The Buccaneers became the biggest favorite to lose a game this season with Sunday’s 20-18 loss to the Steelers and the question of whether they took their opponents for granted came up in head coach Todd Bowles’ postgame press conference.
Tampa played from behind all day against a Steelers team that had lost four straight games, but Bowles said he did not think his team was overlooking the threat that the Steelers posed heading into the game. That said, Bowles also feels that anyone still living off of memories of the team’s Super Bowl LV win needs to toss those memories out the window because you constantly have to “earn your pay and earn your keep.”
“We didn’t take them lightly, No. 1. No. 2, I think guys that are living off the Super Bowl are living in a fantasy land,” Bowles said, via Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. “You’ve gotta get your hands dirty and go to work like everybody else. We’ve been working hard and we’ve gotta work harder. Nobody’s gonna give us anything. Nobody’s gonna feel sorry. We’ve gotta go back as coaches, as players — the time for talking is over. You either gotta put up or shut up.”
The Bucs are averaging 10 fewer points per game than they were scoring at this point last season and they failed to take advantage of a Steelers defense that is riddled with injuries at the moment. If they can’t find a way to right the ship on that side of the ball, thoughts of Super Bowls will be in short supply in Tampa.