Mental toughness.
Joe has but two goals when dealing with a worthless preseason game.
The first one is paramount: Stay healthy.
The second is for younger players to improve.
KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles decided to go with a youth movement tonight, sitting all the Bucs starters and key veterans. The Bucs were down 10-0 but rallied back for a 24-16 win that will likely be lost to history by the end of next month, if not by Labor Day.
Bowles came away with at least one good resulte: His players, his young players, didn’t get flustered when they fell behind by two scores early.
“Just developing mental toughness,” Bowles said of his first impression from Friday. “You know, a lot of young guys got to play for the first time under the lights and referees and live bullets.
“[They had] their little jitters in the first half. They came back out and settled down, and they closed the game out and they started communicating.
“I thought they played decent in the second half.”
Decent is better than bad. Improvement is a goal.
Joe can’t get too excited about this win, as nobody knows what was seen tonight will become a total fluke in two weeks. But at least tonight it showed the backups have backbones and maybe the Bucs found a decent backup corner and special teams help.