Home Field Disadvantage
October 19th, 2014
“Geez, 14-29? I never got my rear end kicked like that at home. Jiminy Christmas!”
When Raheem Morris took over, he made a pointed effort to “embrace the heat.” In other words, use the Florida heat to the Bucs’ advantage and make opponents melt. That blew up in his face when the Cowboys totally boatraced to open his regime
Guess someone forgot to tell Morris it gets hot in Texas, too.
Then former Bucs commander Greg Schiano comes in and, while not as vocal as Morris, also wanted to turn the heat into the Bucs’ advantage. That didn’t work out so well, either.
Then comes Lovie Smith ,who was vocal about using the heat to make an opponent wilt, and maybe more adamant than Morris. Joe just rolled his eyes and thought to himself, “Forget the heat, worry about developing the team.” In the first three Lovie home games (to date), the Bucs lost to the immortal Derek Anderson, neverbeen Austin Davis and were completely and totally belt-whipped by Joe Flacco and the Crows.
How about that heat?
Well, the Custodian of Canton, eye-RAH! Kaufman of The Tampa Tribune, noted just how bad the Bucs’ home field advantage is during his weekly appearance with the one and only Chris “Mad Dog” Russo on the channel that bears his name, “Mad Dog Radio,” part of the family heard exclusively on SiriusXM Radio.
eye-RAH! Kaufman: One [debacle like Atlanta] is bad enough. When the second one happens within a 24-day span, and it’s at home – Chris, they can’t win at home! They are 0-3. When I tell you their record since ’09 at home, I don’t want you to fall off your chair, there.
Chris “Mad Dog” Russo: What is it?
Kaufman: 14-29…
Russo: Wow, wow.
Kaufman: 14-29 and Chris, people used to fear coming in here and you know that. When Sapp and Brooks and…
Russo: Oh, it was hot, they played good defense, all those kind of things, yes.
Kaufman: When those giants were roaming the earth, other NFL teams feared this place. Now they come in and it is a picnic. I saw a lot of Ravens fans. You know how it is when a team is bad when it is in Florida. Lot of empty seats. The Green Bay game is already sold out, Chris, in December. You think that’s because of Bucs fans?
Of course, it is not because of Bucs fans. Packers fans will use that weekend as mini-vacation, escaping the wintry north for a few days in the Florida sunshine. And that is not counting the hordes of Green and Cheddar fans who have migrated to the area for good.
Home field advantage? More like home field disadvantage.
That 14-29 record is miserable, losing damn near double the amount of games you have won at home since 2009. (Yes, that awful home record also factors in the “home games” played in London which made Bucs fans so proud.)
Hopefully, Bucs coaches will forget about the heat and worry about the Xs and Os. The heat, with the right players and coaching, will take care of itself.
October 19th, 2014 at 6:24 am
It’s Just sad!
October 19th, 2014 at 6:41 am
All that’s missing is the old stadium, and the orange, and creamsicle uniforms.
October 19th, 2014 at 7:00 am
Man I wish the Glazers would sell this team to owners that are football people and know how to build a winning organization, like EDDIE DEBARTALO!!!! I’m so sick and tired of these three stunods running this team like a side project! It’s pathetic how low this franchise has gotten ever since Malcolm Glazer got sick and put the three morons in charge!
October 19th, 2014 at 7:23 am
Folks can blame the Glazers if they want, but the reality is that they don’t suit up on Sundays and play football (although that could be amusing to watch).
Poor leadership over the past dozen years has gotten us to this point … poor coaching, poor general managership, poor drafting, poor selection of free agents.
The hole gets dug a little deeper each year, and it’s unrealistic to expect Lovie or anyone else to make the Bucs ‘relevant’ again in just 1 or 2 years. This team lacks so much in relation to the more successful franchises that it’s ridiculous. It’s going to take time to make it truly ‘relevant’ again.
October 19th, 2014 at 7:27 am
Don’t forget the heat along with a losing record keeps Buc fans at home…..its almost unbearable on the East side in September.
October 19th, 2014 at 7:50 am
@pewterpirate…well said this team didn’t become wayward
Until the glazerhouse boys got their hands on the team after
The old man became ill…
October 19th, 2014 at 7:56 am
@pewterpirate99
+1
October 19th, 2014 at 8:10 am
What a shame Gruden was fired. All the BUCS had to do was sit his a$$ down and tell him they were going to hire a real GM and give him a few more million to coach and let the GM run the show.
October 19th, 2014 at 8:47 am
I still don’t know what stadium wide coordinated chant the Raven’s fans screamed during the National Anthem last game. By the end of the games, most of our home games feel like we’re the away team.
October 19th, 2014 at 8:52 am
@dick2111
“Folks can blame the Glazers if they want, but the reality is that they don’t suit up on Sundays and play football (although that could be amusing to watch).
You’re absolutely right, they don’t suit up on Sundays ( and yes it would be hysterical to see the three stooges suit up and get out there and get their ASSES turned inside out. ) However, they are the ones that have made all the bad hirings ( Raheem Morris, Mark Dominik, Sgt. Hulka Schiano , Lovie Smith ). I say Lovie Smith because I was NEVER on board with this hiring. I think Lovie is a HORRIBLE talent evaluator and too much of a Tony Dungy clone, meaning that he is set in his ways and WON’T change his “scheme”. Even if he doesn’t have the players he needs for his scheme, he’ll run it anyway even though it’s not working. The “bad hirings” drafted duds ( except McCoy and Daivd ), signed atrocious free agents and these are the ones that have been and are suiting up on Sundays putting on those abortions called games.
So like I said before, it does start with the Glazers.
October 19th, 2014 at 8:53 am
Were not losing today!!!
October 19th, 2014 at 8:59 am
“losing damn near double the amount of games you have won at home since 2009.”
That would be so sweet if we could win that many this year. That would mean at least 2 more wins yet this year. YEE HAW!!!
October 19th, 2014 at 9:31 am
Winning any game anywhere has become an exercise in futility, pitiful and pathetic excuse of a pro team. Yet we love our woeful Bucs.
October 19th, 2014 at 10:03 am
Joe
When teams are bad, the only advanage they have is the bye week, since they are bad all the time.
If they are good, I assumed you were awake watching the FSU – ND game, the home field advantage was the FSU fans singing that song I can’t stand and doing the chop every and I mean every time ND had the ball and tried to hike it. You tell me that didn’t count.
Conversely, the Gators were bad and Missouri wasn’t and scored so much, it took the fans out of the game and maybe out of the stadium after the score was bad and getting worse. This is what happens at the Bucs games now. In the Brooks/Sapp/Lynch/Barber era, the other team fans were lucky to get a ticket and the roar of the Bucs fans drowned out any signal calling.
I can only hope that we are like the Cowboys were last year and we come alive at some point when they have the right players in the right system doing the right thing, but as the Cubs fans always say, there is always hope.
October 19th, 2014 at 10:39 am
Check the math, 14-29 isn’t “damn near double”, it’s MORE than double.
October 19th, 2014 at 10:56 am
“boatraced”???
I guess my vocabulary isn’t so good. Can someone define that for me?
October 19th, 2014 at 11:10 am
That is some embarrassing shit… What a joke!!!
October 19th, 2014 at 11:14 am
There is no homefield advantage in Tampa.
Too many other teams fans here in our stadium for one, and that stupid ass TAMPA then BAY chant we do shuts up one entire part of the Stadium.
Go to Arrowhead in Kansas City, or to Seattle, to hear what a REAL NFL Stadium can sound like.
All the fans are screaming all the time, and that creates the electric atmosphere known as home field advantage.
October 19th, 2014 at 11:20 am
Glazers control the check book and they beat this team down to nothing trying to pay off manchester united debt. Soccer killed the bucs…
You can’t miss on 1st and 2nd round picks the way the bucs have… The freeman debacle will haunt this team another 2 years. Not to mention the other failures across the board.
October 19th, 2014 at 11:22 am
I think this bye week was needed more than anything else for this team
Now we have to wait and see if there are any corrections made
by EVERYONE!
October 19th, 2014 at 11:22 am
Chris- winning gets the fans excited and fills up the house. Seattle and KC stands looked and sounded like ours when they were perennial losers too. We are just staring up from the bottom much more than anyone else.
October 19th, 2014 at 11:26 am
Tmaxcon- the Glazers don’t do the drafting and Freeman is not the reason we are 1-5. Last I checked it was Freeman that brought any excitement at all to this franchise in the last 10 years and along with Morris delivered our last winning season. We suck a bag dicks right now but let’s not put the blame in arbitrary places because you hate the glazers, dom and freeman
October 19th, 2014 at 11:54 am
@pewterpirate99 Says:
+2
October 19th, 2014 at 11:57 am
Three words : I Miss Gruden.
That is all.
October 19th, 2014 at 12:30 pm
Two years ago I attended the Saints game in Tampa. I was swamped by Saints fans in my section. The most obnoxious fans i have ever encountered. (Cardinals fans were the best I have ever encountered) I looked around the stadium and it looked like there was in fact more Saints fans than Bucs fans, sounded like it too. I have been to games in the hey days (Sapp,Rice,Brooks, Lynch, Alstott,Babrer) and stuff like the Saints game I experienced never happened back then. When (IF) we become relevant again we will have those days again. Until then……HOPE
October 19th, 2014 at 12:48 pm
It Is 12:45 on a Sunday and the Bucs are not playing. The weather is beautiful and I can’t tell you how relieved I am that I don’t have to sit in front of the tv and watch the Bucs get their asses whipped. I get to go outside and enjoy myself. Can’t remember feeling like that on a football Sunday for a long time. I’m sure I’ll watch them play again this year if it occurs on a day that I have nothing better to do. They are so BAD.