How Bucs head coach Todd Bowles gave the Bengals bulletin board material for the rest of the season
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady gave the Cincinnati Bengals plenty of bulletin board material last week by calling Cincy's defense "fairly tough". Bengals players heard the comments and made sure to remind Brady and the Bucs of them after beating Tampa Bay 34-23 on Sunday. After the game, Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles […]
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady gave the Cincinnati Bengals plenty of bulletin board material last week by calling Cincy's defense "fairly tough".
Bengals players heard the comments and made sure to remind Brady and the Bucs of them after beating Tampa Bay 34-23 on Sunday.
After the game, Tampa Bay head coach Todd Bowles managed to give the Bengals some more bulletin board material.
Bowles said that the "Bucs beat the Bucs", essentially suggesting that they didn't lose because of anything Cincinnati was doing.
“We’re pissed off," said Bowles after the loss to the Bengals. "We can’t have, you know…it’s the same old song it’s Bucs vs. Bucs. You know, we play a good first half and the second half we come out and we shoot ourselves in the foot, either by turnovers or penalties or field position on special teams. It’s a tale of two halves and the half we played in the second half was Bucs vs. Bucs.”
Bowles is likely referring to Tampa's five consecutive turnovers in the second half.
While there's no doubt that the Bucs made some mistakes (like the botched fake punt), the Bengals also made some plays.
That's something that Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor pointed out after the game.
"You know sometimes they (turnovers) come in bunches – we preach it like crazy," said Taylor after the win. "A lot of those were tough. Tre Flowers’ was not easy; Germaine Pratt’s was not easy. When the ball is on the ground, sometimes it doesn’t bounce your way and the other team recovers it. In this case our guys found a way to come up with it. We just needed that type of performance today and our guys delivered it.”
The Bengals won't face the Bucs the rest of the season unless both teams make it to the Super Bowl (that doesn't seem likely for Tampa Bay). But Cincinnati can still Bowles' comments as motivation for the rest of the season.
Despite reaching the Super Bowl last season and leading the AFC North with three games left to play, it feels like the Bengals still don't get the respect they deserve.
The lack of respect, however, will serve as fuel for what Cincy hopes is another Super Bowl run.
Featured image via Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK
