Another Sunday means another frustrating loss for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Mental mistakes and poor decision-making has become like clockwork for the Bucs, as has losing games the team should win. Outside of losses to the Eagles, Lions, and 49ers, Tampa Bay has been squandering opportunities to collect wins and run away with a miserable NFC South.
Instead, the Bucs are 4-7 and clinging to flimsy reasoning to believe the team's season isn't over. The division race remains tight, thanks to the Falcons beating the Saints on Sunday, and Tampa Bay is just a few games out of the lead.
After another embarrassing loss, it feels like the Bucs are down way more than they are. Nothing has gone right this year and the team failing to find ways to finish late in games has led to four one-score losses this year.
There's no excuse for why the Bucs didn't win any of those games, including the loss on Sunday to the Colts. Fans are already fed up with the way things are going and Todd Bowles isn't doing much to deflect the ire he's drawing with each new loss.
Todd Bowles gave the worst response after Bucs loss in Week 12
After the game Bowles gave what is quite possibly the worst response to what happened on the field in Indy on Sunday.
#Bucs HC Todd Bowles says after the game that they have to stop making "silly mistakes."
— PewterReport 🏴☠️ (@PewterReport) November 26, 2023
This has got to be turned around and they have to play better, and they understand that as a unit.
He's not wrong.
The Bucs continue to make boneheaded mistakes at the wrong time which only puts them further behind the eight ball in games like Sunday. For as inconsistent as the team has been at all other levels, they can be relied on to shoot themselves in the foot and stunt their own momentum.
It's also all his fault.
Bowles wasn't on the field making the mistakes himself, but he's failed to coach his players out of making them and holding the team back. This isn't a new problem, which makes it all the more frustrating to hear Bowles say what he did after the Colts loss. The Bucs issues with mental mistakes stunting their own momentum dates back to last year, and it's getting hard to figure out what the disconnect is.
How many times must fans hear about how great practices were only to not have things translate to Sundays when it actually matters? Bowles has said that more than a few times this year which is a massive indictment of what's going on with the team.
The failure to not properly coach the players up and out of mistakes is rightly getting magnified as the Bucs continue to lose games they shouldn't. It all starts with Bowles, and the hotter his seat gets the more annoying Coach Speak like this is going to be for a fanbase that's already eager to jettison Bowles.