“Straight Discipline”
September 28th, 2025
Bucky Irving’s fumble gave the Eagles a very short field. Baker Mayfield’s needless red zone interception channeled the ghost of Jameis Winston. And the Eagles’ opening drive punt block for a touchdown is the kind of stuff that happens in JV high school games.
Yes, three brutal turnovers killed the Bucs today in their 31-25 loss to the Super Bowl champs.
Those mistakes were even more mind-blowing considering the Eagles had negative yardage in the second half. That’s right, officially -1 yard of offense and six punts.
How did that happen, Coach Bowles, following the Eagles moving the ball so well in the first half?
Bowles spoke in hushed tones as he answered on the Buccaneers Radio Network. “Discipline. Everybody did their job. Straight discipline,” Bowles replied.
Captain and linebacker legend Lavonte David lamented the deep hole the Bucs dug for themselves in the first half. “We aspire to be Super Bowl champions and we can’t give teams like that those kinds of leads,” he said.
Despite trailing 24-3 late in the first half, the Bucs not only made a strong comeback but recovered all the momentum and shut up a tens of thousands of Eagles fans in The Licht House. And then Baker Mayfield’s relentless fight bit him in the ass with a bad interception.
Wild game.
Joe will remember this one for a long, long time.
September 28th, 2025 at 5:57 pm
I like Baker and he competes his tail off but sometimes you have to be smart.
1st and 10 from the 11 yd line, when the play breaks just throw it away you have at least 3 more downs. You just cant do that.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:01 pm
I was livid when he threw the pick, being only second down and not final seconds of game…then I saw Godwin raise his hand on replay and the ball was actually tipped, otherwise its probably a td! The blocked punt and scoop and score was ball game! I said it as soon as it happened, that’s the play that will haunt us at the end, and it was! Otherwise, Chase is kicking a 47 yder, a chippy the way he was bombing it, for yet another last second victory! Dammit man
September 28th, 2025 at 6:03 pm
That ball was tipped. If it’s not tipped Godwin has a TD. When healthy this is the best team in the NFC
September 28th, 2025 at 6:04 pm
The NFL rulebook says you’re down when “any part of the arm above the wrist” touches the ground after contact (Rule 7, Sec. 2, Art. 1).
Well — the wrist is a joint, not a flat surface. You can’t land on your wrist without your forearm also hitting.
If Bucky Irving’s wrist was down after contact, he was down by rule. No fumble. Simple.
NFL got this one wrong you will never change my mind….
September 28th, 2025 at 6:10 pm
Todd Bowles is too afraid to make any changes in regards to the punt team so here we are, we will likely have this problem next game as well
September 28th, 2025 at 6:20 pm
so they were undisciplined in the first half, coach? any answer for the lack of preparation or discipline? not like the local press is going to risk their access and ask real questions.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:20 pm
1) It’s kind of hard for any wide receiver to get separation from a defender holding on to their jersey, and the Eagles’ defense did that the whole game.
2) Bucky was down, that was not a fumble, yet Bowles doesn’t even challenge the call?
3) Baker should have thrown that intercepted pass in the end zone out of the end zone.
4) The refs let Philly’s defense not only hold on to wide reciever’s jerseys the whole game, but they also let blatant pass interference occur on the goal line on that same play.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:24 pm
That’s a Todd Bowles team
September 28th, 2025 at 6:29 pm
The NFL fix was on.
The refs refused to call pass interference.
That’s when you know a team has an advantage.
If the refs don’t call holding on the offensive linemen and if they don’t call pasa interference on defensive backs.
The Eagles were holding our defensive lineman all game.
And their DB’s were holding and pulling the jerseys of our receivers all game.
This game was fixed!
September 28th, 2025 at 6:30 pm
Baker will take all the blame for this loss and then he’ll forget about it and beat the heck out of the Seahawks!!
Yes Bucky was down by contact, but do you think those refs would reverse the call ?? Heck No !!
This was one of the worst officiated games I’ve ever seen. So many pass interference calls and defensive holding calls that were not made !!
Go Bucs !! Beat the referees !!
September 28th, 2025 at 6:48 pm
This is what I mean by some of these posters just do not know what they are talking about. Calbucsfan says Bowels didn’t challenge the Bucky fumble but every TO is automatically looked at. Man you all live in an alternate universe.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:49 pm
Does calbucs fan know that turnovers are automatically challenged… if you dont know that by now, you probably shouldnt be commenting on nfl football lol
September 28th, 2025 at 6:49 pm
Well, get to the “straight discipline” at the start, how about that?
This was a wasted opportunity.
Blocked punt for TD.
Irving fumble leads to TD.
Baker INT.
Disgusting.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:52 pm
Where is Yaya? 9 solos and 1 sack in 4 games. I iso on him a lot and rarely see him beat the OT. Hes not being double teamed. Lots of hype for Yaya. Same with VV, he disappears in games. He did have some moments today.
Now Gaines is hurt. I would love a trade near the deadline for Q. Williams, or sign C. Wilkins, he’s a big strong interior pass rusher with a tude.
We’re close to 18 mil under the cap.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:53 pm
First comment of this thread is absolutely correct. That was a game defining moment
September 28th, 2025 at 6:53 pm
Bowels should NOT be let off the hook.
Week in and week out there’s a screwup on special teams that cost points.
Week 4 and once again our defense cannot stop an opposing offense from scoring on their first drive.
Atlanta – Touchdown
Houston -Touchdown
Jets – field goal (it’s the Jets)
Philly- 14 friggin points in the 1st 8 minutes.
Special teams is a screwup waiting to happen – there should be a betting line an when and how.
Bucs D did play well in the 2nd half….but for the love of god, you cannot spot a team 14 points 8 minutes into the 1st Quarter and consider yourselves a Super Bowl team.
And fwiw – the interception in the end one late in the 4th was Baker trying to do too much. Live to fight another down Baker, it was a stupid decision.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:55 pm
And Josh to support your comment. If you look at the replay carefully his shin was down well before the ball coming loose. Unfortunate game for the Bucs but on the bring side we know we can beat one of if not the best team in the league if we can just avoid 1 less mistake next game.
September 28th, 2025 at 6:59 pm
Yeah I will see this all week and nobody is wrong. 1st and 11 and you throw a desperate pass to only get intercepted? That was a terrible
Mistake and can’t happen again if these guys think they are a Super Bowl team. 1st down in the nfl is a chess move. Make it worth it
September 28th, 2025 at 7:13 pm
I would have been in no huddle at 6 mins left in the 1st quarter when we went down 14 let alone down 18. If we had done that, we would have had another drive left at the end despite the mistakes. Poor clock management AGAIN!!! Just ran out of time. It’s not against the rules to go into 2 minute or hurry up offense earlier!!! This would have likely wore out the Eagle’s defense and we probably win. How can Bowles and Grizz not see this? Unfortunately no one has the balls to take Bowles to task on this and ask him why!!!
We get Evans and Goedeke back we should be hard to beat. Defense played excellent the 2nd half. The whole team has to come out ready to play. Got to fix our blocking on special teams. 2 blocked punts, another punt almost blocked and a blocked FG so far is unacceptable.
September 28th, 2025 at 7:15 pm
They will be fine,,, sure a win would have been great but get Big Mike and Luke back and we will go just fine ,,,
NFC championship against them will be fun 😉
September 28th, 2025 at 7:40 pm
Yeah the Baker INT was just dumb.
As was Cade Otton completely whiffing on his block which allowed Philly to block our punt and return and turn the enrtie game on its head just 2 minute into it.
I can forgive Bucky since it should have been overturned, but he has had critical fumbles in multiple games now.
I can not forgive the defense for forgetting to show up for half the game.
September 28th, 2025 at 7:42 pm
Am.i the only.one saying anything about #8, or is that a mute point?
September 28th, 2025 at 8:11 pm
*moot
September 28th, 2025 at 8:21 pm
I’ve been on “the other” Bucs website and god help you if you criticize Baker on there… it’s ok for us to be critical of Baker without the teenager rebuttals that “we wouldn’t be in this winning position if not for Baker” or “Does one bad throw really worth claiming Baker underperformed”…etc. etc. Yes on both counts.
Every so often the Baker that threw an int in the inzone shows up, it happens. I felt like that was the worst mistake he made in the season thus far, and we are 4 games in, we’re ok. Baker wasn’t terrible, given the context of working with a Oline that he has zero confidence in pass-protection. What I will say is with the exception of 2 throws that went for long scores, this offense really has struggled to find any rhythm, it has felt like that ALL season to this point. Against a better football team like the Eagles, it looks a little worse especially when we’re trying to dig out of a hole. We can’t seem to have 2 positive runs back-to-back, everything was underneath, and yet our receivers couldn’t get much separation.
My big takeaway is that there was nothing impressive about the Eagles. We shot ourselves a couple of times, and like I said, Grizz has to figure out a flow in his play calling. It’s just everywhere, and trying to piece together back to back plays hasn’t looked easy.
September 28th, 2025 at 9:23 pm
Yep, Bucs did great except the part about losing the game.
September 28th, 2025 at 9:48 pm
Remove the mistakes and this is a W. These guys won’t make the same mistakes again.
September 28th, 2025 at 10:00 pm
In the second half, the defense looked worthy of being called a Buccaneers defense, the way long time fans know.
Jason needs to order Todd to begin games with that style of defense. Fire Magoo. And do something about coming out flat in the biggest games. It’s ridiculous and embarrassing.
September 28th, 2025 at 10:28 pm
Baker did not throw multiple picks, just one and it was tipped ball. Baker was not the reason we lost, not even remotely his fault.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:03 am
“””Remove the mistakes and this is a W. These guys won’t make the same mistakes again”””
Don’t worry Todd Bowles said he’s going to fix the mistakes. Problem is HE’S the mistake.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:15 am
1st and 2nd down interceptions drive me nuts. I’m not going to be too hard on Baker though. Sometimes you gotta just throw it away and on to the next play.
September 29th, 2025 at 7:23 am
Okay…WHY are we NOT discussing that Baker’s intercepted pass was TIPPED?!
As Joe has written a million times, this is a game of inches. How many times has Joe written over the past few years that Baker “threaded the needle”?!
I have a sneaky suspicion that if that pass would have not been tipped, we would have won and the Bucs would be all the rage in the media with, “Baker did it again!”
So Baker, if you’re reading this (and surely you are … what Buccaneer or Bucs fan doesn’t read the two Joes + Ira?!), please don’t sweat that interception — it was tipped. The laws of physics are not your problem. Just like the physics of Chris Godwin’s shirt grabbed by the Eagles defender and stretched back eight feet was not recognized by the refs, your tipped ball has not been recognized by those writing you were channeling your inner Jameis Winston — garbage).
Chris Godwin was involved with two plays where, according to witnesses, they violated the laws of physics).
Now — the blocked punt returned for a touchdown? No violation there. That was a disgusting display of of coaching and player execution, or lack thereof.
September 29th, 2025 at 8:01 am
Just watched the replay on NFL+. Blankenship tips the ball, it starts fluttering, drifts left toward Campbell. Looked like Godwin could have snagged it otherwise
September 29th, 2025 at 8:39 am
We will Be Back, the eagles are going to have to see Us again! Go BUCS!!!