Sifting Through The Noise

October 18th, 2014

LovieJagsWhen teams endure stunning stretches of losing like the Bucs have, negativity grows like summer weeds. You pluck a bunch of those weeds with a victory, but another couple of losses adds about triple the weeds you pulled initially.

Fans want hope and want to believe, but ultimately, after so much losing, only consistent winning makes them believers.

There’s comes a point when everything but winning feels like excuses. Joe thinks most Bucs fans have reached that point.

Seemingly endless Bucs losing (12-36 in their last 48 games) isn’t the fault of the Lovie Smith regime, but there’s no question Lovie and Jason Licht unfairly have that ugly recent history breathing in their faces.

There’s been tremendous uproar this week from former Buccaneers who can’t believe how atrocious the team performed after returning home from a three-game road trip. These ex-players all know there are serious problems when a team isn’t responding — in October — under a new head coach.

That’s downright scary. There’s no way to sugarcoat it. But it’s all magnified by the losing.

The crazy thing is Lovie’s likely best route out of this mess will cause mass hair-pulling across the Tampa Bay area. Lovie’s wisest play is to relax and stay the course with his current plan. Teach his defense through the season, evaluate current personnel in the scheme, take whatever lumps come his way, hire a new offensive coordinator in the offseason, and keep the faith that the plan will blossom next year with new pieces added.

Frankly, any different move from Lovie might somehow generate a couple of more wins this season, but it would send a huge signal to Team Glazer and the fans that Lovie has panicked. That’s not going to soothe anyone.

What Joe most wants to see in the final 10 games is a Bucs team that looks like it’s playing harder, smarter and nastier than every team it faces. That can be accomplished immediately, assuming Lovie can get through to his players. If the Bucs can’t toughen up, especially in the trenches, then Joe’s going to be left speechless.

16 Responses to “Sifting Through The Noise”

  1. Mbaby101 Says:

    This is a comments section. Not a message board. Sorry. –Joe

  2. Ray Rice Says:

    Couldn’t crush a grape with golf shoes on. I say it again. SOFT!!!

  3. MaHaBoNe.D Buc Says:

    @Mbaby101-I agree with the article completely. The whole process was screwed up at the beginning. They should have hired a legitimate GM to hire the Football coach, not the other way around. I will no longer even dream of wasting my time on Sunday’s the rest of this season. I believe we were sold a lot of BS by the Glazers. I think they thought by bringing in a name we all knew would cure all wrongs. Look back at the last 3 coaching hires… Rah, Schiano & Lovie! Rah was not qualified, Schiano was debatable and now Lovie. They waited too long in the process to hire both Rah & Schiano, all the good coaches and assistants were already gone. Lovie was here to FIX things! I’m sorry, but to me this is a front office disaster here in Tampa. I would like to know which one of the Glazer boys is making the decisions. Time to cut our ties at the end of the year and bring in an experienced GM and let him do the coaching hirings. I would pull a fingernail out if somehow we could pry Mckay back to Tampa out of Atlanta’s front office. Until then, I’m done with this Lovie experience…. Last post for awhile, I have better things to do with my time.

  4. Buccfan37 Says:

    Winning cures everything. The fans will wait and wait some more.

  5. Jim Says:

    At least Lovie is considering NOT deferring the kickoff when they win the toss. The offense needs more opportunities to move the ball. Much better than being down by 7 points two minutes into the game.

  6. Lou. Says:

    Perhaps if they just raise the price for a personal seat license. . . .

  7. DallasBuc Says:

    Sorry kids but until do-no-wrong Lovie and his lapdog GM can admit the huge mistakes they have made and subsequently learn from them your Tampa Bay Buccaneers will lead the race to the bottom every year these guys are running the show.

  8. bucrightoff Says:

    Considering the debacle free agency period they just had and the so far underwhelming return on the draft picks (only Evans and ASJ look likely to be here longer than 3 years, verdict clearly out on everyone else), and of course Lovie’s less than stellar talent evaluation in Chicago, forgive me for not thinking he can find the “right” guys to fill his system. He apparently signed several of them this offseason and they’ve not worked.

    More than anything Lovie needs to show us he can change. At this point this current group either can’t grasp the defense or doesn’t have the talent. Either way Lovie could easily make adaptations to the talent but he instead insists on running things his way. His refusal to change, the same thing that got him fired in Chicago, might again get him fired here eventually. Adapt or die Lovie.

  9. Casual Observer Says:

    “Teach his defense through the season… .” Are you sure that is the best strategy? Just wondering.

  10. DB55 Says:

    Yo Joe,

    No morning cup of joe today? I see the first words out your mouth today was weed. Hmmm! Brownies for breakfast, it is. Good day sir.

  11. billy buckaroo Says:

    The next few games will tell if the head coach and coaches have been able to “REGROUP” themselves or not.
    The master plan fell apart
    Plan B either hasnt worked or even been figured out
    No more blaming it entirely on the players

    The navigator on this road trip took a wrong turn along the way
    and everybody on the bus knows its not taking them where they were supposed to go
    The same navigator now has to get the bus going in the right direction
    Even if you have to go clear back to where you made the wrong turn

  12. DB55 Says:

    @billy

    No more blaming it entirely on the players
    ———————-
    You must not have heard, it’s the fans fault they’re 1-5.

  13. billy buckaroo Says:

    @db55
    Good One

  14. Mike10 Says:

    Can we trust the plan that Lovie has though?

    It’s a lot easier giving away another 2 years of development if I can trust the direction we’re going. I’m not a pessimist, but I stay grounded with my perspective and form my opinions on what I see from this team and not what I’m told.

    I see a lot of player evaluation and moves made in the offseason that I didn’t agree with and thus far I haven’t really been proven wrong.

    Davin Joseph isn’t playing too well in St. Louis but he was something this team is sorely missing right now, and that is a leader. Not to mention, now and especially through the majority of camp, there is no upgrade from him at the RG spot.

    Davin is just one point I make, but when I look at the rest of this team that was built I see a combination of wash-ups, overpriced and over-hyped acquisitions, and guys that shouldn’t even be playing football on Sundays unless it’s with Brett Favre and a pair of Levis’. There were guys on this roster last year that could be a significant help to our current team, and yet we still have money under the cap.

    There is no leadership, there is no chemistry, there is no accountability (other than the proverbial “I need to do this or that better” with never a resulting change) there are just a bunch of guys unaware of their role on the field resulting in a steady regression of nearly every aspect of our game.

    I’m not saying we should fire Lovie, I’m just trying to look at this objectively. I want to believe the direction we’re going, but someone give me ONE reason to believe this is going to get better, ever, under those that are currently calling the shots…

  15. Buc1987 Says:

    Look up the word bewildered in the dictionary and that picture of Lovie would be right beside it.

  16. M.Wilson Says:

    I honestly thought Lovie was the man for the job when he was first hired. But after naming McCown as the starter (and before he had even thrown a pass in a Buc’s uniform and before Lovie had even seen Glennon in person) I started to have my doubts. Then after the first 5 weeks of the season we kept hearing the same old song, “we will fix it”, “we are getting better” I knew we were toast. The icing on this rather unpalatable cake came when after week 6 Lovie said he would look at everything EXCEPT his scheme or his coaches. That right there tells me that he is a man incapable of change. He cant fathom that the problems may be related to anything he has done, implemented, whatever. Nope its gotta be someone elses fault. The NFL has passed Lovie by in his year out of football. Now we are seeing why the Bears let him go after a 10-6 season. He cant judge talent, is stuck on an antiquated defensive scheme, refuses to adapt to changes and is incapable of motivating his players.