Reading user comments can be a recipe for a heart attack; apart from trollers who say things just to get a rise out of you, the range of opinions is enormous; going from Be patient to Glazers should fire Lovie Smith!
Really? Fire Lovie ? after week 2?
For those who really feel that way or are even leaning that way, let me explain something to you. That is the problem with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Roster is decimated, but not just from injuries, it was a very thin roster to begin with because we’ve had 3 regime changes that haven’t lasted longer than 3 years. Each new Coach and Staff evaluate the previous regimes players and bring in their own company. Raheem Morris made a huge splash getting rid of a lot of talented players from the Gruden Era. Three years later, Greg Schiano came in and cleaned house, ridding himself of Morris’ players. Now Lovie Smith has done the same, to be honest, even more dramatically than the other two have.
There is a reason the Pittsburgh Steelers have more SuperBowls than anyone, they have had 3 head coaches since 1969. Im not saying you have to stick with a coach who is not good for you, but enough is enough. Lovie Smith is a capable Head Coach, it’s only a matter of time before he wins in Tampa Bay, he should be given no less than 5 years to build a team, and even then the hand off should be to a successor, not a replacement, so staff and players don’t have to be eliminated.
One player who will not go anywhere is QB Josh McCown. I’m not happy with his bonehead mistakes either, but yesterday Pewter Report’s Scott Reynolds listed Josh McCown as one of the better players for the Bucs, and the backlash was terrible. People were judging McCown from his week one mistakes too, and thats not right. It was a one game grading.
With that being said, the mistakes need to stop, and Im sure Josh McCown knows that, as does Lovie Smith. But realize, the very first player the Bucs signed was Josh McCown. He is Lovie’s hand picked QB, he was named the starter immediately, without a competition.
Deservedly so, the Bucs offense moves with McCown at QB, lets remember his INT was from the Red Zone, the Bucs moved into there with Josh behind the helm. Mind you this is an offense that does not have its Coordinator 100%.
You have to go back to Brian Griese since the last time we’ve seen a Bucs QB throw at this high of a completion percentage, and these are not dump off passes to the running backs, who only had 4 combined receptions; 3 for Rainey and 1 for Lane. And yet it feels like there is more to come, more passes to Vjax, more to Sefarian-Jenkins.
I wrote yesterday the expectations were too high for this team, to which point I was asked, “what should we expect”?
The answer is simple….expect the Bucs to improve. Expect the Bucs to play defense (which has not given up more than 20 points so far, 3 TDs in 2 games) which they have for the most part, and should improve as the team gets healthier.
I’ve said this many times now, and I will probably say it each week until Bucs fans understand…This is not a playoff team. If every player was healthy, it COULD get lucky and get into the playoffs, but this is a team that has a poor recent history: One winning season in the last 5 years, no playoff games since 2007, no playoff wins in over a decade.
That is not going to change overnight. Tony Dungy was the architect who turned the Bucs around in 1996, and he started 0-5 and 1-8. I will be writing an article on the turn around of the Bucs, look for it on Bucstop.com later today. No it doesn’t mean thats how its going to happen in 2014, but it gives you an idea on how difficult it was to do for Dungy and staff.
STATS: Offense- Bucs have 28th Ranked Offense. 31st in passing, 11th best rushing attack. Scoring the Bucs are 27th.
Tampa Bay has the 14th ranked Defense. We have the 17th ranked pass defense, and the 14th ranked rushing defense. As for scoring, Tampa Bay is 20th is scoring defense, giving up 19.5 Points per game.
The Bucs defense will be tested, and soon. The top three offenses in the NFL belong in the NFC South. Atlanta Falcons are No.2 with 438 yards per game, New Orleans is 4 yards behind. Pittsburgh is 6th, Baltimore is 9th. With 6 starters out on defense, by week 6 we will know how good or bad this defense really is.
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