The Buccaneers have lost their last two games after opening the season with a 6-1 record, but edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul thinks the team was struggling to find their groove before the back-to-back losses.
Pierre-Paul told reporters on Thursday that the team has not put together a complete game yet this season, which he notes is an issue because every team they face is coming in primed to face the defending Super Bowl champions.
“I don’t think we have given any team our best shot yet,” Pierre-Paul said. “Defense, offense, special teams. We try to forget we’re the Super Bowl champions, but you’ve gotta understand all 31 teams are looking to play their best against us. Even if they’re sorry, there’s no sorry teams in the NFL. Any given Sunday, a team can lose easily. . . . I don’t think we’ve been playing our best ball, but we’re capable of playing our best ball. The whole team’s trying to get into sync, play as one, and once we do that you’ll see the true Buccaneers come out. Everybody’s going to give us their best shot, I knew that from the get-go. They’ll give us their best shot, we’ve got to figure out a way to them our best shot. Better now than never.”
The Bucs were 6-3 after nine games last season and then dropped two of their next three games. They didn’t lose again after that point, but that history doesn’t seem to be of great comfort to Pierre-Paul heading into this Monday’s game against the Giants.