It goes without saying that the Buccaneers are in a free fall with two games to go. Todd Bowles’ team has gone 1-6 since the bye week and is a game behind the Panthers in the NFC South division. Tampa Bay has gotten blown out by good teams and upset by bad teams. Time after time and game after game, the Buccaneers are making mistakes to be on the wrong side of the final score against their opponent.

“It’s inconsistency with some of the things we’re doing consistently,” Todd Bowles said this week explaining why they’ve lost so much. “Be it penalties, ‘M.E.’s (mental errors), or misplays overall. That comes with losing. So, we’ve got to make sure we correct that.”

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN – Jim Dedmon

And yet despite a disastrous November and December, the Buccaneers to still have a path to the postseason. They each involve beating the Panthers in Week 18, and potentially include defeating the Dolphins this Sunday, or just hoping the Panthers lose to the Seahawks. Its not an easy task considering the Bucs just lost to Carolina, but miraculous things happen during the holiday season, right?

Todd Bowles Still Believes In The Bucs

But, considering how bad its been on defense and how the offense hasn’t reached the level of expectations that we’ve all had of them, why is their reason to believe in them getting a big win? Todd Bowles will tell you.

“Just our work ethic and us staying together,” Bowles said. “That’s the biggest thing. We understand what we put ourselves in and we understand we’re the only ones that can get us out of it. So, the work ethic continues, the confidence is there with each other, and we’ve just got to stay with that.”

That’s been the biggest selling point for Bowles in other seasons. Each year he’s been the head coach of the Buccaneers, Bowles had endured at least one three-game losing streak and sometimes even a four-game losing streak. But every time they’ve been able to get out of it and prevail enough to reach the postseason.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Even if Tampa Bay was to find a way to make it to the playoffs year, the team has never had season like this before on his watch. There have been two separate three-game losing streaks with several losses to lesser teams like the Saints and Falcons. Tampa Bay has lost six of seven games since the bye week. Good teams get stronger in the last two months of the season, the Bucs have gotten weaker.

Tampa Bay doesn’t feel concerned that this is a must-win game on the road against the Dolphins, and that’s an issue.

“The reality has been there with us for the past few weeks,” Bowles said. “We’ve just got to play mistake-free football. We can’t worry about losing – we’ve got to play to win.”

If its true that they’ve treated their recent games as playoff matchups, then they’re clearly not ready for when it really counts. These so call “playoff games” that the Bucs have had all resulted in embarrassing losses. This week may not be any different.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Todd Bowles Blocks Out The Noise

Several Tampa Bay fans have called for Todd Bowles to be fired after the season. He’s a great man, but a season filled with high expectations won’t match last year’s 10-win total. Despite the outside noise, Bowles isn’t listening to it.

“I listen to nothing but music when I leave here,” Bowles said. “I made it a pact when I started coaching to never listen to anything else. So outside noise to me is just outside noise. It’s the people in this building, what we talk about, what we do in this building. We’ve been through this before. We understand where we are. We just have to execute and play our game.”