Don’t Bank On (Bad) Kickers
January 6th, 2018
Lesson to be learned?
Maybe there was a method to Jameis’ madness.
If, for whatever reason, the Bucs and coach Dirk Koetter part ways after the 2018 season, Joe is convinced Koetter will have nightmares about kickers for the rest of his life.
Koetter has been cursed by kickers as Bucs coach. First there was the Roberto Aguayo fiasco. Then there was the Nick Folk Fail. Patrick Murray seemed to have calmed things down but he didn’t end the season well. And his short and low kickoffs set up the Stinking Panthers and Saints with kickoff returns for touchdowns. That cost the Bucs one game right there.
Gary Gramling of SI.com wrote earlier this week he just loved how America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston, drove the ball 95-yards for a game-winning touchdown to end the season for the Bucs.
Dirk, Jameis, and the Bucs Go for the Jugular: That’s how you play out the string! Eleven plays, 95 yards in a minute and 49 seconds with no timeouts. And instead of leaving the game in your kicker’s . . . foot-hands, go score a touchdown. Winston to Chris Godwin (who looks like a budding star, by the way), 39 yards to win it.
Now we all know Koetter had a play called for Jameis to throw to the left side along the Bucs sideline to set up for a field goal (Joe was told Adam Humphries was wide open on the play). Jameis basically said, the hell with this nonsense, we’re winning the game, which nearly gave Koetter and his staff a stroke.
Jameis freelanced.
Perhaps Jameis was onto something? Maybe, with the Bucs trying to push through an awful year of kickers, the Bucs and Koetter shouldn’t have relied on the percentages because those percentages drop like a rock with a struggling kicker.
In other words, don’t leave the game on the toes of dicey kickers.
January 6th, 2018 at 11:02 am
Don’t bank on bad coaches either! HINT?
January 6th, 2018 at 11:07 am
If Jameis is freelancing could that mean he has tuned out Koetter as well?
January 6th, 2018 at 11:08 am
Banking on bad kickers is least of bucs worried considering the bad owners who cant figure it out….
January 6th, 2018 at 11:09 am
I don’t need a calculator to know that 7 points is better than 3.
Hell – I’d rather go for broke more often than not. Think of it like this – 2 TDs out of 4 possessions is better than 4 straight made FGs. And kicks get missed…. especially in Tampa.
Koetter needs to have an attacking scoring mind frame every possession. Settling for aFG should be considered failure at this point
January 6th, 2018 at 11:17 am
Yes because so many teams are successful because of great kickers. WHEN koetter gets fired it’ll be because he trusted kickers more than he does his offensive players. Only cowards play for 3 points the way he did for an entire season even at 4-11 with a bad kicker he was setting up for a field goal so it’ll be all his fault. No personally I think Winston was if the mindset that I’m not going to let this weak minded coach prevent me from breaking Dan Marino touchdown record which I’m sure his people were aware of
January 6th, 2018 at 11:44 am
While I agree with the observations we should temper our enthusiasm a bit.
Given the circumstances…and not just the shaky kicking…but our losing record…the pressure on both Koetter and Jameis…the Bucs unable to win the close ones…I get Jameis decision.
First off they didn’t hold Godwin back on the line to block…they sent him on a route on the other side of the field…perhaps to simply spread DB’s but he had run a route and was pretty open…not to take it to the house which is where I question #3’s decision but to certainly catch it.
#3 simply turned competitor at that point and I agree with him. After all he and the team and we fans have been through he thought F it…we’re either gonna win this sucker or go out on our shields…not with some wimpy wide right kick!!!
If this has been the Super Bowl and we had a competent kicker…then Dirk probably had the correct decision.
It’s really down to the math…if one play has a 10% chance of succeeding historically and another has 50% gotta take the higher percentage. That would be playing to win in that situation.
This season has been so especially unlucky and cursed however I do not blame #3 for wanting to freaking get the decision and move on.
January 6th, 2018 at 12:02 pm
The land of Monday Morning Quarterbacks….
Sure, the pass worked (that time) ….and we won the game….but many bad things could have happened……an incomplete pass leaves us with a 56 yard FG….a completed pass but not a TD leaves us scambling down the field to try to spike the ball before the clock runs out (doubtful)…..
How many of those passes have worked %?……..
If he misses, he is a losing fool…..so, he’s a hero.
I am the first one to criticize Koetter’s playcalling….but on that play, I think he made the right percentage call….
All we needed was 3….not 7.
January 6th, 2018 at 12:48 pm
You are putting yourself in the group, aren’t you?
Jameis won us the game. Sitting there, with seconds left, the season already over, you were really dying to see us march our kicker out there for a long try? I’m only speaking for myself, but that one play might have been the highlight of the entire season. And again, we won the game.
Even when Jameis is right, he’s wrong.
January 6th, 2018 at 12:51 pm
Jameis tuned him out against the Giants too. Imagine that, if he listened to koetter the Bucs would be 3-13. Damn shame really.
January 6th, 2018 at 12:53 pm
Tbbf
How many of those passes have worked %
————
100%. Once against ny and no.
January 6th, 2018 at 12:56 pm
I’ve always believed that you should lead, follow or get out of the way. At this point koetter is in the way. Sitting here wondering if Jameis and LVD would do better coaching from the field, calling their own plays. At the very least audible out of every play call. Damn that’s a crying shame.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:02 pm
The Bucs cannot win close ones because they lack the will on DEFENSE. Its not the offense. Revamp the defense starting at the top..with the coaching staff. Get us a Defense and we win 5 to 6 more games. Yes, it is that simple. But will Koetter make the necessary changes? Will he fire his DC? The answer is NO. Thus we shall continue to lose last minute games. I fail to see all of your chatterings about Jameis and the O. The O is and will be fine. Its our..LAST PLACE DEFENSE thats the problem. Most good or potentially want to be good teams would have sent Smitty packin right after the last game. But not us cause..ITS A BUC LIFE!!
January 6th, 2018 at 1:15 pm
Thought Koetter wanted to build a BAD ASS football team? Seems he is not combining the words when forming our team mentality.. he is either forming a bad team or an ass team. Hoping next season we get back to a mentality of a true BAD ASS team and go into attack mode on both offense and defense!
January 6th, 2018 at 1:26 pm
The funny thing is when JW threw that beautiful TD to beat the Aints I said to myself good on Koetter. We are a 4-11 team and you got to go for the jugular and win the game instead of taking your chances on a kicker that has failed in the clutch. There isn’t much to lose at this point in the season. Of course, it turns out that per usual Dirk went conservative and it was Jameis that improvised the ballsy throw. That’s sad. I can only hope that this year was a learning experience for Dirk. He was way too conservative which has lead to the death of many head coaches in Tampa. Some of us remember Tortorella’s saying when the Lightning won the Stanley Cup. Safe is death. That’s true in all sports.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:27 pm
55….20/20 second professor…..who would be your perfect HC coach …for Jameis ?
January 6th, 2018 at 1:39 pm
There is this guy named Herm Edwards who said “You play to win the game”……maybe coach K could take on that philosophy
January 6th, 2018 at 1:40 pm
Was the team really that bad this year?
Michael David Smith on PFT posted that the average NFL team scored 21.7 points per game in the 2017 season. Not sure what his source is, but if accurate, how did we compare?
We scored 335 points this year for an average of 20.9 points per game. That’s only .8 off from the league average…less than a point.
And that’s with all the mistakes, injuries and starting the year with a kicker that cost us multiple games.
Heck, Folk left 17 points on the field in 4 games. Had he mad those, that would have raised us to 22.0 points per game…above the league average. Murray left 16 points on the field (over 12 games), which would have lifted us even higher.
So all we have to do it score 1.2 more points per game and we should have a winning season. We were not that far off, and it can easily be argued that had there not been turnovers, we may have scored way above the average.
So if they fix the dumb mistakes, make sure the kicking game is there and get a pass rush, I think we are set.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:44 pm
@DB55
I don’t think Jameis tuned Koetter out at all. As the play developed, he saw an opportunity to put the game away and took it. That;s what good QBs do. No OC/HC expects a QB to strictly do everything he says no matter what.
They want a QB who can grow on the fly, and learn to see things that suddenly develop and present themselves.
No tuning out at all.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:44 pm
For jameis? Probably Arians.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:48 pm
Buccaneer Bonzai Says:
January 6th, 2018 at 1:44 pm
“I don’t think Jameis tuned Koetter out at all.”
“No OC/HC expects a QB to strictly do everything he says no matter what.”
Apparently you missed the part of the part of this article where Koetter and his staff were throwing a fit on the sideline because Jameis didn’t do exactly what the play said.
Which I find hilarious. Because after 2 straight games of losing on a missed field goal, Koetter still wanted to rely on the kicker. Which is so shamefully indicative of how flawed this guys mindset is.
January 6th, 2018 at 1:50 pm
Bonzai
Hope all is well thanks for the reply. I believe joe has reported that the call was an out route to Hump. Jameis audibled(?) and went to Godwin.
If you recall same thing happened against NY only koetter admitted he didn’t know what to call in that situation and Jameis suggested a play he and Brate “had been working on after practice”.
Koetter is dazed and confused. Worst part is we thought Lovie didn’t want to score points come to find out koetter doesn’t either. To me it seems like he’s afraid of jameis throwing picks. Lol. No balls.
January 6th, 2018 at 2:16 pm
Koetter you puss. You play to win the game.
January 6th, 2018 at 2:28 pm
That was the type of relationship and trust between JW and Jimbo!
January 6th, 2018 at 2:54 pm
Koetter dosent have the personality to be an aggressive play caller that will win games – he’s to weak. Listen to the way he answers questions on Bucs total access. One example, and ther were many was, when asked if he had the choice would he take Eli’s or Dan Marino’s QB career? He took the safe route and said both. Bro answer the question get some balls, make a decision and quit taking the safe road. We see where that got us this year. Koetter is a great assistant and a players coach – he just dosent have what it takes to be the decision maker. With Koetter at the realm we have little chance making it to the promise land, kicker or no kicker.
January 6th, 2018 at 3:07 pm
So I didn’t get to see the end of the game… (first I’ve missed in years)
I keep hearing how Jameis ignored the play call and threw the TD instead. Can someone fill me in on the details? How do we know what was and wasn’t called? I ain’t mad about it, I’m just curious from reading about it for the last week.
January 6th, 2018 at 3:42 pm
For everyone blaming the defense more than koetter you need to stop please. This offense has been impotent in the first half of nearly every game but think this offense could mount the come back in almost every game only to lose if the defense wasn’t holding the other’s offense allowing koetter to get the ball back.
More offense comes in the hurry up offense than with koetter calling the shots. There’s a reason we all wish they let Winston run a hurry up offense more
January 6th, 2018 at 3:58 pm
I THING ABOUT THIS COACH IS HE DOESNT GET IT UNTIL ITS TOO LATE
January 6th, 2018 at 5:08 pm
K Quinn Nordin (Michigan) get him with a 4th or 5th.
January 6th, 2018 at 5:27 pm
This still has potential.
I like Koetter a lot but I do chafe at his conservatism and rigidity…he’s not flexible with personnel or his play calling. I think he is a great administrator…good motivator and keeps on an even keel. But he needs to loosen up!!!
I like #3…but he is too impetuous and reckless with the football. I think however when he plays within himself and under control I see star potential.
Perhaps these two can meet in the middle. #3 gets Koetter to open up a bit and Koetter gets #3 to tone it down a bit.
January 6th, 2018 at 5:32 pm
Are we really going to pretend QBs are not supposed to change plays if they see something? Come on, people.
January 6th, 2018 at 5:38 pm
In the game at Carolina, Dirk played for the FG late and cost his team the game. Cowardly coaching cost the Bucs a lot this year.
January 6th, 2018 at 5:47 pm
Unbelievable, on that play as you probably know by now Jameis threw a perfect strike to Chris Godwin for the touchdown. It was only after the fact that Koetter admitted that he had called a completely different play to set up a field goal. So postgame both Jameis and Koetter describe the play from their perspective. Jameis saw single coverage and decided to throw it to Godwin. End of story. Another poster said that they initially applauded Koetter for the call. I did too thinking he made that call but it was a freelance by Jameis.
January 6th, 2018 at 5:56 pm
Steven007 – Yeah watching the game I congratulated on Dirk for finally actually going for it and not playing for the FG – I mean it took him 15 games and 59 mins and 45 seconds to figure it out, but hey, he finally figured it out.
But nope, it turns out the cowardly Dirk was again playing for the FG and Jameis said F U I’m sick of losing, I’m winning the game and he did. If Jameis ignores Dirk more often the Bucs will be in great shape.
January 7th, 2018 at 8:14 am
I kind of wonder what kind of kicker Roberto Aguayo might have been if the coaches didn’t allow swaggy to get in his ear like he did. That was actually pretty brutal.