Buccaneers' Winning Culture Continues to Manifest Itself on the Field
When you are the losingest team in NFL history, it hurts.
Sure, two Super Bowl trophies help, but sustaining success is a tall task. I mean, there's a reason why it took the Bucs nearly 20 years to win their second Lombardi.
Bruce Arians was hired to remedy Tampa Bay's losing ways in 2019. But after going 7-9 in his first season with the Bucs, even his winning ways (he was 58-33-1 before taking over in Tampa Bay) were cast in a shadow of doubt as the Bucs dropped their last two games of the year and then-quarterback Jameis Winston threw for 30 interceptions in a single season for the first time since 1988.
Arians knew he had a roster stacked with talent. His team just needed to learn how to win. At the time, no one on the Bucs roster really knew how to accomplish that. Outside of Jason Pierre-Paul and Shaquil Barrett, maybe.
Enter Tom Brady. If anyone could mold a team like the Bucs into a winner -the franchise produced the NFL's third-worst record from 2009-2019- it was the six-time Super Bowl champ.
Sure enough, the Bucs went 11-5 and proceeded to win the Super Bowl.
"He's a winner, man," Arians said after Super Bowl LV. "That's all you can say. He brought a winning mentality to a really talented football team that didn't know how to win."
Now, those winning ways and that winning mentality continues to be put on display 14 weeks into Tampa Bay's title defense.
And guys like Breshad Perriman, who was with the Buccaneers in 2019, have noticed the change in just a matter of weeks.
"Oh, man. It's like night and day," Perriman told reporters after the game in regard to the culture and winning mentality that currently resides in Tampa Bay. "I feel like, for the most part, the guys who were here in 2019 when I was here, we always had confidence. But, I just feel like now it's a different swag, know what I'm sayin'? It's night and day."
"It's amazing, man. I was kind of just looking around at my different teammates and seeing everybody's reaction to having to go to overtime [and] nobody was worried, nobody really flinched. You can tell that confidence was at an all-time high and they knew we were going to get the job done."
Perriman's words ring true based off what the Bucs did against the Bills and what they have already done up to this point. They are tied for the fourth-most game-winning drives and are just one game-winning drive away from tying for the league lead. They are seventh in the NFL with two fourth quarter comebacks, as well.
They're also a franchise-best 10-3 and have a chance to finish out the season with the most wins in a single season if they reach the magical number of 13 wins.
Everywhere you look, the Bucs are winning. And they're winning big.
And per Arians, this winning culture isn't going away anytime soon.
"It's one team, one cause and whatever takes to win the championship," said Arians. "I think all our veteran players, the guys who have been here for years, they've all bought into how we do things and how we work and what's anticipated [from them]. The level of expectation every time they step out on the field. I think that's set in stone right now."
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