The Morning After
December 19th, 2017
Joe is typing this at 4:35 a.m. — still banging away at a keyboard from the Monday night loss to the Dixie Chicks. Yay, caffeine.
1. Nine seconds: Yeah, the Bucs missed a 54-yard field goal as time ran out. It would have put the game in overtime. If the Bucs only had a few seconds more. Time was ticking down. America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, hit Cam Brate on a short pass to the left side for 11 yards to get the ball to the Atlanta-36. Then, as the referee was about to place the ball with the clock running, he fell. That ate up too much time, Bucs coach Dirk Koetter said. Had there been, say, nine seconds on the clock, Koetter said he would have run another play to try to set up kicker Patrick Murray with a potentially shorter attempt. When Koetter saw the ref fall, he knew the clock had to be stopped and he began yelling for Jameis to spike the ball, not knowing if the communication system between coach and quarterback was still open. Jameis spiked the ball with six seconds left. With so little time, Koetter had no choice he felt but to try the kick.
2. Quieting the Rabble: At least for a week, the Jameis haters should be quieted. No, Jameis wasn’t having a great season even though Joe didn’t think he was playing that awfully (when not hurt) if you overlook the fumbles, which are a great concern. Joe has strongly sensed a large, vocal group of Bucs fans wanted Jameis cut on Sunday. But after putting up 299 yards and three touchdowns with no picks, connecting on 27 of 35 attempts against the Falcons last night, perhaps now folks understand why the team is behind Jameis. Maybe the haters can start throwing empty beer bottles at more predictable targets: Gerald McCoy and the offensive line?
3. Return of Kwon? Kwon Alexander had a monster 13 tackles last night. Alexander hasn’t had the best of seasons either. But with the linebackers corps so good and so deep, it was easy to ignore Alexander having a down year. It all started with a pulled hammy in preseason. Maybe it has taken Alexander this long to fully recover from that hammy?
4. Calling out Ian Rapoport: In his postgame remarks, Jameis didn’t have to mention NFL Network uber insider Ian Rapoport, but Jameis nonetheless fired off some emotional shots at Rapoport and they showed Jameis indirectly believes Rapoport is either trying to submarine Koetter or flat-out Pearl Harbor the Bucs. “We love our head coach. Our head coach sets our morals. His main thing is [to] compete. You can see it through every one of those guys in there. Every time he steps up in a meeting and he puts a slideshow up of what our objective [is], ‘Passion, competitiveness [and] mental toughness.’ He’s instilled that in us. Some of the guys have it themselves, but we’ve got a coach, when you’re trying to lead men – these are men who have families, some don’t, but when you’ve got a guy who comes back to work consistently like him – that’s why I love my coach and that’s why I was so disturbed that someone would try to bring up something to distract us. That just adds fuel to our fire in a way because we’ve got so much respect for our coaches – not just Coach [Dirk] Koetter, but for our coaches on this team because they work their [butts] off. I just hate for them that the results of our play or the season is on them. Quite frankly it’s on the players. It’s us. We’ve got to play. Coaches just coach.”
5. Don’t Hang Doug Martin Out To Dry: Joe wrote this earlier this morning, but if the whispers murmured aound the Den of Depression last night are true surrounding placing Doug Martin on the inactive list for a minor violation of team rules, then the Bucs need to be up front about it. Koetter would not discuss it at his press conference. Without bringing this alleged minor issue to light in detail, it invites speculation of what happened the last time Martin was a healthy scratch: He was popped in a whiz quiz to have taken a banned substance. If Martin’s issue was minor, no need to shroud it. Leaving Martin to twist in the wind of public gossip and rampant speculation is not fair to Martin and makes the Bucs as an organization look bad.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:05 am
In deed Jameis played a very good game !
December 19th, 2017 at 8:07 am
uber insider? Paging Dr. Freud…your “slip” is on line one. 🙂
December 19th, 2017 at 8:13 am
We need D-Line help in the worst way.
4-10 SUCKS!!
That’s really all there is to say about the state of the Buccaneers right now.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:14 am
5. Well we need to hang someone! If this is a minor violation and DM22 is our BEST CHANSE TO WIN AT RB than why was he inactivated? Why mess with our chances to win on monday night for just a minor team policy violation?
So maybe it wasn’t minor.. Or maybe DM22 is not our best option at RB??? Maybe playing him had cost us playoff birth last year and doomed our season this year?
I love Koetter but he is the one that should be hanged out to dry IMO
December 19th, 2017 at 8:30 am
Perhaps we could ask Doug Martin what has happened. I think that would cut a months worth of intrigue. I also would appreciate it if you would directly ask Jameis who the 3rd person in the front seat was.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:33 am
That was a well coached & well played game by everyone except the D-line…..don’t know if this is average but all the linemen combined for 11 tackles out of 62. We were very soft up the middle alowing the RBs to get a full steam before hitting the gaping holes. Also, we let Ryan get away with 9ypc….
No pass rush as usual but whenever we even got close, Ryan panic set in.
Jameis was fantastic. Murry makes that kick from 48.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:34 am
After watching last nights game it is obvious that the players still respect Koetter. They played hard for him. Also, Jameis played lights out last night. No, we don’t need to draft another QB, we have our quarterback already.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:37 am
Actually the team played with passion the last two games…impressive….fingers crossed for a great draft and FA off season additions
December 19th, 2017 at 8:50 am
Spin the wheel. Some days it comes up Doug Martin is good, some days it comes up he’s bad. Today landed on good.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:53 am
@Bucfanbf Why is it obvious? Can’t players just want to win? especially under the lights? Isn’t it something they had done their entire lives?
And even if they love Koetter, Why is this an issue? why pointing it out? Was it a good year for the offense? did they play well? did the defense play well? Why care if they like him or not? what if they like him for the same reasons we all like him? Does it make him a good coach? Apparently not.
December 19th, 2017 at 8:53 am
Koetter just insane the guy, how could his team not be ready to kick a field goal in that situation to the point the clock almost ran out and the kicker had to rush it. Koetter is the reason this team is so unprepared. That missed kicked was a sign that fire is just in over his head and doesn’t have the game day presence needed to instill confidence. These are the type of games playoffs teams win. I don’t want to wait another 3 years for this guy to get it
December 19th, 2017 at 9:01 am
Team has not quit on Koetter, but he still needs to go.
December 19th, 2017 at 9:03 am
I was so impressed by this game, even though we lost.
December 19th, 2017 at 9:07 am
I am just happy the Bucs didn’t embarrass themselves on National Television….
Activate Martin, tell us what he did wrong and then Trade him for whatever you can get….I am done with him. I watched Barber beat the crap out of the Atlanta defense last night. I don’t care that he fumbled either. Give me the punishing RB.
We had a on of injuries last night and players stepped up to fill in.
I am excited to see Auclair look comfortable as well as other backups.
The OL looked better than before we lost Marpet and Dotson. There is hope there.
Draft/FA = 2 DEs, DT, 2 CB, OG, OT….keep building
December 19th, 2017 at 9:09 am
If you don’t have to say what the minor issue is (allegedly) why hurt what ever trade value you might have in him if any next season or do we just straight up release him?
December 19th, 2017 at 9:10 am
I predicted a 3 pt win for the Falcons. They have a great running game but to inconsistent to make it pass the 1st rd. Mattie ice got no pressure from us and still was not able to Shallack our Defense. To those of your who say the Bucs should go RB with our 1st choice. You need to truly watch our pityfull Defense.
WE shall finish 4-12.
December 19th, 2017 at 9:46 am
why didn’t dirk call timeout when we had 10 men on the field?….better yet, why didn’t he notice there were 10 men on the field once baker ran out?….POOR COACHING….this man is still making coaching 101 mistakes….his incompetence is hurting this team!!!!….GO BUCS!!!!
December 19th, 2017 at 10:01 am
I expected and have always expected since the beginning of the season a Bucs offense that would take over games. I thought that I would see a shootout with two great offenses slugging it out with the team with the last possession winning it. The game (and the season) didn’t turn out that way at all. Last night, there was a lot of sloppy football from both teams in terms of poor tackling, missed blocking assignments, dropped passes, penalties, blown coverage, etc. Although the result was not in our favor, the Bucs showed a lot of fight, and I was pleased to see that.
December 19th, 2017 at 10:22 am
Jamies proved again he is on the cusp of being an elite QB.
The Bucs defense is decimated with injuries but the Bucs DLine may be the worst DLine in the NFL in the past 20 years.
December 19th, 2017 at 10:29 am
I do have to say that Gholston had a great game as well, he was so pumped i loved seeing that.
December 19th, 2017 at 11:01 am
The team does indeed seem to want to fight for Koetter. I don’t recall seeing that kind of fight in the Lovie Smith or Greg Schiano late season losses.
Is it just me or did our front 4 pass rush look more effective with GMC out?
It was still bad – but there were numerous plays we were getting to Matt Ryan with pressure or hits – without blitzing. I don’t think I even saw that in a recent GMC game.
For whatever reason I can’t visually see how McCoy makes the D-line better. Yes I can see his quick first step…but it’s like if he doesn’t get his first step right he has no counter and is taken completely out of the play. At least Clinton McDonald seems to hold up the line / have counter moves / gets a consistent push even if he’s not getting the pressure/sack stats. He at least pushes that line consistently; whereas GMC is completely taken out of plays consistently.
I’d rather have a guy with more consistent disruption that holds his point of attack and pushes bodies; than a guy who racks up solo sack/pressure stats on like 16-30 total plays a year while completely disappearing in the other 900 plays
December 19th, 2017 at 12:21 pm
@813
Lol did you see when they showed Keotter running down the sidelines trying to call timeout when there was 10 men on the field or did you conveniently miss that?? LOL, you can get mad at Keotter all you want, last night isn’t on him.
December 19th, 2017 at 12:24 pm
@Lord C
I’m with you there… he doesn’t seem to improve our defense and it looked like Conte played with more passion than I’ve ever seen GMC play with. Trade him if you can.. blow up the DLine.