Through five weeks and four games, it still might be a little early to say who exactly the Bucs are as a team. They are still establishing an identity, especially on the offensive side of the football. The Bucs have put teams on notice, though, showing that they’ll be able to hang tough with any opponent. It’s a combination of great defense, protecting the football and timely offensive plays.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

It may not be flashy, it may not have the most style, but it’s getting the job done. Tampa Bay is 3-1 thanks in large part to grit and determination. We don’t know how the rest of the season will go, but what we know is because of their style of play, they’ll be a tough out for anyone.

Bucs Winning With Grit

“Again, it’s only the first quarter of the season. 3-1 is good, better than 1-3,” head coach Todd Bowles said. “We have to get some guys nursed up. We have to scheme some things up, iron some things out there, but we are morphing into kind of a physical tough team that’s hard to beat. We just have to continue that without the mistakes.”

When you think of a physical group, naturally most go to the trenches at first. Ironically, those are two groups that had a lot of question marks going into the season. Yes, nose tackle Vita Vea and left tackle are studs at their position, but the defensive line’s next best player was rookie Calijah Kancey, who’s barely played due to a calf injury, and all the changes on the offensive line have been well documented to this point.

Bucs LT Tristan Wirfs – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Vea leads the Bucs with 3.5 sacks early in the season while Wirfs and the line have done a much better job than expected, especially in pass protection. Bowles didn’t look at it this way, commenting that it’s everyone on the team that has shown their physicality. If they keep that up then the Bucs will go places this year.

“I don’t think it was a position group, I think it’s the team as a whole. We’ve been playing tough. We made mistakes, no question about it. We’ve been playing tough when we give ourselves a chance. [If] we clean up the mistakes, we have chance to be a decent team.”

When Will The Bucs Know Who They Are As A Team?

Asked about if the Bucs have an identity just yet, Bowles stated that he needs a little bit more time. They may get those answers over the next three games as they face the Lions, their divisional rival Falcons and Super Bowl contender Bills.

“We’re close,” Bowles said. “We’re not there yet. I figure one or two more games, hopefully. With the Bye Week [and] once we get everybody back, we [will] have a chance to blend everybody in, [and] we will get a chance to see that.”

Until then, the Bucs are just focused on themselves. They weren’t buying into the many predictions that they would be a bottom five team and they won’t let the hype of them potentially maaking another playoff run go to their heads either.

“It hasn’t changed,” Bowles said. “We were having fun in the beginning. Again, we write our own narrative. It doesn’t make us any difference whether they say we are good or bad. We write our own narrative, [and] we create our own narrative. Everybody loves each other in this building. We play for each other, we coach for each other, and we’re having fun with it.”