Bucs-Falcons Is Flash Vs Substance
Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
After a disappointing loss to the Denver Broncos, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers took their frustrations out on the Philadelphia Eagles, proceeding to curb-stomp them in a 33-16 win at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday. The Buccaneers are now 3-1 and sit atop the NFC South. Despite Tampa’s strong start to the season, it feels like the national media doesn’t have much time for these Bucs.
Meanwhile, Sunday saw the Atlanta Falcons narrowly lose to the Kansas City Chiefs and the post-game narrative seems to be rather forgiving towards the Falcons. Rather than critiquing the team for the loss, many are blaming the refs for screwing over the Dirty Birds and favoring Patrick Mahomes, the NFL’s Golden Boy. It’s an understandable sentiment, but ultimately, the Falcons didn’t do enough to beat the Chiefs and the national media narratives surrounding this team should reflect that.
It’s becoming increasingly clear that these two teams are treated differently by the talking heads. When Atlanta plays well, the national media starts gassing them up, and when the Falcons don’t meet expectations they aren’t held to any standard. Whereas the Bucs’ accomplishments go largely unnoticed and people are quick to overreact to one bad game. This begs the question, why does the national media overlook this Buccaneers team while simultaneously hyping up the Falcons?
The Buccaneers are the antithesis of the new-look Falcons. The Falcons were one of the most talked-about teams entering the season because they supposedly found their missing piece at quarterback in Kirk Cousins. It’s easy to get how that narrative formed. The Falcons already had many good-to-great skill players such as Bijan Robinson, Kyle Pitts, and Drake London on offense, who were all held back by Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke last year. So bringing in a solid QB, logically, made them candidates to take the next step.
They also got rid of Arthur Smith, who seemed to call plays exclusively for Jonnu Smith, despite him being their fourth-best player on offense. Atlanta replaced him as the offensive play-caller with Zac Robinson, who comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree. One of the reasons why Cousins signed with the Falcons was because of how similar Robinson’s scheme is to Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense. The hope was that he’d be able to produce right away.
Unfortunately for the Falcons, that hasn’t been the reality. Cousins is still clearly affected by the torn Achilles he suffered last season, and he isn’t the same player who was a mid-season MVP candidate prior to his injury in 2023. Atlanta is currently 2-2 and it’s hard to buy the notion that the team as a whole has lived up to the hype. The Falcons are looking for a statement win to prove that they aren’t just an offseason wonder.
Meanwhile, hardly anyone is talking about the Bucs, despite starting 3-1 and winning the NFC South last year. Tampa is seen as a boring team led by Todd Bowles, who is a retread coach who has a very understated personality. The roster has a bunch of quietly effective veterans who have been there forever, guys like Lavonte David, Vita Vea, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin. The Bucs roster is full of guys who are first-ballot “Hall of Very Good” candidates, but outside of maybe Evans, none of them are flashy or the best player at their position.
The overall dullness of this 2024 Bucs squad makes it harder for the national media to come up with exciting storylines to run with. Because of this, their accomplishments get overlooked in favor of shiny new teams making major offseason acquisitions. Their early-season success isn’t even very surprising, since they won the division last year. But their 9-8 record in 2023 means Tampa isn’t talked about the way a team like the Kansas City Chiefs are, because no one expects the Bucs to be Super Bowl contenders.
So what do the Buccaneers need to do in order to get people talking about them? They need to keep winning games and building their resume. Beating the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football would be a great start. It may be Kirktober, but this is a golden opportunity for the Bucs to snatch Kirko’s Chainz on primetime television and gain the respect from the national media that they deserve.
Up Next