against the Steelers before we start celebrating too much. The O line looked exhausted, especially Mauch, but he kept going.
Its something to build on…but hey, it was the cowgirls who arent so good.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Saw the score this morning, a couple of hype reports and got a little excited …..
Watched highlights and saw cowboys had 2 back to back turnover, one long run for Td and a field goal and the Cowboys still was close to score for the win at the end!!!
Bucs Improves or cowboys had a bad night?
Only a winning streak will mean they were misunderstood as losers!
October 9th, 2026 at 1:36 pm
I think the effort and energy put forth last night shocked everyone. But coaching very easily made that game get way more interesting than needed. Taking the chip shot field makes it a 3 possession game. Then going into the stupid prevent defense after stopping them the whole game let them march at will 98 yds for a TD. Quick offense possession and now Dallas is in position to march in and tie with a 2 pt conversion. Could’ve sealed the deal early basically by taking the 3.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:36 pm
Todd tried to give it away but Dallas did not want to take it
9-13 since Coen was not rightfully promoted
October 9th, 2026 at 1:37 pm
I can’t invest any hope in this team. As long as Bowles is coach, they will always disappoint. Beating the Cowboys is always better than losing, especially cuz it’s the Cowboys, but this doesn’t move the needle for me. I still say fire sale before the trade deadline and prepare to start fresh under a new coach.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:37 pm
I know folks were criticizing the decision to go for the TD rather than the FG late in the game….I was fine with that.
The inability to call a TO when you have 3 to avoid a delay of game and put yourself out of FG range is JV shiiite. That would have been all we talked about if they didn’t turn it up like they did in the 2nd half.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:37 pm
Bowles didn’t kick the FG cause he didn’t want the boys to read too much into the headlines……Bowles playing chess over here….
October 9th, 2026 at 1:42 pm
There’s a whole lot of football left to play
It ain’t over until it’s over
And it’s a long way from being over
We’re still in the hunt
October 9th, 2026 at 1:43 pm
It’ll be interesting to see if the team can build on this performance, clean up some of the clear miscues they had last night, and get as close to .500 as possible. If we can get there with 8-9 games left to play, then we can start talking. Going into that Bears game in Chicago with the bye week afterward 4-4 would be a tall but awesome task if this team can build on last night.
That Miami game we turned the ball over 3 times.
We didn’t turn the ball over at all last night.
Biggest difference in comparison. We also scored 10 points off 2 of 3 of our takeaways on back to back possessions btw
October 9th, 2026 at 1:44 pm
I agree Joe on the passion an energy. I wrote so on a prior post. We certainly have not seen that passion and energy over 3 home games. Yes we will soon see if that passion caries over when Pitt comes to town. I will also say you guys need to change your tune on Atl and Car. They are much improved and play hungry. This division currently does not look so bad. , maybe the Bucs. I mean one game doesn’t mean much unless it starts a different trend. However, today is enjoyable and talk hopefully can be more than talking about how bad the coaching is. At least we can enjoy all that for 10 days. Yep bring on Pitt. If we get a back to back wins then I will say huh?? Maybe something happened in Dallas.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:48 pm
Pittsburgh Steelers 😭😭🤣🤣
These are not the Chuck Knoll Pittsburgh Steelers
These are the Mike McCarthy Pittsburgh Steelers
The team with the 50 year old QB
October 9th, 2026 at 1:49 pm
You know that trope about how wives will keep bringing up stuff from the past?
“Thanks for the diamond necklace, unlike when you forgot my birthday 27 years ago”.
Yeah, I never remember marrying Joe.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
Meant Chuck Noll
October 9th, 2026 at 1:50 pm
This team isn’t “in the hunt”. What a delusion! Get back to me in 3 games. If they’re 4-4 at that point, then we can talk. I just don’t see it, and nothing they do will change my mind that Bowles needs to go. I’m still thinking they end up 5-12 at best with the floor being getting the #1 overall.
October 9th, 2026 at 1:52 pm
Where was that last year in Miami with the season on the line against a tanking football team?
———-
You mean the game Baker Mayfield singlehandedly lost? The game where he didn’t even remotely give his team a chance to win?
October 9th, 2026 at 2:04 pm
The team doesn’t play consistently and doesn’t have attention to detail. They will have much more juice when they kick off next Sunday. Maybe it results in a win but the juice will not last and the same old inconsistencies and lack of attention will show itself.
It’s a poorly coached team. Last night showed two things: the cowgirls did exactly what we normally do under Todd, showing how poorly coached they are, and the talent on the roster isn’t that bad. It’s not great, but it’s not 0-4 bad.
To the posters here going on about ‘how we should be 4-1 or 5-0 because, because, because” – all you’re doing is proving Todd’s detractors correct. The hot starts have cushioned the inevitable losing streaks in a horrible division.
The losing streaks aren’t a bug, they’re a feature
October 9th, 2026 at 2:06 pm
Have to start somewhere, Dallas was as good a place as any. Team definitely looked a lot sharper, but the penalties need to be addressed. To be fair, Daniels has played a lot better than I expected. He has made some questionable decisions on the field, but what rookie doesn’t. He seems to read his progressions better than Mayfield and he doesn’t seem to hold the ball as long as Mayfield. I don’t know if Daniels is doing well because he is relatively unknown to the league or if the Bucs caught lightning in a bottle. To me the early signs are positive, but I am no expert. Either way, right now he is playing a lot better than Mayfield has in his past 12 starts (at least).
October 9th, 2026 at 2:16 pm
Joe … ‘there was enough fight to overcome (and overlook) a bunch of mindless penalties’.
The ridiculous 14 penalties last night totally blew my mind. Time after time we shot ourselves in the foot. And time after time, Jalon had to bail us out.
Bucs now have been penalized 40 times in 5 games for 291 yds total.
o Offense: 23 penalties for 176 yds.
o Defense: 12 penalties for 70 yds.
o Special Teams: 5 penalties for 45 yds.
I think I see a trend there. Our offense has been penalized twice as often as our defense. Of their 23 penalties:
o 13 Holding (NFL average: 6.44)
o 9 False start (NFL average: 5.66)
o 1 Delay of game (NFL average: 2)
We’re getting called for far more Holding & False Start penalties than the league average. MAYBE that’s a big reason why we’re 1-4 right now? Penalties not only impact (and often kill) drives, but they indicate a general sloppiness that doesn’t reflect well on the OLine. Or on the OLine coaching for that matter.
October 9th, 2026 at 2:18 pm
Rod looking for a but t plug from someone….im tired of it, someone else thrust it in him
October 9th, 2026 at 2:28 pm
” and a somewhat reckless coaching decision”
let’s not forget 3rd and 1, deciding to do hurry up, taking a false start, waiting too long to get the field goal team on the field, and then taking a delay of game penalty that knocked us out of field goal range near the end of the first half. at the point I thought that was the worst coaching mistake I’d see Bowles make all game. Boy, was I wrong.
October 9th, 2026 at 2:31 pm
@Joe… this agree. Last night was a statement win that they have fight in them and something to build from. More to clean up for sure. But more to prove too. Good article.
October 9th, 2026 at 2:41 pm
Ok good win for our team because I’m not about tanking. Here’s my issue and the reason I’m still high on getting rid of Bowels and only a change in his style of play calling will change that. Last night he was aggressive for 3.5qrts BUT once things got a bit close he went right back to his conservative ways and if not for their TE doing his best Cade Otton impressions with the bobbles we lose that game. He finally seems to be trusting David Walker more which fans have been asking for BUT I want to see more consistent aggressiveness in his defensive play calling before I change my mind.
October 9th, 2026 at 2:44 pm
One thing I think we could all agree with: Have you ever seen the Cowboys ever look so bad?
October 9th, 2026 at 2:49 pm
@tye, can’t you say the samething for the bucs first 4 games? A win i a win bro, to be honest with we could be 5-0 if we dont shoot our own self in the foot.
October 9th, 2026 at 2:53 pm
=David Walker.
The kid was everywhere. Not sacks but you could see him disrupting, getting his hands up and being a handful everywhere. He’s gonna be a great player.
October 9th, 2026 at 3:14 pm
Fools gold. This team is going nowhere.
October 9th, 2026 at 3:23 pm
I truly believe if we didn’t go down and score 7 on that magical 26 min drive we seemed to have and punted, this team would have went into a listless shell and got steam rolled thinking here we go again! That match of touchdowns changed the whole temperature of the team and got them all thinking, alright we can hang with these fools…And I liked the call to go for td at the end…not the smartest play in hindsight, especially we then scored in like 60 seconds, but I think he might have gotten in, and the way we were running on them, I felt we punched it in easy and made the score an even more of a blowout then it was…Todd figured this team needs to dominate someone and get their moxie back
October 9th, 2026 at 3:36 pm
I really did think they were going to blow it. And, boy, a dropped pick 6 and a couple of fluke turnovers was the difference.
I do NOT understand why the O-line commits so many penalties, except for the fact that they lose a ton of 1:1 battles and have to hold.
All that said, the secondary, except when they played soft at the end of the game, was very solid. You would think after the first 90 times the soft defense does not work, you would not continue?
October 9th, 2026 at 3:36 pm
Bucs actually played complementary football for the first time in I dont know how long. I railed on that very subject on one of the threads this week. I bet it’s been 20 plus games dating back to 2024. It was nice to see for once rather than the crap show. Now lets see that against Pitt.
October 9th, 2026 at 3:41 pm
the team has issues on offense. people were sticking up for godwin saying he was open and baker wasnt throwing it to him i dont hear those same people saying godwin is open and daniels isnt throwing it to him? Emeka is a good number 2wr but the team doesnt have a number 1 wr. Godwin is a 22 mil a year #3 wr. And its a big ask for bucky to not go injured the whole season. Maybe Zac and the oline can get better as season goes on. does tyreke still want to play for bucs?
October 9th, 2026 at 3:51 pm
Got pretty lucky last night. Todd Bowles, why are we going for it on 4th and goal when a fg would essentially put the game away? Why are we throwing the ball, which almost turned into a pick 6, when the run game was working extremely well. Keep the clock moving, protect the ball. The kid did what he was supposed to do as a backup. Get as many wins until Baker can make it back.
October 9th, 2026 at 3:55 pm
Bowles has the team firing on all cylinders. They have been all season. They could very easily be 5-0 right now.
October 9th, 2026 at 4:21 pm
Stop crying and living in the past you’re as bad as these fans that cry and complain all the time
October 9th, 2026 at 4:41 pm
McBay Says:
October 9th, 2026 at 3:55 pm
I can’t figure out if you’re a delusional idiot or a troll.
October 9th, 2026 at 4:43 pm
Hopefully, my post will stick. This Ai BS is for the birds. Go Bucs! Baker Mayfield better get his act together when he is cleared to play. He lost the first Bucs game not anyone else . He better be paying attention on the sidelines. I hope he does not play the next game against PIttsburgh.
October 9th, 2026 at 4:58 pm
People don’t realize how young the defense is or how important it was to bring in guys like A’Shawn Robinson to tell people off.
Now they need to find someone like that for the offensive line
October 9th, 2026 at 5:23 pm
@Stranger
I think you may be on to something. This team is build in the image of Lavonte David who was a great player but didn’t seem to be that Alpha $hit talking take no $hit on the field get in your face when you mess up type of player Ala our glory defensive days of Sapp, Brooks and Lynch. When we got JPP and Suh the attitude on the defense changed as well.. Now they also have a mild mannered coach. You gotta have some A$$holes on your team.
October 9th, 2026 at 5:23 pm
No one player on a team of 22 starters single-handedly wins or loses any game. Ever. Repeating it over and over doesn’t make it so.
October 9th, 2026 at 5:46 pm
Don’t underestimate Bowles ability to blow games. The steelers and Falcons won’t be so dumb to give Daniel’s. 5 seconds to throw.