Buccaneers: It isn’t time to worry about losing in Tampa in 2021

Being Buccaneers fans, we know from experience how much the team has failed us at unexpected times and in situations when they should never have lost.

Just maybe Alfred E. Neuman, that guy from the Mad Magazine, had it right all along. “What, me worry?”

For many of us Buccaneers fans, it’s hard to get past the point of worrying if the Bucs can win a game over an inferior opponent. We shake when we hear the name Matty Ice and tremble when we have to face a team sporting a rookie quarterback.

We do so with good reason. Being Tampa fans, we know from experience how much the team has failed us at unexpected times and in situations when they should never have lost.

And yet, that kind of tutelage can be hard to break away from. After all, the Buccaneers’ history is as full of underachieving as the local waters are full of shipwrecks. We, as fans, never felt safe behind a talented team, because they always seemed to play at the level of their opponents.

And right here and now, we should exorcise that demon. We are not the kind of team that always seems to find a way to lose a game. That is behind us now. Opening and closing the season by chunking a pick-six is now a thing of the past. When the Buccaneers take the field, they are ready to perform, ready to go out and play the game their way.

The offense last week was relatively crisp. Yes, a few bad things happened. But guess what? Yeah, that’s football. We had a few turnovers that hurt, and a few penalties that hurt as well. But it wasn’t a sign of a bad offense. It was a sign of how things can go on the football field.

Yes, we need to clean a few things up, and yes the defense needs to get it together. But this version of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a force to be reckoned with. The team doesn’t fall apart when they have a play go against them. They simply regroup and get back out there.
Swagger. That’s what this team has in abundance. Swagger is a sense that even when everything seems to be going the wrong way, that somehow it will turn around.

Just looking at the Dallas game. Which fan out there didn’t think that Tampa was going to march the ball down the field and win the game in the final seconds? None, I think. That just shows the confidence we have in the team that exudes confidence. And sure, it was just a one-point deficit at the time. But think back to what happened after Chris Godwin pulled in that final reception and set things up for Ryan Succop’s game-winner. Brady threw two passes away to eat up some clock and allow Prescott basically no chance to win the game.

Had the difference been four points, Tampa still would have won the game. Between Mike Evans, Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown, and Chris Godwin-don’t you think someone would have hauled in the game-winning touchdown? The Bucs did all they needed to do to win the game. They got the ball within easy range for Succop, killed the clock, and won the game. They didn’t luck into it. They didn’t rely on someone making a mistake to give them an extra chance at the field goal. They marched downfield, lined up the kick, and won the game. That’s confidence, that’s swagger, and that’s what good teams do.

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