Buccaneers Cove
September 7th, 2019
Joe has coined last place in the NFC South as “Buccaneers Cove” because the Bucs have absolutely owned that body of water since 2009.
In the past decade, no team has finished last place in the division more than the Bucs. In fact, the Bucs have been in last place in the NFC South every season but two since Chucky was jettisoned.
That is beyond sad.
And speaking of sad, Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports doesn’t see that trend ending. Despite Bucco Bruce Arians on board with an army of assistants, Benjamin believes the waters will remain at low tide and the pirate ship will still be moored in Buccaneers Cove.
Buccaneers finish last in the NFC South again
Jameis Winston will probably be better, Chris Godwin will probably break out, and Bruce Arians’ presence should spice things up. But this is the South we’re talking about. Where are they finding wins in a division with potentially three serious playoff contenders.
That, folks, is the problem. The damn division is so strong, except for the Bucs, it’s hard to find a channel for the Bucs to navigate their way out of Buccaneers Cove.
Just look: The Dixie Chicks took an unexpected nose dive last year and the Stinking Panthers collapsed in the second half of the season, and still the Bucs, with the NFL’s most dangerous passing attack, couldn’t take advantage.
Sad!
September 7th, 2019 at 12:16 am
The Falcons and Panthers will be average and no reason we can’t finish ahead of one of them.
September 7th, 2019 at 12:27 am
Fuuuuuhhhhhhhhh-ck…. ur cove!!! Let’s destroy these San Fran nobody’s!!!
They have a D-Line, that’s it!!!! Sorry for the excess exclamation points but that’s it! Pillage and destroy!!! Everyone show up!!! LETS GOOOOOOO!!!!! I flew in Friday, SEE YA’LL ON SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!! if the players aren’t up to it, put me in!!!! I’m ready to CRUSH. and KILL!!! Let’s change this BS right now, OWN IT!!! And let’s RIP THEIR HEART OUT!!!!!! Go BUCS!!!!!!!! WTF!!!!!
September 7th, 2019 at 12:55 am
Falcons – 11-5
Saints – 10-6
Panthers – 7-9
Bucs – 4-12
That is what I come up with going over schedules…
Last year they missed a good opportunity to get out of the bottom..
This year will be much more difficult!
September 7th, 2019 at 1:14 am
Bucs 11-5
Saints 10-6
Falcons 8-8
Panthers 6-10
U saw it hear first….
FOH
Go Bucs!!
September 7th, 2019 at 1:14 am
tough division, tough schedule….if they’re not a tough team we know where they will end up.
September 7th, 2019 at 1:28 am
Saints 12-4*(NFC CHAMPS)
Falcons 11-5
Panthers 9-7
Bucs 7-9( they will start the season 2-6 and finish 5-3) They will be competitive and set up to be a winning team in 2020. No way we are going to make it out of that 7 week away trip with more than 1 win. That is a killer
September 7th, 2019 at 2:28 am
*finger poke* Personally I think it’s too bad you have now wasted a perfect stadium nickname for pirates like “Buccaneers Cove” to always be synonymous with losing. What happens when we do start a winning streak?
We can no longer use the name. 😦
I guess we just go back to old faithful like “The Big Sombrero”.
Go Bucs! 🏴☠️
September 7th, 2019 at 5:06 am
“Not only a tough division whom we play twice but
The conference is loaded with minimum 10 serious playoff contenders fighting for only 6 positions
There will be a 10-6 team that will not make the playoffs”
Kobe Faker
September 7th, 2019 at 5:13 am
I am with Snookman on his prognostications except I go with Todd Wright’s assessment that Cam is a sham and Ron Rivera is on the hot seat. I say Bucs 3rd at 7 dash 9 and Carolina 5 dash 11.
September 7th, 2019 at 6:01 am
Saints 11-5
Panthers 10-6
Falcons 10-6
Bucs 3-13
September 7th, 2019 at 6:07 am
Joe: your article only supports the fact that if you don’t have a franchise QB your entire team will suffer. The “Dixie Chicks” were terrible without Cam. AND we were terrible with JW AND will continue to do so. Apples McGoo will continue to make retard decisions on the field and a belligerent drunk coward off the field.
September 7th, 2019 at 6:12 am
Kobe … Good point about this conference being “loaded with minimum 10 serious playoff contenders fighting for only 6 positions”. I agree with you, except for one thing: IF our defense ends up being a Top-16 defense, we could very well end up being one of those 10 teams. The Bucs’ DEFENSE is the key to a winning season this year.
I personally don’t expect the Bucs’ offense to do as well this year (in terms of POINTS SCORED) as they did last year. We averaged a bit under 25 PPG in 2018 (actually 24.75 PPG based on scoring 396 pts). But take away one game (first game against New Orleans) when we somehow (?) scored 48 pts against them in their stadium and our average is down to 23.2 PPG for the remaining 15 games (more realistic IMO).
At the same time, our Bucs’ defense was historically bad, and we’ve made some definite improvements IMO. How fast this whole defense gels and how we respond to injuries will be the keys IMO to our defense’s final standing at end-of-year. Personally think that this defense COULD improve all the way to the Top-16, which would have us allowing in the neighborhood of 360 pts based on 2018 standings (versus us giving up 464 pts last year). That’d be 22.5 PPG allowed this year (versus 29.0 PPG last year). That’s almost 1 TD per game less, but I have that much faith in Todd Bowles as a DC. He’ll be the difference-maker IMO.
September 7th, 2019 at 7:09 am
The NFC South is like the American League East…..with the Yankees & Bosox dominating….and we have been like the Orioles….
Sad but true….
But….I still have hope….
If 8-8 puts us in the cellar again…..and it probably will….so be it.
I’m looking for us to break out of this permanently next year.
September 7th, 2019 at 7:12 am
As the coach of our only Super Bowl victory once said, “Your past does not dictate your future!” Bucs fans around the globe, this losing mindset needs to stop! Knock on wood if you’re with me!
September 7th, 2019 at 7:16 am
Shake my damn head! Most of you need to go do something else other than trolling this site with your negative bull$hit, trashing the team over and over on a daily basis. HOW BOUT YOU SHOW UP TO THE GAME SUNDAY AND GET BEHIND THE TEAM INSTEAD OF SITTING AT HOME AND TYPING AWAY TILL YOUR FINGERS BLEED. LETS PACK RAYJAY AND DESTROY THESE BUMS!!! GO BUCS!!! Can’t wait, BUCS WIN and look GREAT Sunday! Who cares what’s happened the last decade, it’s over. Turn the damn page and move on!!!!!!
September 7th, 2019 at 7:17 am
Moderate all you want joes, I’m sick of the crying. SHOW UP OR SHUT UP
September 7th, 2019 at 7:28 am
As long as there is treasure in last place that is all we care about! The fans want to win football games but we win at the most important part of the game… MONEY!!!! Thank you suckers!
September 7th, 2019 at 8:10 am
“Def
I believe because of the amount of quality playoff contenders on both conferences
The NFL/labor will add 2 more teams in each conference to be playoff able
They will add another playoff week for owners to make huge tv money and decrease the preaseason games to 2 or 3
*the players union is totally against adding more games to the regular season though the owners want it badly”
Kobe Faker
September 7th, 2019 at 8:23 am
Kobe … I agree with ya once again. The quality of NFL teams in general has gone up in recent years. I also agree that they’ll be more playoff teams (2 sounds like a nice number) in each conference. Owners MIGHT agree to decrease the preseason games to 3 IF that comes about, but I think that decreasing to 2 is a stretch (the almighty dollar always wins out).
Still haven’t quite made up my mind about where the Bucs stand in the big scheme of things this year … anyplace from 10-6 to 6-10 sounds reasonable at this point. Huge variables in every season … injuries being the biggest IMO. Teams without depth (the Bucs historically?) have a really hard time compensating for the loss of starters & key rotational players. Teams like the Patriots seem to excel at compensating for injuries, not just because of their better depth but also because of better coaching and more ‘versatility’ on the part of the players who make their roster. HOPEFULLY the Bucs are moving in that direction.
September 7th, 2019 at 8:50 am
In the past decade, no team has finished last place in the division more than the Bucs. In fact, the Bucs have been in last place in the NFC South every season but two since Chucky was jettisoned.
That is beyond sad.
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In the 12 (count them) years since Gruden was fired, the Bucs have changed head coaches 5 times, and general managers twice. That is a pretty big reason for all the bottom feeding seasons. It should be brought up more often. There are a lot of talented players on this team. Arians was wooed out of retirement cos of the existing offense. Bowles has begun to crank up the defense. Bucs are famous for their defenses. The SB/Tampa 2 one is legendary. Ironically, Lynch played on it. I hope BA is everything he’s cracked up to be. We need some coaching stability here very badly. Go Tampa Bay!!
September 7th, 2019 at 9:18 am
4-12 and basement title streak intact…
September 7th, 2019 at 10:06 am
BA was wooed out of retirement for a big paycheck..and big paychecks for his homies, including Licht….Don’t doubt that for a minute.
September 7th, 2019 at 10:30 am
Wow Joe what an uplifting article! Are you available for pep talks? Maybe you can do the pregame speech in the locker room tomorrow and all the players will just run out into traffic on Dale Mabry.
September 7th, 2019 at 10:34 am
Hey Joe you’d make a great captain. You just yelled “the ship is going down, we’re all gonna die!”
September 7th, 2019 at 1:17 pm
Hey joe that picture of the guy drinking with a brown bag over the head is me and my cousin. You think you could email that picture I would love to have it. Thanks in advance.
September 7th, 2019 at 1:23 pm
Justin:
Just right click on the picture and select “Save image as… ” and you can save it to your computer.
September 7th, 2019 at 2:52 pm
Nice Pic there Joe. That’s me After the game. Only..I got an IV funnel drowning my sorrows. I thought the 49ers game was gonna be a guarantee for us. But with this FLU bug crap. Who Knows? Oh well, I got 2 more Buc fans coming over
for the game. At least we will Feel no pain.
September 7th, 2019 at 4:31 pm
We should have a pretty good idea what to expect offensively from ATL. The Panthers are in decline and we usually beat the Saints once. I have realistic expectations. I’m not predicting Super Bowl or even playoffs, but I do think we sail out of Buccaneer Cove this year. It largely depends on what happens in the trenches. That’s still the big question mark in my mind.
September 8th, 2019 at 4:31 am
I’m totaly ok with 2-14 3-13. just not be mediocre.