About Those Midseason Slumps
February 26th, 2026
Annual toe-stubbing.
Todd Bowles is still searching. And he has yet to find an answer.
In the past three seasons, the Bucs have had a four-game losing streak. The first two seasons came midseason. Last year it was in the second half of the season.
In Bowles’ first season as head coach, with Tom Brady guiding the pirate ship, the Bucs never had a four-game losing streak, but they did lose five of six games early in the season.
So, what the hell is going on? Are Bowles’ players getting too confident after a few wins and think they can just show up, roll out a football and win? Do teams adjust to whatever the Bucs are doing and are slow to adjust? It’s a mystery Bowles has confessed he does not know the answer to.
But, Bowles said, blame him.
“Can’t pinpoint why it has been happening but I know it has been happening,” Bowles said. “We lost some very tough games last year, especially toward the end of the season.
“We were in every one of them. I’m not going to blame it on injuries or anything else.”
To the best of Bowles’ knowledge, Bowles is pretty confident that how the Bucs finish games is the difference in winning or losing. He sort of wagged a finger at Joe for suggesting the Bucs may have been the hottest team in the league after beating Houston and Seattle on the road and San Francisco at home.
Bowles told Joe the Bucs were winning those games because of the way they closed out games and that did not happen in November and December.
“You have to find a way to finish games and that’s on me and everybody else [with the Bucs],” Bowles said. “We are all disappointed.”
How does Bowles accomplish this? Hold back special plays until the fourth quarter? Have longer practices to develop stamina? Joe is just throwing those ideas out.
It’s weird that all the veteran coaches Bowles has had on his staff and no one can solve why the Bucs played bad late in games, fueling losing streaks.