Rick Stroud goes deep on just how bad things have gotten for the Bucs, framing the 0-2 start in stark historical terms: this is a team that has now lost 10 of its last 13 games, keeping company with the league's true bottom-feeders — the Titans, Commanders, and Cardinals. With only 12 of the last 84 teams to start 0-2 making the playoffs, and a brutal stretch looming (Vikings and Packers at home, then a short week at Dallas), Rick calls this a season that could be effectively over within 12 days. He puts Todd Bowles squarely on the hottest seat in football, walks through the Glazers' history with coaching changes, and even floats some outside-the-box replacement names — Lane Kiffin among them — while stressing he doesn't expect an in-season firing.
Rick and Steve also dig into the actual football problems: an offensive line that was supposed to be top-five and isn't, Baker Mayfield's four turnovers in two games, Reuben Bain Jr.'s continued invisibility on defense, and a play-calling approach that isn't getting the ball to Emeka Egbuka and the outside receivers early enough. They credit Todd Monken's Browns for playing the better, more disciplined game and note Deshaun Watson may have saved his job with the win.
Then the mood flips: the Rays are in New York for a doubleheader, needing just one win to clinch the AL East in Yankee Stadium — the kind of poetic justice Rick's been dreaming about all year. They break down the excellent starting pitching matchups, gush over the new road-grey uniforms with \"Tampa Bay\" back on the chest for the first time in 20 years, and make the case for why this Rays team's contact-heavy, low-strikeout, everybody-contributes approach gives them real World Series upside. They close with a Lightning preseason update and news that Giants QB Jaxson Dart suffered a significant knee injury on Monday Night Football.
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