“There’s No Cavalry Coming To Save Us”
October 7th, 2016
No mission to rescue Bucs.
It’s time to dig.
That’s the word from Bucs coach Dirk Koetter for his team. Currently 1-3, a loss to the Stinking Panthers Monday night would virtually end any prayer of a wild card run stretching the postseason drought of the Bucs to an unthinkable eight straight years. Koetter’s message for his players is to start digging.
When asked by multimedia maven Scott Smith of Buccaneers.com if a season doesn’t start out well, is Koetter more inclined to make changes or stay the course, Koetter said he isn’t one to deviate much.
“It’s a lot about staying the course,” Koetter said. “There are all kinds of reasons we can give [for the 1-3 start] but the bottom line is, we have to play better football. What I always talk to the players and coaches about is, ‘We dug ourselves in. We have to dig ourselves out. There’s no cavalry coming to save us.
“There could be instances where you could make significant changes based on your personnel or if some major injuries occured. For the most part, you have to dig yourself out.”
Well, Joe is pretty sure the injuries element has risen to the surface. Gerald McCoy is unlikely to play Monday. Doug Martin? Same. Now it appears both Clinton McDonald and Noah Spence will be out, not counting Jacquies Smith lost in the season opener (Joe has a hunch Robert Ayers may play, though he did not practice today).
So if Koetter is going to change things up due to injuries in an effort to jar a different result out of the team, now would be a good time to start.
October 7th, 2016 at 3:21 pm
Can we just end the season already….yuck! Suckaneers/Yuckaneers.
Oh well, back to looking forward to the draft picks of 2017. smh in a sad but frustrated way. Bucs life I guess
October 7th, 2016 at 3:23 pm
The cavalry will be in the form of a running game….I don’t care if we bring back Eric Rhett but whoever it is must keep the Panthers guessing, otherwise the only positive running we’ll be is the joke of the NFL.
October 7th, 2016 at 4:07 pm
“Staying the course” is another way of saying “stubborn”. Being stubnorn in your ways while failing is an easy way to get fired around here.
October 7th, 2016 at 4:08 pm
The injuries this early in the season..yikes..top shelf players..not good, but I still have positive vibes..
Just hope Robert Ayers is playing Monday..
October 7th, 2016 at 5:08 pm
On the bad news front, the Bucs are REALLY beat up, on offense and defense. On the good news front, the Panthers are almost as badly beaten up. If the Bucs are to have any chance of winning Monday night’s game, our offense will have to put up a LOT of points AND control the clock. Panthers may be 1-3 like us, but they still have a potent offense, and our defense (particularly the DLine) will be hard-pressed to stop them. Falcons shut down the Panthers run game last week (49 yds) but didn’t really stop their passing attack last week (gave up well over 300 yds in their 48-33 win). Falcons did however rack up the points AND control the clock (almost 34 mins TOP). If Bucs are to have a chance, Jameis will need to come up big and also minimize turnovers.
October 7th, 2016 at 5:33 pm
I’m just as disgusted about the injuries as the next person, but too damn bad. Other teams have injuries too, including the Panthers. They are probably worse off than us. If we can get a win on Monday, we can get healthier by the bye week and be poised to win some games this season. It was probably unrealistic to think playoffs from the beginning, but we can build the foundation and get better each week.
October 7th, 2016 at 5:50 pm
YEp..agreed H Buc. 31 other teams have injuries also. Hell, Carolina is banged up to. On other teams though, they don’t use injuries as excuses. They just..plug in the next man. He..is expected to perform as good or better. No excuses. Injuries are a part of the game. Get her done! You would think, going into the bye week, The bucs would play all out, kick butt FB come Monday. We shall see if they got heart or if they just..lay down. Monday night football. Only game in town on national TV. Please don’t embarrass us Bucs! Stop us in mid libation with some hard hittin and TD’s!
October 7th, 2016 at 6:04 pm
Next man up only takes you so far without talent and depth, without Doug and lets say Mike Evans i don’t care whos throwing the ball, youre not winning more than 3 games
October 7th, 2016 at 6:19 pm
Hoping with all these injuries that someone can step up and show they belong in the NFL. Unknowns turn into starters every year on other teams due to injuries. Bucs need to step the f**k up.
Let’s go!!!
Go Sucs!
October 7th, 2016 at 8:02 pm
Where have I seen this movie before.
October 7th, 2016 at 10:02 pm
HB…who was talking playoffs in 2016?
Not me that’s for certain. 🙂
I have no qualms with the current situation the Bucs are in at this point, outside of losing to the Rams and I never saw that one coming.
I had that down as a win, but oh well I’ve moved on. Next!
October 7th, 2016 at 10:31 pm
Real football doesn’t start until November
October 8th, 2016 at 12:29 am
@87. I did too. I had this game as a loss though. Maybe the Bucs will find a way and we will be where many of us expected us to be.
October 8th, 2016 at 1:56 am
Lol at accepting medicore every single year. I accepted we would only have one win. B/S , we need to stop settling for this mediocre crap every year. Don’t say all of you had some dreams after that first game. We are weak, as a team, orginization and as a community of we don’t expect more from this team
October 8th, 2016 at 7:08 am
Chris…go to One Buc and protest then. Other than that you’re SOL.
October 8th, 2016 at 7:08 am
I hope the Glazers stop the turnstile at HC. Constant turnover is not getting it done. Learn from the Steelers and give the franchise some stability. Keep the coaches and keep adding talent to the roster. The Bucs are overdue for a healthy season. Maybe next year.
October 8th, 2016 at 7:31 am
@Hawaiian Buc
I agree, every team has injuries. If Licht is given credit for finding quality in other team’s castoffs, then he gets the blame when the changes we make on the bottom of the roster don’t produce when its “next man up” time. We will see a LOT of “next man up” on Monday in the Dline and RBs. Frankly, I am worried….
@87,
I agree. No sane person really expected playoffs with this team. Between the schedule and injuries, it has been a very tough first quarter of a season. And both the Rams and the Broncos was a big disappointment in the way we played. BUT the objective to me is IMPROVEMENT. I still believe we will see great things out of this Bucs offense, especially when Doug gets back. The D is in question. Licht did not add needed depth at safety and DE as he should have. We will see