South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Arians not anticipating that stretch run will be easy road
TAMPA — Bruce Arians finds it laughable that anyone would suggest his Tampa Bay Buccaneers are entering an easy portion of their schedule, a four-game stretch with playoff implications that begins against the Minnesota Vikings.
A trio of teams that currently have non-winning records might stand between the Bucs (7-5) and their first postseason berth in 13 years. The surging Vikings (6-6) are nipping at their heels in a crowded NFC race.
After losing three of four to division title contenders entering last week’s bye, Arians said the Bucs certainly aren’t in a position to take any opponent for granted. Especially the Vikings, who’ve won five of six following a 1-5 start.
“Minnesota is one game behind us, and they’ll have the tiebreaker,” the coach said. “This is a huge game. We’re not looking by anybody, that’s for sure.”
The Bucs haven’t made the playoffs since 2007, the second-longest drought in the league behind Cleveland, which hasn’t earned a berth since 2002. Tom Brady was brought in this season to change Tampa Bay’s fortunes. The six-time Super Bowl champion said the focus down the stretch has to be on getting better each week and peaking at the right time as a team.
After facing the Vikings on Sunday, the Bucs will finish the regular season with road games against Atlanta and Detroit as well as a home date against the NFC South-rival Falcons.
“What you’ve got to do is have competitive stamina,” Brady said. “You’ve got to
have the ability to compete every day through whatever the situation might be. ... I know we all wish we were 12-0 at this point, [but] it’s not the reality. We haven’t deserved it. We haven’t played to that level.
“But what we have had is an opportunity to learn about each other, what things we’re productive at, what we haven’t been productive at. Hopefully now, having a week off, understanding how we need to approach these things going forward, we can play really our best football.
“That’s what December is all about.”
If the playoffs started this week, the Bucs would hold the sixth seed in the NFC. The Vikings are in the seventh — and final — spot, with games against remaining against Chicago, New Orleans and Detroit after Sunday.
While Arians has openly talked to his team about the
playoffs and the urgency to treat each outing down the stretch as if it were a postseason game, Minnesota coach Mike Zimmer has refrained from taking that approach with his players.
“Honestly, we’ve had to fight back so hard from where we started out to get in position to even mention the word playoffs,” Zimmer said.
“I’ve always kind of approached it like, ‘You know what? Let’s go out and put all our emphasis on this one particular game, and let’s count them all up at the end and see how that goes.’
“For a young football team like us, I don’t think it’s the way to go when we’re talking about a stretch of four games when if we don’t win a lot of these then it doesn’t matter anyway.”
Like the Bucs, though, the Vikings relish being in position to control their chances in the race.
Win every game, and they’re in.