At the team meeting Wednesday night at the Omni PGA Frisco Resort & Spa in Frisco, Texas, head coach Todd Bowles allowed some players to talk openly about the Bucs’ 0-4 start. It was real and raw. No feelings were spared.
Read more Angulo’s late goal, Crépeau’s 12 stops save Orlando City in win over Columbus
“It was a come-to-Jesus moment,” defensive tackle Vita Vea said.
The Bucs were about to play the Cowboys on Thursday night. They hadn’t won a road game in nearly a calendar year. An undrafted rookie quarterback wasn’t going to lead them out of this mess by himself.
“We just talked about it being the first quarter of the season, and at the same time we had a group meeting on Wednesday night where I let some of the leaders talk and express how they felt and everything else and made sure everybody was on the same page,” Bowles said.
“Of course, every game is an urgency game. But going 0-4, you don’t want to do 0-5. Those guys had a good mindset all week going into the game, and they were bound and determined to play well together, which is the big thing. Not playing well separately. And we played good complementary football in all three phases.”
Vea revealed the meeting on the postgame set of Amazon Prime’s “Thursday Night Football” following the Bucs’ 24-16 victory.
The Bucs had lost 11 of their previous 13 games dating back to 2025, with nine of those losses coming by one score. The inability to sustain their energy throughout the game, to finish opponents, was a big topic.
“It’s like, we’re not really 0 and 4, right? You know what I’m saying? We’re not playing like we’re 0-4,” Vea said. “We’re shutdown on defense. The offense is doing their thing. It’s just that we’re not finishing at the end of the game.
“So I think it was one of those things that we harped on throughout the whole week. I know we had a short week, but it was one of those things where we got together as a whole unit and we knew we had to go figure it out.”
The result was the Bucs’ first win of the season and their most complete victory in more than a year.
The offense, led by Jalon Daniels in only his second NFL start, was efficient. He completed 19 of 25 passes for 189 yards and a touchdown. Running back Bucky Irving stole the show with a career-best 165-yard rushing game. His 175 yards from scrimmage marked the third most of his career, and he scored touchdowns both rushing and receiving.
“He did a heck of a job, avoiding tackles everywhere possible,” Bowles said of Irving. “The offensive line did a heck of a job blocking for him, but Bucky brought a different energy in this game, and he was bound and determined to make some plays, and he made them and he gave us a huge spark.”
Read more Pictures: Jones at Ocoee Varsity Football
Irving gathered the offensive linemen around him before the first series and threw his pads into each one of them.
“Like Vita said, we came together as a team,” Daniels said. “And we had that conversation that we need to go out there and be able to play our brand of football, and I think we were able to go out there and execute our game plan.”
It was a complete team victory. The defense forced two turnovers with interceptions by Yaya Diaby and Alex Anzalone on deflected passes, the last one sealing the victory.
The special teams got into the act as well, with Miles Killebrew forcing a fumble by Cowboys kickoff returner KaVontae Turpin that was recovered by Kevin Knowles.
Those plays bailed out Bowles, who decided not to make it a three-score lead late in the fourth quarter with a chip-shot field goal. Instead, he watched as Sean Tucker was stopped just short of the goal line on fourth and 1. The Cowboys then drove 99 yards for a touchdown to pull within eight points.
“We talked about it, and I knew three (points) was better,” Bowles said Friday. “In my head, the way we were running the ball and the way we were playing defense, I thought, I’ll put the dagger in right there.
“It was completely on me, and I know we should’ve put up the three points. I got greedy and went for it, and the defense made a play at the end to bail us out, but that was definitely on me.”
But the biggest thing was the Bucs got the win. In the locker room after the game, Bowles presented game balls to Daniels and Irving.
“Hey, that’s a hell of a job!” he said. “That’s the way to stick together, that’s the way to play complementary football. That’s the way to play for your brotherhood. … We got one. We’ve got to make sure we turn it into two.”
Does Bowles believe the win in Dallas will spark a winning streak?
“That’s the hope,” he said. “But again, it’s a long season and we’ve got to grind it out every week, and every week is going to be different. But it’s a good start. I feel like we’ve turned the corner for one game, but we’ve got a lot to clean up like the penalties and everything else. We’ve got to clean those things up.”
Read more Pictures: Gatorland’s 8th annual Gators, Ghosts and Goblins celebration