“Because That’s What His Mindset Is”
July 3rd, 2015
So what is Lovieball and how does it apply to the 2015 Buccaneers head coach after he absorbed a brutal punishment last season?
According to Bucs glory days defensive tackle Booger McFarland, change is not in Lovie Smith’s DNA.
Adding seasoned offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter and America’s Quarterback won’t stop Lovie from punting on 4th-and-1 from the opponent’s 45 yard line, Booger said today while co-hosting on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
The conversation centered around how the performance of the Bucs defense this season might affect Lovie’s job security.
“Lovie’s always going to make sure that he, if he has to lean one way, he’s going to trust the defense more. So the defense has to be good because that’s what his mindset is,” Booger said.
The former defensive tackle then went on a rant about how defense wins championships and no matter what the NFL does that won’t change.
Joe seriously doesn’t get that popular take and considers it nonsense. Seattle had the No. 1 defense in the NFL last year, plus dynamic offensive players, yet they lost to the Patriots, who needed a shootout, 35-31 win to get out of their first playoff game.
Two years prior, the Ravens won the Super Bowl with the 17th — seventeenth! — ranked defense. They allowed 30-plus points in two playoff games.
Heck, Booger’s sidekick in Tampa, iconic Warren Sapp, has said multiple times that defense does not win championships.
July 3rd, 2015 at 11:28 am
No need to be #1 overall. Just need to have a top scoring defense, top red zone defense, and be one of the best defenses in the takeaway department.
July 3rd, 2015 at 11:43 am
@Ray Rice
Thank you Captain Obvious!!
July 3rd, 2015 at 12:05 pm
This is why I and all of the other “pessimist” ( though joe once called me a “chaos fan” which i liked the most)
Do not trust Lovie as Head Coach, last year the slogan was how lovie has changed and learned from getting fired and reaccess his coaching style. Then the season started and we saw the same ole Lovie!!!
And Lovie’s long track record works against him. He is an open book, other coaches can predict what lovie is about to run just due to down and distances. This is why he gets outcoached!!!!
July 3rd, 2015 at 12:11 pm
@ONE
It isn’t to everyone.
July 3rd, 2015 at 12:41 pm
Lovie is very aggressive on 4th and 1, and if defense wins games there would be 5 Lombardi Trophies at One Buc Place.
July 3rd, 2015 at 1:15 pm
Defense doesn’t win championships. Never has. It’s a myth.
Need to score and if Lovie can’t do that he’s gotta go
July 3rd, 2015 at 1:37 pm
Tampa Tony
Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson say Hello.
July 3rd, 2015 at 1:41 pm
I don’t think it’s going to take all that long to figure out what is going on at One Buc Place.
Either the Lovie haters are correct and he’s not going to change for whatever reason.
Or…
Lovie saw the light…or perhaps the Glazers shone it brightly in his eyes…and now Licht and Koetter will have more power to do their jobs.
We’ll see if Lovie let’s Koetter call the kind of game he wants. I think he will.
I don’t think Lovie enjoys offense…better for him to just let Koetter worry about it.
July 3rd, 2015 at 2:13 pm
If Lovie Smith believes Defense wins championships, he better remember what happened in the 1999 NFC Championship Game when his mentor Tony Dungy tried to win the game 6-5. And we all know what the end result was to that experiment. You must score touchdowns to win.
July 3rd, 2015 at 2:57 pm
@WS99- both of those qbs are the exception not the rule.
Winning with Lovie’s mindset won’t work in the current NFL. Maybe if he was more aggressive and the cbs didn’t play 5-10 yards away from receivers. The way you win has changed but Lovie refuses to.
July 3rd, 2015 at 3:34 pm
@ StPeteBucsFan
Just saw a video, an elongated one, of the Bucs war room and Jason Licht calling Winston informing him he was just selected by the Bucs. I found it interesting that Licht and the Glazers seemed to exhibit the power and confidence at the table. Lovie seemed to act more of a coach and not with the anointed power that was su
July 3rd, 2015 at 3:37 pm
(Continued)……apparently given to him when he 1st signed his contract. So yes maybe the Glazers have met with him and set up some appropriate boundaries. Still love the Lovie and Go Bucs!
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:40 pm
Why is it people want to ignore the fact that the only time the Bucs won a Super Bowl, they did so with a Pro Bowl quarterback (Brad Johnson)?
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:51 pm
I disagree lovie has changed !!! Some points to support this claim… Lovie drafting Mostly offensive players. Reported by joe himself he is engaged with the quarterback actively putting in the time to Focus on his play.
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:57 pm
You need a competent defense, but it’s just not as easy to play consistently good defense these days with the way the NFL officiates. When the Bucs won the SB, it was easy to have that baseball mentality of “defense never slumps,” because it was, to an extent, true. You needed a decent defense to bail you out when the offense was out of sync, as the Bucs routinely were. Now it’s the other way around and you definitely need a good offense to bail out your defense, which can’t be as physical with receivers nowadays.
July 3rd, 2015 at 4:59 pm
I think that “Defense Wins Championships” is just another way of saying crappy Offense loses championships. It is the same thing. Its assinine. The most well rounded team wins. If you put up 60 points a game y need a defense that only gives up 59. It all averages out. If you put up 3 pts per game you need a defense that gives up 0. WTF? these stupid paradigms dont fit every situation, theyre just something comfortable for the pundits to say when they cant think of something original.
[Please stick to one username, eh? What are you trying to hide? — Joe]
July 3rd, 2015 at 5:13 pm
It would be nice for Lovie to take a chance now and then and think outside his comfort zone. On a 4th and 1 on the opponents side of the field, why not go for it? I’m sure the fans in the stadium and those watching at home are yelling that at the top of their voices. I trust Koetter to make that short yardage needed decision more than Lovie.
July 3rd, 2015 at 5:29 pm
Yup. One only needs to google “Mel Blount Rule,” a rule that went into effect when Father Dungy was playing. Uh, oh…
July 3rd, 2015 at 5:54 pm
Defense is the only reason we have a championship. But you also can win without scoring. A solid mix of a good defense and offense coupled with big time players that make big time plays wins championships.
July 3rd, 2015 at 5:56 pm
* can’t
July 3rd, 2015 at 6:27 pm
If lovie has a bad season…..if the bucs have a bad season then fire him. There are no excuses. This team has the talent to be an above average team overall. If they cant at least get to 7 and 9 then he needs to go. Promote koetter. I hope for lovie and all bucs fans sake he has learned. I know he ranked the season and thats why I am very optomistic. But if he pulls the crap he pulled with Martz in Chicago I fire him and promote koetter on the spot.
July 3rd, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Yes Joe, most fans don’t know that Brad Johnson had the highest QB rating in the NFC in 2002!
July 3rd, 2015 at 9:46 pm
Brad Johnson was probably one of the best “game managers” of all time.
July 4th, 2015 at 12:43 am
The future decisions on who is to coach this team may be more about how to keep Koetter rather than fire Lovie
July 4th, 2015 at 1:27 am
It would be nice for Lovie to take a chance now and then and think outside his comfort zone. On a 4th and 1 on the opponents side of the field, why not go for it?
I think the difference is simply in whether you have confidence in your offense or defense (if neither, it doesn’t make any difference). Let’s hope that Lovie HAS changed and allows Dirk to make those calls, even if they are “game” decisions.
July 4th, 2015 at 1:50 pm
I mean when you answer a question after a game stating “I think we should have ran the ball more”seems to me allowing the OC control of that side of the game is pretty much a none issue. What are we talking about here?
July 4th, 2015 at 9:01 pm
It takes a combination of defense and offense to win the Super Bowl. Most important of all is to have a franchise QB who can come from behind and a defense who can stop the other teams come from behind QB. What does almost every Super Bowl Champion have in common? An elite star player either on offense or defense with charisma and leadership or a catastrophe. Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Ray Lewis, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, Payton Manning and Hurricane Katrina. IMO most of the teams who end up winning the Super Bowl are teams of destiny. Teams you can see late in the season or early in the playoffs that have that intangible character trait of a winner.