‘I want to get up and keep moving and fight again’: Bucs eager to bounce back against Titans

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Buccaneers are onto the next game, preparing for the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, but that doesn’t mean some losses – and particular plays – don’t linger a little longer than their 24-hour rule.

“We just had a break-down game,” said Bucs’ cornerback Carlton Davis III. “We are a much better group. I’m a much better player. We’re a much better defense than what we displayed on Sunday. Like I said – it hurts to the core. It’s something that you can never really forget about. Even maybe like a year from now, I’ll probably just have a nightmare like, ‘Whoa, that happened’ cause it did, and it hurts. Because we have those standards, because we have the way we carry ourselves as a defense, that’s why it hurts so bad.”

But from that comes motivation.

“It’s a part of life,” Davis III said. “It happened, and you got to own up to it. We’re not going to shy away from what happened. We’re not going to shy away from attacking. We’re not going to stop trying to be the best defense. Like it happened, let’s go! It’s a part of the game – the ups and downs. Love it or leave it, right? So we’re either going to fold like a lawn chair, or we’re going to get up and keep moving, and that’s where I’m at with it. I want to get up and keep moving and fight again.”

Tackling the Titans: Bucs look to end 4-game skid against Tennessee, rookie quarterback

Head coach Todd Bowles said that the takeaway was: finish the game.

Putting together a complete game for the defense includes improving the pass rush. Right now, the Bucs are tied for 17th in the NFL in quarterback sacks (21), but that’s not the main emphasis for Bowles.

“Some of them are disrupting the quarterback,” Bowles said. “Sometimes the ball comes out, and it’s just your luck when you beat a guy the ball comes out. We can rush the passer better. It’s not so much the sacks I’m worried about, as it is the quarterback disruption. We can all be better. We got to be better than the last game. We need to be better this week.”

“For us, we just got to get to him and get to him early,” said Bucs’ outside linebacker Yaya Diaby. “We get to him early and just get a couple hits on him; it’ll slow him down, and his reads will be less and less efficient.”

The Bucs will be working to disrupt a rookie quarterback for the second-straight week in Will Levis, who the Titans just named their starter moving forward on Tuesday.

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