Gerald McCoy rarely makes an appearance during open locker room periods at One Buc Place these days.

Occasionally he’ll make a quick trip to his locker while letting the media in attendance know that he won’t be available for them that day, but it isn’t personal, McCoy says, it’s just business.

“I heard Tony Dungy say something on TV,” McCoy said. “He said when you’re winning say little and when you’re losing say less. So, that’s kind of where I’ve been at with talking, because we haven’t been winning, the defense hasn’t been playing good, there’s not really a lot of talking that needs to be done.”

The Bucs defense is allowing a league-worst 34.4 points per game this season, they rank 29^th in the league with 414.2 yards per game allowed and they have just one interception on the year.

Now at the midpoint of the season, the Bucs seem to still be searching for an identity.

“It’s very frustrating,” McCoy said. “I could go into all the negatives but I’m not a negative person, so I’ll focus on the positives. The positive is we’re only halfway through the season, we have a chance to turn this thing around, we just got to come out and play, man. Got to be more disciplined, myself included, especially me, we just got tackle better.

The secondary is young, injured and inexperienced, the linebackers are missing two of their three starters from last year and the defensive line – despite adding Beau Allen, Vinny Curry, Vita Vea and Jason Pierre-Paul in the offseason – is still struggling to consistently get pressure on the quarterback.

The Bucs rank 25^th in the league with 18 sacks, with eight of those coming from Pierre-Paul.

While the defense has yet to have a trademark game, they’ve looked improved (even if it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet) under new defensive coordinator Mark Duffner.

That could certainly be his simplified playcalling or his presence on the sideline, but most players, including McCoy, have pointed to the energy he brings.

“I’ll say about Duff,” McCoy said. “He immediately brought a different type of energy. Let me say this, first and foremost, I love Coach Smith. I love Mike Smith and what he brought but every coach is different, just like Coach Buckner is different from Jay Hayes, every coach is different. What Duff brings is energy, and it’s an aura around him that you can’t help but feed off of.”

When it comes to turning this season around, eliminating missed tackles and forcing more turnovers are going to be a crucial part of that turnaround and McCoy wasted no time emphasizing that.

“In 2016, when we got on that run, in that span we talk the ball away more than any team in the NFL,” McCoy said. “So, if we are going to make a run, that’s going to have to be a part of it. It starts with the mentality in practice, going after the ball from every level, D-line, linebackers, DB’s.”

When the Bucs return home to face the Redskins this weekend the timing seems to be right for the defense to prove that they can still make an impact this season.

Washington will be playing from behind the eight ball as two of their starting offensive guards – Brandon Scherff and Shawn Lauvao – are facing season-ending injuries that they sustained this past weekend. In addition to Scherff and Lauvao on the offensive side of the ball, WR Paul Richardson will also be forced to miss the remainder of the season.

We know the Bucs offense can get it going when it has to, but this Sunday might be a very crucial, confidence-building chance for the defense to, as McCoy said, just come out and play.