Blaming August Practices A Reach
November 10th, 2017
Talks to Joe.
Of course, everyone with a keyboard is trying to figure out the one reason why the Bucs nosedived this season after what many folks believed back in the summer would be a magical season.
But the 2017 season has been like a trap door on a “Get Smart” episode. The team has imploded in ways few dreamed.
Now one clue the 2017 season was going to be rocky, in retrospect for Joe, was how winning Bucs coach Dirk Koetter regularly groused about bad practices in training camp. Well, after the loss to the Saints, Joe caught up with a couple of Bucs to ask if this had any connection to the bad regular season.
Demar Dotson did not dismiss the notion, adding training camp is important because “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” So Joe then asked defensive tackle Clinton McDonald if there may be a connection to bad training camp practices and subpar play in the regular season.
In short, McDonald thought that was a stretch.
“I mean, that is, what, we are in November now?” McDonald asked. “That’s about five months ago. If we are lingering on from five months ago, it’s a real problem. It’s a real problem. We had a great week of preparation. We just have to put it together on a Sunday.”
And that is a fair point. If the Bucs couldn’t learn to have a crisp practice in November because they had a bad training camp, that means there are serious white flag issues on the team.
November 10th, 2017 at 5:22 am
The season became a automatic losing one when they failed to pick up a DE. Puts way to much pressure on the DB’s shoulders and Winston’s as far as making him feel as if he needs to make plays because our defense can’t stop a H.S. Team……
November 10th, 2017 at 5:46 am
Probably the most logical and accurate post I have seen on here in awhile Mbfists on why this whole ship sank. It all starts in the trenches and from there it causes a ripple effect. Good and bad. Let’s hope we get it figured out. I remember that being a key missing piece until we got Simeon Rice which pushed us over the top and got us our first Super Bowl! Go Bucs!!
November 10th, 2017 at 5:48 am
Im thinking that if bad training camp practices were the problem or our “soft” practices were an issue we would have had a slow start to the season adjusting to the “real thing” but we started 2-1…I feel like our preparation and game planning is a bigger issue hence the slow starts to every game
November 10th, 2017 at 5:50 am
Bad training camp and bad preseason were not the cause. They were the symptom.
November 10th, 2017 at 6:52 am
The curse of “Hard Knocks” or the curse of individualism? I see no unity like we saw at the half way mark last year, or this year at all for that matter. I don’t hear “Family” the way we did or “one heart beat” like last year. That pre-game speech tells alot, did you see the way his teammates were looking at him ? Kwon had to step in to get him to stop eating his fingers, I think the team has been leaning on Jameis alot and i personally feel they have been losing confidence in him and the effect of Jameis losing confidence in himself, which can be damning to the team as it snowballs. This will be hard to recover from, not impossible, but very hard to change the direction of a rocket to paraphrase.
November 10th, 2017 at 7:36 am
Bad coaching and it’s time to break up the band and rebuild the defensive line, put marpet back where he belongs and move on from sweezy. Don’t know what to do with d Smith that dude is exactly what everyone except Jason licht said he was average and doesn’t play hard every snap
November 10th, 2017 at 8:22 am
Our LBs are Struggling too. They are not staying in their gaps on run plays. I suppose Kwon, Beckwith, and David are trying to do too much because the Dline is so awful at both run and pass.
November 10th, 2017 at 8:51 am
I agree with CM98….don’t blame TC….don’t blame HK….blame the coaches….they’ve come out unprepared many times…that falls on coaching….GO BUCS!!!!
November 10th, 2017 at 8:57 am
Cancer93 sucks the life and passion from every draft pick and free agent that walks through the door at 1 buc bat cave…. get rid of the soft quitter and you guys wont have to come up eith so many creative excuses to justify the basement years led by cancer93 captain blowout
November 10th, 2017 at 9:00 am
You play how you practice. Soft practices produce a soft team. Dirk’s quest to keep players healthy entering the season backfired on him. They may have been healthy but were no where near football ready.
November 10th, 2017 at 9:09 am
Fans & media keep looking for that ‘one thing’ that’s resulted in our 2-6 record, but it’s not ‘one thing’ … it’s multiple issues going on simultaneously IMO. Soft training camp was an issue. Team structure is an issue (some positions & depth are weak). Mediocre coaching, at times, has been an issue, as has mediocre team leadership. Individual players not ‘rising to the occasion’ has certainly influenced our record, as have injuries to various position groups. Sorry, but there is no magic elixir. This team needs some restructuring, it needs leadership, it needs better coaching, and most of all it needs players who live & breathe Bucs football to start making plays on the field in games.
November 10th, 2017 at 9:19 am
Since we are trying to figure out what’s gone wrong, I’m going out on a limb and going to pin this season on Joe…dropped the morning cup of joe and look what happens to our Bucs…Joe, this one’s on you! Ha, ha, ha!
November 10th, 2017 at 9:31 am
I wasn’t at training camp every day. I only went twice. Yet, I have heard repeatedly from media members and people who were there almost every day that Dirk Koetter’s training camp was one of the softest training camps they had ever seen.
For what it’s worth…
November 10th, 2017 at 10:07 am
Our DE’s are GOOD! They were High School All-State, D-1 Recruits, College Bowl Winners, NFL draft prospects. Athletic. Tenacious. and HURT
Our entire defense is hurt. Because of the offense.
I Digress:
Forget Training Camp. This is not a month-by-month enterprise. This is about Culture. The Pats are the bar, the standard, the benchmark. You think they care what happened last month? No! There is no time-space continuum, just Culture. It is a winning Culture, top down. Keep your mouth shut, do your job, help your teammate, next man up, graying-men-off-the-couch-starting kind of Culture. That’s the bar. The have shown it can be done. They have leadership from top down, they have a locker room, they have a system on offense, they have a system on defense.
It is a finely-tuned ecosystem.
The Bucs are a swamp.
GO BUCS!!!!!
November 10th, 2017 at 10:10 am
Defense Rule
16 years of failure and excuses simple as that…. Glazer clowns have no desire to win nor do they have the intelligence to fix the team. they have had plenty of time to figure it out and have proven they are incapable.
The league will be forced into contraction when the tv money drops and the wussification of america takes the next step in banning tackle football for kids.
The beginning of the end is near. the question is do us old guys get one more winning season before the crash comes.
November 10th, 2017 at 12:17 pm
OMG Maxi:
“The league will be forced into contraction when the tv money drops and the wussification of america takes the next step in banning tackle football for kids.
The beginning of the end is near. the question is do us old guys get one more winning season before the crash comes.”
Never ever thought I would say this, but I agree with you…NFLs days are numbered.
November 10th, 2017 at 12:35 pm
“Wussification of America?” LOL tmaxcon (no, the word isn’t in the dictionary BUT … we all understand exactly what the word means). And I agree with you … Glazer boys probably aren’t the ones to fix this team. I have no doubt that they want to (because of their huge $$$ investment in this team) but they’re running the show ‘by committee’ apparently & that’s not nearly as effective as having a single competent Jefe in ultimate charge. We’ve got a lot of holes, but we’ve also got a decent base to work from. With the right moves, this team could probably be ‘competitive’ in 2-3 years (going deep into the playoffs IMO requires more than just being ‘competitive’ … among other things, the quality of teams in your division impacts it & it also requires a certain element of luck).
November 10th, 2017 at 7:37 pm
It’s my not so humble opinion that this is a systemic issue that caused the team to deflate. No wonder it’s so hard to put your finger on it. Face it, it had allot to do with Jameis and the unrealistic (national) expectations. It was going to be a breakout year and they were all in agreement that the kid was going to throw for another 4K. This was all exponentiated when mana from heaven (OJ Howard) was dropped in their lap. The Bucs soared in the polls. I think they had cracked the top 10. It’s been a long fall from there, boys.
I said the cause was systemic so I’m in no way blaming Jameis and i believe that if he gets through this period of banishment he may mature if the right treatment is available and Koetter has a serious reality talk with him. If Jameis becomes the part and stops acting, he may well become a top 10 QB.
Please Dirk, play Griffin this week. Hell, we already know what Fitz can and cannot do. I believe Griffin beat Fitz out in camp anyway. If he can go, You’ll probably have a better chance with him in there. If he gets a good start, the team might just perk up and rally around him. If not, it’s not going to hurt too much.
Where’s that big motherfuc*in stick. Slap somebody this time. Preferably McCown and Seferian-Jenkins.
November 10th, 2017 at 9:00 pm
Nole&aBuc Says:
“You play how you practice.”
Every coach I have ever had, regardless of the sport or the level, has always had this as a top philosophical standard. To dismiss the soft training camp because it is halfway through the season is really shortsighted.
You only get one chance to make a first impression. There is a good reason why this is oft repeated–because it can take forever to overcome a bad first impression in the eyes of many. Well, training camp is where a staff creates a first impression by which they set the tone for the season.
Defense Rules Says:
“mediocre team leadership”
In support of this, I have trouble with putting Cs on the jerseys of guys without the maturity to stay on the sidelines when not in the game, and without the self-control to avoid slamming guys after the play out of frustration with his own performance.