Home Cooking
December 27th, 2019
Ira’s column pops three times a week. Click through here to shop the great end-of-year deals at BillCurrieFord.com.
BY IRA KAUFMAN
Rummaging through the debris of Tampa Bay’s lost decade, you can still find some tantalizing trash.
As the Bucs head into Sunday’s season finale against the surging Falcons, they have an opportunity to salvage an 8-8 season after a 2-6 start that effectively ended any credible playoff aspirations. Considering the Bucs went 5-11 in each of the past two years, a 3-win improvement under Bruce Arians should be viewed as encouraging.
Not a successful season by any stretch, but encouraging.
One weird quirk about the 2019 season is Tampa Bay’s disparity home and away. Despite a daunting road slate, the Bucs finished 5-3 away from Raymond James Stadium. As Arians pointed out, a 5-3 road mark in the NFL typically leaves you in good shape for a legitimate postseason run.
Team Glazer sees the empty seats
But that’s assuming you take care of business at home. With this franchise, that’s a dangerous assumption.
Here comes that trashy nugget promised in the lead paragraph. Sit down, Buc fans, because this is a doozy, even by Tampa Bay standards.
This is the 11th consecutive season that the Bucs have failed to post a winning record at home.
Want some chilling perspective? The next longest streak in the league is owned by the New York Jets, who have gone four years without a winning mark in the Meadowlands. That’s right, not even the Browns, Bengals or Dolphins made this list.
“I Just Can’t Do It”
The Bucs stand alone and a loss to Atlanta would leave them 2-5 at Raymond James Stadium before factoring in the “home loss” to the Panthers in London.
Arians should be proud of his coaching staff for developing young players like Jamel Dean, Ronald Jones, Alex Cappa, Chris Godwin and Vita Vea. A prolonged issue at kicker appears to have been resolved with a solid rookie season by Matt Gay.
The Bucs boast the league’s No. 1 passing offense and the No. 1 rushing defense. No one has thrown for more yards than Jameis Winston and only Chandler Jones has sacked quarterbacks more frequently than Shaq Barrett.
But through all the accomplishments, both collective and individual, Arians hasn’t been able to forge a winning identity in front of Tampa Bay’s paying customers. That’s a big reason why the house looked half empty when the Texans rolled into town last Saturday.
Split your road games and go 6-2 at home — that’s been a basic playoff formula since the league went to a 16-game schedule in 1978, two years after Tampa Bay’s inaugural season.
The Bucs finished 6-2 at home in each of Jon Gruden’s final two seasons. But following the December collapse of 2008, five head coaches have tried and failed to instill a winning habit at Raymond James Stadium.
Jameis talks home struggles
The facility has been upgraded … Tampa Bay’s home struggles remain unchanged. One of the key factors this season has been Winston’s penchant for throwing more interceptions at home than on the road.
“I really want to win at home I guess,” Winston says. “I take some chances. I want to win at home, I just can’t do it. That’s really the bottom line.”
Winston’s career statistics reveal some clues about Tampa Bay’s recent struggles at home.
Den Of Depression
In 35 home games, Winston boasts a 60 percent completion rate, with 56 TD passes, 49 interceptions and a passer rating of 81.6. On the road, he completes 63 percent of his throws, with 63 TDs and only 37 picks for a passer rating of 93.1
Winston didn’t turn pro until 2015, so he played no role for the first six years of this deplorable trend. When my colleagues at JoeBucsFan.com label Raymond James Stadium the Den of Depression, they’re merely reflecting the franchise’s 31-56 mark in home games since Gruden was jettisoned.
Should the Bucs lose the 2019 season finale, they would have forged the same 31-57 record, home and away, during the past 11 years. That’s no way to build a rabid fan base — and Arians knows it.
Buc fans who endure the traffic and the heat to attend home games are waiting for their beautiful reward. It starts Sunday against a division rival.
Let’s hear it for home cooking.
Click through here for the best savings of 2019! All 2019 vehicles must go! Prices have been slashed at Bill Currie Ford. Your trade-in will be a full year older in January. Get the most for it now!!
Ira Kaufman launched his professional NFL beat coverage in 1979, back when Earl Campbell was the toast of the league and Lee Roy Selmon was defensive player of the year. After a lifetime at The Tampa Tribune, “The Sage of Tampa Bay Sports” joined JoeBucsFan.com in July of 2016. His twice-weekly podcast and three columns per week appear here year-round and are presented by Bill Currie Ford. Tampa Bay’s only Hall of Fame voter is a regular on SiriusXM Mad Dog Radio and part of the FOX-13 Tailgate Sunday show, in addition to his other appearances. You can hang out with Ira during every Bucs road games at Buffalo Wild Wings. His schedule is linked here.
December 27th, 2019 at 5:47 pm
7 weeks consecutive on the road I would have predicted 5-3 at home 2-6, 3-5 on the road. Very impressed we finished 5-3 on the road. I think the problem is on the road Jameis can’t really hear the heckling because of the noise. At home however the crowds are small and 1/2 the fans are rooting against us. Maybe Jameis can actually hear the mocking and it gets in his head. I’m sure opposing fans sitting behind our bench give him a hard time. I know this is outlandish, but if everyone else can makes excuses for Jaboo so can I.
December 27th, 2019 at 6:14 pm
Only 37 picks on the road in his 5 year career
All the rest at home… no wonder all the fans showed up.
Aaron Rodgers has 83 interceptions since 2005
James has 86 in 5 seasons…. but he wants to be paid more than AARON RODGERS?!?!
Somebody send this mofo back to welfareville alabama
December 27th, 2019 at 6:21 pm
Jameis’ Bucs struggle to win at home. Jameis himself has thrown 22 of his 28 interceptions in home games this season. What is the cause for this? Pressure. There will always be pressure in the NFL, but is amplified greatly when you’re the home team. You’re expected to win. Your faithful supporters have paid their hard earned money to show up to the game. As a team, as a player, the feeling is that you simply can’t send them home disappointed after a loss. You have to win at home. Therefore Jameis takes more aggressive shots and tries to put on a highlight reel performance for the crowd. You can even see it in his body language. He seems way more composed and in control of his emotions on the road. At home he is way too hyped, to the point I would describe him as jittery and frantic. Idk if he has seen a sports psychologist, but it could legitimately go a long way towards evening out some of the mental irregularities that appear to be evident with #3.
December 27th, 2019 at 6:24 pm
Jameis’ Bucs struggle to win at home. Jameis himself has thrown 22 of his 28 interceptions in home games this season. What is the cause for this? Pressure. There will always be pressure in the NFL, but is amplified greatly when you’re the home team. You’re expected to win. Your faithful supporters have paid their hard earned money to show up to the game. As a team, as a player, the feeling is that you simply can’t send them home disappointed after a loss. You have to win at home. Therefore Jameis takes more aggressive shots and tries to put on a highlight reel performance for the crowd. You can even see it in his body language. He seems way more composed and in control of his emotions on the road. At home he is way too hyped, to the point I would describe him as jittery and frantic. Idk if he has seen a sports psychologist, but it could legitimately go a long way towards evening out some of the mental irregularities that appear to be evident with #3.
December 27th, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Right Ira. 8-8 is not a winning season But definitely a great improvement for this team. 8-8 says, we gave it our best and we are getting better. It gives us fans hope for next season. 7-9 on the other hand says, Yeah..we improved but still had a losing season. ATL is a much improved team than we beat last time around. Its gonna take great defense and…No more than one or 2 turnover by the..Turnover King Jameis to win. I hope out Bucs realize this is..their Superbowl and go all out
tp obtain a victory.
December 27th, 2019 at 6:36 pm
Home is where the fart is.
December 27th, 2019 at 6:59 pm
This is a terribly run franchise. The Bucs have had 7 good seasons that mattered… 79, 81, 97, 99, 00, 01, 02. But we live here, so go home team.
On to the Rays…
December 27th, 2019 at 7:27 pm
Nothing like focusing on the negative!
December 27th, 2019 at 7:30 pm
Sorry Bucs fans, JayMiss will sh!t the bed to finish the season.
But please, let us all celebrate how truly blessed we all are to be ENTERTAINED by pro bowl alternate, league leading turnover king…. Soiled Messiah.
December 27th, 2019 at 7:45 pm
“There’s no evidence to suggest that Winston will figure this out with time. He had 10 picks as a freshman in college, then 18 as a sophomore. His interception rate went from 2.8 percent as an NFL rookie to 3.2 percent in his second year to 3.7 percent in 2018 to 4.7 percent this season. Quarterbacks should get better at avoiding turnovers as time goes on. Winston is the Benjamin Button of interceptions. There aren’t going to be more players like Winston. He’s a one-of-a-kind anti-star who cloaks his devastating tendency for self-destruction inside of a game that reasonably replicates the things good quarterbacks do. He succeeds often enough that teams might be convinced to let him ruin them.”
Colin Liotta
December 27th, 2019 at 7:54 pm
Make Winston stay in a hotel before home games. Make sure all of his haters are there at the stadium to boo him. Pipe in crowd noise when he’s in the huddle, don’t remember if that’s legal to do to your own team. Maybe that will help.
December 27th, 2019 at 7:57 pm
their winning percentage on the road is better but still bad. sadly, they lose games everywhere post-gruden…including 0-3 in London. It sucks that they haven’t found a way to win at home but it’s just reflective of the team overall. Arians appears to be on to something, and hopefully better days are ahead regardless of the field they occur on
December 27th, 2019 at 8:00 pm
I’m pretty sure JayMiss will be the founding member of the infamous 30-30 club this Sunday against ATL.
No way this clown is worth $30M+ in any universe.
Let him walk! If BA can’t fix him, he can’t be fixed.
Peace, out
December 27th, 2019 at 8:12 pm
for what it’s worth, their home losses have come to the 2 most likely participants in the NFC championship game, the AFC South champs, and a miss on a chip shot. only the saints game wasn’t competitive
December 27th, 2019 at 9:06 pm
We’ll see what happens
GO BUCS
December 27th, 2019 at 9:39 pm
Wow Ira!
Really this is your writing for us?
Hope your New Years is better than your Christmas.
Were you sober Sage? Smh
December 27th, 2019 at 9:55 pm
Wow Ira!
Stating facts.
It seems to wrankle the Nuthugger Brigade.
Keep up the good work!
December 28th, 2019 at 8:57 am
And so we have a setting similar to last week. Another measuring stick!
Atlanta is facing their own measuring stick in a search for what happened to them. They will be hungry enough to present solid competition if not great.
We’ll be at home. You simply can’t keep losing more games at home than on the road. “Den of Depression” is becoming to nice of a name.
How about “Chokers Stadium”?
December 28th, 2019 at 5:38 pm
I want to predict that Winston throws zero interceptions against Atlanta but I can’t. How about one or two with none being a pick six? Naw I’ll stick with the miracle no picks.