Bucs Offense: “Goat”
December 2nd, 2014
National voices are hammering the Bucs
The Tampa Bay offense, starting in training camp, began with so much promise but has become putrid.
The season, 75 percent completed, can be summed up in one drive.
Lovie Smith preaches takeaways. On the first play from scrimmage Sunday, Bucs cornerback Johnthan Banks picked off puking Andy Dalton and returned the ball to the Bengals-9.
Perfect, right? Hardly. The Bucs offense actually went backwards! Instead of going up 7-0 very early, the Bucs had to settle for a field goal after a series of struggles.
As Lovie said yesterday, he has learned this year that takeaways don’t mean wins. That is because, like last year when the Bucs were fourth in the NFL in takeaways, the offense is so putrid it can not take advantage.
It is along these same lines that nine-shot espresso-inhaling, Allie LaForce-smitten, Big-Ten-Network-hating, 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, in his weekly must-read Monday Morning Quarterback column, bestowed his weekly “Goat of the Week” honors to the Bucs offense.
Goats of the Week
The offensive Bucs. Garrett Gilkey, goat. Has a good ring to it. I almost gave it to him, seeing as how he got called for four penalties. The Bucs had 13 accepted penalties (two of Gilkey’s were declined, but a vital 10-yard holding penalty on Tampa Bay’s last ill-fated drive in the 14-13 loss to Cincinnati was not), and the biggest one cost Tampa Bay dearly. On second-and-15 from the Cincinnati 41 with 32 seconds left, the Bucs had 12 men on the field and ran a play. Lewis went crazy trying to get the attention of the crew before the next play—a play where the Bucs AGAIN had 12 men on the field—and finally the officials looked at the previous play and saw 12 men, penalizing the Bucs. Now it was second-and-20 from the Cincinnati 46, and the Bucs couldn’t move into field-goal range. Awful field management by Tampa, in all ways. Lovie Smith called the penalties “stupid” and said of the 12 men on the field TWICE: “Bad move on my part. We should have caught that. A lot of us should have caught that.”
Now Joe notice Gilkey is getting seared on the grill of sports talk radio. That really isn’t fair.
The dude had never, ever snapped a ball in a game in his life, yet he was ordered to start at center for flu-ridden Evan Dietrich-Smith. The blame game is misdirected at Gilkey.
Sunday was the best the Bucs have run-blocked all year outside of pounding the Rams for 153 yards on the ground. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence with Gilkey in the lineup?
As miserable as the Bucs offense has been, Joe is confident it will see sweeping changes soon. At the very least, there will be a new offensive coordinator and likely a guy with NFL experience. From there, all bets are off.
Joe wouldn’t even be shocked if next year’s starting quarterback is not currently on the roster, whether said quarterback is acquired by draft, free agency or trade.
Surely, Lovie can see the offense is setting his team back. Joe would hope Lovie can see this, but then again, his staff apparently can’t count to 12.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:05 pm
What happened to the ‘Dunkaneers’?
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:06 pm
Gilkey AKA “The 5yd Roll Snap Guy.” Oh how awesome it was to see a snap rolled on the ground 5yds directly to the QB. I must admit it takes skill to do that.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:18 pm
ha ha . LOL Ray Rice.
That may become a new technique, called the Gilkey Snap Hypothesis
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:19 pm
Lovie thinks without penalties we beat Cincy 16-14 and that’s great. 16-24 points can win you a lot of games in Lovie’s mind. Craziest part? Lovie believes he can win 10 games next year with Josh McCown.
I cannot wait for how insanely pissed people are going to be when Lovie forgoes a QB and rolls with McCown next year. Might be 12,000 fans at each game.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:23 pm
What plays such a major role in the coaching profession is reputation and relationships…. That is a huge reason you hear so much about “coaching trees”… Lovie may have had a good reputation and could have gotten a good O.C. before all this garbage this season but now it is highly unlikely… After what has happened and the way he has handled it I would not be surprised if even his closest friends avoid the talk with him about being the O.C. for the Bucs….
Lovie’s reputation as the Bucs HC: Liar, delusional, can’t stick with QB, likes vets over youth regardless of talent, can’t evaluate talent to pick even decent players for their position, His way or no way, It’s not me it’s them because I am so great, poor clock manager, has control and yet nearly every decision he has made has come back to hurt this team….
Now, what O.C. in his right mind would stake his own reputation to be under that type of leadership… Who wants to marry their career to Lovie 2-14 Smith?
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:26 pm
@Buddha
Lol “The Gilkey Snap” on 3. Break!!!!
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:27 pm
My questiom is why did we try two runnig plays in the red zone with our first possession…..ended up with 3rd & 5….
Knowing what we know about our running game…..if I were OC, I would have thrown to the end zone 3 times….if a reciever wasn’t open….just throw it away…..either we get a TD….pass interference penalty or end up with the field goal.
At least a
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:31 pm
Joe, love your website but this banner at the bottom sucks. I hope you’re making decent coin off of it cause I don’t know anyone who likes those things regardless of the website.
Sincerely your fan,
Pierce
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:32 pm
Gilkey isn’t a goat……he’s a SCAPEGOAT!!!
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:36 pm
there’s alot of breakdowns that fall squarely on the players, but having only one player with the ability to snap a football on the 53 man roster you unequivocally control is a total failure of planning on lovie’s part. Doubly so because they traded away a capable center for peanuts
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Paging lane kiffen, paging lane kiffen, please pick up your nearest telephone. Lovie smith would like to speak to you.
Let’s see lane struggles to put up points, got fired from his college hc position and He’s never called an NFL game, sounds like someone we know, a perfect candidate for Lovie smith. Be sure to have him take a physical and an mri.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:38 pm
Only way the Bucs O will get better is if Lovie has NO say or input in it. Hire a dynamic OC and tell lovie he can only mess with the defense.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:43 pm
The holding penalty on Gilkey was really the forgotten play. Had that hold not happened, we would have had a very makeable FG, even had we not gained another yard. I can’t for the life of me understand how we could be so undisciplined and sloppy to commit a hold in that situation. I would rather Gilkey just step out of the way and let the RB get blasted in the backfield. At least then we would have had a chance for a game-winning FG. I’m not putting the whole game on Gilkey by any means (McCown deserves a bigger share of the blame), but pretty much every time I see him in the game, he commits a penalty. Warhop is either not doing his job, or he’s got the stupidest bunch of OL in the NFL.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:45 pm
Garrett Gilkey… I”m picturing Gilbert Gottfried rolling that hike back.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:50 pm
I thought Lovie has said repeatedly that there is competition at EVERY position.
A backup for EVERY position. Then they throw this poor guy out there who has NEVER snapped a football in a real game. Not even High School. Are you kidding me?
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:52 pm
Lovie the liar, the destroyer, the incompetent, the jester
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:56 pm
Doesn’t really matter with this team, a new player steps up each week to lose the game. This team isn’t good enough to win close games.
Evans can’t get off the grass.
Goldson drops game winning INT.
Banks drops game winning INT.
Rainey fumbles.
Jenkins fumbles.
Gilkey holds.
It’s a comedy of errors from start to finish led by a turnover machine in Josh McClown.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:57 pm
I would venture to say that a shotgun snap is fairly difficult to do accurately with 300 pound men perched right above you. What clown of a coach would put anyone in that situation who has never done it in a game situation at any level? Talk about setting someone up for failure.
Offensive lineman playing TE, centers who’ve never touched a football in their life, 12 men at key times. At least circuses are organized.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:58 pm
Not really Gilkey’s fault. He’s o better than a 3rd stringer or practice squad. Blame lovie and lict for getting rid of zuttha , joseph and penn for collins, cousins and waiting untill the 5th round to draft o line. Having Gilkey on the field is what happens when you do a bad job in the off season and a bad job of evaluations.
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:59 pm
What do Lovie and McCown have in common….they both are giving all they have……
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:07 pm
McCown has been active in 9 NFL seasons. He only has 2 seasons of action in which he threw for more TDs than INTs. He’s our hand picked QB. It’s simply insane.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:13 pm
bucrightoff Says:
December 2nd, 2014 at 5:19 pm
I guess it’s not enough to be pissed off about this year, huh? We gotta go contemplating the worst for next year?
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I don’t think it’s unfair to blame Gilkey at all. He is the one who took us out of field goal range when he held on a frickin’ running play (that went for no gain by the way). That has nothing to do with snapping the ball for the first time in your life. Then we find ourselves needing to pass to get back into field goal range since we didn’t have any timeouts. I think it’s fair to suggest that if we didn’t find ourselves in an obvious passing situation, a different play gets called and the specific personnel changes and 12 men on the field boneheadedness never takes place.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Yet, I also agree that Gilkey never would’ve been on the field if L & L hadn’t traded Zuttah, misjudged talent all offseason, and turned a poor offensive line into a total joke.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:19 pm
I think it’s fair to say Jeremy Zuttah has been better than all our offensive lineman and we gave him away for next to nothing. That move is inexplicably horrible.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:21 pm
As long as this incompetent boob LovieDovie is in charge I am finding it tough to care anymore. Someone wake me up when we have a decent HC and QB, thanks.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:33 pm
GOAT = Greatest Of All Time.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:36 pm
All these moves are paying dividends for Lovie. After spending a year in his basement planning on how to steal millions from an unsuspecting owner, i would say his plan is going perfectly up to now. What Lovie can not have happen is for the team to win. That would mean he would not get fired at the earliest opportunity which would hamper his plans of stealing 10+ million from the Bucs. Lovie is a bad joke. Clueless in todays NFL. A clown scarier than any from Stephen King’s imagination.
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:38 pm
This season started off bad offense and defense
Defense at least showing a little spark
offense
Basically got worse each week
Now it is spiraling out of control
Its like a car engine, you can put in all the different spark plugs you want but fact is the engine is bad
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:46 pm
THERE IS SOMETHING VERY WRONG WITH THIS TEAM , COACHING AND PLAYERS THAT WAS GIVE AWAY FOR LESS TALENT, PLAY CALL SUCKS CAN’T GET THE RIGHT PLAYS IN ON TIME ,ETC. DON’T KNOW TALENT WHEN THEY SEE IT , SO HE IS GOING TO PICK THE PLAYERS ONCE AGAIN IN THE DRAFT AND FREE AGENT,, WELL I WILL PREDICT A 4-12 NEXT YEAR MARK IT DOWN…….
December 2nd, 2014 at 6:58 pm
Garrett Gilkey reminds me of the joke “The Aristocrats”. Google it.
December 2nd, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Schiano would be 6-6 right now, great move team G.!
December 2nd, 2014 at 8:59 pm
You mean to tell me that the Bucs don’t have a solid backup center?
December 3rd, 2014 at 2:13 am
no, Howard Cosell. I mean to tell you that the bucs have no backup center at all. placing a human being at the center position despite having none of the specific skills of a center…well, technically it makes a person a backup center but doesn’t really fill the criteria from a football standpoint
December 3rd, 2014 at 11:22 am
No one would fault him if he had ever played decent at his natural position but he sucks just as bad at guard so who cares if he has to hide for another week