Wild Card Bucs?
September 2nd, 2014
Peter King weighs in with his annual predictions
The fever for Tampa Bay playing meaningful January football games has jumped up a few degrees.
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 is calling the Bucs a Wild Card team in his official season prediction.
King’s fancy website, TheMMQB.com, has six writers and three of them, including King, pick the Bucs to finish second in the NFC South behind the Saints and earn a Wild Card berth. King, and Andy Benoit, actually join Herm Edwards and believe the Bucs are Super Bowl contenders.
Peter King: Tampa Bay. The Bucs were the best bad 2013 team I saw of the 27 I saw in person on my training camp trip this summer. Lovie Smith has three keystone players at crucial positions on his defense, and a quarterback who’s better than people think in Josh McCown.
Joe knows loads of Bucs fans will feel great to get this national respect before opening day. That kind of love doesn’t do much for Joe, but it sure is nice to hear.
King predicted a strong 2013 season for the Bucs.
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:40 pm
All I want to know, is how many wins is this prediction worth during the season? 🙂
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:49 pm
Just because King keeps saying that old man mcCcown is better than people think, does not make it true. To me and a lot of fans old man mcCown will need to play good pretty quick!
September 2nd, 2014 at 7:58 pm
The prediction is worth 2 wins.
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:01 pm
@T_B_R: You are definitely a “glass is half-empty” type of person, whether you choose to believe it, or not.
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:03 pm
I don’t care about predictions – I care about winning and putting the Panthers away this Sunday!
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Haters will hate, homers will home, but the truth of the matter is the Bucs will win 8 or 9.
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:36 pm
“…and a quarterback who’s better than people think in Josh McCown.” Hah! Yeah, because most people think his 12 year career says he is not even a good backup QB seeing as how Lovie sent him into retirement a few years ago in favor of the great Jason Campbell. Even Mr King believes Lovie can do no wrong! The coaches of our division foes are still laughing their asses off a full 6 months after we tapped this guy to be our starter.
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:52 pm
If the defense can stay top 5 they will win 10 games. They have a great opp to go 4 and 1 right out the gate. Do it right Lovie!
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:52 pm
^Why not back up your bitching and moaning with a win/loss prediction, then? If you’re so certain Lovie is an idiot and Licht has no clue let’s hear what will happen this season. Or are you afraid that if you say something like 5-11 you’ll be discovered to be the raving moron you really are when this season is done? Reach down and grab a pair, Nancy.
September 2nd, 2014 at 8:53 pm
^That was for DallasPhonyBuc
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:05 pm
Hah! Listen. I am not in the future-telling business like so many media and fans seem to have a wierdly obsessive interest in. What I will say is based on how McCown has played in his long and unimpressive, mediocre career and how difficult it is to be a successful team with a mediocre QB it is very difficult to expect that we will win many games. That being said, I would love to see McCown play like someone else that is a good QB because that would mean we are winning football games. Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong and see our mediocre QB play good football. So call me names and insist on your idiot fortune telling fanboy litmus tests all you want. It entertains me
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:08 pm
Glass half empty. Glass half full. McCown is better than people think.
McCown is a joke.
Touts are fools. Every year in the NFL brings two or three teams that rise from the ashes an two or three or fall from the sky.
Here are a few facts: Schiano won 7 games with a roster not nearly as good as this one and a schedule about equally tough and a coaching staff riddled with inferior coaches with little experience. I ‘m a fan. I root hard for my team. I am not a person eager to see my guys lose. We have a roster with at least six to eight actual or potential pro bowl players and a coach who took a team to a super bowl as a head coach. The Buccaneers will win at least two games because of superior coaching and mental toughness. They have 53 guys who are pulling together and will leave everything on the field for this coach and they have a good mix of veterans and young players. They were 4-4 in their final eight last year with a lot of guys who couldn’t or wouldn’t make this team. They should be in the hunt, though they may start slow. The fantasy that the NFC South is a tough division is a myth. New Orleans is the only bona fide good team and even they have questions on the offensive line. Here’s wishing my/our team good health, good luck, and good teamwork.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:14 pm
DallasBuc
You know, if you love dissing the Bucs so much.. there are other teams that have bandwagons with open arms, feel free to join one, Mr Negativity.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:17 pm
Flboyindallas- for the record I have never called Lovie and idiot and never said that Licht was clueless. So on this point you are making things up to justify your embellished outrage. In fact, I was fully in favor if the Lovie hire and really liked the staff he put together. However, I also do not like many of the moves that he and his new rookie GM that admittedly does not out-rank him in personnel decisions. So if it makes you feel better to conflate legitimate criticism of the new regime into hatred of them and the Bucs then you are free to do so but it just illustrates your inability to debate the things that I have actually said about football in favor of some contrived hysteria and name calling. Lame but amusing!
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:18 pm
@FLBoyInDallas
DallasBuc isn’t a fan of the Bucs, he’s just a fan of bitching. If the Bucs come out of the gate winning, he’ll either take credit for knowing it was going to go well all along – or he’ll be the town crier saying eventually they’ll have to lose a game.
Hell, since 95% of all coaches and GM’s ultimately get fired (even the ones who win Super Bowls), eventually a douche bag like him is bound to be right that things will go wrong. Who gives a crap what the douche bags think – I’m enjoying the ride right now.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:21 pm
You understate your bias and overstate your equanimity. Those are symptoms of a delusional self image. Your history of comments prove who you are.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:22 pm
Again, my last comment was for DallasBuc.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:23 pm
Buc’d up- read my previous post. It pertains equally to your comments as well. Been a Bucs fan for an awful long time and there is no other team I would rather be a fan of. I am fully vested and not going anywhere. Deal with it pal!
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:25 pm
I just wish we could finally have a season around here at JBF where the comment section wasn’t constantly hijacked by one or two yammering over-the-top negativity-filled attention seekers. Each year it’s someone else and it really gets old. Very, very old.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:31 pm
I think If they had drawn a more “favorable” schedule like KC did last year
it would make the wild card theory interesting but until I see a few games all the rest is pure speculation backed up by old stuff.
Its a new day
new team
new system
and many things look positive enough for some genuine hope
Im going to have a look see first anyway.
I want to see how the coaches react and correct when the going gets rough.
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:33 pm
I find that the people who doubt your loyalty to the BUCS because you state obvious shortcomings have no problem criticizing Other BUC players. Just sayin! Go BUCS!
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:43 pm
Flboy and Louis- I don’t recall either of you two over the previous 5-6 years policing the fanbase for offering up their negativity and criticism of Raheem Morris, Schiano or even Freeman. As I recall that is pretty much all you could read in the posts on this site over this period of time and the takes were often laden with personal and unfair attacks of these men. Were you two championing your positivity-only approach and policing all forms of criticism as Buc hate? I don’t think so. Actually I would be willing to bet that you two fanboys joined in the trashing of one or more of these men. There is a word for people like you!
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:47 pm
Dallasbuc is right on!
September 2nd, 2014 at 9:56 pm
Realist- you see, it is easier to shout me down as a Buc hater than it is to legitimately defend McCown as our starting QB!
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:03 pm
Some are here to talk football. And some are here to try and fling mud. Its sad really.
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:04 pm
Dallasbuc – points
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:06 pm
I can’t even post what I think. If you think Dallas or realist are negative then I’ll just keep quite. @Yey bucs 15-1!!! Go lovie!!!@
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:08 pm
Whoa…getting a little rough in here tonight. Do sports blogs have “trolls” like political blogs?
I do not know as this is my first experience at reading a sports blog. Are their people on sports blogs who pretend to be “bucs fans” when they are really Buc haters? Kind of like the liberals and conservatives on political blogs who pretend they are really from the other group.
September 2nd, 2014 at 10:25 pm
StPete- according to our resident expert fanboys Flboy & Louis who happen to also be expert in what it is to be a fan have leveled that exact charge at me. Apparantly one cannot be a true fan while publicly and legitimately criticizing football decisions. So there you have it…I am secretly working for the enemy! They found me out. Rats!!!
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:06 pm
I dont think Carolina will be laughing Sunday.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:06 pm
DallasBuc… If our division foes were laughing at all, I’d guess they’re laughing a little less with McCown at the helm. I don’t believe any fans/posters are comparing McCown to the other three QB’s in this division. Hoping for the best, Lovie and Licht have been amazing so far IMO. Can’t fix everything in one season. Game day and a full season will provide a clearer picture, until then mellow out a little, none of us are FB experts. From one Bucs fan to another.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:09 pm
An opinion is not a fact; it’s an opinion. Judging whether a criticism is legitimate requires arguments based on agreed upon criteria and evidence grounded on criteria. Any judgment expressed about current Buccaneers management is, at best, premature. Over the next sixteen weeks the play on the field will provide evidence regarding at least the short term credibility and smarts of Buccaneer management. Everything else is hunch, innuendo, and OPINION.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:22 pm
@buddah
Oneil cousins! Need I say more?
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:22 pm
Judgement based on facts like McCown’s long and largely unimpressive professional career? It is not premature to say that the QB we have is mediocre because that is what he has been. It is not not premature to take issue with Lovie for installing mediocrity at the ist important position on our team. Omameh, Cousins and Meredith are terrible. That may be an opinion but it is a judgement call on both the players and the guys that signed them.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:24 pm
…most, not ist.
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:25 pm
And I’m completely psyched and completely nervous about this first game… Please, please, please stomp the kitties! Last year was hard to take, anything but run, run, then pass on third… Hoping Lovie can prove everyone wrong with the offense, just want see some adjustments during the game. Go Bucs, stomp the sh*t out of them!
September 2nd, 2014 at 11:50 pm
Just wanna win ! I would be ecstatic to see the playoffs
September 3rd, 2014 at 8:40 am
@ DallaBuc,
If not McCown, then who should have the bucs picked up? Drafted bridegwater? so you could bitch about taking a QB in the first? waited for gaarappalo, so you could bitch about being from a small school? Perhaps MG so you could bitch about his lack of mobility and struggles with pressure?
Just shut the F up already! Your probably the same guy who bitched about trading picks for gruden.
September 3rd, 2014 at 9:38 am
Panhandle- if it makes you feel better to put words in my mouth and shout me down cause you think it helps your argument, it’s cool…but we all know what kind of a person that makes you. Keep showing your ass pal. It’s amusing.
September 3rd, 2014 at 10:30 am
No one here has an issue with legitimate criticism. But every single post you make is some form of bitching and moaning about this, that or the other. That’s the real problem. Take some Midol or something, because you’re overly critical and can’t seem to find anything to like about this organization. Your vag seems to be hurting 24/7 and it gets old.
September 3rd, 2014 at 11:23 am
Stay classy Flfanboyindallas! Debating actual football is way harder than name calling and lecturing people on how to be fans. Whatever makes you feel better tough guy.
September 3rd, 2014 at 12:29 pm
Thank you to all true members of Bucc nation. It’s been well over due for people to stand up and express they’re malcontent for this imposter known as dallasbucc.
September 3rd, 2014 at 1:13 pm
Elyon is another proud member of the fan police!