Buccaneers Searching For New ‘Killer’ Mindset Under Todd Bowles originally appeared on Athlon Sports.

Maybe … Things have gotten stale with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers recently.

After winning the Super Bowl in 2020, the Buccaneers have reached the playoffs every year since.

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Their record as a Super Bowl contender, though, is far different in recent years. Head coach Todd Bowles has certainly not been bad since taking over the top job in 2022. His 27-24 record and 1-3 mark in the postseason are nowhere near bad.

The issue is that the Buccaneers have too much talent to be the kind of middling team they are known for now.

It’s why Bowles spoke about changing the organization’s mindset this year.

“We’ve got to play not even better football at the end, but we’ve got to have killer instinct,” Bowles said during the offseason. “We’ve got to try to blow people out and try to win the division instead of it going down to the last week.”

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It’s pretty simple for Tampa Bay. They have too much talent to go 9-8 or 10-7 every year. They have a unique home-field advantage but haven’t been able to use it against the top teams in recent years because they stumble around the regular season.

If they want to be considered true title contenders, they need to figure out a way to dominate their upcoming schedule.

The current NFL landscape means home-field advantage matters more than ever, especially in the NFC. If the Buccaneers want to win another Super Bowl, they’ll need to figure out how to earn that advantage this year.

Related: Buccaneers Legend Offers Biggest Impact Draft Pick

Related: Buccaneers’ Receivers Room Ranks Tops in NFL

This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 18, 2025, where it first appeared.

Joe hates to be the Grinch with Christmas in two days, but lumps of coal are in your stockings, Bucs! With the playoffs on the line you played like you did nothing but listen to the hype and pretended the Cowboys were the Titans (emphasis on the first syllable).

So let’s get this going so you can finish holiday shopping and make sure you get a good bottle of Christmas cheer to help you forget last night.

The Grinch Stole Bucs’ Christmas — And Maybe The Season

As soon as Rachaad White fumbled on the final Bucs offensive play sealing one of the most depressing losses since the 1999 NFC Championship game, the lyrics to “The Grinch Song” spun through Joe’s head.

You’re a mean one

You really are a heel

You’re as cuddly as a cactus

You’re as charming as an eel

Mr. Grinch

Yeah, it seems the Grinch stole Christmas for Bucs fans. (Doesn’t the Grinch sort of look like ol’ shriveled-up Jerry Jones?)

Here the Bucs were flying high just after curb-stomping the Chargers, and the Cowboys had nothing to play for as they were eliminated from postseason play early Sunday. So exactly who looked like they were playing for the playoffs and who looked like they were playing for the draft?

Yup, the Bucs looked like they were playing for the draft. Really, really, really sloppy football.

Missed tackles all over the place in the first half. Dropped balls. Dropped touchdowns. Not hanging onto the ball. Awful fumbles. Sacks.

It looked like one of those worthless preseason games.

And now the Bucs may be screwed out of the playoffs. Screwed by themselves. Screwed by playing undisciplined ball. Screwed.

Joe will have a tough time enjoying Christmas. That game last night may have ruined all for which the Bucs have worked. And it may have ruined the lone season with perhaps the best Bucs offensive coordinator not named “Bucco Bruce Arians.”

Ruined maybe Lavonte David’s final season.

Ruined perhaps Mike Evans’ chase for 1,000 yards receiving.

Ruined.

Maybe.

The Bucs Are Not Clutch

The Bucs simply melted down trying to come back from the hole the defense dug in the first half. Was that really surprising?

How many clutch games did the Bucs p!ss away this year? In seven one-score games, the Bucs are 2-5.

The Bucs beat the Lions 20-16 in Week 2. Since, the Bucs have been in six one-score games. The Bucs lost five, only beating Carolina in overtime.

The Bucs are simply not a clutch team. So Joe, unfortunately, was not shocked when the Bucs fully melted down on the final drive.

The Bucs don’t win close games. The Bucs can’t handle close games. The Bucs are not clutch.

And that is why, now, the Bucs are wearing out rosaries hoping the Dixie Chicks lose a game and the Bucs can win their final two, both division games at home.

When you cannot play clutch football in close games, mistakes magnify. A penalty here, a dropped pass there, a fumble over here, a missed tackle there, are 20 times more important in a close game.

In a one-score game, one mistake can cost you. And the Bucs made plenty last night.

Time Management Fails Again

Ever since Bucs coach Todd Bowles has been with the Jets, the clock has been his enemy. That has carried over to his Bucs tenure.

For Joe, other than the Rachaad White fumble and the Jalen McMillan touchdown that was ripped out of his hands (It sure looked to Joe that McMillan hit the turf with possession), the game was lost on a timeout.

Late in the first half, the Bucs had the ball on the Cowboys-10 with 54 seconds left. The Bucs called timeout.

Joe doesn’t know if it was ordered by numbers analyst Jackie Davidson on the headset with Bowles, or it came from Bowles himself, but that timeout couldn’t have been stupider.

As soon as the Bucs called timeout (it was their final timeout of the half), Joe thought, with the Bucs defense impersonating Mike Smith’s defense and with Dallas kicker Brandon Aubrey only needing the Cowboys to get across midfield for a field goal, the Bucs should have run the clock down and not given Dallas a chance to score.

Or at the very least make Dallas call its first timeout of the half to stop the clock.

But nope, the Bucs called timeout and handed Mike McCarthy time (48 seconds and 3 timeouts) to get 30 yards so Aubrey could boot a 58-yard field goal, which is exactly what happened.

What was the final score? Oh, 26-24. You mean the Bucs lost by two? You mean the Bucs might have won if Bowles had elected to chew up clock?

What a country!

Joe wants to know how Bowles could not realize this. Or, if Davidson is such a numbers person, how could she not know this?

How many millions a year, collectively, do Bowles and Davidson earn? Yet an unemployed shoe repairman sitting in a bar three beers in could see a timeout with 54 seconds left in the half was setting up the Cowboys to score there.

Again, when teams are in close games, bad decicions are magnified. And calling timeout with 54 seconds left may have cost the Bucs the playoffs.

Easily Influenced By “Rat Poison”

Last week, Todd Bowles confidently said the white noise of talking heads and hollering shows does not affect the Bucs. He said it didn’t when they were losing and it won’t while they are winning.

Last night, did it appear the Bucs’ heads were somewhere else in the first half?

Even though Bowles confidently proclaimed the Bucs are not influenced by the outside world, the very next day outside linebacker YaYa Diaby told Joe the team very much believed its press clippings early in the season and that’s exactly why the Bucs had their arses handed to them by the Broncos.

We live in a different world than when Bowles played in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, you almost had to try to find sports chatter. Sure, there was BSPN but rarely did the four-letter have talk shows. It was mostly games and news.

There was no internet, no blogs, no podcasts and limited sports radio. Now? It’s everywhere and players can’t escape it unless they are single, don’t have phones or internet, or are social loners and do nothing else but go home after a day at One Buc Palace and stare at the four walls of their apartments.

So while Bowles may think (or portray the image) that his players are not prone to talking heads and podcast chatter about the team, that’s simply unrealistic.

And it’s sad that several on this team are so gullible to the “rat poison” and let it take over their heads. That sure seemed to be the case in Dallas.

When The Bucs Don’t Score First…

This is a sad stat and makes Joe wonder if, as Lavonte David would say, it’s all about mentality.

When the Bucs score first, the Bucs are 8-1. When the Bucs don’t score first they are 0-6.

Joe has no idea why this is. Are the Bucs so weak mentally that they panic or collapse even when the opponent kicks a field goal to go up 3-0?

Are the Bucs mentally not capable of playing catch-up? That’s impossible to believe with their offense.

Something is not wired right if a team cannot win a game without scoring first. Hell, the Bucs damn near got to the NFC title game last year and then-offensive coordinator Dave Canales’ offense never scored a touchdown on an opening drive.

Now the Bucs have the second-best offensive coordinator they’ve ever had and they often score on their first drive. But if they can’t score first they can’t rally?

That’s just really weird.

Remember three months ago when the Bucs had a must-win game to clinch the NFC South title and trailed the slimy Saints 19-13 in the fourth quarter — at The Licht House?

It was horrifying and unsettling.

The sinking Falcons were one game behind the Bucs but Atlanta would have won the division if the Bucs lost to the tanking Saints and Atlanta took out the Panthers. (The Falcons lost 44-38 in overtime.)

The Bucs came storming back to win going away, but it was yet another 2024 season example of the Bucs lacking mentally.

Todd Bowles went there this morning during a sitdown with Joe and other media at The Breakers resort in Palm Beach.

“We gotta have a killer instinct and we got to try to blow people out and try to win the division instead of it going to the last week,” Bowles said.

Amen.

Joe followed and asked Bowles how he can develop a “killer instinct” in a veteran team. Bowles said it can’t come from him.

“It’s more accountability and practice and competing against each other,” Bowles began. “It’s not a coach thing.” “They can hear me talk every day, all day up there on the stage, but when they start talking to each other and holding each other accountable from a vocal standpoint, whether that’s tough love or whether that’s kind love, either way, it gets across. And how we get our point across and how we approach games is important. You develop that through the spring and the summer from a chemistry standpoint — to making sure you’re getting your point across to having [more competition] in training camp or doing little things like that to help [players] along.”

While killer instinct may not be “a coach thing,” as Bowles said, meaning he can’t talk that into existence, Joe believes a killer instinct is a personnel thing.

So rest assured “killer instinct” moved up higher this season on the Bucs’ list of priorities in potential draft picks.