OT loss to Bucs “definitely, definitely hurts”

Veteran wideout Adam Thielen is one of the old heads here, a guy who has seen teams rise and fall. So he was asked the simple next question to the constant assertion that they need to learn to win.

“You keep playing,” he replied. “You keep gaining experience as a team, the same personnel, a lot of the same players, and you just keep thinking about how you can get better, right? Can we do better in the red zone? Can we do a better job of getting stops? That’s it. Just free football, right?

“I feel like we’ve done a really good job of complementary football over the last few weeks, something we haven’t been able to do for most of the season. So this is a good step in the right direction. But here too you just have to do it.” Do the same in crunch time.

The signs are there too. Young threw for 298 yards and a touchdown and ran for another. He was only released once. No one asked Dave Canales if he would start next week because it seems like there was no need to be asked.

“No, I don’t think so,” Thielen said with a laugh.

Add to that Thielen’s eight catches for 99 yards and her four sacks of Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield – they now have nine in the last two weeks, after 12 in the first 10 – and the signs of progress are clearly there.

And because they can see them and get a feel for where they’re going, it hurts even more when they see the other team celebrating in their building.