UPDATED: So Joe was at Bucs practice with the Jaguars this morning in steamy Jacksonville.
Joe can attest that the session did not resemble what Joe saw two weeks ago while Tampa Bay faced the Jets in practice in New Jersey.
Against the Jets, practice was crisp and the Bucs’ benches were brimming with energy. Tampa Bay was a team playing with an edge, and kudos to Todd Bowles and Jets head coach Aaron Glenn for setting and maintaining a very impressive practice pace.
Today, Joe would use “flat” to describe the Bucs.
Because Joe watched the offense struggle, with fourth-string left tackle Paul Rubelt too-often a culprit, Joe spent limited time watching the Tampa Bay defense. But Joe sure could hear cheer after cheer from the Jacksonville fans watching the Jags offense make plays against the Bucs — deep shots, runs, passes over the middle.
Joe shifted to spend more time watching the Bucs defense and it was obvious the sideline energy was missing. The same fire of past weeks wasn’t there.
After practice, Joe asked rookie, tone-setting inside linebaker Josiah Trotter about today’s practice state of mind. His answer won’t soothe Bucs fans this evening.
“I think the energy could have been better,” Trotter said of the Bucs defense. “You know, some of the vets, they talked, especially after practice. They didn’t feel like that was the standard we should hold ourselves to, especially the body language part. It’s hot out here but you have to push pass that, you know have energy and create energy, try to make plays.”
And the offensive sideline energy was rather quiet, too, though Joe certainly saw some life in the Bucs’ special teams.
“It was good plays and bad plays, things we got to clean up as a defense,” Trotter added. “Our standard his high and tomorrow we have to do better.”
Baker Mayfield said of the day: “[The Jaguars] were playing with their hair on fire. I’ll say that. If this was a full game, I don’t think we would have come out on the winning side of it. A little eye-opening. Gotta go back and watch the tape. It’s never as good or as bad as you think it is. From my standpoint, they outphysicaled us. That’s never what you want to have.”
Mayfield added that the Bucs may not have wanted it more than Jacksonville today.