NFC South Proves Revitalized
September 15th, 2015
The doormat of the NFL last season with a division winner under .500, the NFC South is back in a big way after Week 1.
Sure, Tampa Bay got steam-rolled, seal-clubbed, train-wrecked, chain-whipped (pick your verb), but they were the only ones struggling.
The Saints’ 31-19 loss in Arizona was closer than it appeared. New Orleans was driving for the winning score with two minutes left but was stopped, before Arizona scored a late, flukey touchdown.
Carolina’s defense suffocated the Jags 20-9, including shutting them out in Jacksonville during the second half of that game. Carolina’s defense notched five sacks.
Cam Newton is healthy (for now). He ran the ball 14 times and took two sacks.
And that brings Joe to Atlanta and brand new head coach Dan Quinn, who drew the brutally tough assignment of Chip Kelly’s wild offense on Monday Night Football last night. The Falcons were ready defensively, unlike the Bucs. What a concept! Yes, the Falcons easily could have lost the game on a late field goal. Regardless, Matt Ryan was dangerous, they ran the football, and they pulled out a 26-24 win against a good team.
The Texans are at Carolina on Sunday. Atlanta clashes with the Giants in New Jersey. And the Bucs head to New Orleans for their home opener. Sean Payton has won six of those in a row.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:02 am
Watch out NFC south. Bucs are coming! 2019!
September 15th, 2015 at 10:03 am
BUCS HAVE WORST COACH, WORST QB, 4TH PLACE…”simple as that”
September 15th, 2015 at 10:03 am
BOYCOTT THE BUCS!
Oh wait, that’s already happened and the soccer-brats
could care less. They get 95% of their revenue from TV.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:07 am
EVICT THE BUCS!
There…that’s better. Glazers are happy, I’m happy, it’s a win-win.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:09 am
We don’t stand a chance of beating anyone in our division. Come to think of it, when was the last time we defeated a division opponent? Falcons at home in 2013?…ouch
September 15th, 2015 at 10:10 am
AUDIT THE BUCS!
Lol…that would be awesome.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:15 am
There were a lot of teams that should have won on paper this sunday and loss. The Bucs played like a team dependent on their qb and offense to win and not a team. The titans played like a team that wanted to win this game at all cost even if they lose every other one “that’s motivation” and they just might lose every other game.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:15 am
Remember the great Derek Anderson carving up Incompetent Lovie Smith’s defense in our home opener? Some things never change.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:15 am
I actually predicted 9-7 this year as an optimistic season ticket holder…. I hope for a win this week, if we lose this one, the wheels will come off!
As for McCoy, it sickens me to my stomach when I see him laughing with the other team in commercial breaks and why he offers a hand to opposing players to help them up makes me puke!! After the game you can hug, pray, sing Kumbaya whatever, but get mean dude!!! He had the skanky face in the clubhouse after the game with reporters, I wanna see that on the field!!
September 15th, 2015 at 10:17 am
SIEGE AS A NOUN = a prolonged period of trouble or annoyance…SLOGAN MAKES SENSE NOW…”simple as that”…
September 15th, 2015 at 10:21 am
You morons are unbelievable (unless maybe you’re all shills,
then it would make sense).
It’s not the players.
It’s not the coaches.
It’s not the front office.
It’s the ownership.
How can you not see that?
You want to replace the HC AGAIN?!
Do I need to recite the definition of insanity?
Yeah…I probably do…
The Definition of Insanity:
Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:27 am
Yeah, the Glazers suck at cover 2 and Joel throwing 2 interceptions was not a good start.
The Glazers are guilty of what? New Stadium, Super Bowl, making this team worth over a billion$??
This team is guilty of treating the draft poorly. Giving away draft picks hurts the team more than anything, that and poor personel evaluation as well…
September 15th, 2015 at 10:29 am
Stability for sake of stability is not the recipe for success, Its when you have good coaching you keep it!!! That is the recipe for success!!!!
September 15th, 2015 at 10:30 am
Bucco Brice – of course the Bucs have the worst QB, he’s a rookie. But everything else you wrote, well I’ve got nothing.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:31 am
Mr Cosell: you are correct about the ownership as it has been dragging the team down since Malcolm had the stroke but that does not give Lovie a pass for all the ineptitude and lack of preparation we have seen over the past 17 games under his regime. Keeping Lovie is not the answer; your own definition of insanity proves that: how many times are we going to believe Lovie’s delusional ramblings and lies. This team was not prepared again, this team was mistake prone and the coaching staff was outcoached again. A vote of confidence in Lovie by making the ownership a scapegoat for his ineptitude is insane in itself…. Plus we can’t get rid of the ownership but there is a chance that Lovie could be gone by the bye week; right now I think that is the best of a bunch of bad options…..
September 15th, 2015 at 10:31 am
Bucs know how to shiiiiine!
September 15th, 2015 at 10:31 am
The titans had a good game plan for marcus and that game should have been something like 17-14 but for whatever reason the bucs defense decided to check out. I highly doubt marcus is that good and jameis is that bad plus he threw two td’s on that dick labeau defense
September 15th, 2015 at 10:34 am
@FortMyersDave…
BYE BYE LOVIE…”simple as that”..
September 15th, 2015 at 10:35 am
I’ll tell u what verb I want to use maybe it’s not a verb but I would call that game “same ol same ol”
September 15th, 2015 at 10:36 am
The bucs will beat N.O. but it still won’t wash away that loss to the titans for some. I do have to admit that the bucs would have to go on a playoff run to secure lovie’s job. Even if they don’t make it they have to be in the hunt because that loss to the titans left such a sour taste. 21-20 Bucs sunday
September 15th, 2015 at 10:36 am
Wow! Someone is looking through rose-colored glasses.
The NFC South is .500.
That is a fact, regardless of how ‘close’ a loss was ( the Saints gave up 427 yds!).
The Falcons gave up 399 yards… at home. That puts them at 26th in the league in defense.
The Buccaneer defense is ranked 12th, and that is with being treated like a doormat.
Oh, yea, and the Panthers beat the Jags. The Jags!
It has been only one game, but anyone who thinks this first week shows a renewed NFC South is still hungover from Sunday night.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:39 am
Power Rankings are out…. we are 32nd, nothing to see here, move along…. lol
September 15th, 2015 at 10:44 am
Better gameplan for the offense with jameis and the bucs will be better but kotter is trying to be the next HC for the bucs so he’ll have jameis playing like he’s manning5yrs in the league instead of like the rookie he is.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:44 am
Yeah Bucco Brice: I think we should see a few signs that say “Bye Bye Lovie by the Bye” around RJS during the Panther and Jag games. I am willing to give him a month long trial and not be to demanding: win 2 of 4 and keep his job until the season’s end when there will be a re-evaluation. If he loses 3 or 4 then Sayanara Lovie and let Koetter act as Interim HC….
September 15th, 2015 at 10:45 am
@Wombat….what you are failing to consider is who hired Lovie Smith and Raheem Morris and Greg Schiano and Mark Dominick and Jason Licht? Oh, yeah that would be the Glazers. The failure of this team is ultimately their failures. Malcolm was running the show when we hired Gruden and won the Super Bowl not the current Glazers. Sure, they were included in the ownership because of their father, but they were not calling the shots. People need to realize that all businesses and corporations success and failures start at the top. We will NOT win again other than a game here and there as long as the CURRENT GLAZERS are hiring coaches and GM’s because the CURRENT GLAZERS know nothing about coaching talent. I am not bashing them but simply stating the facts that they have shown us the past decade. Put the blame where it belongs.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:49 am
Hawk
The only ranking that matters is Standings. You can’t honestly believe the bucs have the 12th ranked defense after thst heartless performance. You are smarter than that. Rankings mean ZERO…. they don’t take into consideration that the opposing coach took his foot of the gas and some starters were benched nor does it take into consideration effort and the bucs play with zero effort. Lovies team was heartless and unprepared no stat, ranking or excuse can justify thst.
September 15th, 2015 at 10:59 am
I just think it is too easy to blame ownership. The buc stops with them I agree, but not many here were against the Lovie hire, me included. It looked good on paper. It’s not always that easy. I thought Mike Holmgren was a great football mind, but the Browns disprove that. The great McKay, fired as GM in Atlanta… This team lacks players of NFL callibre, look at what we have given up in picks for the last 15yrs and that is the problem. Vince Lombardi with Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells couldn’t fire up this team without quality players. The draft is where this team has failed…
September 15th, 2015 at 11:06 am
Wombat
The mistake the Glazers made with Lovie Smith was not hiring him to be coach but giving him full control of roster. The Glazers need a president of football operations that overseas hiring gm and coaches. The current power structure has failed. The glazer boys have not gotten a single gm coaching hire right. That is all on them.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:08 am
flukey touchdowns are welcome over HIGH SCHOOL INTs
Go Jimmy!!!
Joe if you make a poll on Lovie please make one on Jimmy!
September 15th, 2015 at 11:10 am
This is going to be a ugly year man.
We have to overhaul the scouting and personel depts or it will never change
I think part of the loss was the players knowing we passed on the next great qb. Winston won’t be a bust but he will only be pedestrian.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:10 am
Yes, so far with the new regime we are still not drafting great. Sure we hit on Evans and ASJ last year, but nothing really after. This year we got Jameis and Kwon. I believe Jameis will be good, but thats it in the drafts. Great teams draft good early and late. The Patriots started 2 OL rookies the first game and they didn’t miss a beat. We have to make excuses that both our 2nd round picks will get better. Only one of our 5th round OL rookies is still on the team from last year. Good teams draft good and we don’t draft good. We haven’t signed good FA’s either. Coaching is out dated. We got beat bad last year and this year we are supposed to see an improvement, but we are off to a bad start. Love says its only one game, but he kept saying that last year too. The guy talks like a broken record and he will have broken records. We all thought when he said he was going to take over defensive play calling we were going to see a big difference. We did…they sucked worse. I hope they can right the ship. I think Koetter will get the offense going. He has a proven record of doing it. I wish the same for Lovie too. I’m tired of watching these games. Asking to leave from work early. Running home. Getting all hyped to be short changed again by my team. I won’t quit, but all I want to see is improvements. Stop lying to us and show us improvements in all aspects and all phases of the games.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:10 am
This team has taken on the personality of its head coach, like most teams do. Lifeless, dull, gutless, clueless, and incompetent. A loud, wet fart is much more exciting than watching this team play. Also I think 32nd place in the rankings is much too generous.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:11 am
I get the Glazer hate but it’s pointless. I do not see a for sale sign at One Buc.
I LOVE Jeff Vinik. He’s the best owner the Tampa Bay Market has ever seen by a mile. Great results on the ice and off and he is now a committed Tampan not a carpetbagger. But that will never happen because the NFL owners would NEVER let a Vinik into their club and I surely do not wish to wreck the Lightning..if Vinik was forced to sell.
As for the NFC South…it’s one week! Let’s see how it plays out. No doubt though it feels a lot, lot, lot, lot better to be a Falcon’s fan this morning than a Bucs fan.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:15 am
This seems like a troll. 1 game proves nothing. It doesn’t even totally prove that we suck balls yet. We got steam-rolled twice last year by Atl and Bal and then looked good defensively when we only allowed the Packers 20 points.
The Saint’s game may have been close but they only scored 19 points, and Brees threw only 1 TD. That’s unlike the Bree’s we bucs fans all know and love (Although he will probably throw 5 this week ;))
The panthers D suffocated a jags offense that suffocates itself.
And the falcons played well, but they’re offense wasn’t questionable last year and the Eagles offense looked a bit out of sync in it’s first game with a new QB
September 15th, 2015 at 11:21 am
I really want to hope that this season is not over, but…. Is there a chance this team can beat the Ain’ts, play with some pride, that’s all I’m saying. Forget this stuff that it’s just a blessing to be in the league, I’m sure it is, but how bout taking advantage of that blessing
September 15th, 2015 at 11:24 am
Wombat, You mentioned some outstanding positives that Malcolm Glazer accomplished. I wonder if there is a similar list of his kids’ accomplishments that we could go over. I’m going to need some help producing that.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:39 am
The Lovie post game show next week will feature the following comments.
Its only week 2
We are getting better
It takes time for the tampa 2 to work, you need the right personnel.
The Line has 2 1st year players. They will be ok by game 9
etc.etc.etc.etc
September 15th, 2015 at 11:40 am
@ tmaxcon
Let me be clear. I was in NO WAY trying to defend what Lovie put on the field this last Sunday. My point was that the NFC South does not look ANY different than last year. Although the Falcons won their game, they will not be winning very many by giving up 400 yards. I should not have mentioned the ‘standings’ as (you are right) they are not relevant. The yardage, given up, DOES show that the Falcons, Saints, and Bucs are going to have a tough time looking better than last year.
I was not in favor of hiring Lovie, but he is the coach and I will cheer for him to win games. But I will also vent my frustration when I feel it is warranted (all too often).
Lovie announced, earlier this week, that the Bucs were “Tennessee-ready”. If that is what will happen when the Bucs are ‘ready’ for a 2-14 team, then my prediction of 4-12 is a bit optimistic.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:43 am
HOLY SH!T do you guys understand this is week 1? Lets not be fooled and act like the bucs were going to win the super bowl this year.. we all know this team has plenty of work to do..Heres a way to stop getting so mad.. stop drinking the damn kool aid these bucs sites dish out. We are a good 2 years away from being respectful plain and simple.
September 15th, 2015 at 11:51 am
Wombat….I was definitely NOT in favor of hiring Lovie!!
You all heard Lovie!! We are 1 game out of first place! We are 1 game out of playoff contention! Cheer up Bucko’s …..playoffs!!! Playoffs???
The total lack of any game plan changes tells me Mr. Wombat that the Glazer’s must pull the pin and see what comes next. Chip Kelly made massive changes at halftime, the Eagles came roaring back and should have won the game except for a kicker!
Lovie has no game plan prior to taking the field…he has no ability to make changes at half time, and in fact, he cannot keep track of how many time outs he has. The Glazers actually were Sooooooo very close last time. They should have given Chip Kelly the farm….kind of like when Chucky was hired….1st round draft pick…large chunk of change. Chip Kelly don’t need no stinkin draft picks.
Yes…hiring another Lovie Smith is Insanity….allowing Lovie to coach another game is insanity…Look at Tomsula!! I have to tell you I watched just to watch the Vikings make Bucko meat out of the niners….his team came out after losing 20 players and all their coaches. He had a game plan…those guys were flying around the ball like I have not seen the Buc’s do since I was the coach!!
The niners…the dirty birds…the stinkin Jets…all got really good young coaches. They may not win every game…but Atlanta and Philly came to play last night. I would be happy with that…if our guys were giving that kind of effort….losing games would not be so hard. Watching Famous Porky trip over his two left feet makes me want to crazy!
September 15th, 2015 at 12:06 pm
So…at what point do we start game planning for our opponents? Probably sometime in November. That’s when real football starts, after all.
September 15th, 2015 at 12:10 pm
Schiano is on espn right now and Im sorry but he is a heck of a defensive coach…i just wish he would have been given another year and seen what he could have done, never felt watching a schiano team that things were so out of whack that there was zero chance of them competing…lovie just seems like he has destroyed this franchise…he has put his thumb on the personnel side and he is clueless, this franchise with him and licht at the helm is down for at least 3 more years maybe more if those great OL draft picks dont pan out
September 15th, 2015 at 1:27 pm
My thoughts are this is Lovie’s last season in Tampa. This could mean that he get’s fired or that the team relocates in LA…Doubtful the NFL would locate a new team in Tampa
September 15th, 2015 at 1:29 pm
FYI to the posters here:
Some of the folks defending the indefensible
negligence of the Glazers actually work for the Glazers
(but you didn’t hear it here, I don’t want to be targeted)
September 15th, 2015 at 1:34 pm
AUDIT THE BUCS!
September 15th, 2015 at 4:39 pm
Schiano lost the locker room. Perhaps the same is true of Lovie after Sunday.
What turned me against Schiano was the Seattle game. We had the eventual SB champs on the ropes in their own house and MG8 was really rolling and in rhythm with the hurry up offense when Schiano shut it down because at the end of the day he was Dungy/Lovie or any defensive coach who believes offense is a necessary evil.
Chip Kelly, Chucky, offensive minded coaches would have won that game.
September 15th, 2015 at 6:06 pm
@SPBF:
Sorry to nitpick, but I believe this is the game you are talking about.
————————————————————————————
Bucs unable to sustain drives on 49ers
By going to a hurry-up attack, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers allowed the game to slow down for rookie quarterback Mike Glennon. Tampa Bay’s first five possessions against San Francisco went nowhere Sunday, with the Bucs limited to 30 total yards by the NFL’s No. 4 defense. But with the 49ers leading 17-0 late in the half, Glennon directed an 80-yard touchdown drive that used up only 78 seconds.
Late in the third quarter, the Bucs went to hurry-up mode again and began a 92-yard march, capped by Glennon’s second scoring pass of the day. “We were going up-tempo and feeling good about how we were doing,’’ right tackle Demar Dotson said. “That’s where we had our best success, using the hurry-up offense. It was really working for us.’’
———————————————————————————
Schiano’s comment after the game about not going back to the “hurry up” offense was something to the effect that they hadn’t practiced it or something. That single comment was one of the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
Nevertheless, I still think Schiano is a much better judge of talent, than any of the current Bucs regime, and his team played with more heart than Lovie’s has.
tickrdr