Repeat Of 2014?
September 10th, 2015
An SI.com analyst seems to have little faith in Bucs coach Lovie Smith.
Has Joe mentioned the Bucs are 30-70 in their last 100 games?
Has Joe mentioned that Lovie Smith is 11 wins shy of Raheem Morris’ win total in his first Bucs years, or nine wins short of Greg Schiano’s two-season total?
Eric Single of SI.com believes Lovie will fall far short of matching his two immediate predecessors.
In fact, Single, in analyzing what team to pick as 2015’s worst, believes the Bucs have set the table for a repeat of the ghastly 2014 season.
It’s almost as hard to earn the No. 1 pick in back-to-back years as it is to repeat as Super Bowl champs, but no depths are too deep to fathom with an offensive line like Tampa Bay’s. The Bucs should be crossing their fingers that Jameis Winston stays upright long enough to make real developmental strides in his rookie year.
That is the biggest issue Joe sees coming from others who look outside in at the Bucs. Virtually every analyst Joe hears/reads/watches on SiriusXM NFL Radio, CBS, NBC, BSPN, NFL Network, you name it, points to the porous offensive line manned by two second-round rookies. They claim it’s not only the crux of the Bucs’ main issues, but potentially toxic because America’s Quarterback, Bucs signal-caller Jameis Winston, is going to get the hell beat out of him this year.
If that does happen, then there is going to be a helluva lot of finger-pointing and I-told-you-sos being thrown around in January, quite possibly from none other than Team Glazer.
If the Bucs have a catastrophic repeat of 2014, and win the Bolt for Bosa with Jameis getting maimed, then Joe doesn’t think it is a stretch to suggest Lovie is going to have a lot more free time to study film in his suburban Chicago basement.
Yesterday, Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter noted there are all kinds of ways to get Jameis time to throw and not get pummeled if, as many fear, the offensive line is going to be a jailbreak week in and week out.
A helluva lot of careers riding on the hope Koetter wasn’t just throwing out empty small talk, the least of which is Jameis’ career.
September 10th, 2015 at 5:35 am
Let’s see what happens when they actually play a game or two before calling it a disaster!
September 10th, 2015 at 5:35 am
So tired of hearing well if we suck again LOVIE is gone. And then we change the entire staff again and then suck for a few more years while that new coach says he needs “his” players and then it doesn’t work out then he’s gone and on and on and on. Just a cycle of suck. Atleast give the man 3 years. My god you people expect a super bowl when we change coaches every 2 or 3 years. Yea that’s gonna work. Idiots.
September 10th, 2015 at 5:51 am
If I am not mistaken, Koetter did not have a good offensive line in Atlanta before coming to Tampa. Having said that, Matt Ryan still had very productive years. Let’s see if he can do the same in Tampa before jumping off a cliff.
September 10th, 2015 at 5:54 am
During this era of free agency you can turn it around rather quickly Lovie and Licht didnt nor havent… they sent 3 decent NFL OLers packing and had no replacements for them… so yes its all on lovie… poor personel moves are leading to the all important 2015 Bosa Bowl on Sunday
September 10th, 2015 at 6:15 am
Dirk Koetter’s fast paced, no huddle offense will buy Winston some time. It get’s the ball out fast.
There will be some tipped balls though, some resulting in picks. I expect a lot of picks this year anyway. Defenses tend to come hard at rookie quarterbacks and Winston will likely take chances under pressure.
He seem’s smart enough to learn from it, but it might take his rookie year to work the kinks out. I do expect the last half of season to be much better than the first.
I really dought we will be bad enough to get the first pick again though. Maybe around the 10th.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:19 am
The Bucs simply have to be able to run the football on offense if anything good is going to happen.
You could probably say the same for the Titans, in fact, virtually any team….
September 10th, 2015 at 6:19 am
I think the Redskins are worse than us. Looks like Winston will be Dinkin and Dunkin.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:31 am
Dusthy
Those teams that turn it around are usually a lot closer than the Bucs are in the first place. They don’t have ten years of losing behind them. To expect that to happen in Tampa is unrealistic.
And it is just that line of thought that has kept us basement dwellers. We keep giving up on coaches too soon. Lovie is a proven good coach. You can’t expect him to fix swo many things in less than three years.
When he came, he had runningbacks, one good DT and a good LB to work with. And one wide receiver. That only 7 good players of 54. If you are counting, that left 47 roster spots to improve. With 6-7 picks per year. 12-14 picks so far.
Even if 5 free agent signings per year work out, that leaves 22-24 spots improved max in the two years he has been here. So, keeping in mind this is BEST CASE, he’s had time to improve 24 of 47 roster spots.
Whenlooking at it like that, it’s no wonder Licht has had to take chances with injury prone defensive veterans. Maybe I should go easir on him with that. After all, 24 of 47 leaves 23 spots they have not had time to fix yet.
So cut them some slack.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:34 am
REPEAT OF 2014 ???
How can the Bucs not be better ? I mean, come on, we now have Jesus (er, Jameis) leading us ! Maybe when his team mates consider him a captain, eh, Joe(s) ???
September 10th, 2015 at 6:38 am
@Joe … “Has Joe mentioned the Bucs are 30-70 in their last 100 games?”
Going back 100 games takes to near the end of the 2008 season Joe, and it’s really interesting to take a look at what the Bucs did in each of those seasons. A great site for that for fans is nfl.com/teams/statistics.
During those 100 games we’ve had 4 head coaches … minor problem. Turnover battle and time-of-possession seem to be keys, but there are two others that are fascinating: first downs and total yardage. In only one season (2008) did we get more first downs and accumulate more yardage than our opponents, even though in several years we won the turnover battle and actually had slightly better TOP. That takes us back to the days of Jeff Garcia, Brian Griese and Luke McCown by the way.
Each season is different obviously, but … lack of a capability to sustain drives looks to be pretty consistent. Certainly seemed to be the case last year.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:42 am
@Joe – Your content is getting repetitive and old. You are loosing your angry mob.
I agree with Kevin specially.
RTW – We are 0-0 in the present moment.
In Lovie, Licht, Koetter and Wins-Ton I TRUST!!!
Go Bucs!!
September 10th, 2015 at 6:44 am
Not a big fan of Lovie. However is it his fault that Dominic may have had the worst total draft picks in modern history.
September 10th, 2015 at 6:57 am
Quick..EVERYBODY PANIC…!!!!
I don’t seem to recall a lot of teams in the NFL having great OL’s, DL’s, QB’s or starter quality depth at all positions. We play in the real world.
Yes, the Bucs have 2-rookies starting on their OL. I would remind everyone that Dallas didn’t panic when they decided to go with rookie starters on their OL. And, if their “veteran backups” were so great, they would have been the starters.
If everyone is right about our OL being bad, AND everyone is right about Koetter being able to adjust for our weaknesses, then it’s a draw.
And, don’t forget our DE’s suck and we’re not 10 deep at every position.
“THE SKY IS FALLING”…???
I’ll wait and see before I go all doom and gloom. That’s why they play the games.
I’m looking forward to steady improvement this season because the W/L record will happen regardless of all the bitchin’ and moanin’ from the peanut gallery.
I’m more curious about how the “new” guys play than worried about not having Walter Payton and Peyton Manning on our team.
Will Tim Jennings be the missing piece in our secondary? Will our rookie WR’s develop and contribute, this season? Will ASJ finally find his groove?
Injuries happen to EVERY team. Sometimes that’s the difference between winning and losing despite the preseason forecasts
I’m not worrying about Evans as much as I’m looking forward to seeing how good Jameis and our rookie OL and WR’s develop. Will any of our recent waiver pickups be “diamonds in the rough”..??
A wise man was asked: “How do you beat a giant?”
His answer: “One bite at a time”..!!
Go Bucs..!!
September 10th, 2015 at 6:58 am
Haha, I don’t know if the people that you interview or quote Joe watch football but dang, I can tell you at least another 4 or 5 teams that can qualify for 1st overall right now. Chicago, SF, Washington, TN, and maybe CLE or OAK. Any of those teams are on par or worst than the Bucs and they are already counting us out. Get out of here. We are at a point right now that we didn’t get see last year with our OC just vanished. Now, hopefully nothing happens from here till Sunday and we will see what an offensive coordinator can add, how much value he will be to the team. I cant sit here and say we are Playoff contenders, but I can see here and guaranteed, that we wont be the worst team in the league. Of course, pending injuries. Koetter make Matt Ryan and his offensive line effective and I can only hope he can do the same here with the similarity of personnel.
September 10th, 2015 at 7:00 am
@Bonzai – Great points!
What brings hope this year to me are the following:
1.Lovie calling defensive plays.
2.Ex bear players with knowledge of Tampa 2.
3.Banks. McDougald(?), McCoy, David, McDonald, Lansannah, Jackson, Evans, Martin
4.New guys thanks to Licht- KA, DJ S., Melton, Winston, Marpet, Smith, Brindza will be golden for us this year.
5. Dirk Koetter
It is impossible not to see improvement on all 3 phases of the game this year!
8-8 is my prediction
Go Bucs!!!
September 10th, 2015 at 7:28 am
Week 14, 2008. It has been all down hill since then.
September 10th, 2015 at 7:29 am
We were in quite a few very close games last year…some where I think we outplayed our opponent and still lost.
I think it won’t take much for us to get to 6-10.
Going forward…..a top DE & perhaps 1 or 2 on the Oline and we are good…
September 10th, 2015 at 7:30 am
I try to stay optimistic but honestly I’m scurred of this outdated defense. It seems to be really vanilla and guys don’t seem to execute on 3rd downs. So, teams are carving us up. But as always, I rep my Bucs no matter what and see us going to the playoffs every year until I see otherwise. I just hope the o-line is pissed from people calling them garbage all this time and sets out to destroy every effin defense in front of them!
September 10th, 2015 at 7:49 am
I just love negativity first thing in the morning… Oh well it just makes the wins THAT much better for us this season.
September 10th, 2015 at 7:53 am
Thanks to all the fans that have a shred of optimism and hope. God knows the major sports outlets are all throwing us under the bus already without playing the first regular season game. I live in the Orlando market, and they will be showing the Ravens/Broncos game instead…. Yeah because people in Central FL REALLY want to watch that game… SMH
September 10th, 2015 at 8:09 am
Uncomfortably numb comes to mind. Beyond that a bewildered stupor. Snap out of it!
September 10th, 2015 at 8:23 am
Just found out if u live in Orlando area bucs game will not be televised…..fml
September 10th, 2015 at 8:37 am
Tampabaybucfan Says
“We were in quite a few very close games last year…some where I think we outplayed our opponent and still lost.”
The only problem with that reasoning is that several of the players who contributed are gone (not that they didn’t deserve to be). We have over 22 new players this year, as opposed to 19 players last year.
Different ingredients makes different results. Hopefully for the better, but you really can’t make assumptions based on last year because the team has changed so much.
September 10th, 2015 at 8:49 am
@David
The defense isn’t outdated. Every year we see teams using Cover 2 have success.
We just lack the personnel to pull it off effectively yet. All the bad drafts by Raheem and Dominick, and then Schiano trying to change the scheme with different player types, followed by two years of nearly strictly offensive drafts, and there is the reason we don’t have the personnel.
Expect the draft to be mostly defense next year. That’s when Lovie will start getting the team he really wants.
But don’t assume they shouldn’t have addressed the offense first either. Lovie is a defensive minded coach, so he can build a defense more quickly now that he will be able to address it. Offenses tend to take longer to build from scratch because the players tend to need more development. For example, quarterback and offensive line.
But really…we’re not that far on defense either. We have good starters and depth in the secondary. We have solid to great defensive tackles. Middle linebacker, assuming Kwon continues to get better, is solved a year before we thought it would be.
That leaves defensive end, which they tried to address with Johnson. I have my doubts on him being starting quality. He’s had plenty of years to turn into something good, and his best year (only good year;last year) was just average.
We need a really good DE in Simeon Rice’s old position. Johnson might be good enough to play the other side. So…next year’s draft will determine Lovie’s legacy.
September 10th, 2015 at 8:53 am
Lovie Loyalist you are on notice! 2-3 wins and this guy is toast. Then the Glazers can do the smart thing and hire a VP or GM first and let someone with football iq hire a coach and stay away from the football decisions themselves.
No matter what you tell yourself it DOES NOT take 3-5 years to turn around a team.
2014-Texans, Browns and Vikings all won more with first year head coaches. Heck the Texans were coming off the #1 overall pick, and had a bad QB situation and still managed to win 9 games.
So stop with the excuses it’s time for results and wins
September 10th, 2015 at 9:04 am
What does it matter what “analysts” say on all of the networks. They don’t do any real analysis. They just go with the tide. You know, conventional wisdom. Copy each other. Just like…you know who.
September 10th, 2015 at 9:50 am
The person most responsible for a decade of losing football in Tampa Bay is our beloved Monty Kiffen. He abandoned a playoff bound team. Created internal turmoil
which resulted in the jettisoning of Jon Gruden. Gruden’s presence on the sideline alone was worth 4 to 5 wins per year.
They way Kiffen abandoned the team in season cut the heart from it.
From their it got worse when the Glazer’s thinking Raheem was the second coming of Mike Tomlin, and fearing Denver was about to lure him away, rashly promoted him two levels above his level of competency. From there we have suffered a series of knee jerk reactions by management which resulted in a bottom feeding team.
Hope you enjoyed yourself with Lane, Monty – how’d that work out for you?
September 10th, 2015 at 11:12 am
@upthegut,
You are correct sir. I will never forget that season. We were 9-3, tied for first place. I was in San Diego for the first time, and we lost 3 games in a row during the 3 weeks I was out there. Monty said he was leaving and the life and soul of our Bucs team disappeared. We lost the last 4 games in a row, finishing 9-7, no playoffs, and have pretty much sucked since then.
September 10th, 2015 at 12:28 pm
@unbelievable
strange how it coincided as Monte Kiffin was leaving during the week to recruit for college and Rah was running the defense all week long, then Kiffin would come back for the games!!!! did not work out well!
September 10th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
Me and my Brother had to travel for work back then, And Every Monday morning there was Kiffin in the airport!!!!