David Says Bucs Are Emotionally Unstable
December 29th, 2015
Perhaps all the Bucs’ woes are simply in their heads?
A mentally tougher team likely would be 9-6 now instead of 6-9.
That was the logic peddled by Lavonte David last night on the Buccaneers Radio Network. It’s hard to disagree with David. Just on Sunday, the Bucs appeared to fall apart when a penalty wiped out their first-half interception deep in Bears territory.
“We just gotta learn how to, can’t be emotional rollercoaster, man,” David said. “When we’re up, we gotta stay up. When we’re down, we gotta get right back up. You know, so when we [lead] teams by a number of points, you gotta be able to go full throttle. You can’t let up. You can’t act like you have the game won already. You know, this is the NFL, man. No team is out of a football team no matter how many points they’re down. That happened to us plenty of times this year. So we have to learn from this.”
The question posted to David was about how the Bucs can learn from lost leads or failed opportunities in recent games. On Sunday, Tampa Bay led in the first and third quarters and then fell apart.
David went on to say there are “mature guys in the locker room” that will be able to learn from these mistakes and teach others.
Joe is as dumbfounded as any other fan. Are Bucs players reflecting their head coach? Are they a mentally inferior bunch that includes unintelligent guys that repeat mistakes? Do they really think they have games in the bag and let up, as David suggests?
Joe hopes it’s just a chemistry and maturity thing that needs to magically improve as the roster develops. Otherwise, it’s going to be an ugly ride until there’s sufficient new blood in the house, from coaches to players.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:14 am
Sorry to the Lovie defenders but this is on the coach. Look at how other teams deal with adversity and look at our team. We consistently quit and throw in the towel the second things start going bad. Was there any doubt the Bears were winning after that INT got wiped out by the penalty? We always see this defense fold if things aren’t pitch perfect. Offense has bad tendencies here too but not like the defense. Of course it’s a lot easier to replace a coach and that mentality than it is replacing half or more of your defense.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:25 am
Jameis has set the tone on offense. Last game was great example. Doesn’t matter the circumstances or time left on the clock, they kept fighting.
Defense is devoid of true leadership and talent. That’s a combo that breeds a lot of quit. LD needs to step up the leadership if he sees that its lacking. McCoy goes possum as soon as the tide turns. Only hear from him when it’s going good.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:32 am
New coach and mentality is needed. Coach with a killer instinct and an attitude.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:39 am
You get the impression with the defense that as soon as Kwon wasn’t playing there is no one is holding them accountable for lackluster effort. I’ll bet that exetends to keeping ‘the emotions in check.’
One could assume Jameis serves that function on offense. It’s readily apparent that a dumb penalty on offense is just a hurdle to overcome and not the death knell it is for the defense.
It would appear whoever is in charge of the Defense is failing in their job. Repeatedly.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:41 am
Sounds a lot like an ex-girlfriend
December 29th, 2015 at 11:42 am
Sadly, although he is a great player, LVD is a primary culprit. His career is littered with mistakes at key moments and admissions of mental and emotional lapses. McCoy gets a ton of flack for not being enough of a leader or winner, but David has been in the thick of all the losing too and never seems to fired up about it
December 29th, 2015 at 11:54 am
The first play of the season told us how mentally fragile this team was. The fact that they folded up the tents and went home after the first play of the first game being penalized said that these guys aren’t a team of men who are driven to overcome adversity. Whereas some people get to a bump in the road and roll over it, some will drive around it or some might have the bump removed, the Bucs get to the bump, take the keys out of the car and throw them out the window. They fold and buckle when things aren’t falling specifically in line with the way it’s supposed to go. Take any number of examples from this season. Take our receivers not fighting for balls that are 50/50 attempts that our “Dunkaneers” are supposed to dominate. Take our defense regularly getting PIs, holding and any number of other penalties that are born out of them just getting beat constantly. Take the selfish, bone-headed, childish penalties that are not even lessening, much less going away. The team is comprised of kids who do not have a winning mentality and they’re not talented enough to overcome it.
December 29th, 2015 at 11:56 am
While Lavonte David is my favorite player to watch I really can’t disagree with anything you’re saying here.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Before this gets out of hand here’s just an objective statistical breakdown of the season & specifically the defense.
Points per game given up: 25.3 (23rd in league)
Points given up off of offensive turnovers: 90 (5th worst in league – league average is 60)
Pointers per game given up adjusted to league avg for points given up by offensive turnover: 23.2 (16th in the league)
Yards per game given up: 338.7 (9th in league)
Pass yards per game given up: 239 (17th in league)
Rush yards per game given up: 99.7 (10th in league)
Everything considered this D was exactly as I predicted. Just adjusting for the league average of offensive turnover points has them as the 16th best scoring defense. Right in the middle of the league. Considering their yardage is top 1/3 I think it is a completely accurate and fair assessment to say this defense was average.
That’s what I predicted. I also predicted 7-9 wins because I thought an average defense would be good enough for Winston to win close games but he’s let a few games go that he should have been able to win.
The Buc Realist predicted 4 wins tops and a bottom of the league defense.
He continually calls me a sheep for simply proving how wrong he was with objective measurements that he can’t argue against. Baa baa
December 29th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
If what LVD says is true, and on the field it certainly looks to be so, then it ALL goes back to coaching. Or lack of it
December 29th, 2015 at 12:08 pm
Defensive scrubs. Draft will fix that.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:09 pm
Now let’s look at the season losses:
Titans – horrible defensive performance / team performance. I was wanting Lovie fired for that game lol.
Texans – defense played solid. Many punts forced and many chances for offense to take control of the game. 9 points is not scores enough nor close to it.
Panthers – total Winston meltdown with 5 turnovers. The D actually kept the game interesting by forcing a lot of field goals off turnovers but it wasn’t enough. Put it on the offense.
Redskins – collapse in coaching and defense.
Giants – Offensive mistakes plagued us with 3 fumbles and a missed field goal. Giants only had 1 TD drive in the entire game from their own territory. I put this on the offense.
Colts – Offense could only score 12 points. That isn’t going to beat anybody in the NFL typically. Here’s a summary of our drives: FG / FG / TD / Punt / Punt / Missed FG / Punt / Downs / Interception.
New Orleans – Team played flat all around. Put this on coaching in a key game we needed.
St Loius – Defense was atrocious. Put it on them & coaching. Offense also stunk bad in the 1st half so it’s on the whole team.
Chicago – The D played well enough to win this game. Hell they scored a TD. These are the Bears possesions: Punt, Punt, Punt, TD, FG, FG, Punt, Punt, TD. Only one of those TD drives came from their own territory. Winston threw a horribly timed interception that likely changed the outcome of the game along with 2 doug Martin fumbles.
In review of the 10 losses I would conclude as objectively as possible:
In only 4 of them would I say we lost because our D & coaching was terribly below the level they needed to be.
I would put the blame on the offense for these losses (see points scored)
Texans – 9
Panthers – 23 (5 turnovers by Winston though)
Giants – 18
Colts – 12
Bears – 21 (really like 14 with garbage meaningless score as time expired)
So this year I would say we had 5 winnable games that were lost completely due to the offense’s inability to score; or because they shot the team in the foot hardcore with turnovers. We actually lost MORE games this year because of the offense than the D. If you want to argue otherwise I’d love to hear where any of these 5 games are on the D.
The biggest indictment against Lovie Smith is his team played pretty bad when it really mattered (the Saints). His pass D and talent evaluation has been extremely questionable at best as well. I’m not going to sugar coat any of that.
But this is just simple perspective and fact man. We were far from having some juggernaut nfl offense lol. The way some of you post you make it sound like we are dropping 30 a game and losing due to our defense. We had a rookie QB and it showed in many games. He also has won games for us we should have lost.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:14 pm
This isn’t a defend Lovie or anyone based post. This is more of a take a step back and try to see the whole picture analysis. There are a ton of moving / working parts in football.
With this schedule we should have won 9 games. I honestly thought when I reviewed our losses I’d be putting the blame on the D for all of them; but the offense was pretty terrible in a lot of those games.
You could lump all the offensive turnovers & penalties in with bad discipline and tie it to coaching. I don’t think that’s an unfair point to make. But our problems this year weren’t simply JUST on defense and completion % given up. Far from it.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:17 pm
We need a fiery, passionate coach–a Pete Carroll or Mike Tomlin type. A coach that gets emotional, and even aggressive at times, but can still keep his team under control. And no, I’m not talking about a “toes-on-the-line” mentality, i.e. Greg Schiano–we all know how that turned out.
But a docile coach that, let’s face it, allows his team to walk all over him, is just not cutting it for our beloved Buccaneers.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:30 pm
There’s a combination of personalities that need to be there for a team to do well. You may not need a fiery coach to make things work, but your stoic coach should be actually putting together solid game plans and moving the chess pieces around in his head while he’s standing there being inanimate. I don’t think any of us believe that Lovie is doing as many mental gymnastics as a Bellichek, Landry, or any other statue coach you might name. Additionally, the quiet coach can be quiet if he has field generals who are able to lead his team and be the heart beat of their units. Warren Sapp and DB did that for Dungy. Jameis is doing that for our offense. Nobody is doing it for our defense. LVD regularly said that the mentality is missing. Wrong answer! Your job as the leader is to get the team’s mentality and focus in the right place. GMC is a lost cause. He just flat out doesn’t get it. Listening to his pre-game pep talk was a joke. He’ll be fine as a super talented player on the team, but the team simply cannot go on acting as though the life blood of the defense flows through him. I’m hopeful that Kwon will be that guy. The team plays better with him in. He doesn’t seem to falter at the first sign of trouble like our other “leaders” and he’s got the talent to make people listen up when he talks. I’m not saying that LVD and GMC need to go, they just need to sit down and listen when it’s time for the men to stand up and get the team ready to play.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:45 pm
In my experience, mental toughness is something that is instilled by the team leadership, whether that be the coaches or players. The legacy leaders of Lovie, GMC, and Lavonte don’t exude mental toughness and seem to accept losing. The new leaders of Koetter, Mankins, and Winston are mentally tough leaders and they seem to hate losing, but it will take time for them to overcome the complacent leadership of the past.
December 29th, 2015 at 12:53 pm
Fans are emotionally unstable to.
#Seige?
December 29th, 2015 at 1:22 pm
Interesting no response to the fact that 5 of the 9 games lost this year were mostly attributable to the offense and not the defense. I honestly couldn’t believe it myself at first
December 29th, 2015 at 1:30 pm
The biggest annoyance for me with the defense is that they just cant force 3 and outs. They give up to many long drives which puts more pressure on the offense to have to score when they have the ball.
Then you have the problem of every team knowing how to beat the defense. That is why teams completed 70% of their passes. Even crappy QBs were shredding the defense.
December 29th, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Where is Lavonte in all of this?
Standing around like a b*tch with the rest of these losers.
These pu**ies go into games expecting to lose!
When is someone with some balls going to step up and say “No More!!”?
It’s clearly not #54 as he’s been talking about this garbage all season.
Ship him and McCoy the hell outta here and get someone who wants to win. I’ll take effort and unstoppable will over talent any day.
GTFO Lavonte! You suck!
December 29th, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Settle down in here or we’ll have to start behavior modification therapy, OK?
[Just FYI, using different handles is begging to get banned. So long as you are OK with that, Joe just wanted to let you know. — Joe]
December 29th, 2015 at 1:41 pm
I would put the blame on the offense for these losses (see points scored)
Texans – 9
Panthers – 23 (5 turnovers by Winston though)
Giants – 18
Colts – 12
Bears – 21 (really like 14 with garbage meaningless score as time expired)
_______________________________________________________________
Texans game: Total team loss. Ryan Mallett destroyed this defense, so it does not get even a slight pass. That the offense was worse is not the same as the defense having no blame. It deserves a good 35% of the blame for this loss, 35% offense, 30% special teams
Panthers game: Pretty much agree it’s on the offense.
Giants: Again this ignores allowing 9/15 on third down. What team wins when you let the other team do as they please on third down? This loss is another team loss, probably actually dead even 50/50 blame for this one
Colts: Offense wasn’t good enough…defense was absolutely pathetic. 300 yards to a 40 year old…and remember Hasselbeck said all he did was study Lovie’s BEARS defenses. 60% defense blame on this one
Bears: Truth be told this game was so bad across the board I’m trying to forget having watched it. Meaningless week 16 game, the only take away here is the Bears have more heart than the Bucs. And a better coach too.
December 29th, 2015 at 1:53 pm
Of course they are emotionally unstable! Lemmy is dead and Motorhead is calling it quits! I know I can hardly do my job now. The minute our GM drops some “Ace of Spades” on the turntable during practice it’s just gonna be tears.
December 29th, 2015 at 1:58 pm
Bucrightoff you are letting your preconceived bias distort your football analysis.
Here are Houstons possessions:
Punt
TD
Punt
Punt
Interception
Missed FG
FG
Punt
Punt
Punt
TD
FG
The defense literally gave the offense 3 straight opportunities off stops for punts in the 2nd half to take the lead while being down 10-9. To blame them for this loss is absolutely insane to me when this is what our offense did:
Punt
Punt
FG
Punt
TD
Punt
Interception
Punt
Missed FG
Punt
Missed FG
Punt
Missed FG
Our offense was terrible that game due to drops and not converting any 3rd downs or making.
Your take on Bears is not even one I know how to debate because it’s like saying your favorite color is blue. There is no objective argument to it
December 29th, 2015 at 1:59 pm
Making FGs*
December 29th, 2015 at 2:06 pm
In regard to the Giants we have up One TD drive the entire game from their own territory but yeah you are right in putting more of the on D. I’ll agree with team loss there.
Still; that’s at least 4 games lost by the offense or 1/2 of all our losses. For how much criticism of Lovie / the D gets it seems we give a huge pass to the offense. Probably cuz we all love our new QB.
December 29th, 2015 at 2:09 pm
@LordC
Excellent takes and I agree with everything you’ve pointed out. Spot on.
Here is what concerns me most about Lovie or the entire franchise..we fans included. Somehow we think, act, and play like losers.
That Alteraun Verner penalty was a microcosm of the Bucs last five years. Do something great…GMC makes a terrific rush..forces a ball up in the air…Gholston blossoms into that DE GMC has needed and picks off the ball setting us up for a dagger of a TD to put us up 14-0. But NOOOO another stupid penalty.. Whether it’s LVD’s late…ticky tacky call yes..but still only losers like us give the refs to toss a flag like that that literally loses a game for us.
This stupidity…penalties etc…can’t be simply coaching because it transcends both the Schiano and Smith eras..it may be the only constant between the two regimes…stupid undisciplined play.
And so Lord C…how do we change this brain dead culture…we should have won ten this year with out talent and our schedule.
December 29th, 2015 at 2:17 pm
Ok how is the Houston game a pass for the defense. For fun…
Texans season Averages:
Pass yards: 239
Rush yards: 105
Total: 344
Against the Bucs (with the equivalent of a 3rd string QB and a backup RB):
Pass yards: 225
Rush yards: 185
Total: 410
The Texans also had exactly 1 three and out. So I’m not sure what that performance is other than bad. We allowed a bad offense to go almost 20% above its total yardage average. I mean I know your point was to blame the offense, but my assessment is correct, tt was a team loss. The offense does not deserve any more blame than the defense, and lest we forget we botched an EP and missed 3 FGs. The Texans also had a dropped TD and a missed FG. Could easily have been 30 points. That loss is not on the offense no matter how much you want it to be on them.
December 29th, 2015 at 2:18 pm
@Cornelius….I totally agree….professional athletes shouldn’t have to be told, “ok guys we’re only up by 3, continue to give max effort”…that’s something you learn in little league and HS….I never make excuses for lovie but all the blame cant be put on him…players have to be accountable for their actions too….GO BUCS!!!!
December 29th, 2015 at 2:26 pm
@bucrightoff….LOL…THE FING KICKER MISSED 3 FG’S….that wasn’t on the defense…that wasn’t on the offense…THAT WAS ON THE SPECIAL TEAMS….POINT BLANK PERIOD….even with all the yards the d gave up, and the offense not moving the ball and being efficient, we still had a chance to win had the SPECIAL TEAMS come thru…..GO BUCS!!!!
December 29th, 2015 at 2:36 pm
Wow you’re as dumb as Bonzai 813bucboi. I clearly state its a team loss to be shared between the offense, defense, and special teams. Every phase had big failures in that game. I even break it down 35% each offense and D, and 30% special teams
But why actually read what I wrote? It’s much more fun to come off way over the top with a bunch of homeristic nonsense.
December 29th, 2015 at 2:41 pm
All I know is forcing THAT many punts and giving the offense plenty of chances to put the game away while allowing 19 total points is typically considered a very solid Defensive performance.
Getting 9 points out of all the possessions we had is just terrible in comparison and it isn’t close.
Primary duty of D is not to allow many points and give the offense opportunities to win the game via possessions. They did both of those things against the Texans
It’s like the defense is to blame if they allow any points at all or don’t perform at a top 5 level. Those kind of standards are insane
December 29th, 2015 at 2:52 pm
Context Cornelius. They didn’t hold Drew Brees down, they held a guy who spent half the season OUT OF THE LEAGUE. The Texans are a below average defense who produce an above average performance against the Bucs.
By the way, the Texans had 30 (!!!) first downs, which is actually the most the Bucs have allowed this season. That’s a good defense performance? I talked about it earlier this week, but as Buc fans we’ve really lowered our standards to accept average performances as great, and bad performances as acceptable. That’s too bad.
December 29th, 2015 at 3:00 pm
Not saying it was great but to say they are just as much to blame as the Offense is disengenuous at best.
I honestly could give two sh1ts about first downs and completion % as long as the D forces punts and doesn’t give up a lot of points.
In 12 possessions we forced 6 punts and had an interception; giving up 2 TDs and 2 FGs. That’s close to what the Bengals / Broncos did to eachother Monday night and those are both considered defensive teams with questionable offenses right now lead by inexperienced QBs
That kind of performance is at worst a better than NFL average performance.
Scoring 9 points on 13 possessions on the contrast is about as bad as it gets in today’s league.
So how about 10% D fault / 50 % offense / 40 % special teams
December 29th, 2015 at 3:32 pm
@Your Excellency- Your logic is profoundly sound. Therefore, FIRE LOVIE!
LOL!
No, I agree, there are tons of moving parts here. My 17 year-old nephew looks at me like I have a 3rd eye when I mention clock-control and special teams. Simply, when your offense has the ball, the other team cannot score.
What’s killing us are the untimely miscues like penalties and turnovers. We put our defense in bad positions all year AND we made mistakes on defense. What does that equal? 6-7 wins.
Firing Lovie does nothing to change any of that. If anything, it screws up the continuity of the team. Lets also place some blame on the players. I mean come on, I see LVD missing tackles too. It ain’t ALL coaching!
December 29th, 2015 at 3:41 pm
Obviously we could continue this pissing match forever. The defense and offense are equally to blame for that loss. You clearly feel allowing one of the worst offenses in the league to put up 400 yards and 30 first downs, deserves only 10% of the blame. Ok then.
It’s funny because statistically speaking the offense performed about 25% worse than average (in terms of yards gained), and the defense performed 25% worse than average (in terms of yards allowed). From an average standpoint, both performances were almost equally bad. Then we apply context, where the Bucs offense played an elite defense and the Bucs defense played a bottom 5 offense. and that’s where I can’t get you putting this 5 times more on the offense than the defense. But whatever.
December 29th, 2015 at 4:35 pm
@bucrightoff…in your previous post you never mentioned the special teams…you only blamed the defense…you stated we missed 3fg’s but turn right around and said that lose was on the defense…clearly you don’t know what your talking about….GO BUCS!!!!
December 29th, 2015 at 4:37 pm
The point is JOE ! Again ! Lovie is not who we thought he was.
HE must go ! Period !
Come on man ! Listen to what his payers are saying ! If you ever even thought that about a Parcells, JJ , Bill C. Bill B. Team and said that in the media you would be gone !
This guy is the only winner on this D and he is sick of it.
Remember getting Hardy was the beginning of Tampa’s turn around! We need to go pay for a leader on the DL and a leader at SS
December 29th, 2015 at 4:42 pm
You’re right this isn’t going anywhere.
You care way more about yards given up than I do. The same ppl who bash Lovie bash using yardage over points typically. People seem willing to only look at the stats that fit their narrative and look away when they don’t.
The D wasn’t great but did better than average by pretty much every metric other than the 2 stats you keep harping on. It’d be one thing if we gave up those stats u bring up and the offense never had the ball or time of possession but they got the offense the ball 13 times. That should produce around 24-25 points for a decent offense and we aren’t close.
Good debate my liege regardless
December 29th, 2015 at 4:45 pm
We agree to disagree. At least I didn’t call you a sheep though lol. BAAAAHHHH!!!!
December 29th, 2015 at 4:55 pm
That’s rich to call out the offense for losing us games. I don’t respond to debate this fact because obvisously dropped TD’s, missed FG’s fumbles and pentaltys lose games……..But the offense is a young and upcoming group and the only part of the team that won us any games. The defense stepped up 1 time all season in my estimation and that was in one series in OT against the Falcons. Aside from that our team nearly won a pathetic 6 games in spite of our defense. And if we had a legit WR1 here we would likely be in the playoffs despite our D.
This defense got eaten alive by subpar QB’s against Indy and St. Louis. They couldn’t stop New Orleans on 3rd and 15+ 4 separate times in that loss. They also couldn’t stop Washington from dominating us in the 2nd half. We have dropped tons of picks, missed tons of tackles and show no hope for improvement(draft/Know aside) in the future. The stats cannot make this look any better either, especially considering we have run a clock management type offense all year.
December 29th, 2015 at 5:33 pm
When the team does embarrassingly stupid things play after play, week after week, and it’s always different people doing it. how do you look anywhere else but the head coach?
Lovie has not changed the culture in the locker room.
And he hasn’t done a nice job with Jameis. Jameis has done a nice job with Jameis. He is the one guy on the team not repeating coming up with crazy boneheaded plays and is not making the same mistakes over and over again.
This year would be a good time to think about a coaching change if you can retain Dirk, considering Lovie has nothing to do with the offense and they haven’t invested any major draft picks in his outdated defense.
December 29th, 2015 at 5:53 pm
Brett-Lovie is the Coach. I think it is unfair to say he has nothing to do with the offense.
December 29th, 2015 at 6:04 pm
Remember the Defense sucked through two coaches already. A new head coach isn’t going to fix this group of guys in one or two years. These things take time.
Yet, our offense now have the will to fight til the clock has 0:00. Our o-line had sucked for years, but now I’m glad to say they aren’t the problem. Are they perfect? No. But, they are best I’ve seen in some time.
Our defensive players attitude need to be adjusted. We need some real leaders and more talent on defense. Let LVD and McCoy take a break from being the “leaders” of the defense.
Because you don’t see them getting in the grill of other players when they constantly screwing up assignment and getting unnecessary penalties. They are laid back guys (which is a good personality to have), but they can’t be afraid of potentially hurt teammates feelings or ego. That’s not good thing for a leadership role. You have to be both friends/teacher and lay down the law when needed. We need some Ray Lewis type of leadership on defense…badly. Jameis is a Ray Lewis type of leader for the offense.
If they can’t get that everyone with a Buccaneers logo (except Glazers) job is on the line, then they need to be gone if they refuse to stick to their assignment and play under control. This team would’ve been a playoff team, if they stop with the mental collapse (dropping easy passes, penalties, and missed assignments).
I’m proud to say that’s I’m encouraged about the direction of this team. All we have to do is get better on defense and find a special team return man/men. Most importantly have talented depth for injuries that will happen throughout the year.
December 29th, 2015 at 6:15 pm
Haha appreciated that 🙂
December 29th, 2015 at 6:19 pm
@ Buccaneers.
The D almost single handily won the Dallas game – don’t forget that one. Probably one of the better performances in years
Shut down the Eagles when they have torn us up in past
Came up big with pressure on Brees in week 2 win
Had key sack to stop Jacksonville in that win
I’d say they had a little to do with winning those games lol
December 29th, 2015 at 11:14 pm
Much of this roster are hold overs from schiano’s last season. You know, the one where bucs players visibly GAVE UP on their coach. Schiano set this team back a decade by ruining the few talented player we did/do have. David and McCoy being the big 2. Those 2 are the leaders of the defense yet they let their teammates quit on the coach. The coach deserved it, don’t get me wrong. He was an as$ hat. But the mental impact of going through that as a player had to take it’s toll. Schiano beat those boys down and they still haven’t recovered. We need new leaders on this defense. I hope Kwon Alexander can be that guy. He has the talent that’s for sure, I have no idea if he has the personality to do it though. Hopefully this off season, through the draft and free agency we can add new leaders that can help pick this defense up when it gets down. Because David isn’t that guy, he just doesn’t have that type of personality. And McCoy tries to be the leader of the defense, but when times get tough and the defense needs a boost, he doesn’t step up. We need to find the Jameis Winston of our defense.
December 30th, 2015 at 12:49 am
The main problem is Lovie is the poorest judge of talent I have ever seen. Promoting Stonehands Shrimp proves it! All the Glazers need to do is call him in and tell Lovie they are prepared to fire him unless he agrees to a change to his contract giving up any personnel control and putting him under Licht. Owners often come to players with the ultimatum of restructure your contract or be cut so don’t tell me it can’t be done. Then tell him his taking over control of the defense spread himself too thin and hurt his success opportunity as a HC so let Frazier run it or hire a new DC to run it like his Buddy with Dallas. Then thank him for getting us Winston and a nineth pick for a top DE in 2016. Then fire his WR Coach and his Son. That will get us to the playoffs next year!
December 30th, 2015 at 8:31 am
@Owleykat – Evidently you haven’t seen Matt Millen’s talent evaluation prowess
December 30th, 2015 at 9:32 am
See, this is why I don’t take most of you very seriously and I’m spot on when I call some of you trolls. Using sock puppets in an attempt to create your own echo chambers is very juvenile. It would be nice if these guys got banned at the IP level in order to have serious Buccaneers discussion rather than a lot of this fire Lovie nonsense.
December 30th, 2015 at 9:43 am
Lord Cornelius,
Spot on breakdown on some of these Buccaneers losses where the problems were really with the offense. Fantastic stuff and I thank you for sharing. I think some of the fans on this forum think the offense should be free of criticism. It really shouldn’t at all. Between fumbles, holding calls, false starts, dropped passes INTs…..I mean, there have been many plays to be made on the field to put the Bucs in a position to win but they didn’t execute.
Also, just as a reminder the Bucs have only lost 9 games this year (you said 10 losses). They still may win against the Carolina Panthers. Fans shouldn’t automatically assume they’re going to lose this Sunday.
December 30th, 2015 at 10:35 am
Lord Cornelius,
My Brutha!! Thank you for shutting down all the “non-sensical” radicals AGAIN!! It’s just too easy….
“It’s as simple as that” -Lovie Smith