Mea Culpa
September 22nd, 2014
Peter King confesses the error of his ways with the Bucs.
Time flies. It is amazing how quickly things change. A blink of the eye in this Internet-driven, smartphone-monitoring, news-by-Twitter-reading life we live.
What we think is sound one moment is folly seconds later. It is almost as if nations can rise and crumble in a matter of days.
Well, that is sort of what has happened with the Bucs. What looked to be a savvy choice for the playoffs by some has crumbled in hours. The Bucs are now a team spoken in the same sentence as the worst in the NFL, and the third week of the season is not yet complete.
There were many who dropped cash in Vegas thinking it was smart to bet the Bucs would win more than seven games. The one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo is one who made such a bet. He now uses the bet as a self-effacing punchline in his daily SiriusXM Radio show.
Another man who made such a prediction is Big Ten Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball box score-reading, NPR-listening, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training Peter King, of theMMQB.com and NBC Sports fame. He boasted far and wide that not only would the Bucs make the playoffs, but could challenge for a division title.
Now, King confesses, that prediction is aflame in the same burning dumpster that the Bucs’ 2014 season finds itself in, when noting that former Bucs assistant Herm Edwards predicted the Bucs would make the Super Bowl this season.
For the record, the former NFL coach picked a Bucs-Steelers Super Bowl. You are not alone in genius-dom, Herm. I picked the Bucs to make the playoffs.
Everyone expected the Bucs to do more — not less! — than last year. With bringing Lovie Smith on board and all the personnel changes, it seemed a new day was dawning on Tampa Bay.
Instead, we still smell the stench of that seal-clubbing last week in Atlanta.
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:38 pm
Many of us were fooled.
Now
Reality sets in
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:46 pm
The Glazers should be on the phone right talking to agents about what coaches will available in 2015. I hope they contact the coach at Texas A&M. He seems to know what the hell is doing. First Johnny Football and now Kenny Football.
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:47 pm
Still can finish 13-3.
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:50 pm
@theodore
Only if they move to the Big Ten.
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Is Brad Johnson available?
September 22nd, 2014 at 12:58 pm
i predicted an 8-8 season, but these guys saying playoffs and superbowls….
i know i smoke better shit then they do.
September 22nd, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Rastamon
Classic!!!!
September 22nd, 2014 at 1:38 pm
0-16
March for Marcus Mariota
Don’t rack up any meaningless wins and spoil this. PLEASE.
September 22nd, 2014 at 1:53 pm
While the thumping, by the Falcons, caused some temporary disillusionment, I have to agree with some (too few, maybe) posters that there are still 13 games left. The first two games were not ‘beat-downs’. Every team can have a let-down game. The calibre of this team leads to a bigger let down than others, a lot of teams have ‘one of those games’ every year or two(2013 Den over Phi 52-20 and Phi won their division. 2012 NYG over SF, AT SF 26-3 and SF played in that year’s Super Bowl)
With all the changes in players/coaches, it was foolish of frog-kissing, pool peeing, star gazing, Watson watching (whoops, wrong guy!), backseat driving, dinner belching Peter King to think the Bucs would miraculously be contenders (Herm was just being a ‘homer’). *If* the team can put this game behind them, they could surprise people just by winning 6-8 games. As I said in my preseason prediction, I’d be happy with 8 wins. Right now, I’d be even happier than I thought I’d be when I said that.
September 22nd, 2014 at 1:56 pm
As bad as Lovie has been, you cannot continue to fire coaches year after year. Go ahead and find me a team that has been successful doing that. If for nothing else, no available coach is going to want to take this job knowing that coaches get fired on a nearly annual basis. We have to stick with Lovie for three years. Had our last 2 hires not been so awful, maybe we could get away with 2 years, but we certainly cannot get rid of him after this year.
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:02 pm
We don’t have that much invested in “this wrong turn”…cut your losses….Lovie is a wet blanket….this is 2014 NFL Pin Ball Wizard NFL…..I’d sooner identify to top wizz bang young college coaches and give them 3 years to put the future on the field…..
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:04 pm
article on tampa website reads:
bucs, girl scouts join forces at one buc -.-
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:22 pm
Rasta… not much invested. They have two head coaches with many assistants under contract. These aren’t player contracts. They can’t just be voided. Emotionally, as fans we might not have much involved but they have Schiano at 3mil per year for the remainder of this and two seasons after, unless he gets another head coaching gig. And Lovie Smith, at 5mil per year for this season and three additional. So for the remainder of this and the next two years they have 8mil in coaches. Fire Lovie and hire another say for 4 mil… is not going to happen. Lovie has a minimum of three years. Lets total that for fun. For the next four years they have 29 mil guaranteed to coaches. That is a substantial investment for even the Glazers.
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:23 pm
Since the cancer underneath it all has been the atrocious talent evaluation the right thing to do is to take that away from Lovie. This means replacing his lapdog Licht with a GM that can do a better job of evaluating talent and has final say on what players are on the team. The talent eval and decision-making thus far has been an abject failure. Make Lovie just coach only or he can go too. The Buccaneers are a joke and a humiliation to the league. The worst team in football by a mile.
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Dallas…correct on the 1st have of the solution….need a New Age HC too…
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:36 pm
Lovie future is the same as his past…I’d gladly give 3 years to the best college young gun coaches that don’t know they can’t change to world…so they don’t try….than watch one more play call or game plan from Lovie….
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:36 pm
Dallas.. agreed on a new GM. That might be doable. New pro player personnel director and director of college scouting.
Lovie is here for a while. The only hope is that Tedford is given the authority to develop and utilize an offensive system that works given the players that he has. Frazier, that guy might be able to be let go as well, but I can think of 29 million reasons that Lovie will be here for a minimum of 3 years
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:49 pm
Simple math:
4-12 team
– good player
+ bad players
______________
0 – 3(4) start
September 22nd, 2014 at 2:53 pm
I just don’t understand how any defensive line can be that bad. Words can’t describe how AWFUL they played. Plus I didn’t see any defensive back even ATTEMPT to make a play on the ball. Lavonte David missed a would be tackle for a loss somehow. I don’t get it. How can any NFL defense be THIS bad!
September 22nd, 2014 at 3:40 pm
Hawaiian,
I find funny that you think Lovie should get 3 years and you feel it was time for Schiano to go after his 2nd season. Which was a dumpster fire to start, with the MRSA and a head case for a QB.
Schiano’s team actually had a chance to win 2 of his first 3 games with that dumpster fire. Love’s team not so much. Schiano’s hand picked QB will have more wins (4) last year than Lovie’s hand picked QB will have this year.
If the fighting Lovie’s go zero dash sixteen, he must be fired.
I
September 22nd, 2014 at 3:47 pm
well now you get what ye ask for, i am not sure but aren’t the glazers responsible to pay the remainder of shiano’s salary? at lets say five mill a year or what ever they paid him. i mean if they terminated his contract, would he not be owed the balance of the agreement, and did not they hire raheem ,who came dirt cheap after shit canning gruden.so they paid off the balance of grudens contract in yearly installments instead of one lump sum? is this how most your NFL owners do this? i do not know, but i am pretty confident that the glazers are not going to be on the hook for the balance of shiano’s contract and lovies, also all why paying another coach to come in and start again, thus actually paying the salary for three head coaches while two are not employed any longer by the club. so get used to your new coach he will be here a while before they can jettison his ass and put the next stooge in, it’s all profit and loss. and this organization does not lose on the balance sheet!!!!
September 22nd, 2014 at 4:07 pm
@ rdbucfan
Not trying to defend Lovie, but the facts are that Lovie was less than a TD away from winning his first game, and less than a FG away in his second. Schiano was ‘close’ on his first two games, and then blown up (23-3) on the third. So far, it’s a close contest.
I will say that a lot of the Buc’s issues, last year, were not under Schiano’s control (MRSA, Freeman meltdown), but Lovie doesn’t have those issues.
If a team goes 0-32 (two seasons) and clearly isn’t getting better, or if a team has lost faith in the HC, I can see letting go of a HC after two seasons. Otherwise, like Hawaiian Buc, I like to see coaches get, at least, three years. It takes time to get 53 players who are right for your kind of offense/defense. It may also take a couple years to get the assistants that he REALLY wants.
September 22nd, 2014 at 6:37 pm
Licht was at Arizona evaluating talent for the Cardinals. What do you know, they appear to be decent with good talent.
September 22nd, 2014 at 7:16 pm
Ahhhh, Peter King, the far-left-liberal nitwit. Of course his favorite station is NPR. If you don’t think he has an agenda behind his “articles,” you’re nuts….
September 22nd, 2014 at 10:38 pm
Hey I remember when Pat Yasinkas picked the Bucs to go 0-16 after he left Tampa for Charlotte. Dude had to eat crow for a long, long time after making such an asinine prediction; probably partially in part to ingratiate himself to his new Carolina readers….. Herm and King are looking just like Pat Y right now, except us Buc fans are not gloating like we were back in’03….