‘It’s Tremendous Bowl or nothing’ for Tampa Bay in 2022

Forty times and 40 evenings with out Tom Brady ended up extra than adequate for the Buccaneers to attain point of view.

“It truly is Tremendous Bowl. Correct now, it is really Tremendous Bowl or very little,” linebacker Devin White stated Wednesday. “We know that. I will say that in entrance of all the cameras. That is the only goal. That is what we want. That is what we soon after. We know we’re not there nevertheless because it’s a extensive season, prolonged way to go. But that is what we’re fighting for.”

White was a catalyst to Tampa Bay’s championship operate two seasons in the past. The Pro Bowl LB burst onto the scene throughout the 2020 playoffs, when the Bucs won 3 street playoff game titles on their way to a Super Bowl LV victory.

Tampa had a good opportunity at repeating in 2021, profitable the NFC South with relieve and earning a house start off for one more would-be Tremendous Bowl operate. The eventual Tremendous Bowl-champion Rams dashed people hopes in thrilling fashion with a very last-2nd victory towards the gifted Bucs protection in the Divisional Round.

The heartbreaking loss loomed amid a roller-coaster offseason for White and the Bucs, which provided Brady’s retirement and unretirement.

“It took a prolonged time,” White reported of acquiring in excess of the playoff loss to L.A. “I just realized, I stored telling everyone in the locker home whoever acquire this game gonna win the Tremendous Bowl simply because we both experienced good stability of offense and protection. When we was in the locker space — male, if they experienced cameras in there — they could tell you, I explained to them we coming back again, we gonna arrive again. The ball gonna eventually go our way, and it did. I think we capitalized on it, but at the conclusion, it was just one missed option. Certainly, cannot dwell on it, but it really is gas to the hearth for this 12 months.”

The Bucs will have a likelihood at revenge compared to the Rams in 7 days 9 this year, and it could be seemed at as a required hump to get more than through their journey towards another Super Bowl look in February 2023.

“I constantly acquired that one circled,” White said. “We under no circumstances defeat them. I unquestionably know that. We never ever defeat them. There was a excellent time to beat them when it truly, seriously mattered. But we want to acquire every single game, we want to just present ourselves that we are better.”

The Bucs are not taking for granted the availability of their 7-time Super Bowl champion quarterback just after this offseason. Brady has taken them to the promised land after just before, and his Tampa teammates are motivated to choose him there after once more in get to correctly bookend the most completed vocation in NFL history.

“If it his last journey,” linebacker Shaquil Barrett mentioned Wednesday, “I want to deliver him out on the prime of the mountain.”

To arrive at that mountain, the Bucs will have to beat teams like the Rams and Saints, against whom they are 1-7, such as the postseason, since Brady joined the team. These 7 losses account for all but three of Tampa Bay’s defeats considering that 2020.

“The initial issue when I talked to mentor (Todd Bowles) when he grew to become the head mentor is the groups that we shed to,” White explained, “we need to have to find a way and we want to emphasize on what we will not do when we engage in them, what we don’t do effectively, and we need to have to get above that hump.”