Starters versus Stars

From the Mailbag

"When the Bucs were winning Super Bowls in 2002 and 2020 those defenses had five stars that were regular playmakers. In 2002 it was defensive tackle Warren Sapp, linebacker Derrick Brooks, cornerback Ronde Barber, safety John Lynch and defensive end Simeon Rice. In 2020 under Bowles it was edge rushers Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaq Barrett, defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh and linebackers David, who was younger and in his prime, and Devin White (before his ego ran amok).

Out of those handful of stars, Tampa Bay would usually have two or three of them each game making big plays – sometimes it was four out of the five. But this year, it’s been just one player on defense – sometimes two, like it was in New Orleans with Winfield and outside linebacker Anthony Nelson both had big days. The players must step up, but Bowles needs to put his players in position to make more plays, too. At the end of the day, as the head coach and defensive play-caller, it’s Bowles’ responsibility."

AND THIS

"There is not a difference-maker up front on the current roster. With 1.5 sacks this season, Haason Reddick is not the pass rusher the Bucs hoped he would be when he signed a one-year, $14 million contract. At age 30, Vita Vea is very good, but he’s not a game-wrecker week in and week out.

Yaya Diaby is more like Carl Nassib than Jason Pierre-Paul or Shaq Barrett. Calijah Kancey can’t seem to stay healthy. Logan Hall and Chris Braswell are not nearly as good as their second-round draft statuses would indicate. Neither are starting-caliber players. Anthony Nelson is a reserve outside linebacker, but not a starter."

From todays Fab 5

"But what we’ve seen so far is that this is not a great team.

The reason? Injuries have played a role for sure, but simply put, the Bucs’ front six is good –not great. Football is a game that is always won in the trenches, and Tampa Bay’s defensive front is lacking star power up front.

I say front six because Bowles plays nickel defense around 70% of the time rather than his 3-4 base defense. So I’m talking about Tampa Bay’s starting front four in the trenches – the two defensive tackles and two outside linebackers, plus the two inside linebackers.

This unit has underwhelmed this year. It’s a good unit with capable starters, but not a great unit loaded with stars."

This team’s D can make plays.  Not sure and aging, Suh, Shaq, and JPP were any better than what we have right now on our team. 

The Buc’s are managing the season without getting caught up in the fans’ feelings.  They are going about this the right way.

Bucs lost the Bills game because of:

1 - Special Teams giving up terrible field position

2 - Poor coaching decisions.  Going for 2 earlier in the third when up 5 points.  Like in what world was Buffalo who put up 21 points in first half was not going to score more than 7-10 points in second half.  Did not make sense.  This decision cost us dearly as we were forced to go for 2 when we were up 32-31 and thus lost out on 2 points.

3 - Bucs not punching it in from the 7 yard line after Allen INT

4 - Baker Mayfield costly INT

5 - Bowles deciding to punt late in the 4th on a 4th and 2 when we were down by 5

You will see that somehow the defense giving up 44 points somehow is not listed.  Yes defense clearly wasn't great but the game was there for us.  Bucs score 7 instead of 3, don't trust analytics and get another 2 and you are talking 38 points just right there. 

You then wonder if the score is 38-31 Bucs entering the early 4th scoring drive how the game may play out differently. 

Licht has proven many things over the years... Drafting edge talent is not one of them.

This game was winnable but all three phases of coaching let us down.

Bowles HC - going for 2 twice and the punt 

Bowles DC - 44 points and easy conversions on third and long all game. Dropping ends into coverage with no pass rush.

Grizz - early fg, odd route trees on third down, continued poor execution when the field shrinks.

McSpecial Teams - we all see it 

Coaching is the issue.

Posted by: @firebowles2026

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Licht has proven many things over the years... Drafting edge talent is not one of them.

Licht has had 12 drafts, and 7 of them with Bowles as either DC or HC/DC, and they still can't find an edge rusher in the draft. It's a problem.

Let the excuses flow from the leghumper.

Posted by: @badabingbucs

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Bucs lost the Bills game because of:

1 - Special Teams giving up terrible field position

2 - Poor coaching decisions.  Going for 2 earlier in the third when up 5 points.  Like in what world was Buffalo who put up 21 points in first half was not going to score more than 7-10 points in second half.  Did not make sense.  This decision cost us dearly as we were forced to go for 2 when we were up 32-31 and thus lost out on 2 points.

3 - Bucs not punching it in from the 7 yard line after Allen INT

4 - Baker Mayfield costly INT

5 - Bowles deciding to punt late in the 4th on a 4th and 2 when we were down by 5

You will see that somehow the defense giving up 44 points somehow is not listed.  Yes defense clearly wasn't great but the game was there for us.  Bucs score 7 instead of 3, don't trust analytics and get another 2 and you are talking 38 points just right there. 

You then wonder if the score is 38-31 Bucs entering the early 4th scoring drive how the game may play out differently. 

all reasons for sure

i would add that Allen played like an actual MVP. The pass across the field, where Morrison vacated stands out an an easy example. That's an even higher level of improvisational play then most here were saying made Mayfield an MVP. 

Either way though you're right that the game was still winnable. In fact, just a coupk different choices and a little better execution and Mayfield is the "gunslinger" MVP guy again