Like most Bucs fans, Joe remains flabbergasted by the Bucs losing to the Saints, Falcons, Panthers and Dolphins in consecutive weeks to march themselves out of this season’s playoff hunt.
That was every December football game, the time of year when teams are supposed to be playing their best football and totally locked in to the task at hand and the game’s ramifications.
That Dolphins game was perhaps the most horrendous. Tanking with a seventh-round rookie at quarterback making his second career start, the Dolphins led the Bucs 20-10 late in the fourth quarter. Keep in mind Miami was blown out by a bad team the week before.
The Bucs had hit rock bottom with plenty of blame to spread around the roster.
Today, retired Bucs great Rob Gronkowski was talking on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio about players that want to win desperately and are willing to take on that game’s toughest challenges, and how teams need a lot of those guys to win games.
“There’s a lot of people in the NFL, you know, that just go out there; they want to be stars but they want it to be easy,” Gronk said. “You know, they just want that catch. They just want to be wide open, not contested or anything and make the catch, you know, score a touchdown. Any player can do that being wide open.”
Joe’s not knocking the Bucs’ receiving corps, and neither was Gronk, but the future Hall of Fame tight end’s words made Joe wonder how many players the Bucs have that “want it to be easy.” Was there a little to much of that come December?
“When you want it, that’s how you win Super Bowls,” Gronk said.
Well, the Bucs didn’t look like a team that wanted it late last season. Even Todd Bowles called it out via a historic profanity-laced rant.
Joe hopes the message delivered in that rant helps shape the Bucs’ offseason approach. The roster needs a few shots of want-to.