Embattled Bucs head coach Todd Bowles.
There is no home field advantage for Tampa Bay at The Licht House. Tampa Bay is 4-8 there in its last 12 home games and winless this season.
Why?
Collectively, the Bucs have mental issues. Their inconsistency is glaring.
If Joe were Todd Bowles, Joe would bus the team to the stadium for a practice and some activities. Maybe even make players walk around and fix divots, wipe down benches and more. Make players and coaches realize that their house has to matter. Maybe even invite their kids to come and run around the field one night. That place has to become a home to protect.
On the flip side, the Bucs have been road warriors. The Bucs should have beaten the Bengals in Cincinnati to start the season. That would have happened if not for Baker Mayfield coughing up three fumbles. The Bucs then beat the Cowboys and Panthers on the road. So they’re 2-1 away from home this season, and both wins were impressive performances.
In Sunday’s blowout, part-time Bucs edge rusher David Walker played 54 percent of the defensive snaps in the beatdown of the Panthers on Sunday. (Hallelujah!)
The Bucs sacks leader told the Bucs Players’ Table that the team is doing its best work away from Tampa. He also noted the team fell off the the winning path at hom against Pittsburgh two Sundays ago.
> “Like when we went to Dallas, I feel like on the road, man, we’ve been playing our best ball,” Walker said. “It’s been exciting to see Coach Bowles, he’s always ‘keep the standard.’ I feel like the standard is what we did today. We kind of slid off a little bit last week, but man, we got some good leaders in our room. Like \[A’Shawn Robinson\] he’s on our head every day about the little stuff. About like when we do red zone Friday at practice, ‘Don’t let him in the end zone!’ Like those little things carry over. And it was big task for us on special teams and stuff like that to finish to get a turnover. Those big plays, I feel like it pushed our offense, our defense to something we ain’t seen since a couple weeks ago.”
(Joe listens to the show on SiriusXM.)
This is the Bucs’ biggest challenge. Stepping out from under inconsistent leadership and performance and finding two consecutive wins. That hasn’t happened in more than a year.
The infamous Todd Bowles “killer instinct” craving doesn’t just apply to the fourth quarter of games.