The Bucs defense has come under a lot of scrutiny this season. Myself, like many, have criticized Tampa Bay’s defense for taking a big step back while allowing lesser opponents to have their best games against the Bucs and over-perform like they don’t typically do.

Games like allowing Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins to throw for over 500 yards, or Dallas backup Cooper Rush to light up Tampa Bay on Sunday night football has made Bucs fans want to pull their hair out. Tampa Bay allowing 243.9 passing yards per game, which ranks 29th in the league, and intercepting the ball just seven times, which also puts them tied for the fourth-fewest amount, hasn’t inspired much belief either.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and OLB Yaya Diaby – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

But with all that said, there has been a light at the end of the tunnel as of late. The Bucs do have something they can hang their hat on and deserve much credit for down this stretch that has helped punched the team’s ticket for the postseason. When it comes to the second half of games, the Bucs are getting it together and putting the clamps down on their opponents.

Sure, they’ve played a lot of teams with losing records in between a satisfying win over the Chargers, but the facts are the facts. Tampa Bay may run into some defensive issues in the first half, but they’ve figured out in the second half of games. Since the bye week, only once has a team scored twice in the second half against Todd Bowles’ unit, and the Bucs have also shut out two teams during that run. Here’s how it played out since the Week 11 bye week:

Bucs’ Second Half Points Allowed Since After The Bye

– Week 12 at Giants: 7 points

– Week 13 at Panthers: 10 points

– Week 14 vs. Raiders: 3 points

– Week 15 at Chargers: 0 points

– Week 16 at Cowboys: 3 points

– Week 17 vs. Panthers: 0 points

– Week 18 vs. Saints: 3 points

Following the Bucs’ 27-19 win over the Saints that clinched them the division once again, head coach Todd Bowles shared his thoughts on how they’ve been able to turn it around after halftime.

“They’re mentally tough,” Bowles said. “They nickel and dimed us in the first half and we gave up some plays. They were knick-knack playing us and we got frustrated. We kind of calmed down at halftime and they came out and played pretty much assignment football.”

Tampa Bay had allowed scores on every single possession that the Saints had in the first half on Sunday, including a 10-play drive that ended in a field goal when New Orleans got the ball with 1:03 to go in the second quarter and having one timeout left. It was all short passes that the Bucs just kept giving up over and over, but then they made sure to put a stop to it in the third and fourth quarters.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“We did a better job on first down so we can pass rush,” Bowles said. “[In] the first half, they were getting a lot of third-and-short, second-and-shorts and we weren’t getting there, and the ball was coming out and they were kind of dinking-and-dunking on some. [In] the second half, we got first down stops, and we got it manageable for third down for those guys to get after it.”

Bowles is typically stoic on the sideline, not reacting one way or another to certain plays unless warranted. But the last two weeks he shown a little more aggravation when the defense hasn’t executed the way it should. Last week, Bowles said during a sideline interview going into halftime that Tampa Bay’s defensive backs had to “get their heads out of their ass.”

This week, the camera captured Bowles getting angry when Tampa Bay couldn’t get a stop. Whatever he said at halftime apparently worked.

“They weren’t so much choice words,” Bowles said. “They were more or less, what we have to do to win and what they were doing to us and what we were going to adjust to and what we had to do. We knew it was going to be a fight, and we understood we’d be down by 10 and we were getting the ball back and we had to get some stops for the offense.

“I thought they did a good job, obviously, with the drop punt and the turnover of holding those guys right there, getting just three points out of both. They came alive in the second half, and they calmed down – that’s the biggest thing. We had three different guys starting in the secondary with the three guys down and they calmed down and played assignment football.”

Bucs Still Overcoming Injuries

Every NFL team goes through injuries. But outside of the Detroit Lions, it’s hard to find a lot of other teams that have experienced the volume of injuries that the Bucs have. It started before the season with top defensive tackle Calijah Kancey missing the first month of action.

Bucs S Mike Edwards – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Starting cornerback Jamel Dean has missed time this year, including the last two games, and his backup, Bryce Hall, was out for the year after Week 1. They’ve had All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. for nine games this season, while starting strong safety Jordan Whitehead, who suffered injuries in a car crash, is now out for the season. Even Todd Bowles’ backups like Christian Izien and Mike Edwards have missed some time due to injury, and now Izien is on injured reserve.

At times this year the Bucs have had to use third-, fourth- and fifth-stringers to get the job done. Tampa Bay still won its fourth straight division and are a better for it due to the Bucs’ resiliency.

“[It] makes you stronger,” Bowles said. “You can’t not fail or have some bad things happen to you and be successful. You have to go through that part of it. That makes you mentally tough, it makes you resilient and helps you grow. It helps you understand the mistakes and things you have to do better. We went through a bunch of that, as most teams that make it do but it helped us grow in the second half of the season and correct things and they’re seeing the fruits of their labor.”

Bowles also gave credit to his assistant coaches for making sure that all of their players have been ready.

“They don’t flinch,” Bowles said. “They see a lot of guys get injured and we bring guys in off the street or we bring in backups and they coach the guys to be ready to play and understand what they have to do. They don’t shy away from their assignment, they don’t make excuses, and they can get the job done. They make life easy around the building, but when it’s time to work, they do a hell of a job, and I would be nothing without them.”

Tampa Bay’s defense has gotten its act together in the second half of the season – especially in the second half of those games. If Bowles’ unit can start off hot and then play like it has in the second half down the stretch for all four quarters this team could make quite a postseason run.