The Buccaneers Kept Their Defining Trait From 2023
Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
The 2023 Tampa Bay Buccaneers had an ethos that sprung straight from the minds of The Greatest Band in the World: Chumbawumba. They got knocked down, but they got up again.
At 4-7 after Week 11, the NFL commentariat left them for dead. They should have! The season was over. But the Bucs won their next four games to roar back into a playoff spot. A disappointing Week 17 loss where they failed to lock up the NFC South didn’t stop them either. Instead, they grinded out a 9-0 shutout in Week 18 to punch their ticket into the playoffs. They got up again.
Few pundits gave Tampa any chance to knock off the defending NFC Champion Philadelphia Eagles in the playoffs. But they were able to punch Jalen Hurts and company in the mouth and shock the world with a convincing 32-9 victory. They just kept winning games they weren’t supposed to.
This season we were promised a new Bucs team with Liam Coen bringing his offensive chops and the lessons he learned from Sean McVay and the Los Angeles Rams. The new offense delivered with 37 points in Week 1, but the standout takeaway from Sunday’s win was how much like the Old Bucs they looked… in a good way.
After the Bucs were stymied on two drives into the Washington Commanders’ territory and forced to settle for field goals, they showed that resilient mentality on the third drive of the game. Tampa started the second quarter with a second-and-two. Before they actually were able to run a play, it became second-and-12, with two straight false start penalties sending them back. It’s the exact sort of thing that can derail a team’s momentum.
Whatever, no big deal. Baker Mayfield fired two straight passes to pick up the first down. When the next play saw Jamin Davis turnstile Tristan Wirfs to blow up Bucky Irving for a loss of four, Mayfield responded with a 19-yard pass to shake off the second-and-14. Mayfield repeated the trick when they lost two yards on the following first-down play.
The very next play? A touchdown to Mike Evans.
MIKE. EVANS.
📺: #WASvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/P3WxOCrinb— NFL (@NFL) September 8, 2024
Same old Bucs. A less mentally tough team might have gotten discouraged by not finding success right away. Tampa Bay didn’t. A team without the resilience of Mayfield and company might have been thwarted by four potentially momentum-killing plays on that touchdown drive. The Buccaneers got up again. You ain’t never gonna keep them down.
No one’s going to accuse the Commanders of being a good team, even if Jayden Daniels occasionally dazzled, scoring two touchdowns in his debut. But Tampa absolutely handled Washington in a game it would have been easy to collapse.
Late in the third quarter, Daniels ran in for a score to close the lead to 23-14 — a one-score game. By the time that happened, the Bucs had lost cornerbacks Zyon McCollum, Josh Hayes, and Bryce Hall to injury. Hall’s injury was particularly devastating, with him suffering a fractured fibula. Antoine Winfield Jr. finished out the game, but left in a walking boot. That doesn’t even count the three injured defensive linemen who were out of the game altogether.
But Tampa would once again show resilience, on both sides of the ball. Mayfield marched down 72 yards down the field in five plays, capped off by a 32-yard strike to Jalen McMillan. Suddenly, it was a two-score game again. SirVocea Dennis sacked Daniels for a 13-yard loss on the next Commanders drive, holding them to a harmless punt.
Todd Bowles had nothing but praise for his team’s resiliency. “I thought they did a heck of a job,” the understated coach said of his defense, which had players such as Christian Izien playing out of position to fill the gaps. Edge rusher Joe Tryon-Shoyinka was a bit more wordy. “You’re just stepping up — a next-man-up mentality. You go into the game with only so many players; everyone should be expecting to play. We showed our depth… people go down during games, so it was pretty impressive to see.”
Mayfield’s teammates showed full faith in their field general after he posted four touchdowns, zero interceptions, and some critical scrambles. “It helps when you have ‘6’ out there running the show,” said Chris Godwin. “Always impressed with his resiliency. He proves time and time again that he’s a fighter. He’s a leader… He’s never trying to concede on any possession, and I think those types of things are very infectious for our locker room.”
That’s just who the Buccaneers are and what they do. They win games when people count them out, and they thrive in situations where others would fold. If they can stack the offensive explosion they had in Week 1 on top of last season’s toughness and bounce-back ability? Watch out.
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