Dirk Koetter Doubles Down
October 19th, 2017
It was bad.
Joe normally turns the page on a previous game when the clock strikes midnight on a Tuesday night.
Here it is Thursday morning and that disgrace of a performance last Sunday by the Bucs continues to bear writing about because of the potential massive implications for many.
It may have been the worst beatdown of a Bucs team Joe has ever seen. Sure, the Bucs have suffered worse losses. The MMA-style knee-to-the-jaw absorbed on prime time on a Thursday night when the Lovie Smith-led Bucs got run over (56-14) by a truck driven by then-Dixie Chicks offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter springs to mind as a bad, bad loss.
The difference in the two teams? That 2014 Bucs team nobody thought had a prayer of a playoff run.
This year’s team? Many throughout the NFL world believed the Bucs were contenders. Sunday’s loss obviously hit Bucs fans like Hurricane Irma. They’re are up in arms and rightly so! But the ripple effect could be felt throughout NFL circles.
In a matter of a few minutes, the Bucs went from contenders to jokes. SOS: Same ol’ 6-10 Bucs, out of the playoffs by Halloween, so the national NFL typists and yakkers believe.
(No, Joe isn’t throwing the towel in on the season. But there is scant time to fool around. Realistically, the Bucs have to win seven of their final 11 games to have a prayer of a wild card.)
At any rate, winning Bucs coach Dirk Koetter suggested after the kick-in-the-groin loss Sunday it was the worst first half of football he has ever been a part of in his life. Some believed Koetter was just over-emotional, speaking just a handful of minutes after the game.
Given the chance to revisit his remarks, Koetter on Wednesday doubled-down.
“Not may have – it was,” Koetter said. “That goes back a long way, even when I was a high school coach.”
Joe recently did brief research into Koetter’s college coaching days and he’s been on the wrong end of some really bad beatdowns. The one that jumped was a 73-0 throttling when he was offensive coordinator at Missouri at the hands of Texas A&M.
So when Koetter, a straight-shooter, believes Sunday’s ghastly effort in the desert was the worst he has ever been associated with, that speaks volumes.
October 19th, 2017 at 12:26 am
Sounds like the job is getting to Koetter a little. He needs to snap out of it quickly. As he goes, the team goes. No matter what, he needs to look at it as 1game, 1loss. Fix it as well as you can but move on. Hopefully he has, and gets his mojo back. He’s a smart guy, but know when to shut up about it.
October 19th, 2017 at 12:48 am
Koetter. That’s right. Call em out. But got damn. This is ass whooping loss still got koetter in a daze. He needs some coffee or some smelling salts. He is spooked. Wake up keotter if u can hear me.
October 19th, 2017 at 1:47 am
Times like this Mr. Koetter–it is not important how you feel about the beatdown but what are you doing about it to make sure it doesn’t happen again next sunday.
October 19th, 2017 at 2:26 am
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I said before the season, it was 10-6 or bust … and I believe we’ll need 10 wins to make the playoffs as well (unless the Cards are for real with A.D. in which case we may need 11, which I doubt we’ll get)
Right now we’re 2-3 with 6 division games and non-division games against the Jets, Packers, Lions, Phins and Bills.
I believe we’ll go no worse than 4-1 in those non-division games and that’s if we lose to the Bills this weak as I believe we’ll beat the Rodgers-less pack, Cutler-Phins and the Lions and Jets at home … which would mean we’d have a 6-4 record at worst and a 7-3 record at best outside of the division …
So, if we split with the Falcons/Saints/Panthers I have us going 9-7 at worst and 10-6 at best …. and like I said, this was always a 10 win season or bust for me personally.
As it stands, I have the NFC payoff teams panning out as follows:
1. Eagles (they’re not that good but have a huge head start on everyone)
2. Panthers (they could fall apart if Cam doesn’t get it together)
3. Seahawks (they’re defense wins games for them, period)
4. Vikings (They have an easier schedule than the Lions & GB is done)
5. Saints (They have an easier road ahead than Tampa)
6. Cardinals or Bucs or Lions (we could go 10-6 and miss out …)
* And ANY TEAM that gets into the playoffs, even as a #6 seed could easily win the conference as NONE of the teams are head & shoulders above any of the other playoff teams …
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October 19th, 2017 at 3:05 am
8-3 the rest of the way is needed to make the playoffs.
This team is too talented not to bounce back and play good ball. But it better start this week for playoff hopes to stay realistic.
October 19th, 2017 at 3:37 am
^ 8-3 might not be enough … we had a playoff record last year but missed the playoffs to another team (Lions) with a less impressive resume … the same exact thing could happen this year with a 10-6 record …
October 19th, 2017 at 5:35 am
7 out of 11?
8-3?
Are you all serious?
Have you seen the games?
This defense is setting records for beat downs and points.
How is that gonna magically turn around?
No way they can pull that off. We have a QB who is terribly inaccurate and a coach that forgot how to call plays for said QB and a defense that couldn’t stop parked car. Season is done. No playoffs and a high draft pick.
That’s what you can count on. There is nothing that has happened that says otherwise so far this season.
October 19th, 2017 at 5:52 am
Ive been watching this team since season one.
I have witnessed far worse losses than this. We had a decade of futility. Years of losing seasons and being beaten senseless.
Teams that you knew had no hope if competing.
I remember our Superbowl team, pre Superbowl- going to the West coast and getting horse whipped by the Raiders. Great team- horrible loss.
This one was bad, because of all the preseason hype. All the Media saying how talented The Bucs are.
They do have alot of talent.
But I daid it then, and say it now.
You will not win in the NFL, if you cant rush the QB.
Ive loved most every move that That GM Licht has made. Loved every draft
But one.
Hargreaves and Noah Spence are both slow and too small.
Even at Florida, If VH3 played a fast WR, they had to protect him with a Safety behind him.
VH3 was good in coverage in the first 15 yards, andd was good in stopping the run game. His game wasnt going to transfer to the NFL. Short and slow.
Spence had talent. But The Bucs said he was going to be a DE.
His speed was Ok, but they tried to bulk him up, and he became sluggish.
This Summer, he lost weight- now hes fast enought.
But even smaller. Far to small to play DE. ESPECIALLY a 3 down DE.
This isnt a winning team with these two issues.
Spence is too talented, to end up damaging at DE.
They are playing him there- because they have no better options.
And that is Pathetic!!
October 19th, 2017 at 6:18 am
Gobucs, thank you for your “Have you seen the games?” (I was starting to want some of what NFLNut has been smoking or drinking). Bucs have played the easiest part of their schedule already & are 2-3 (40% W-L)… two of which have been relative beat-downs IMO. Remaining 8 teams have a combined 26-18 record at this point (60% W-L), and we get to play 3 of those teams twice (all 3 with high-flying offenses & defenses playing quite a bit better than ours). Yikes!
Bucs only hope at this point for a moderately successful season (9-7 would be REALLY nice but 6-10 is more likely) is for our offense to start putting points on the board AND control the clock. Strange thing is that, as a team, we’re relatively healthy and yet we’re not getting it done on either side of the ball. Part of it’s coaching IMO (game-planning & play-calling especially), part of it’s lack of talent at certain positions (DEs & CBs on defense especially), part of it’s lack of definitive leadership (on the field especially), part of it’s team chemistry, part of it’s the collective bargaining agreement (not nearly enough coaching & practice time), and part of it’s plain old bad luck (hurricanes & that week of flu at the start of the season didn’t do us any favors). But in the end the Bucs ‘are who they are’ and have to find a way to fix this. No one outside the organization is going to do it for them.
October 19th, 2017 at 7:24 am
@Defense- Thanks for bringing up the offense. The offense is a defenses best friend, especially when they move the sticks and control the clock.
Yes, the defense was awful against the Cards! But, so was the offense. We’ve got a short time to get it together.
October 19th, 2017 at 7:45 am
The optimist says, why can’t this team go on a run, it’s not a talentless team, maybe this kick in the @$$ is what they needed. We got this. We just got to win the division which is possible, any given Sunday, who’s stepping up
October 19th, 2017 at 8:30 am
The 2017 Bucs are without question more talented than last years team based strictly on a glance at the roster.
But for some reason that I’m sure the coaches are pulling their hair out trying to figure out – this team has not gelled yet. Not playing cohesive, complementary football yet.
2016 Bucs did not have DJax, Swaggy, TJ Ward, OJ Howard, JEvans, Godwin, Beckwith nor a healthy, sober Doug Martin. That’s at least 6 or 7 upgrades from the players who were manning those positions last year when the BUcs won 5 straight and 6 of the last 8 games to end the season.
There’s no reason that can’t happen again – the Bucs are too talented like I said to flounder all year long. An 8-3 finish is absolutely possible IF the team shows up to play week in and week out starting this week. Buffalo is a decent team – but we are very capable of beating them if we bring our “A” game. We can in fact beat any team in the league if we bring our “A” game. The players just need to figure out what that “A” game looks like and bring the effort for 60 minutes to achieve it.
October 19th, 2017 at 8:33 am
As long as the paycheck cashed all is right in Batmans world.
October 19th, 2017 at 8:57 am
Hargreaves will get better. Fans want instant improvement. The season isn’t over yet and the issues he has are part of the growing process. Calling him to task is a part of it too. He’ll get there.
Spence, I think, was set to take a big leap forward, but then his injury happened again. Is it a pattern? We;ll have to wait and see, but the Bucs need help on the dline badly. That won’t come this season, so they have to hope the rest of the line steps up.
October 19th, 2017 at 8:58 am
And there it is! it took thirteen posts to bash GMC in a non-GMC article! Brilliant!
“believer”?! Yeah, OK!
Try bringing something palpable to the table next time. They ALL cash paychecks Einstein!
October 19th, 2017 at 8:59 am
Really, we have two different teams here.
The defense, led by Mike Smith, and the offense led by Dirk Koetter.
October 19th, 2017 at 9:03 am
The Bucs need to win 8 more games, not 7 (tell me again how 9-7 worked out for us last year). The question is, do the Bucs have an 8-3 run in them? Its not looking like it. Sucks.
October 19th, 2017 at 9:04 am
Only the delusional believe a playoff run is coming. Last in the division and no one else is having a down year people stop pointing to last year because each year talked on a life of its own. Yes we were on a playoff run last year then the old bucs showed up and wet the bed in Dallas by letting Gerald’s McCoy if all people give a pep talk. This team always disappoints when it counts and everyone makes excuses for why were a national joke. Sooner or later you have to accept that it’s true until this team shows otherwise unless your fine with mediocrity. I don’t know if we’re even that but hoping for another team in our division collapses is pathetic way to think cuz that’s not earning it and this team hasn’t earned praise they’ve earned a bunch of question marks about their overall character
October 19th, 2017 at 9:13 am
“Last in the division”
By ONE game – and we haven’t played a single division game yet – SMH…
October 19th, 2017 at 9:19 am
8-3 can be done but with our coaching staff I doubt it….dirk is still struggling with basic coaching decisions in year 2 and his play calling has regressed….not giving up but it aint looking good….every game from here on out will be tough….the only sure win I see is maybe the packers with hundley under center but nothing is easy at lambeau in Dec….GO BUCS!!!!
October 19th, 2017 at 10:47 am
We turned it around last year with the same record after 5 games right? We can do it again! Go Bucs!!
October 19th, 2017 at 11:28 am
Capt. Tim’s comments and remarks on VH3 and Noah Spence are spot on, I’m afraid.
Fingers crossed that we can figure out how to use those 2 guys effectively. I definitely think we need a safety over-the-top of Hargreaves, so he can concentrate his coverage area to the first 10-15yds. – I think that covering DJax in practice everyday has him shellshocked about the down-the-field throws and his lack of necessary speed to defend them.
However, I do believe we have enough talent around them to pick up the slack and we have enough talent on offense (if we can start freakin’ executing) to turn this season around and finish with winning record. Go bucs!