When speaking of the Buccaneers loss to the Washington Football Team, HC Bruce Arians puts it succinctly. “It has nothing to do with ability,” Arians said via ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “It’s about execution and being a smart football team. We are a very dumb football team. And that’s a reflection on the coaches.”
Buccaneers fans may not know all about that. But the poor execution, dumb mistakes, questions on what the coaches were trying to accomplish are all too familiar. This definitely sums up the teams performance over the last few weeks. Should we have seen this coming?
No Hangovers Here
Let’s not even talk parody here. The NFL has the right recipe when it comes to competitiveness of any team on any given week. Especially over the last several weeks. The Jaguars beat the Bills. The Jets beat the Bengals. There is competitive football happening everywhere. Then why is the Buccaneers loss to WFT so hard to swallow?
This team hasn’t shown to be experiencing a “Super Bowl hangover”. First off. The Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV. Second, this team has appeared to be all business in 2021. In pursuit of trying to become a back-to-back champion. Not only a feat never accomplished in Tampa Bay. But to be honest. A feat rarely accomplished in the history of the National Football League. The team that has shown up over the last three weeks. Against the Saints, and Washington, with a bye week in between. Not the team we’ve seen for all of 2021. And isn’t that a blessing?
Course Correction Needed
This veteran led team knows what has to be done. But do they have the heart to get there? The Buccaneers team that fans have seen for most of this season seems to have the fortitude. The team that was on display in Maryland yesterday? Not even close. Fortunately, the squad fans saw yesterday seems to be the exception, not the rule. If the team fans saw yesterday shows up next Monday against the Giants. That’s another story.
Sitting at 6-3, in first in the NFC South. The good guys are still in control of their own destiny, within their division. With some other loses falling their way. The could even a climb right back into a position of control for the NFC conference. Although that door would certainly close if these champions don’t right the ship quickly.
Give “Riverboat Ron” and the rest of the Football team credit. They played an excellent game. Got a little revenge for the Buccaneers knocking them out of their 2020 Cinderella story. Tampa Bay was in the midst of their own Championship fable. In a league of parity, these losses will happen. For any NFL team. Buccaneers fans would do well to remember. Just two years ago this kind of a loss was commonplace. In 2021, it stings like hell. As long as the team remembers that.
