No Resting On Cairo Santos
December 6th, 2018
Perfect.
Joe has written a few times, half-jokingly, that some 20 years from now when Bucs Bit-O-Honey-snacking coach Dirk Koetter is sitting on his back porch admiring the lush rolling hills and mountains of rural Idaho, family members and friends will catch him grumbling about kickers in the middle of an otherwise peaceful spring afternoon for no apparent reason.
Joe cannot think of any football coach, not even Bobby Bowden, more tormented and tortured by kickers than Koetter. Joe is convinced kickers, more than anything else, will have doomed Koetter’s days with the Bucs if he doesn’t return in 2019.
How many games have kickers cost Koetter?
Beginning when Koetter was the Bucs’ offensive coordinator in 2015, this organization has trotted out stiff after stiff after stiff after stiff with the expectation that the guy could consistently put a football between the uprights.
Draft picks, a trade, dudes off the street, big-monied free agents, none of them worked. If Koetter told Joe that his doctor diagnosed him with an ulcer sparked by indigestion from watching kickers yack on themselves time and again, Joe would fully believe it.
The Bucs, after dumping the latest in a long line of garbage kickers who have paraded through One Buc Palace the past four years, seem to have finally found a decent kicker. Cairo Santos is getting the job done.
Signed not quite a month ago, Santos has yet to miss a kick for the Bucs through three games — perfect at both field goals (3-for-3) and extra points (11-for-11).
To hear Koetter talk about Santos, he hasn’t cut the team’s stress level.
“Every guy out there is trying to do their job and Cairo is doing his,” Koetter said. “I don’t think anybody’s sleeping any better because Cairo’s our kicker, but he’s done a good job.”
Now a cynic like Joe would take Koetter’s words to mean the organization is suffering from PTSD after watching all of these horrible kickers simply urinate away wins. That’s understandable.
One reason why people are probably not relaxed is that there is no room for error with the team. The Bucs not only pretty much have to run the table for a prayer of a wild card berth, but Koetter likely needs four more wins to keep his job.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:12 am
It won’t be the kicker that makes him lose his job, it will be Dirk that makes him lose his job. Same with Licht.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:18 am
We need 16 more quarters of flawless football from this team… and a lot of help from our enemies to get to the playoffs.
#OneGameAtATime
#OnePlayAtATime
December 6th, 2018 at 8:26 am
At Dirk’s funeral the pallbearers will be kickers so they can let him down one last time…
December 6th, 2018 at 8:26 am
I certainly sleep better with Santos on the roster, I can tell you that!
December 6th, 2018 at 8:45 am
Mike Smith doomed Koetter’s career. Dirk picked him & stuck with him when there was no conscionable reason.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:46 am
I think 8-8 brings him back
December 6th, 2018 at 8:53 am
You have to learn to assume the kick is going to be missed.
December 6th, 2018 at 8:58 am
I can’t be the only one who thinks we’ve been lucky Cairo Santos has not missed so far.
I don’t believe for a second that the kicker search is over. Cairo Santos has had opportunities in the past and blown them. I just hope he can get us through the rest of this year with minimal mistakes.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:05 am
DEWEY
LMAO!!!!!
that was great……
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!…GO BUCS!!!
December 6th, 2018 at 9:07 am
perfect at both field goals (3-for-3)
Kind of fuzzy math or a typo Joe……
December 6th, 2018 at 9:13 am
Neither. You read that sentence wrong (it is correct).
“perfect at both field goals (3-for-3) and extra points (11-for-11).”
(Notice the records are in parentheses.)
December 6th, 2018 at 9:21 am
The main upgrade is, that Cairo’s kicks are going down the middle of the uprights. The other kickers converted sometimes to the extreme right, sometimes to the extreme left and rarely down the middle. This fact must have been stressed by the coaches.
I played soccer for some 20 years and kicked for my local football team in Germany for 4 years. If my kicks would have had such a spreading, my team mates – soocer or football – would have given me an earful every day!
December 6th, 2018 at 9:28 am
Has the holder changed? (sarcasm)
December 6th, 2018 at 9:43 am
Huh?
The only reason why he was let go from the Chiefs is because he was injured. That’s not the same as blowing opportunities in the past.
December 6th, 2018 at 9:53 am
Joe….Would have been much clearer (at least to me) Perfect in both categories….>Field Goals (3-3) and Extra Points (11-11)…..
But, I see what you meant now.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:15 am
I agree with ATLBuc.
8-8 and Koetter comes back. Team continues to fight for him, just like last year, when many teams might have crumbled. You cant argue with that.
You can blame Koetter for not firing M.Smith sooner, but if what we have right now is working (and you could say it is if we win 3 of the next 4 to get to 8-8{which would also be winning 5 out of 6 games to end the year) why blow it up just to punish Koetter.
You have the defense playing decent under Duff and he hasnt even had an offseason to implement changes. As long as the defense keeps playing this way, I would LOVE to see what Duff can do with a full Offseason as well as an actually healthy defense.
The offense is undeniably working. #1 offense in total yardage, #10 in scoring (some disparity, but top 10 scoring is good plus it has been trending up)
and Bucs finally have a kicker. This team could absolutely be a competitor. Do we really want to risk bringing in a new HC, DC, and OC and crossing our fingers that it all works when its already working now?
December 6th, 2018 at 10:16 am
D-Rome, Santos has been with the Bears, Jets and Rams since the Chiefs.
And Joe did you just ice our Kicker by writing this article? hahaha
December 6th, 2018 at 10:29 am
One could argue that Mason Crosby cost McCarthy his job this year.
December 6th, 2018 at 10:33 am
Dewey’s Quote = GOAT
December 6th, 2018 at 10:58 am
I feel a LOT better knowing Santos Clause is kicking for this team. Let’s just be happy that Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday.
December 6th, 2018 at 11:56 am
I agree with those of you who said…
Um… shhhhh…..
should we really be talking about this on here?…
shhhhh…..
let’s just keep quiet about it… all seems to be ok at the moment