Hey there, Good morning Bucks fans. How's everyone doing? Casey Phillips Here, Senior writer and editor Scott Smith. It is time for Buccaneers Insider Live, presented by Miller Lite. This is our final one of this week. We will be back next week Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, but for now, these are the final questions for a little bit in terms of this week. So make sure you head on over if you're not already watching there onto our Facebook page.
You can leave your thoughts, comments, questions, all of that in the comment section underneath the live video. And as we give people a chance to start submitting some of those questions, I know a lot of them will be about injury updates, which is uh, sort of the pig stories leading up to the Super Bowl. Of course, we talked a little bit yesterday about why the injury reports are a little weird, and today is definitely a day
we need to remind everybody of that. So tell us what we know about what the entry report means and what the one that we have as of now says. Yeah, I'll just repeat the explanation from yesterday because it is in case you weren't watching, Uh, it is a weird procedure. Really, you're basically the two teams are producing injury reports this week as if there was a game this Sunday, January thirty one, even though there isn't one in the next time these two teams are gonna play is February seven.
So you go through the motions of acting as if there was a game on Sunday, and you you give the designations on the injury report that you would normally give, which means tomorrow, when the injury report comes out, there will be game status designations like out and doubtful and questionable. And like I said yesterday, I hope fans realize this because I don't want anybody to panic if, like say, and I'm just pulling out an example, this is not
something I know. Jordan Whitehead has lifted it out because if there was a game on Sunday, he wouldn't have been able to play. So just keep that in mind. Take all this with a grain assault realize that if you've got an injured player who you think you can get back within two weeks, you're probably taking it easy on him right now. So yesterday's injury report was the exact same as the day before, which isn't surprising because the injury report on Wednesday was just an estimation because
there was no actual practice. So the same guys Jordan's White had, Antoine Winfield, Davante David, Antonio Brown and JPP they all didn't practice yesterday. Yeah, and I think that it is so so good to remind everybody no panic necessary, There's not a reason to freak out. Um. We did have a question from Scott asking do you think Lavonte, David,
and Antoine Winfield will be healthy healthy for the Super Bowl? Um, it is still very early, I know, but just overall, what are some of the injuries that are you are either more or less concerned about at this point. Well, I'm not really overly concerned about any of them. But like I said last week, I really really don't like speculating about injuries and when a guy is going to come back, partially because I don't think I have a good track record on it. But um, I mean I
just go with the evidence that I have. That being they took Antoine Winfield with them to Green Bay, they actually worked him out on the field before the game. I think they were thinking it was more likely than not that he would play but it was just decided that he couldn't move around well enough. Uh so they didn't, you know, make up active for that game. But if he was that close, you certainly would think that two weeks later he'd be ready to go, barring any kind
of setback. Who's the other one, Lavante? Lavante is the more unusual of the of them, and that we didn't know he had an injury until Wednesday's injury report, and his is a hamstring. And if there's any injury that I don't feel comfortable about predicting it's a hamstring because those are very unpredictable. But my guess, I guess I would The way I would put it is that they're just taking it very carefully with Lavante and that when it's all said and done, he'll be playing in the
super Bowl. And we certainly all want that because that man has waited a long time for this moment. Yeah, it's it's it's such a huge point. I really am hoping that of all people you do not want to miss, both from an impact on the field and from just a personal standpoint, it would be him. Um. And speaking of just the injury reports and practice, UM, we had some interesting, you know, comments and news from coach yesterday
about how practices are gonna go. We've seen some different questions of you know, are they act to seeing harder or less hard or how does that work when you do have two weeks leading up to the super Bowl and it is at the end of the season. Yeah, and I did find it a little bit interesting, um what the approach is going to be. I think we maybe were asked about this yesterday, and I thought that they might take it a little bit easy, and they
certainly did on Thursday. But that's that's less of a super Bowl thing and more of a late in the season thing. Most of the week's leading up to the end of the season. In the beginning of the playoffs, they were doing a walkthrough on Wednesday, just because it's been a long, grueling season and these guys don't need to be worked too hard. However, coach said they were going to ramp it up and go full speed today
and tomorrow. Um, which so today's Friday, I remember that correctly. Uh, Friday and Saturday's practices are the equivalent of what it would usually be Thursday and Friday. Because they pushed the schedule by one day, and he said they are going to go full speed in those practices. And the reason is they want to get all of the games plan
installed this week. And they want to do that coaches because next week there are so many media obligations that he's just a little bit worried about the time and and all the you know, being attention being torn in a bunch of different directions. So they want to have the game plan installed this week and they're gonna go
full speed. And I can tell you when you go to practice now and you drive up towards the indoor facility and then walk out on the practice field the parking lot, there is now a sea of tents and those tents are like various networks and so on that are going to be getting um interviews with players over the next I don't know however many days that you know, there's gonna be a lot of obligations. Guys are gonna
be going from one to the next. So you know they would be doing that anyway in a super Bowl city next week. Uh So it's it's what you have to do it for a super Bowl. But it is kind of remarkable to see all the obligations they have to do. Yeah, that's a very good point. Um. We had a question from Richard. He said, the scores in the playoffs have been remarkably similar. If we score thirty points again, it will be enough to win the game. You know, not only are they similar, thirty one thirty
and thirty one thirty and thirty one we scored. Um, we scored thirty point eight points per game during the regular season, so to basically match that is kind of kind of interesting, I think. And uh, just a little note if I haven't mentioned it before, that's the first time that a team has ever scored thirty plus points in three straight playoff games, which I found surprising when I looked it up. But it's true. Uh do we do? I think we need to score thirty to win? It
makes sense. I mean, Kansas City scored about twenty nine point six points per game, and they have a quarterback who proved last year that even if they're down by two scores, he could lead them back. So I think, yeah, I think thirty points is probably what it's going to take, if not a little bit more. Right, Yeah, we made for a pretty exciting super Bowl, you have to admit. Yeah, I think that is a really good point. And I
love that. You know, I heard, um Romo did his media availability yes day, and you know, he and Jim Nanson, the ones calling the games, and Romo talked about how this is a game that he feels like people will be talking to their kids and grandkids about that it's that kind of an iconic quarterback matchup and offenses that you know, this is not going to be a boring Super Bowl. Um. So yeah, I thought that was kind
of an interesting way to put it. Yeah, the quarterback matchup is incredible, maybe the most intriguing one in Super Bowl history. And that sounds like hyperbole, but it's definitely
up there. Um. You know, either Patrick Mahomes is going to be the first quarterback ever to win two Super Bowls by the age of right now, the earliest was Tom Brady by the age of or Tom Brady is going to become the first player in any of the four major North American sports to win two titles, to win tiles with two different teams after the age of forty and both of those would be remarkable achievements and one of them is definitely gonna happen. Yeah, that's very true. Um,
And we know that in the media as well. What was talked about yesterday was this idea of when the turning point was for the Bucks. That's something that Brady has been asked about a lot, all all sorts of people on the team have been asked, when was the point that you felt like everything started to click? And it's been sort of interesting to hear that the different answers uh that that you've heard from people recently. What have you learned about that and what it says about
why this team is it is now. Yeah, before everybody started talking about this, UM, I would have obviously pointed to the bye week and coming out of the bye week because every they've won every game since then, and a lot of things like the deep passing game have been so much better since then. But I have and it's it's interesting to note that UM hearing Bruce Arians and Jason Light in particular talk about it, they really feel like the Chicago game was, if not the turning point,
a turning point. And for anybody who needs a reminder, that was Week five, first primetime game at Chicago, UM and the Bucks lost twenty to nineteen, and I think they committed something like eleven penalties for a hundred nine yards. Um, you know, had some turnovers, just hurt themselves, you know, you know, was it was very close. I think it was twenty nineteen and an extremely close game. They hurt themselves a lot and and left that one feeling like
they should have won it. And there's a lot of people who want to tribute that turn to Tom Brady being seen on the sidelines sort of being very um demonstrative and just one of those moments that you could see of the leadership that all his teams teammates talk about. But Bruce Arian says it had nothing to do with that. It had to do with them coming back and looking at the film and realizing that they let one get
away because they beat themselves. And ever since then, the Bucks have beat themselves a lot less, a lot fewer turnovers, a lot fewer penalties, and so that was a turning point. I guess you could say, yeah, that's an interesting point. Um, And Dave asked, is Mike Evans going to be the main target in the game? Well, you can never you can never really predict that in the Bucks offense. I mean, seriously, I guess Chris Godden was the main target in the
last game, right. The only thing I would I would say is I don't think Kansas City necessarily has a guy that they will use as a shutdown corner like UM New Orleans does with Mike on marsh with Marshall Lattimore, and which Green Bay did a little bit with JayR Alexander when he was on that side. Um they keep Kansas City tends to keep their cornerbacks on the same side,
and their cornerbacks are good. Obviously they're in the Super Bowl, but maybe not at the Jaire Alexander level, so it might be a little bit less of might getting shut down because the other team is determined to shut him
down this week, so it could be sure. Richard asked, who do you think would win the two thousand two Bucks or well, you know, I'm gonna have to go with the O two Bucks, just because the Buccaneers probably are a more balanced team this this year with uh, you know, one of the best offenses in the league, probably the best offense we've ever had, and a good defense. But that defense UH in two thousand two was legendary.
It was loaded with Hall of famers or perhaps soon to be Hall of Famers, and it's of the four sides offense, defense in those two games, that one defense is so far ahead and above shoulders everything else that I have to go with that one just because it was so special. But I'd love to be proven wrong. W'd be wonder if you could, if you could actually have that game, would be awesome. Yeah, that would be incredible.
Um Jose asked if the Bucks win the Super Bowl, who would be the m v P. Do you think of this season because you don't know who's gonna be the MVP of the Super Bowl. Well, I think he's probably asking about the game. But if you can do both if you want, Well, okay, So what we know about m vps in the Super Bowl is if the quarterback, if you win in the quarterback has at least a pretty good game, he's almost always gonna be the m v P. Tom Brady already has four of them in
the six times that they won. If the quarterback is unremarkable, usually it goes to whoever was the best offensive player. Um, so it could be somebody like Mike Evans or Leonard four Nett. If it's not either of those guys, um, and it's defense, it has to be something incredible like Dexter Jackson's too. Game changing interceptions won him that one in a game where it was hard to pick out
who was the best offensive player. So if the if the kind of offenses kind of evened out and everybody contributes, maybe a defensive player could step in there. But the obvious answer is Brady, and I would also go with Tom Brady as the m v P of the regular season. Right Uh? And David asked uh, he said, the Chiefs have a bottom ten run defense. We were effective running on Green Bay, but seemed to bandon it a little bit more in the second half. Do you guys see
us sticking to the run this game? I don't know if we really abandoned it. We just had three drives that ended early because of interceptions. Um, you know, I don't think we really And there was some runs. Ronald Jones had a series of runs that weren't particularly effective, not necessarily his fault, maybe the blocking wasn't there. But I don't think we abandoned the run in that game. But I do think we tend to if we're gonna start running the ball earlier like we did in that game.
It's one of the reasons is to set up the pass and so, um, I agree with him. The Chiefs have a bottom tin running game and the Buccaneers running attack has been averaging a hundred fifteen yards per game in the playoffs, and the Chiefs are allowing six yards per carrying the playoffs, which is pretty bad. So you certainly look at that and think that's an opportunity for the Bucks and I would I would see us starting
with that at the very least. But as I've said every time we talked about the running game, the Buccaneers have such a wealth of talent in the passing game that it's it's kind of ridiculous to think they're gonna go to any game thinking they're not gonna you know, air it out they are, right yeah, Um, And then we'll close with this one. We had a few different people asking about just the way to uh slow down
Tyreek Hill? Um, you know that? What what are the adjustments you think that they make from that first game? Who do you think will be covering him in you know, man verse zone? How all that's gonna look. Yeah, that obviously wasn't the game that looked the best for Carlton Davis in what was a very good season for Carlton Davis. I still think he's the man um to cover Tyreek as much as possible, but maybe there is a little
more help this time. You know. Again, as we talked about this all the time, Todd Bowls is going to mix things up. I don't think he's gonna play all press. I don't think he's gonna play all off. Um. I don't think he's gonna play all man or his own. I think he'll mix it up and try to confuse the quarterback and make him think it's one thing when it's actually the other thing. Um. But I do think Carlton Davis on Tyreek Hill will be an incredibly important
matchup in this game. All right, Well that's gonna do it for us. On Buccaneers and Side Live presented by Miller Lyte. Thanks for joining us. We will be back here next week Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get you guys ready for everything you need to know going into the Super Bowl. We'll see you then. M H.