Bucs’ Season On The Brink
November 8th, 2020
The greatest sports book Joe ever read was John Feinstein’s “Season on the Brink.” It was a year in the life of Bobby Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers.
And boy, the Bucs need Knight right now more than you can imagine.
After the absolutely shameful disgrace of a curb-stomping by the Saints Sunday night, what looked to be a possible chance to grab (for the time being) the top seed in the NFC playoff picture totally blew up in the Bucs’ faces last night.
The Bucs dropped to 6-3 and don’t look now, but their postseason hopes look to be on the brink of collapse.
In the next four games, the Bucs play the Stinking Panthers on the road, and then host the 5-3 Rams, the Super Bowl champion Chiefs and the dangerous Vikings and Kirk “You Like That?” Cousins who has owned the Bucs in recent years.
The Bucs easily could see their season spiral down the drain if they don’t get their heads out of their arses real quick.
Joe cannot believe how unprepared the Bucs were to play Sunday night. It was an absolute disgrace squarely on the shoulders of Bucs coach Bucco Bruce Arians and his biggest and brightest coaching staff.
For all the accolades that have been bestowed on the Bucs’ coaching staff this fall, they deserve every bit of the criticism for this disaster against the Saints.
Joe swears on a stack of Bibles, if he didn’t know any better, he would have no doubt that Lovie Smith was back in charge of the Bucs. Sunday night’s game looked every bit like the Tennessee Ready game the Bucs were so unready to play.
Where was the blocking? Where was this great passing game? Where was the pass rush? Where was the pass defense?
And for God’s sake, will somebody stop this two-bit Tim Tebow wannabe the Saints have for a backup quarterback/fullback/tight end? This Taysom Hill that Sean Payton has some fetish over?
Can the Bucs not shadow this scrub with Lavonte David and take him out? Is it too much to ask? How many times do the Bucs need to get burned by this BYU reject before they start to gameplan against him? Geez.
The Bucs are now 6-3. And if they are not careful they could be entering the bye week 6-6. Yesterday Joe watched the Stinking Panthers damn near beat the Chiefs at Kansas City.
Season on the brink? You damn right it is.
And if the Bucs go into a tailspin in part due to this game and miss the playoffs, Joe’s going to call for Team Glazer to throw more than just a chair out a window at One Buc Palace.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:09 pm
Licht needs to be fired. Cute experiment but these “miracle” teams never work. Quite frankly we should have lost to the Giants last week too.
When will Licht be held accountable? He can’t assemble a playoff team and he’s shown that for years. Why do we keep him here? His early drafts were a joke and we are paying for it now.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:10 pm
Hill runs 90% of the time and he’s not great under pressure. We should be blitzing when he’s in every time. We repeatedly get our coaches by the Saints and it’s embarrassing. Leftwich is overrated as a playcaller. He gave up on the run after the first three drives which really let the Saints T-off on us. I’m not sold on this team yet.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:11 pm
Well said Joe
November 8th, 2020 at 11:19 pm
They should be 8-5 at worst after next four maybe 9-4 making playoffs double digit wins huge accomplishment this year based on last 13 years
November 8th, 2020 at 11:19 pm
Usually I disagree with your doom and gloom, but after this performance I fully agree. After the Bears game I said that Arians must just be collecting a paycheck. Then we steamrolled the Packers and the Raiders and thought we turned it around. Nope. I think we got lucky. Tonight we got exposed. Our coaching staff did not know what to do… We were not prepared. Byron Leftwich continues to prove he is an awful playcaller. I don’t even know where we go from here….. FIRE LEFTWICH
November 8th, 2020 at 11:22 pm
6-10
Posers
Frauds
And now the film is there.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:24 pm
dandy don merideth, turn out the light’s the party’s over, the cream always rises to the top near the end of the process, maybe just maybe were nearly not as good as we thought, and maybe just maybe new england was on time to let tom go, i don’t know but this was a damn nightmare, can we replace d smith anytime soon
November 8th, 2020 at 11:34 pm
Don’t blame Licht. He didn’t coach or play the field. It was weak defense Todd Bowles got chin checked like iron mike
November 8th, 2020 at 11:37 pm
I can’t be the only one that has noticed Brady excels when the offense is balanced. What did we run the ball like 5 times tonight. Fire BL
November 8th, 2020 at 11:42 pm
6-6? Why not just focus on the next game? Next, we will have a run of whiners because Mike Evans is not going to get 1,000 yards.
November 8th, 2020 at 11:54 pm
“… the Bucs need Knight right now more than you can imagine.”
.
.
Since BA has the green light to hire women as NFL coaches, I’m sure he’d be alright hiring Bob Knight as a motivational chair-chucker.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:01 am
alaskabuc Says:
“What did we run the ball like 5 times tonight. Fire BL”
.
.
We set an NFL record for fewest rushing attempts. Ignominy is a real word, and I will take this opportunity to use it for the first time EVER!
November 9th, 2020 at 12:21 am
If anybody still tells me our bucs ar the best in the NFC South after being beat 2-0 by the saints? I know they are sitting by the TV waiting for recount..LOL BucLife baby.
November 9th, 2020 at 12:22 am
I feel sad 😞 and I wish it wasn’t my “Normal” Buccaneers feeling but ever since Jon Gruden left it’s been hell.
November 9th, 2020 at 2:01 am
alaskabuc Says:
“What did we run the ball like 5 times tonight. Fire BL”
——
I’m not a fan of BL, not even close, but when your defense was as terrible as it was tonight and couldn’t get the Saints off the field (except at the 2 yard line), what else are you supposed to do? Down 21-0 in the 2nd are you supposed to run it up the middle to establish the run — knowing that if you punt you’re going to be down 28-0?
This was some Jameis Winston era bad Bucs defense, and shocking, look at the results. No running game and turnovers from the QB. It’s almost like turnovers come from bad defense — with the Bucs it was never bad defense coming from turnovers outside.
However this is where Brady needs to earn his $50m and figure out what is wrong and fix it himself. The Bucs offense should be able to outscore anyone so it doesn’t matter how bad the defense is, if Brady does his job, the Bucs should be able to win 48-41.
November 9th, 2020 at 8:20 am
IT’S ONE GAME! Yes a critical game but NOT the end of the season.
We need to fix our OL and get our DB’s on the same page. SMB and Dean look lost out there too often. They have the physical skill to repair that.
Do we have the physical skill to repair our OL. We cannot win if we cannot protect Brady better than last night. It’s as simple as that.
November 9th, 2020 at 10:12 am
I’ve been a fan since 76. Seems as if every year the Bucs have 2 or 3 games like last night where it’s over by the first quarter. Inexcusable with this roster. Maybe they’re not that good but damn that was beyond embarrassing.
November 9th, 2020 at 11:52 am
Actually it is two games (and counting). The Bucs were fortunate to play one of these games against one of the worst teams in the NFL and won by a cat’s whisker.