“Kyle Is Our Kicker”
September 28th, 2015
Bucs K Kyle Brindza hangs his head after one of his four misses yesterday. Lovie Smith had his back.
Bucs fans who had children play high school or college soccer were in a frenzy last night trying to find the e-mail address of Bucs AC/DC-loving general manager Jason Licht, so they can get their offspring a tryout.
These same fans thought the Bucs would run kicker Kyle Brindza for gagging on 10 potential points yesterday. And 10 points was also the difference in the Sunday’s loss to the Texans..
Well, Bucs coach Lovie Smith has words for these helicopter parents: Get a life. Lovie declared yesterday after the game there will be no change.
“Kyle is our kicker,” Lovie asserted. “He, like a lot of us, had a disappointing day. You are going to have off days. This was an off day. When a player has an off day, we need to rally around them in many other ways. That’s what we weren’t able to do today.”
Well, time will tell just how strongly Lovie supports Brindza, who has had two off days in a row, yesterday being nightmarish. Lovie doesn’t have a lot of rope to let wins slide away.
Perhaps if Lovie keeps Brindza for a period of time, and Brindza continues to have the yips, it may say more about Lovie’s job security than it does about Brindza’s abilities.
To hear more from Lovie, click the arrow below. Audio from Joe’s friends at WDAE-AM 620.
September 28th, 2015 at 6:06 am
#firelovienow
#GoBucs
September 28th, 2015 at 6:28 am
Kyle beat the Saints, but lost yesterday. Why do we depend on a kicker so much? Stale offense? Why can’t we score TDs? Terrible 3rd down conversion rate? We’ve got more problems than just Kyle.
September 28th, 2015 at 6:39 am
“Kyle is our kicker”
“Lovie is our coach”
“its as simple as that”
See the connection!!!!
September 28th, 2015 at 6:41 am
The stay the course attitude when it’s not working should be a serious sign to ownership. Lovie does not adapt to the current situation. Kicker continues to miss just keep trotting him out there.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:04 am
Yeah, but everyone was telling me that this guy could hit from 70 yards…..kinda like the guy who kills the driver 340 but can’t make the three-foot putt!
September 28th, 2015 at 7:21 am
Nice try….blaming it on the kicker…..you have to ask yourself…..why are we having to kick so many field goals?
September 28th, 2015 at 7:27 am
How was this an off day twice in a row Joe? Yesterday was the first negative I have seen of this kicker.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:32 am
To the people whuning about us not scoring touchdowns in those situations, what does it matter? What does it matter if we score a touchdown if this kid cant even make an extra point. He was horrible at notre dame so lovie thought he would be magically good in the NFL. Bring back pat murray or barth. Idc if they missed in practice and preseason, I know what they can do in games.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:52 am
Field goals do matter by the way, they are part of the game for a reason and many games have been won and lost on field goals in the history of the NFL!!! Everyone making excuses for the kicker are seriously kidding themselves. The Bucs would have had a better chance of winning that game or going into OT had those kicks been made.
September 28th, 2015 at 7:55 am
Yeah, many feel sorry for Brindza because he overcame chilhood issues with his foot and became an NFL kicker who can kick long field goals. I’m for giving him another chance but the whole ordeal seems kind of well, soap opera ish.
September 28th, 2015 at 8:29 am
Rookie.
He is one of 4 starting rookies on the Bucs this year.
Bout you gotta love the sound when the ball hits the uprights. Worlds largest tuning fork.
BONG!!!!!!!!!!!
September 28th, 2015 at 8:38 am
Look, I said it before we even played the Titans…we suck! I know what I saw in preseason, and they destroyed us. I said after the Saints game that if it hadnt been for Brindza and the takeaways, we wouldve lost that one (and thats a horrible team right now).
We won the Saints game because of him, but we lost this one, NOT just because of him, but because WE SUCK! You cant rely on your kicker for everything. Its Coaching and scheme and SUCK-AS players! Other than about 8 players on both sides of the ball, THEY SUCK!
We might win 3 games.
BOSA! BOSA! BOSA!
September 28th, 2015 at 8:43 am
He’s a Rookie, Rookie’s have bad days!
It’s our non rookie coach that concerns me.
September 28th, 2015 at 9:30 am
Why does the kicker get a pass because he is a rookie? Are you f*cking kidding me? All the kickers in the NFL have been kicking forever. Its not like its his first attempt at kicking a football. The Bucs always look unprepared across the board. The expectations from Bucs ownership are obviously very low.
September 28th, 2015 at 9:32 am
Ask Jimmy Johnson or Belicheat what they would do with a kicker like that. They would be holding open tryouts Moday morning. Good coaches fix weaknesses, they dont sit around and hope that it works itself out.
September 28th, 2015 at 9:34 am
Lovie is in over his head.
September 28th, 2015 at 10:21 am
Hey Lovie, if it wasn’t for off days the Bucs would win a game now and then, every once in a while.
September 28th, 2015 at 10:36 am
I can live with keeping Kyle Brindza for a bit longer. He IS a rookie, and he should get better…maybe even a lot better by mid season.
Still, I think it would be wise to bring in Connor Barth for short to medium range accuracy. Have 2 kickers this year. Barth turns 30 in April…he isn’t long for the league anyway. Bring him in for the rest of the season and further develop Kyle Brindza. That would seem to be the smart route.
I know it’s a roster spot, but we DO have a #3 QB that is expendable.
September 28th, 2015 at 10:40 am
I look at it like this…it was only his 3rd game. Just like with 5 other starting rookies.
When players first start out in the NFL, they screw up. Usually a lot.
The main thing is to get better.
Mid Season is the mark for me. ASJ will be back. The rookies will have experience. The offensive line should be gelling pretty well. Defense will have settled down, barring injuries.
That’s why my season prediction only included the first 8 games. I knew we’d be lucky to win 2 games in that span.
September 28th, 2015 at 10:44 am
Im pleased to see lovie not giving up on his leg yet. He has a big leg and they seem interested in it as well. Once he gets those c hipshots under pressure going thru then we will be alright I think because hes a good kicker just seems like he needs to get settled
September 28th, 2015 at 11:04 am
You’re kidding, right?
The guy missed a kick- and then lost all confidence, and couldnt make another.
He cost us the game!!
The confidence to bounce back is criticsl to a kicker.
Brizda must go
September 28th, 2015 at 11:19 am
Okay so the kid can nail the long FG but he yips on the XP…. Here is a thought: bring back Barth Connor to handle the XPs and under 40 -45 yard FGs and let Brindza handle kickoffs and the long FGs. After missing the XP, I remembered a day from back in the Creamsicle years where Coach McKay simply got fed up with a kicker who yipped on an extra point and a couple of FGs up in Detroit. In the 2nd half he benched the kicker and had OL George Yarno actually kick an extra point; if the Bucs had barth on board perhaps he could have made that 33 yarder the kid yipped on… Man you know your special teams are bad when you have to go back more than 30 years to find a kicking performance that was comparable to yesterday’s gag job…. Hey Lovie, sign Barth and put a fire under this kid’s feet; perhaps the desire to keep getting a nice paycheck may motivate him to never repeat that performance….
September 28th, 2015 at 11:24 am
Look, he’s a rookie. I say give him another week. If he blows it again like that then poof. The points he left off the board would have won the game. But it was definitely lost in other areas.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:01 pm
Everyone keeps saying….well he’s a rookie. Such silly talk. He’s a rookie kicker for F’s sake. It doesn’t matter if he’s been in the league for 15 years or 1 if you miss that many kicks in a game, you should be gone the next day.
He’s a rookie? He gets a rookie pass because he’s a kicker that can’t kick the ball straight. You people are serious right?
I’ve seen 10 year veterans get cut from their kicking duties because they can’t kick straight anymore.
How many does he need to miss this week?
September 28th, 2015 at 12:10 pm
Why do guys keep using “he is a rookie” as an excuse? He is a kicker! Being a rookie as a KICKER is irrelevant!!! There is no new scheme or playbook he had to adjust to!!! He kicks the ball and that is it! How clueless are you guys talking about him being a rookie and getting better by mid season. That would be a QB or offensive tackle, not a f$@?ing kicker!!!! SMDH!
September 28th, 2015 at 12:14 pm
TouchDownTampaBay…exactly I don’t get it. He’s a rookie kicker sooooo
September 28th, 2015 at 12:20 pm
We should be scoring touchdowns not field goals? Like it or not, special teams are 1/3 of the game (in terms of importance, not time on the field). And, in this case the difference between winning and losing. If the kid is consistently this inaccurate, it’s important to bench is a double asterisk real soon before we lose another close one, or lose by two missed field goals and an extra point. If he’s consistently nailing ’em in practice then he has a choking problem that needs to be fixed.
September 28th, 2015 at 12:26 pm
He has too much upside over anyone sitting on the couch to cut lose after one game
September 28th, 2015 at 1:09 pm
Agree to disagree. But I respect what you’re saying.
Now, you say STs is 1/3. Why in the hell is Rainey returning kicks haha. Is no one else seeing this?!
September 28th, 2015 at 1:15 pm
The rookie kicker’s performance yesterday was almost as bad as Jameis Winston’s performance in week 1. Jameis had unconditional support from the organization, and that may have made a difference in his development. Why shouldn’t other players, including the rookie kicker, get the same graciousness?
It’s not like the Bucs are going to win the Super Bowl this season, so the Bucs should use it as a development year for all the young players so that they can springboard into the 6 to 8 win range next season.
If this kicker can get his game straight, having a guy with that kind of leg would be an asset for years to come. Martin Gramatica won a lot of close games for the Bucs in the Dungy/Gruden era, it would be nice to have that kind of home-run hitter again.
September 28th, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Brindza had a bad game. Silly to cut someone, especially a rookie, after 1 bad game.
It’s not his fault we lost. I would say allowing over 400 yards to a back up QB and RB along with a patchwork O-Line, and almost 40 minutes of possesion time had a hell of a lot more to do with costing us the game than the kicker did.