Cavalry Came Too Late
December 12th, 2025
Made huge difference.
The Bucs offense was not perfect. But the offense didn’t choke the game away and let a quarterback who otherwise looked like he had one foot in a retirement home look like Dan Marino in his prime.
Man, the addition of Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan made a world of difference. The offense looked crisper (though not crisp) and to a degree had some energy.
The offense gave Bucs fans a couple of glimpses of what might have been. Mike Evans was Mike Evans. No shock there.
Chris Godwin looked damn near like prime Godwin. Jalen McMillan looked like he had a year of football under his belt. He actually looked borderline dangerous.
And Emeka Egbuka came out of his shell.
And the running game averaged four yards a carry. Not bad.
Shoot, even Devin Culp showed Bucs fans that a tight end can be used as a weapon in the Bucs offense.
No, the offense wasn’t really sharp. Atlanta got good interior pressure way too often, which bottled up Baker Mayfield.
But man, the offense appeared fresh with some new plays. Smart ideas. Vita Vea as a fullback? Yes please.
But, as Joe feared, the cavalry (Evans and McMillan) arrived too late. The way the Bucs defense plays, it’s like when America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, was starting for the Bucs. He knew before he left the locker room if he didn’t hang 35 on a defense, the Bucs were screwed.
Baker, meet Jameis.
We’re back to The Lost Decade defense.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:13 am
does anyone want to watch the amazon series after this thursday night vibe…?
thanks todd
December 12th, 2025 at 1:14 am
Fun fact I looked up tonight…
Did you know that Winston NEVER threw an INT in the 4th quarter of a game where the Bucs were leading by 14.
So congrats to Baker for doing something Jameis never did!
December 12th, 2025 at 1:15 am
But I was told that because Evans was out that’s why Baker was playing bad. Evans came back just in time to get a hospital ball from Bake.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:16 am
Falcon penalties helped our offense look better than it was…..
And, our offense failed us in crunch time…..
But, it did look much better…..at at leas we threw the ball down the field instead of 4 yards…..
Joe…..don’t let the offense off the hook because of poor defensive play…..they had a part in this loss.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:16 am
Rod
Lol.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:21 am
the offense still has one glaring issue which’s probably why we were passing the ball when we should have been running out the clock
There were times when it seemed like the entire defensive line was meeting our backs in the backfield – no resistance
December 12th, 2025 at 1:22 am
Offense failed to get a first down and ice the game. That’s choking in my book. They knew the defense would give up the booty.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:25 am
baker’s feet nowadays are happier than trent dilfer’s…
and those were some of the happiest feet of the mid to late 90’s
December 12th, 2025 at 1:26 am
Just think how much better Mike has made Baker look over the years. Has honestly SAVED HIS ACE. He just throws UP a prayer to him most of the time, ANYWHERE on the field. And, then most of the time Big-Mike comes down with it! Most of his other throws are ALWAYS thrown BEHIND the receivers. Rarely out in front of them in-stride, where they could actually do something with it!
December 12th, 2025 at 1:28 am
Yeah, farrrrr from “crisp.” And with all THOSE weapons, too!
December 12th, 2025 at 1:31 am
14 point lead with 12 minutes in the 4th quarter and the
Falcons had 19 penalties. The defense sucks morons.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:35 am
As for the defense collapsing, let’s ask Bowles he’s DC
December 12th, 2025 at 1:45 am
Its everyones fault…no way around it!
But actually I think the draft Gods are smiling on us to get into better positioning in front of the cowgirls to draft LB Sonny Styles….
Better days ahead fellas, look on the bright side, and todd wont be around to see it….we got this…. just smile 🙂
December 12th, 2025 at 1:52 am
BEST performance by a TE in 30 NFL SEASONS. Shannon Sharpe in ‘96 (maybe ‘98 but whatever). Lmao. FIRST BLOWN 4th-Quarter 2-TD Bucs Lead in about the last 78-GAMES or something like that. Bowles all-time head coaching record when trailing at the half, is just ABYSMAL. And, he’s protecting his Godson, by HIDING HIM. He’s been ‘practicing’ for the past TWO-WEEKS, & he still CAN’T PLAY!? Pathetic. They’ve got to get Lickt outta there, too! Need a complete reboot. Unbelievable how this bunch F’ed-up the Cohen situation. It’s mind-blowingly STUPID.
December 12th, 2025 at 1:56 am
Idk bout better days, but Sonny has been at the top of my list for awhile… At least top-2.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:16 am
And like JW, Mayfield throws a late interception to hand the heroics over to the opponent.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:39 am
It’s hard to feel sorry for them sometimes.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:50 am
Now I agree with you Joe on this. JW had to sling 40 plus because of a leaky D and little to no run game. That’s a bad recipe for most QBs, and all rook QBs.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:52 am
Keep loosing and draft Reese! I watch a lot of OSU and they have lots of talent on both sides of the ball.
December 12th, 2025 at 7:58 am
Mike is and always has been a quite DAWG. I think he came back faster than expected to see if he can still play and his future. If he plays next year, I think he bolts and signs a two year deal with a real contender with a real HC and QB. I can’t blame him.. He deserves better.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:32 am
Glad to see most people agree. Baker threw the 4th quarter int. How does he get a pass? If famous Jamies threw that we would blame him for the loss no matter what the defense did.
December 12th, 2025 at 8:48 am
Bowles is now 15-62 when trailing at the half.
0-6 on the year.
Yes, there are other areas for improvement, but a lot of you are talking about this like you have to take out the recycling while your house is on fire.
December 12th, 2025 at 9:24 am
the offense isn’t the issue. they scored 28 pts and were up 28-14 in the 4th quarter. they looked far better after getting evans and mcmillan back, even though they haven’t practiced together in a year. the timing also improved over the course of the game as it should have.
the oline was not good though. baker didn’t have “happy feet”-he was running for his life from the second the ball was snapped because the defense was in his face immediately. any time he had more than 1.5 seconds of time, he completed passes downfield. he averaged close to 10 yds a pass. no more passing backwards or sideways.
comparing him with jameis is ridiculous. he’s thrown 8 interceptions all season, jameis threw 30! interceptions the last season he played for the bucs in 2019. what are you smoking? dak, mahomes, and josh allen have all three thrown more interceptions than baker has this season. it’s insane to me that some of you “fans” think that he has to be literally perfect every game and do everything himself (including play defense i guess) or he’s a bust and should be tarred and feathered and ran out of town.
i cant with you people. there’s an issue when the opposing offense is at 3rd and 28, far out of field goal range, with less than a minute left to play and is able to convert that easily and win the game. there were only two people making any plays for that offense and bowles couldn’t do anything to cover them. they were literally wide open all night. kirk cousins had all day to stand in the pocket to throw. im pretty sure his uniform was spotless at the end of the game. THAT’S the problem with this team.
December 12th, 2025 at 9:27 am
Yes, Culp came out of nowhere. So good to see. So many positives. Mike Evans, always awesome!
December 12th, 2025 at 10:43 am
Sunny is 100% right…
December 12th, 2025 at 1:29 pm
Culp turned 2 bucks into like 47 bucks for me so I appreciate that. Bucs lost me what was supposed to be an easy 24 bucks(2 parlays…. one for bucs win and another for them to cover -2.5) into 130. Tough lesson to learn, as I was counting my money before it was printed.
December 12th, 2025 at 9:00 pm
Well said sunny!!
December 12th, 2025 at 9:04 pm
I don’t think Joe was saying that Baker is Jameis, only that he is the same situation as far as feeling he has to do so much in order to compensate for what the defense lacks. At least I don’t think that’s what he meant. If so, he is wrong imo.