Bowles says the resilient Buccaneers still trying to establish an identity

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Bowles says the resilient Buccaneers still trying to establish an identity

2024-10-15 06:05 Last Updated At：06:20

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 4-2 and tied for first place in the NFC South.

Six weeks into the season, they're also still establishing an identity.

“Right now, it's just resiliency,” coach Todd Bowles said Monday, reflecting on a week in which the Bucs evacuated from Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton, spent five days in New Orleans preparing to play the Saints and then rebounded from a poor second quarter to rout their division rivals 51-27.

“Us coming back and forming toughness in the second half and learning off our mistakes,” Bowles continued. “If we can eliminate the penalties and eliminate shooting ourselves in the foot — which we are cutting down more and more — I think we have a chance to be a very good team.”

The offense has put up 30 or more points four times this season after having difficulty getting into the end zone much of the past two years.

The defense has been one of the NFL's stingiest since Bowles joined the Bucs as defensive coordinator in 2019. However, it hasn't been nearly as reliable through six games this year.

Part of that can be attributed to injuries. And if Sunday's lopsided win over New Orleans is any indication, that trend figures to turn for the better with All-Pro safety Antonie Winfield Jr. (foot) and second-year defensive lineman Calijah Kancey (calf) back in the lineup.

Winfield, sidelined four games after being injured in the closing minutes of the season opener, picked up a fumble and returned it 58 yards on the Saints' first possession. Kancey started Sunday after being inactive the first five games and finished with two tackles — both for losses — as well as a sack and a quarterback hit.

“With Win and Kancey back, the defense definitely felt it. You felt Kancey up front. You felt Winfield in the back end,” Bowles said. “You felt the confidence that they rose to a different level, especially in the second half.”

A 17-0 lead dissolved into a 27-24 halftime deficit, with the Saints returning a punt for a touchdown and Baker Mayfield throwing three interceptions in the second quarter.

Mayfield wound up 24 of 36 passing for 325 yards and four touchdowns. But the Bucs only threw the ball six times in the second half while rushing for all but 57 of their season-high 277 yards on the ground.

Tampa Bay outscored New Orleans 27-0 after halftime, finishing with a franchise single-game record with 594 yards of offense.

Bowles said the team is benefiting from learning it's capable of winning in a variety of ways.

“It helps us mature faster,” the coach said.

“Last year, it took us a couple of losses in a row before we could bounce back off of these things. This year, we’re learning from our mistakes that week and we correct our mistakes, and they go out the next week and they execute it,” Bowles added. “From a maturity standpoint, it says that we’re growing faster.”

The offense is averaging 29.6 points per game, up from 20.4 last season. The rushing attack is improving after finishing last in the NFL each of the past two seasons. With second-year pro Sean Tucker and rookie Bucky Irving leading the way, Tampa Bay averaged 7.9 yards per per carry on 35 attempts against the Saints.

The Bucs have yielded 27 or more points three times — twice against rookie quarterbacks — after having a top-10 scoring defense a year ago.

Tucker had just 17 career carries for 30 yards before joining Irving in filling in for the injured Rachaad White against the Saints. In addition to rushing for 136 yards and a TD on 14 attempts, he also scored on a 36-yard reception. Irving, who's second on the depth chart, had a 31-yard TD run and finished with 81 yards rushing on 14 attempts.

“For guys to be able to step in and play like that? That's more than just the next man up mentality,” Mayfield said.

While there's no indication White (foot) has lost his starting job, Bowles acknowledged Tucker has earned an opportunity to try help White and Irving create a “three-headed monster” at running back.

A third starter, RT Luke Goedeke (concussion), joined Winfield and Kancey in returning to the lineup at New Orleans. CB Jamel Dean (hamstring) was injured against the Saints. Bowles did not provide a detailed injury update on Monday, noting: “There are still some guys nicked up. Everybody hasn’t come in yet, so we don’t have a final report.”

15 — Mayfield leads the NFL with 15 touchdown passes through six games. That's the second-most by a Tampa Bay quarterback through the first six games of a season. Tom Brady had 17 at that point in 2021.

Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Raymond James Stadium next Monday night.

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Death toll in attack on Christmas market in Germany rises to 5 and more than 200 injured

2024-12-21 20:17 Last Updated At：20:20

MAGDEBURG, Germany (AP) — Germans on Saturday mourned both the victims and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people, including a small child, and wounding at least 200 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack in Magdeburg on Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Magdeburg. officials said.

The state governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters that the death toll rose to five from a previous figure of two and that more than 200 people in total were injured.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that nearly 40 of them "are so seriously injured that we must be very worried about them.”

Several German media outlets identified the suspect as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Mourners lit candles and placed flowers outside a church near the market on the cold and gloomy day. Several people stopped and cried. A Berlin church choir whose members witnessed a previous Christmas market attack in 2016 sang Amazing Grace, a hymn about God's mercy, offering their prayers and solidarity with the victims.

There were still no answers Saturday as to what motivated the man to drive his black BMW into a crowd in the eastern German city.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, the suspect shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.

He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Haseloff said Friday that authorities believed the man acted alone.

The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.

Germany has suffered a string of extremist attacks in recent years, including a knife attack that killed three people and wounded eight at a festival in the western city of Solingen in August.

Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Chancellor Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser traveled to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening. Faeser ordered flags lowered to half-staff at federal buildings across the country.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

Thi Linh Chi Nguyen, a 34-year-old manicurist from Vietnam whose salon is located in a mall across from the Christmas market, was on the phone during a break when she heard loud bangs and thought at first they were fireworks. She then saw a car drive through the market at high speed. People screamed and a child was thrown into the air by the car.

Shaking as she described the horror of what she witnessed, she recalled seeing the car bursting out of the market and turning right onto Ernst-Reuter-Allee street and then coming to a standstill at the tram stop where the suspect was arrested.

The number of injured people was overwhelming.

“My husband and I helped them for two hours. He ran back home and grabbed as many blankets as he could find because they didn’t have enough to cover the injured people. And it was so cold," she said.

The market itself was still cordoned off Saturday with red-and-white tape and police vans every 50 meters (yards). Police with machine pistols guarded every entry to the market. Some thermal security blankets still lay on the street.

Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.

Aboubakr reported from Cairo and Gera from Warsaw, Poland. Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.