Buccaneers first half versus Bengals says everything about rest of season
By Rob Leeds
The Buccaneers may not look like a great team for most of their time on the field, but it would be disingenuous to say this team can’t win games.
Are the Buccaneers a good football team? The answer to that question looks like a no right now. This season has gone about as poorly as one could for the answer to be yes.
Could the Buccaneers be a good team? The answer to that one is yes.
This Bucs team isn’t just cursed to be bad. Poor coaching, injuries, and bad play from the stars has generally been the common themes of this season, but even those problems were overcome in the first half versus the Bengals.
That version of the Bucs could hang with any team in the league. Despite all the issues and everything working against Tampa, the Buccaneers went into the half in that game as a dominant force on both sides of the ball.
Maintaining is the name of the game here. Can the Bucs get to the point? Yes, they have proven it. Can they maintain it for a full game, make adjustments, and beat the best teams in the league? That much we don’t know.
Still, while this game was bad and left a sour taste on many peoples’ mouths, there should be a bit of optimism that perhaps the golden days aren’t that far behind.
The playoffs become their own beast. As it stands, the Bucs aren’t that far off from that point, and if they were able to play well against a team like the Bengals, there isn’t a team in the playoffs in the NFC that should be that much worse.
The sun might be setting on this season, but the Buccaneers aren’t out of this yet.
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