Lions Wound Runs Deep
July 14th, 2011
The agony of the Bucs ending up on the wrong end when the Lions broke their 26-game road losing streak in December still keeps Joe up at night.
The stain of that game is lingering far longer than skid mark that was the Jim Bates experiment.
NFL history literally would have changed if the Bucs beat Drew Stanton and the road-awful Lions at the C.I.T.S. Green Bay would have missed the playoffs and the Bucs would have been in.
Weeks ago, Joe brought you a take from Adam Hayward that stunned Joe. Hayward said the Bucs looked past the Lions.
“We weren’t playing like ourselves. We went in there kind a flat. We were thinking, ‘Oh this is Detroit,”” Hayward said on Tampa Bay Sports Central. “That’s how you get your butt wupped.”
Joe almost chalked that comment up to Hayward being too hard on the team, rather than the young Bucs actually taking a critical December game lightly. But now it’s official in Joe’s mind that the Bucs dropped the ball when they should have been focused like never before.
Speaking on the Ron and Ian Show on WDAE-AM 620 yesterday, Davin Joseph shared a take on the Detroit game similar to Hayward’s after being asked directly about the game.
“We feel like we took it for granted,” Joseph said, lamenting the Bucs’ effort against the Lions.
Joe is shaken to his core again and wants to punch the nearest wall. How could that happen? How? How? Yeah, Joe gets that stuff happens to teams in all sports at every level, but that game? In December? For the Coach of the Year?
Interesting that the Bucs responded to the Lions loss by punching the Seahawks in the mouth and taking out the Saints in New Orleans.
Joe sincerely hopes the Bucs learned their lesson.
July 14th, 2011 at 12:38 pm
One of the negatives of a young team….
July 14th, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Agree with David. That is absolutely the fault of a young team. Hopefully that loss stings them as bad as it does me. They should never make that mistake again.
July 14th, 2011 at 1:08 pm
Oh and despite all that, the refs stole that game from us.
July 14th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Every team needs a catalyst, maybe for this team going forward it’s that Detroit game, maybe they’ll look back at that game every time they suit up and hit the field,knowing that they had a playoff berth in their grasp but blew it because they took a team lightly and think to themselves “Never again”
July 14th, 2011 at 1:10 pm
I’ve said and typed it over and over and over again.
The Buccaneers had that game STOLEN from them, from the fans, that day.
The Winslow “penalty” cost us the playoffs and the NFL office admitted it.
We got screwed at home and it is still tough to take.
End of story.
July 14th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
It is hard to believe, but I guess thats why they say it about young teams.
Sounds like a good lesson learned.
July 14th, 2011 at 1:30 pm
Hey niko. Good to see you around. Haven’t been following you since you left Bucem but I always appreciated your optimistic posts (even if I am a middle of the roader on the optimism/pessimism scale).
July 14th, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Simple as that!
July 14th, 2011 at 2:06 pm
The penalties wouldn’t have been an issue if they would have played to their full potential.
July 14th, 2011 at 2:49 pm
That’s true David, but that doesn’t mean we still didn’t get screwed.
July 14th, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Joe, chalk that game to a growth experience to the youngest team in the NFL. They will not do ths again because it was a bitter lesson for them. Besides they are really hungry this year. You can’t change what happened but they can change the future
July 14th, 2011 at 7:34 pm
In hindsight it might be a blessing in disguise. They know they overlooked a game that they should have and loss. Then they went 10-6 and missed the palyoffs. Those two things should be enough with Josh Freeman’s leadership to keep them focussed on each and every game……. one would hope.
July 14th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
The coach is the catalyst. If a team takes an opponent for granted (even the lions with their 3rd string on the road) that is the fault of the coach. Period.
Another documented baby rah failure.
July 14th, 2011 at 8:05 pm
It’s a shame that a horrible call cost this team the playoffs. It’s obvious that some players felt they took the game for granted though. Hopefully it’s a lesson learned for this young team. Any given Sunday boys. I think the Bucs will stomp the sh** out of Detroit in this years rematch. Freeman to Winslow all day long baby!
July 15th, 2011 at 1:29 pm
thomas 2.2 Says:
July 14th, 2011 at 7:37 pm
The coach is the catalyst. If a team takes an opponent for granted (even the lions with their 3rd string on the road) that is the fault of the coach. Period.
Another documented baby rah failure.
I love that anything they do well is in spite of the coach, however anything that goes wrong is because of the coach…Y
July 15th, 2011 at 6:40 pm
Thank you to Garv and Joe for speaking the Truth. Maybe the Bucs took the Lion lightly, yeah whatever, but not once the game started. I was there and the Bucs played hard as a whole. They had the game in the bag in the final minutes and the Stinkin, Sorrya$$, no good, cheatin, Connivin, bettin, blind, sucky, d-bag, yankee, loser refs stole the game away for Detroit.
All Refs Suck Always!!!!!
July 15th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
And Thomas, get a clue Beavis.