There's something special about this Bucs defense, for crying out loud Examining the outpouring of emotion from the Bucs following their gritty 20-16 win over the Lions Sunday is all that was needed to understand the cauldron of pressure the series has become. Playing with the second-youngest team in the NFL that was missing several starters on defense and lost defensive tackle Vita Vea to what is believed to be an MCL sprain (he'll undergo tests Monday) halfway through the game, Tampa Bay needed not one, but two stops on defense in the final minute to beat one of the Super Bowl favorites and silence raucous Ford Field. This was the Lions team that ended the Bucs' 2023 season, beating Tampa Bay twice, including here in a division-round playoff game. Lavonte David, the oldest player on the team at 34, reached the door of the locker room Sunday and screamed, "How 'bout them Bucs?!" Inside the elevator on the way down to celebrate with his team, general manager Jason Licht was visibly shaking and fighting back tears. "Let me know who they are, and I'll fine them," Todd Bowles said, smiling. "There's no crying in football." Perhaps not, but the Bucs have had to deal with more than their share of painful injuries the first two weeks. Tampa Bay entered Sunday's game missing All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr., defensive tackle Calijah Kancey and right tackle Luke Goedeke - which turned out to be maybe the biggest loss of all, considering the Lions' Aidan Hutchinson had 4½ sacks, including three in the first quarter off backup Justin Skule. But the Bucs battled with ascending players such as safety Christian Izien, linebacker SirVocea Dennis and defensive tackles C.J. Brewer and Mike Greene, who were promoted from the practice squad. There will be lots of talk this week about the heroics of quarterback Baker Mayfield, who passed for one touchdown and ran for another. But he only had a dozen completions Sunday, seven to receiver Chris Godwin for 117 yards and a TD. For goodness sakes, the Lions outgained the Bucs in total yards 463-216, ran nearly twice as many offensive plays (83-47) and held the ball for eight more minutes. But both Izien and cornerback Zyon McCollum intercepted Lions quarterback Jared Goff, and Dennis rallied with Jordan Whitehead to make huge stops on third and fourth down at the Buc 11- and 6-yard lines. The Lions were only 1 of 7 in the red zone, including a botched attempt to run the field goal team onto the field late, drawing a penalty that ran off the final 3 seconds of the first half. "There's no way to justify this," Lions coach Dan Campbell said. "It's a massive error on my part, no one else's, and it was just between hurry-up field goal and clocking it. And it was 100% my fault" So, what is it about this Bucs team that is so impressive? Some of it is youthful exuberance, to be sure. Young teams make mistakes, but they practice and play fast, and that's what the Bucs defense has done. "For us as a defense, we were just going to attack," McCollum said. "Every single snap. If they make a play, just get to the next snap. If we make a play, get to the next snap. And everyone shares a collective mindset to attack every single play, every single ball, every single time." Bowles was careful to walk the line between celebration and caution. He knows the Bucs started 2023 by winning three of their first four games, then dropped six of the next seven. "We showed a lot of fight," Bowles said. "That's a great team over there. ... They were a little undermanned, and we were a little undermanned. That got us to 2-0. My message was enjoy tonight. Enjoy the flight back. Grade the tape tomorrow morning." Two plays on defense preserved the win. Fourth and 8 at the Tampa Bay 11. Goff passed to Jahmyr Gibbs in the left flat, and he was swallowed up by Whitehead and Izien for a gain of 5 yards, allowing the Bucs to take over at the 6. The Bucs were unable to get a first down. Worse yet, Mayfield's third-down pass was batted down, stopping the clock with 42 seconds and preserving a timeout for the Lions. The Lions drove to the Tampa Bay 26, and Goff spiked the football to kill the clock with 14 seconds. He threw incomplete twice to Jameson Williams. Then Goff's fourth-down pass fell short to receiver Tom Kennedy. "I thought they did a heck of a job," Bowles said. "All the underneath guys. Lavonte, SirVocea, K.J. (Britt). You know, they get a lot of yards after the catch, and we tried to limit it as much as we can. (Amon-Ra) St. Brown is a hell of a receiver. They've got a lot of guys that catch and run over there, including Gibbs. For the most part, we got them on the ground. We missed a few, but we made the play at the end." Remember how last season ended? Remember Gibbs racing 31 yards for a touchdown to break a 17-17 tie early in the fourth quarter? This Bucs defense is faster, more athletic, certainly more youthful and disciplined. Also, deeper. "It's unlike how it's been since I've been here," McCollum said. "Guys are talking to each other in the huddle. We're hyping each other up. Nobody is down. Everybody is in attack, attack, attack mode. It doesn't matter if you're in a bad situation or a good situation. Everybody is picking everybody up. We're going to the next play. "We view ourselves as a championship team, and that's our mindset. Shoot for the skies. Everything that we do, production-wise, team-bonding wise. We give 100 on the field, so it feels really good. We'll have a great ride home and get ready for the Broncos." Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times, published 16 September 2024