Are Buccaneers playing with the mental handbrake on?

Adam Schultz

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Are Buccaneers playing with the mental handbrake on? image

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are doing exactly what you don't want to be doing ahead of a potential playoff run -- losing games.

After just one win in their last six outings, there could be a case to be made that now the mental demons have taken hold of Todd Bowles' team.

Center Graham Barton stated the team needs to play "free" to get out of this current predicament, and right now, they don't look like they are playing free.

But what does Bowles think?

“We play best when we're executing,” Bowles said. “There's nothing wrong with our mental state. We got to execute and finish plays at the end. It's football. It's a game we've been playing since we were children, we've grown up now to play professional ball.

"When you lose, you try to come up with different things and everything else like that, but at the end of the day, you got to work hard and execute.”

More: Todd Bowles has eye-opening quote on Bucs' biggest enemy in playoff push

Do Bucs have mental handbrake applied?

Losing six of your last seven games and seeing the lead in the division evaporate would certainly be on the Buccaneers' minds. And hearing Barton say the team needs to play free, it sounds like the team is a little caught up in its own predicament.

With two games left and somehow the Buccaneers control their own destiny, there is time to get themselves out of this hole. But playing free isn't something that comes easy. It isn't a switch you can flick.

And right now, maybe the Buccaneers are prisoners in their own minds with the gravity of their situation taking hold.

Play free. It sounds simple, but it is a tough thing to do. 

Especially when you have lost your last three games on the bounce.

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Contributing Writer