The Bucs think they can win a Super Bowl, but it won’t happen if they don’t change their biggest flaw of 2025 so far
This has to change as soon as next week.
Since the start of the offseason, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles has talked about instilling a “killer instinct” within the team. It makes sense, considering he and the Bucs have Super Bowl aspirations – if you want to win championships, you have to learn to stomp out the opposition.
“Defensively, it means getting off the field,” Bowles said back in August. “Offensively, it means controlling the ball going down and either leaving very little on the clock or score the game winner… We [have] got to have more of that mindset.
“It’s always execution. The mindset is there, but if you don’t execute, it doesn’t matter. It’s always an execution thing.”
Bowles said earlier in the week that the Bucs had yet to find their killer instinct. He specifically mentioned at halftime against the New York Jets that he wanted to see it in the final 30 minutes of the game.
Well, before he and the Bucs knew it, the Jets had outscored them, 21-3, and led by one point with less than two minutes to go. The Buccaneers blew a 23-6 lead, which looked like they were about to take home an easy Week 3 win.
Yes, it’s a win and the Bucs are 3-0 for the first time since 2005. It’s especially big considering the Atlanta Falcons lost and fell to 1-2. However, again, this is a team that believes it can win a Super Bowl, and if it plays like this in Week 4 against the Philadelphia Eagles, it will be hard to believe this team can beat the NFC’s elite to get to the big game.
The Bucs did this exact same thing against the Falcons and the Houston Texans. They led late in the game, only to see both teams score and retake the lead, which ultimately led to the Bucs making NFL history as the first team to win its first two games of the season in the final minute of each game.
It’s simply not sustainable, and it’s easily Tampa Bay’s biggest flaw. Make no mistake: The team will find itself on the losing end of the elite matchups if it doesn’t find the killer instinct Bowles wants.
How we got to another crazy Bucs-Jets ending
The 2021 season featured a game-winning catch from Cyril Grayson in the waning moments (and is famously known as Antonio Brown’s strip-down game) that capped off a wild Bucs comeback, and this game was just as crazy. Minus the strip-down antics, obviously.
As mentioned earlier, the Bucs led 23-6, but the offense stalled as the third and fourth quarters progressed. A key aspect of the game is that Mayfield and the offense converted only one of five trips to the red zone. The penalties were also a big part of the problem, but not as much in the second half, as the Bucs committed just four penalties compared to 10 in the first half.
Tyrod Taylor and the Jets offense began to find a groove, and the Bucs defense began to fall apart. First, Garrett Wilson caught an 11-yard pass over the middle to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 10 points. The Bucs responded with a field goal, but the Jets went right back down the field and scored another touchdown to make it a 26-20 game in favor of the Bucs.
On the next drive, Tampa Bay was a field goal attempt away from making it a two-score game that would’ve probably sealed the deal, but Chase McLaughlin’s 43-yard attempt was blocked and returned for a touchdown by Will McDonald IV.
Mayfield and the offense showed the resiliency it’s shown all year. He hit Emeka Egbuka for a 28-yard pass and Sterling Shepard for a 20-yard gain that keyed McLaughlin’s game-winner from 36 yards.
The Bucs have been a scrappy team navigating through a ton of injuries. As they start to get players back, Tristan Wirfs and Chris Godwin will return by Week 5 at the latest. They have to start showing they can put teams away when it matters most, or else they won’t reach the goal of a third Lombardi.
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