![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bowlesleftmiami.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLet\u2019s get physical.<\/p>\n
Joe watched the Dixie Chicks upset the Rams on Monday and the hitting jumped out in that game.<\/p>\n
The Rams hit. The Dixie Chicks hit. Dang, Atlanta safetly Xavier Watts alone almost changed the game with his vicious hitting.<\/p>\n
When is the last time you saw a Bucs defender blast a ballcarrier so hard it changed the game? Got the crowd pumped. Got Bucs teammates energized.<\/p>\n
Joe swears the last time Joe saw that, it was Baker Mayfield laying the wood on a linebacker and not a Bucs defender drilling a quarterback (heaven forbid).<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Bucs coach Todd Bowles was asked about his defense\u2019s alleged lack of physicality. Bowles disputed that his defense isn\u2019t physical.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re physical, we just miss tackles at times, and we give up big plays at times, which is inexcusable when you\u2019re playing defense because everything can cost you, no matter how good you do everything else,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cYou\u2019re definitely not happy with the tackling and the busted assignments \u2013 you\u2019re not happy with that at all. But they play hard \u2013 they play very hard, but that\u2019s not good enough. We\u2019ve got to play smarter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, Bowles has a point: It\u2019s hard to blow someone up when you can\u2019t tackle. One leads to the other. But that, ultimately, is on Bowles.<\/p>\n
Other teams tackle. Joe watched the Los Angeles Chargers a couple of weeks ago and damn, they tackle. They wrap up.<\/p>\n
And Joe is going to take a wild stab here and guess the Chargers practice and play under the very same NFL rules and guidelines.<\/p>\n
So Joe doesn\u2019t want to hear any whining about how NFL strongman Roger Goodell won\u2019t let teams practice tackling in his don\u2019t-hit-too-hard league and that\u2019s why the Bucs can\u2019t tackle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lack Of Physicality Haunting Bucs January 2nd, 2026 Let\u2019s get physical. Joe watched the Dixie Chicks upset the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,2599,2598,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-647760","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-bucs-message-boards","10":"tag-bucs-news","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115824836276801093","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}