Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles was looking forward to the team’s bye week; with a host of players injured and banged up, it was a chance to reset.

The long-time NFL coach stated that he wanted his team to use the bye to freshen up and recalibrate so that they could focus on what they needed to do to get better and attack the second half of the season.

So, how did Bowles feel about how his team handled the bye week?

“It was good for them to get the week off mentally and step back and see the things we can do better and see the things as coaches and players we can do better,” Bowles said. “I thought they handled it well.”

Now, the time has come to put what the locker room learned during the bye week into practice against the New York Giants.

Sitting at 4-6, time is quickly running out for the Buccaneers to put themselves into playoff contention, and when things are this urgent, sometimes, players can get caught looking too far ahead, and that can be detrimental to the team.

But Bowles knows how he wants his team to handle the next seven games.

“Just be in the moment,” Bowles added. “We can’t look ahead we can’t look behind us we can only correct what’s going on today we can correct tomorrow, tomorrow so just be in the moment take care of what we got to take care of and take it day by day.”

The Buccaneers have a favorable schedule with the Giants and Carolina Panthers up first after the bye, and it will be a great chance for Bowles’ team to build some positive momentum in the search for playoff football.

But they must account for the lowly Giants first, and with Bowles preaching to be in the moment, the Buccaneers aren’t looking further ahead than New York.