Bucs head coach Todd Bowles didn’t mince any words after a 35-7 loss at San Francisco last Sunday. With four games left in the 2022 regular season, he’s putting the outcome on his players.

“We have to decide what team we want to be,” Bowles said following the loss. “We can’t be one set of Bucs and another set of Bucs. It’s got to mean something. We’ve got a one-game lead – with four games to go. Either we want it or we don’t. You can’t care more than everybody else. As a coach you don’t go on the field.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and S Mike Edwards – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“But we got out-coached, so we’re not excused from this at all. We got out-played as well. So as a team, as a group, we have to buckle down and we have decide what our fate is in the next couple of weeks.”

Bowles didn’t excuse himself or his coaches from any responsibility or blame for Sunday’s debacle in San Fran or in the team’s disappointing 6-7 season. But he put the onus on turning things around on the players – many of which, including the team’s stars – have underperformed this season.

Is that the right approach? Is that showing enough leadership – telling the players what must be done?

Or is this an old-school approach that doesn’t reach a younger, perhaps more entitled generation that needs more coddling rather than a more autonomous, hands-off approach?

Does this Bucs team, which is a mix of a lot of really young players and a few older players, need more leadership from Bowles and the coaches?

Bucs QB Brady, DC Foote Agree With Bowles’ Approach

Quarterback Tom Brady, who is the league’s oldest player at age 45, appreciates Bowles’ approach.

“He’s really allowed the leaders, the players to say… the coaches [say], ‘Guys, you’ve got to go out there and do it,” Brady said. “We’re going to coach you up, but you players have got to go get it done. So that’s what we’re trying [to do.]”

Co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach Larry Foote, who played with Brady at Michigan and is 42, agrees with Bowles’ approach. Foote played linebacker in the NFL for 13 seasons.

“I always see the game as, ‘This is a player’s league,’ even on this side of coaching,” Foote said. “But this is a player’s league – coaches do have a role in it, but players have to make plays. They’ve got to come with a certain attitude, and they’ve got to stick together. But they’ve got to perform.

“There’s plays out there that have to be made, and we expect those guys to make it. Coaches have to do a better job of putting guys in the right position, keep those guys motivated, but I’m always going to see the game from a player’s perspective.”

Bucs HC Todd Bowles & Co-DC Larry Foote – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

So are the 6-7 Buccaneers not responding to Bowles’ coaching methods? Or are they just letting each other – and the coaches – down by just not making enough plays this year?

Bowles and the Bucs’ coaches have to coach better – certainly better than they did last week in a total team collapse in San Francisco. But the players will have to block and tackle, and catch the touchdown passes and make the interceptions on the field.

Bowles and his coaches can’t do that for them from the sidelines.

“Decide who we want to be,” Bowles said after the loss to the 49ers. “We can’t be an up and down team. We have four weeks left to find out who we want to be this season and accomplish our goal.”

Even at 6-7 the Bucs still lead the NFC South division and control their own playoff destiny.

“Every day you’re challenged in this sport,” Brady said. “You get up every day and your body feels a certain way, and your mind and your confidence. Now you’ve got to go coordinate that with everyone else’s body and confidence and attitude. You’re trying to string together special teams, offense, defense – there’s a lot to do. And it’s really rewarding when it pays off. And when it doesn’t pay off, it sucks. It’s like all of our jobs: When it doesn’t go the way you want, it sucks.

“We’ve got to stand up here and answer questions about why it’s not going great. Believe me, you wish it was going great every week but that’s not our reality and we’ve got to dig our way out of it. No one’s feeling sorry for us, no one outside the locker room can do much about it. We’ve got to come together and we’ve got to do it ourselves. I think I really appreciate what Todd is doing. He’s putting it on us to fix it, and that’s what our responsibility is to do.”