{"id":363092,"date":"2025-12-22T05:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363092\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T05:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T05:04:10","slug":"two-crushing-special-teams-screwups-before-final-drive-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363092\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Crushing Special Teams Screwups Before Final Drive – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tTwo Crushing Special Teams Screwups Before Final Drive
\nDecember 21st, 2025 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An diehard optimist might say the Bucs straightened out their horrific and undisciplined special teams unit that was hurting the team early this season.<\/p>\n

Joe can\u2019t say that. Just look at what happened today before the final Bucs drive.<\/p>\n

The Panthers kicked off to the Bucs with 2 minutes and 20 seconds remaining after a field goal put Carolina up 23-20. In a brain-freeze move, kick returner Sean Tucker did not catch the kickoff. It bounced near the 2 yard line \u2014 inside the \u201clanding zone\u201d \u2014 and went into the end zone. That meant an old school touchback was in effect, so the Bucs would get the ball at the 20 yard line.<\/p>\n

Catch the damn ball! A typical kickoff this season is brought out to about the 28 yard line.<\/p>\n

But it gets worse.<\/p>\n

Rookie linebacker John Bullock was called for a personal foul on the play \u2014 a play that bounced into the friggin\u2019 end zone. The FOX broadcast cameras caught Bullock head-butting a Panthers player. The penalty, of course, was half the distance to the goal line. So Baker Mayfield and the offense started at the 10 yard line.<\/p>\n

What happens if Tucker and Bullock don\u2019t lose their minds on special teams and start at, say, the 28 yard line? Oh, well.<\/p>\n

Is there any reason to think the Bucs are a well-coached football team?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Crushing Special Teams Screwups Before Final Drive December 21st, 2025 An diehard optimist might say the Bucs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[5961,5960,349,99,1824],"class_list":{"0":"post-363092","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-bucs-message-boards","9":"tag-bucs-news","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}