10/5 Monday Rant: More Bad Football

Before I get into Sunday's game, let me briefly acknowledge the obvious because it deserves to be said even if we all already know it.

Todd Bowles is a dead man walking. Jason Licht is not completely safe. And if the Glazers haven't already started a coaching search, they need to start one immediately. The big picture is the big picture and at this point it practically writes itself.

But this week's rant isn't about the big picture. This week's rant is about what we watched on a football field in Tampa on Sunday afternoon. Because beyond all the organizational dysfunction and the broader questions about the franchise's direction, what happened at Raymond James Stadium was simply bad football. Poorly coached, poorly executed, poorly adjusted bad football. And that deserves its own conversation.

THE RUNNING GAME: NO EXCUSE FOR WHAT WE SAW

Let's start with the most inexcusable failure of the entire afternoon. The Green Bay Packers came into Sunday's game having given up big rushing numbers through three weeks of the 2026 NFL season. The Packers' run defense was the most inviting matchup on the entire schedule for a Buccaneers team that desperately needed to establish the ground game to take pressure off a rookie quarterback making his first career start.

The Buccaneers could not run the ball against them.

The offensive line generated no push whatsoever in the running game. None. Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell were meeting defenders in the backfield or at the line of scrimmage on run after run after run. The wide zone lanes that Zac Robinson's scheme is designed to create were nonexistent because the offensive linemen could not hold their blocks long enough for the back to make a cut. Against a Packers run defense that had been embarrassed by every team it faced before Sunday.

That is not a talent problem alone. That is a preparation problem. A coaching problem. A scheme execution problem. When your offensive line cannot generate a push against one of the worst run defense you will face all season, something is fundamentally broken in the way this unit is being coached and deployed.

JALON DANIELS: ADMIRABLE BUT NOT READY

Jalon Daniels deserves genuine credit for what he showed Sunday. He competed. He was composed in moments that would rattle many experienced quarterbacks. His athleticism gave the offense a dimension it has been missing and his willingness to compete in a hostile environment at Lambeau Field with the season already in crisis showed real character.

But the honest assessment is that Jalon Daniels is not ready for this level of action on a consistent basis. And Sunday's game confirmed that in ways that were difficult to watch.

The most persistent issue throughout the afternoon was his inability to let go of the football on time. Daniels consistently held the ball longer than the play design called for, waiting for receivers to get more separation than NFL defenses ever willingly give, and paying the price with pressure, sacks, and disrupted timing on route after route. At the NFL level the window closes fast. The throw has to come out when the receiver breaks out of his cut, not a beat and a half later when the window has already closed.

This is not a criticism of Daniels as a player or as a prospect. It is an acknowledgment of what undrafted rookie free agents making their first career starts in hostile road environments typically look like. He is not ready to carry this team.

THE DEFENSE: ANOTHER WEEK, ANOTHER EMBARRASSMENT

The Packers' offensive line could not block the Atlanta Falcons a week ago. One week later, standing across from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' pass rush, Jordan Love had a comfortable enough pocket to operate effectively throughout the afternoon. The same offensive line that was embarrassed seven days earlier looked perfectly adequate against this Buccaneers defensive front.

The pass rush generated nothing of consequence. Again. Yaya Diaby continues to be a non-factor as a pass rusher. The interior of the defensive line could not consistently disrupt Love's timing or create the kind of interior pressure that collapses pockets. And a Packers rushing attack that has been one of the worst in the NFL through four weeks of the season was able to find enough running room against this defense to look mediocre rather than terrible.

COACHING: WHAT ANYONE CAN SEE

Here is the thing about coaching that is genuinely difficult to articulate to people who have never played or coached football at a competitive level but becomes immediately obvious to anyone who has. You can see bad coaching. You do not need a background in the game to recognize it. The symptoms are visible to anyone paying honest attention.

Undisciplined penalties at the worst possible moments. Players who are consistently one step slow to their assignments. A defense that lines up in the same coverage look on third and long for the fifteenth consecutive time and gets beaten for the fifteenth consecutive time. An offense that runs the same protection scheme into a wall for sixty minutes without a single meaningful variation. Situational football decisions that defy basic logic. A team that does not do the little things well because doing the little things well is a coaching responsibility before it is a player responsibility.

A football person could sit down, watch this Tampa Bay Buccaneers team play a football game, and reach the conclusion within a quarter that this is not a well-coached football team. The discipline is not there. The preparation is not complete. The adjustments are not coming. And the players on the field reflect all of it in real time every single Sunday.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Two wins and eleven losses in their last thirteen games. That is who the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are right now. Not bad luck. Not injuries. Not a difficult schedule. A bad football team. A poorly coached, undisciplined, underperforming bad football team that has now made losing a consistent, predictable pattern rather than an occasional setback.

The big picture will be addressed when the season ends.

2-11 in the last 13 games. That is the number that defines this team right now. Everything else is just details.

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