“Dumb, Dumb Sequence”
December 1st, 2014
Per theMMQB.com editor Peter King, the Bucs had 12 men on the field in consecutive plays on the final drive.
Joe simply cannot fathom how the following took place. On the potential game-winning drive, the Bucs had 12 men on the field. Geez.
Look, we are all human. We all make mistakes. But most NFL teams — hell, high school teams — have safeguards to prevent penalties that push a team out of field goal range.
The Bucs got busted for 12 men on the field. You can decide who was at fault. No one caught it. No one in the huddle. No one on the sidelines. No coaches. No one upstairs in the coaches’ box. No one. Not even the refs, much to the chagrin of Bengals coach Marvin Lewis.
But it is worse! Per the fingers of nine-shot espresso-inhaling, Allie LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, pedestrian-bumping, olive oil-lapping, popcorn-munching, coffee-slurping, fried-chicken-eating, oatmeal-loving, circle-jerking, beer-chugging, cricket-watching, scone-loathing, college football-naïve, baseball box score-reading, NPR-listening, filthy-hotel-staying, fight-instigating, barista-training Peter King, of Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports fame, Lewis claimed that on the play after the Bucs committed the penalty for too many men on the field, the play that was blown dead to review the previous play, the Bucs still had 12 men on the field.
The Bucs had had 12 men on the offensive side of the ball on the pass play to Murphy. Oniel Cousins came in as an extra offensive lineman/tight end, and rookie wideout Robert Herron, whom Cousins was replacing, just didn’t leave the field.
Now for the strange thing: Bill Leavy’s officiating crew missed the 12 men. The Bengals caught it—and then CBS caught on the telecast. Even crazier: As Tampa Bay lined up to run another play, the Bucs still had 12 men on the field. The Bucs were about to snap the ball, and if they had done so, the penalty on the previous play wouldn’t have been fixable.
“I just lost my mind,’’ Lewis told me from Tampa after the game. “All I needed to do was call timeout. I was trying to get Bill Leavy’s attention, and at the end I was worried they’d snap the ball, so I just threw the challenge flag.’’
Shoot, most high school teams have more than one person checking how many players are on the field. Joe has to guess there is more than one person responsible to count players on the NFL level.
This means more than one person dropped the ball, more than one person was asleep at the switch. And that is just flat out inexcusable on every level.
Usually, these things are resolved in training camp. Here it is the 13th week of the season, the last day of November, and the Bucs still didn’t have things right. At the end of the day, that eventually falls on the shoulders of your head coach.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:06 pm
Cut Herron Sign Page
December 1st, 2014 at 2:07 pm
lovie ball at it’s best
December 1st, 2014 at 2:08 pm
Horribly coach, poorly disciplined teams do this. We obviously and clearly fall into this category. I mean two plays in a row with 12 guys on the field? How the hell does that happen?
December 1st, 2014 at 2:10 pm
Thank you Herron and Marvin Lewis..the last thing you need is the Bucs to win a meaningless game. I want it to be crystal clear that big changes need to be made on the offense. I don’t want meaningless wins to confuse the picture.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Exciting times in Bucs Land lol! Unless you have one of the top 5 QBs in the NFL (don’t matter the order) if you LOSE your offensive coordinator right before the season most teams wouldn’t be able to recover. Let alone a team that is playing some many rookies & a new coordinator who NEVER called plays in the NFL; not even D1 ball. You’re right Joe, the two things I’m starting to do research on are the top picks in the draft & new offensive coordinators. I’m not ruling out Tedford yet b/c he will be #1 on the list for Lovie. I wonder who #2, #3, etc are though. Should be interesting!
December 1st, 2014 at 2:23 pm
Real football doesn’t start until November! Right, Lovie? Lovie? Hmm, wonder if he meant November of next year.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Schiano had a better gameplan than Lovie.
We put up bilboards for Schiano, why not Lovie?
It amazes me how much of a pass some of the media (no Joe) gives Lovie, but they were so quick to judge Schiano.
Schiano was right we are the laughingstock of the league.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:29 pm
alaka…is that you lovie?
December 1st, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Lovie is as Lovie does…..L&L had Carte Blanche this off season FA~Draft~Roster~ Coaching Staff……folks coming out of the gate against the Carolina Panthers thru yesterday same old story….INEXCUSABLE !…
INEPTITUDE !…INCOMPREHENSIBLE….yerah give these two more time
December 1st, 2014 at 2:29 pm
Not sure if they huddled up before the 12 man play. If so it would be the QBs responsibility to count his men before entering the huddle. I remember glennon got flagged for it. After that he remained outside the huddle until he had counted the players. Doesn’t matter we didn’t have any timeouts.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:32 pm
Pretty sad when Lewis has time to count the players on his team as well as our team before we can even count our own players
December 1st, 2014 at 2:36 pm
yall remember my comment last week about this coach not being competent enough to man a toll booth should he have to break a $20
damn……..sure hits home lol
December 1st, 2014 at 2:36 pm
When the laid back coach wears flip flops to work, what do you expect? Attention to detail takes a back seat. But, hey, at least the players are “respected” by Lovie, unlike that big meanie Schiano.
December 1st, 2014 at 2:45 pm
glad they all respect themselves.
cause they don’t get any respect from me, the fans or anyone else in the NFL. their a joke.
I can see lovie in his best cartman voice rollin on his big wheel up in one buc now
December 1st, 2014 at 2:50 pm
Empty Seats in the Ray Jay…wait until the Packers and Saints games end off season….next year will be the same….w/L&L
December 1st, 2014 at 2:59 pm
I saw that in the video as well. Yesterday I was counting and I was wondering why there were 4 receivers and a RB. Right after Murphy caught it they all ran back to the line. I was wondering how in the hell you don’t know somebody isn’t where they are supposed to be. McCown should have been looking and been like “wait what is going on here”.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:03 pm
We’ll be thanking Cousins/Herron at the end of the season. The 12th man and a last minute field goal for the Jags – could prove to be a massive few moments in Bucs history once we draft Mariota.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:07 pm
We lost in true Bucs fashion, like a bunch of idiots
December 1st, 2014 at 3:07 pm
I’m going to blame Robert Herron for this. He dropped the one ball thrown his way and looks completely lost out there. I would suspect he was the one who screwed up.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:24 pm
@ Robert 9…F**k up! How’s that for being Lovie?!? You know since he doesn’t cur…eh forget it lol
Go BUCS! If it’s up to some of ya’ll we will keep paying coaches who aren’t even coaching here anymore. Fired Lovie & go send him back to his basement where he collecting checks for just waking up everyday lol. Let’s actually give a coach a min of 3 yrs to see what he can do. S**t we suffered for almost 10 yrs so what’s another few yrs
December 1st, 2014 at 3:28 pm
Considering the Bucs were without all of their TEs and was working in a guard at TE for the first time. It is actually a pretty easy screw up to identify. Cousins hasn’t been working as a te since training camp. He clearly didn’t realize what his responsibility is when subbing in. Add to that that the OC is a rookie and didn’t make the necessary communications to get the right personnel on the field.
Only ignorant people will blame the defensive head coach for an offensive personnel screw up.
We all know Lovie doesn’t touch the offense, Joe reported it and if I recall correctly Lovie has even said that. So why are we crucifying Lovie for an offensive blunder? It’s really misplaced anger. Lovie is far from a great head coach, but he’s the best one we’ve had since gruden came to town. I know, that’s a sad statement.
December 1st, 2014 at 3:32 pm
Facts @ Trubucfan22
December 1st, 2014 at 3:51 pm
Of course they had 12 on the next play. They were running up to spike it. They weren’t going to take the time to substitute.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Lovie is ultimately responsible, no matter which team made the error. If he isn’t willing or able to live up to that responsibility then he shouldn’t be the HC. You can make all the excuses in the world for him, and blame whomever else you want to, but the teams record is his record, and the teams blunders are his as well.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Herron keeps getting blamed for this but really it is the TE that really wasn’t a TE’s fault. Herron was on the field originally, but then Cousins came in, Cousins was supposed to inform Herron he was in but apparently he didn’t. Simple as that. Not quite sure why we would have a strictly blocking TE in the game at that point anyway instead of a guy that could POSSIBLY catch a ball and definitely block (Brate) or guy that could possibly block or catch a ball (Shepherd). This is to be expected when a mediocre collegiate OC turned QB coach turned NFL OC is coordinating the offense. But what other options did we have? I suppose if Tedford decided his leave was going to be more than temporary sooner, the team could have found a more seasoned replacement, but Arroyo was just supposed to be QB coach, then he was just supposed to be a temporary fill-in, then he was expected to be more than a mediocre collegiate OC? I don’t think so.
December 1st, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Please remind me how much NFL play-calling experience our supposed offensive wizard, Tedford had.
December 1st, 2014 at 6:15 pm
Name me a coaching staff that is worst than these clowns?
December 1st, 2014 at 6:22 pm
2-10 speaks for itself.
Sloppy undisciplined football on the field is the direct result of poor coaching.
And Schiano was lambasted for being a detail man?
Those same minions of media won’t call Lovie to task
for making a bad team worse.
December 1st, 2014 at 7:43 pm
The media loves Lovie even though he is really not head coach material. Lovie seems aloof and bewildered, perhaps early onset dementia a tad. He is probably on the sideline daydreaming about retirement and how to spend the load of cash he snookered his way into.
December 1st, 2014 at 11:29 pm
lovie doesnt appear to be a bright person…maybe thats why the team is stupid
December 2nd, 2014 at 9:48 am
This just in. In effort to prevent 12 men on the field situations, Bucs announce they will be renumbering all offensive players from 1-11 so if they ever see a 12 in the huddle they know they have a problem. ha