Bucs Officials Restrained Todd Monken From Atlanta Fans; Adrian Clayborn Speaks & More
November 27th, 2017
Ira Kaufman is the most beloved, revered and esteemed Buccaneers columnist in town. He has hung his hat at JoeBucsFan.com world headquarters since July 2016. Tampa Bay’s only Pro Football Hall of Fame voter, Ira busts out columns here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and his award winning podcasts fire Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can also see Ira every football Sunday at 10:30 a.m. on FOX-13, Scott Smith’s Tailgate Sunday.
BY IRA KAUFMAN
Postcard from Atlanta.
First look at cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium, check.
Tasty beet salad at the world’s busiest airport, check.
Buc victory? Not so fast.
It appears Tampa Bay will finish the season in a dreary limbo — not nearly good enough to snap a playoff drought that will now reach 10 years and not awful enough to control its own draft destiny in April.
Here’s a few reflections from the weekend in Atlanta:
I happened to be standing on the field when the final seconds ticked off, so I was watching as Buc players headed toward the locker room.
Some of the Falcon fans hanging over the stands above the tunnel were really giving it to the visitors, calling them losers and firing off expletives.
The next thing I knew, offensive coordinator Todd Monken was gazing up and firing off his own insults, directed toward one Atlanta supporter in particular. Monken, rumored to be a candidate for the vacant Mississippi State job, had to be restrained by team personnel as the situation threatened to turn really ugly.
Bucs offensive coordinator Todd Monken got enraged
When I saw Monken in the locker room, he was still upset about the loss but had cooled off enough to discuss the incident.
He said he spotted a young Buc fan in the stands above the tunnel and flipped a souvenir toward him. But instead of arriving at the intended target, the souvenir was grabbed by a Falcon supporter — who refused to hand it over to the kid in pewter.
That selfish act infuriated Monken, who began gesturing toward the loser wearing Atlanta garb. But instead of making a youngster’s day by doing the right thing, this clown just kept smiling down at Monken.
If that Falcon creep reads this column, he can still make amends by sending the souvenir to One Buc Place and letting the team try to find the youngster in question.
Meanwhile, get a life, you pinhead.
Enemy View
After spending some time in a somber Buc locker room, I headed over to the Atlanta side. I wanted to say hello to Raheem Morris, but he was already gone.
Then I spotted Adrian Clayborn over in the corner, getting dressed.
“Hey, stranger,” I said as Clayborn had his back to me.
“What are you doing here?” he said with a smile, extending his hand.
Clayborn has been a key performer for Atlanta’s pass rush, but he was handled well on Sunday as Donovan Smith had an excellent game. The Falcons knew they had been tested as Tampa Bay tried to rally from a 27-6 deficit.
“They had a good game plan and they executed it well,” Clayborn said.
“I used to face Julio Jones twice a year and now it’s nice being on his side. He’s an amazing player and an amazing person.”
Clayborn always seemed to be hurt when he was a Buccaneer, but he has fit in well with the defending NFC champs.
“It’s going good,” he said. “If I stay healthy, the sky’s the limit for me. I’m not liking the chip blocks I’m getting now, but I’ve just got to deal with it. I guess it’s a sign of respect.”
I didn’t see Smith getting a lot of help on Sunday. Most of the time he took Clayborn on by himself and kept him off Ryan Fitzpatrick.
The Final Gasp
Julio Jones was obviously the player of the game, but the Bucs had a chance … a big chance. After Kendell Beckwith’s forced fumble, the Bucs faced second-and-2 from the Atlanta 19.
Pass, pass, pass.
Can you imagine what Demar Dotson, the longest-tenured Buc, was thinking after Tampa Bay coaches showed no faith in a ground game that was pretty darned effective to that point.
Koetter made the right call by going for it on fourth-and-1, trailing 27-20, but 330-pound Dontari Poe pushed aside Kevin Pamphile and applied heat down the middle.
Fitzpatrick couldn’t get much zip while throwing off his back foot and his pass intended for Cameron Brate fell incomplete.
Game over.
“They went big and passed the ball,” said Atlanta safety Keanu Neal.
“I was expecting a run, but they tried to get us with a play-action pass.”
Fitzpatrick praised Koetter’s play call and blamed himself for not making it work.
“We had some major momentum there and that was obviously the play of the game that wasn’t made,” he said. Clayborn knew the fourth-down failure was Tampa Bay’s last gasp.
“That was huge for us,” he said. “If they score there, who knows what would have happened?”
We’ll never know, and that’s a pity.
November 27th, 2017 at 1:21 pm
Shut up Fitz. Hate to sound like a Jameis Jerker, but we need that guy back in uniform, ASAP!!! P.S. coaching sucked as usual.
November 27th, 2017 at 1:25 pm
My son got monken’s visor from the San Diego game last year. Made his day!
November 27th, 2017 at 1:30 pm
How would Jameis’ presence changed the outcome Crazed? We can’t stop anybody and the play-calling is awful.
November 27th, 2017 at 1:41 pm
I really hate those people that refuse to do the right thing. It really makes me hate humans sometimes.
November 27th, 2017 at 1:45 pm
Fitz is playing much better than Jameis.
Not that it matters.
I wish they’d keep Jameis on the bench, until this Uber thing is resolved.
Winning games now, just means we have less chance at a good DE in the draft.
November 27th, 2017 at 1:54 pm
Fitz is Fitz he’s not going to get any better his best days are not ahead of him. Keeping Jameis on the bench when he’s healthy won’t help him improve. But with that said I’d like to see them allow Jameis to fully heal before putting him back on the field even if that means not playing anymore this season.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
Crazed Fan Says
“Hate to sound like a Jameis Jerker, but we need that guy back in uniform, ASAP!!!”
OMG, would you stop copy and pasting the same comment everywhere???? LOL!
November 27th, 2017 at 2:04 pm
That story, my friends, is why I hate the Falcons the most in our division. Always have.
The Saints I hate almost as much. The Panthers? I sort of dislike.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:08 pm
Fitz is almost ready to retire. If you want to get rid of Jameis, you are really just kicking the can down the road. QB’s don’t grow on trees.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:10 pm
If Jameis played we would have been lucky to get anywhere near the 20. More than likely just field goals. Bret Hundley is even making him look inferior.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:48 pm
In terms of coaching changes, NO MORE CHUCKY GRUDEN!!!!!! Man, am I sick of seeing that written. It’s always either real new fans or trolls. Fire Mike Smith and let Koetter be HC on his own for a year. He’s too loyal to Smith. It’s almost like Smith is some sort of security blanket for Koetter who owes him nothing. It might shake Koetter’s brains in the right direction. Smith stinks and Atlanta got rid of him for a good reason. I sure am sick of this same old Bucs Bad Karma tune. Players like Brate, Hump, Godwin, ME13, Howard, LVD, The Kwonster, Beckwith, GMC, Anger, etc. do not deserve it and neither do we fans.
November 27th, 2017 at 2:56 pm
Fitz looks better then Jamis has in the last two games…
November 27th, 2017 at 3:13 pm
FIRE KOETTER!!!!!!
Going for it on 4th down was the WRONG CALL!!!! Wrong time to be “aggressive”, it was absolutely stupid.
There was plenty of time left in the game, so you take the f**king guaranteed (almost) points and retain some momentum.
A FG makes it a 23-27 game, you keep momentum and the Bucs defense has at least some cushion to allow a FG on Atlanta’s next drive to keep it a one score game…
INSTEAD, you call a bullsh*t play, turn the f**king ball over on downs, lose ALL momentum and now the Bucs’ mentally weak defense has their backs against the f**king wall.
At that point all Atlanta needed was a FG and the game was back to a two score differential and all but OVER!
Of course Atlanta rammed it right up Mike Smith & Co’s gaping AS*ES and scored a TD anyway…
Still… THAT DECISION BY KOETTER SHOULD COST HIM HIS JOB!!!!
He has proven over and over that he has NO CLUE when it comes to situation football decision making and therefore has no business as a Head Coach in the NFL.
#seigemyschwanz
#purge
#thisf**kingteam
November 27th, 2017 at 4:05 pm
Buccaneer Bonzai,
I have been waiting for someone to say something about that. Thank you man! You made it all worth it. Go Bucs!
November 27th, 2017 at 4:48 pm
This the same 330 pound Dontari Poe that was available in free agency earlier this year?
Same year the Bucs had a boatload of money in salary cap to spend?
But Jason Gump signed D.Jackson and C. Baker?
Oh and Calaias Campbell (Leads the league in sacks) was also available.
What’s next, take a kicker in the second round? oh wait, he already did that.
November 27th, 2017 at 9:53 pm
After that BS yesterday,
I had to be restrained
And sedated
November 28th, 2017 at 5:14 am
Dontari Poe will be a free agent again this offseason.
Please put him next to GMC!! Please!!
Cut Baker, let McDonald walk. Sign Dontari Poe to a 3 year deal and draft another DT high in the draft.
Let Ayers walk. Draft a DE in the 1st round, and sign the best DE in free agency.
Boom.
Pash rush solved.
November 28th, 2017 at 6:03 am
Frome the article: “Clayborn knew the fourth-down failure was Tampa Bay’s last gasp.
“That was huge for us,” he said. “If they score there, who knows what would have happened?”
We’ll never know, and that’s a pity.”
I am afraid we know what would have happened…… Bucs kicko ff and the Falcons simply do what they did all day, carve up Mike Smith’s D like the turkey Mike must have been stuffed with throughout the weekend and scored the winning TD, no mystery there, the only thing in question is how long the Falcons would take to score, would they have left Fitz anytime to work with. There is no way the Bucs would have won on Sunday, the only thing that was affected was if the ATL covered the 10 point line and they did…….
I was one of the critics who called for Lovie’s head after that 6-10 trainwreck of 2015 where he threw away at least 3 winnable games including that disgusting DC meltdown. He got fired and to be fair, I do not see Koetter managing the game any better than Lovie did in in 2015, he simply makes different kinds of bonehead mistakes which ensure the Bucs getting lots of Ls on Sunday. It will be interesting when the excuses start flowing out of One Buc: who will blame who, Irma, the loss of a bye week, Jameis playing injured, the defense being so banged up, etc etc. After all the hype during the preseason it seems that someone will take the fall for his lost season. In January 2016 the Glazers thought Koetter might skip off to Miami or SF so they preemptively sacked Lovie and promoted Koetter. I think we will not have to wait to long after that final game at home to the Saints to find out who takes the fall for a season where the Bucs are more than likely going to have 10 to 12 losses depending if the Bucs could beat the Pack ala the Jets, Fins and Giants as well as if the Saints will be playing for anything that last Sunday, if they are locked into a playoff seed they might go preseason and let the Bucs drop a few slots in the 2018 draft.
Joe, this will make 7 losing seasons out of 9 since Chuckie went Bon Voyage, any chance the Glazers see how Coughlin impacted the Jags and try to bring in their own “Director of Football Ops” to clean house?
November 29th, 2017 at 8:16 am
teacherman777 Says:
November 28th, 2017 at 5:14 am
Dontari Poe will be a free agent again this offseason.
Please put him next to GMC!! Please!!
Cut Baker, let McDonald walk. Sign Dontari Poe to a 3 year deal and draft another DT high in the draft.
Let Ayers walk. Draft a DE in the 1st round, and sign the best DE in free agency.
Boom.
Pash rush solved.
——-
How manys years have we heard a similar thing?