Slow Starts On Jameis

August 22nd, 2016
Needs mistake-free starts.

Needs mistake-free starts.

At times in the dark of the night, slow starts are not a bad thing.

On a football field, however, a slow start could paint a team into a corner.

Dirk Koetter lamented his squad’s slow start Saturday at Jacksonville yesterday in his weekly day-after presser and stopped just short of suggesting the slow starts, a carry over from a nasty habit year, is on the shoulders of America’s Quarterback, Pro Bowler Jameis Winston.

“That is just a fact, it has happened,” Koetter said. “How are we going to fix ix it? If I knew that it would be easy to do. I don’t know exactly. I’d say we have to get Jameis off to a quicker start.

“I don’t think [the solution] is magic. We just have to work on it. … [Jameis] wasn’t as accurate as he needs to be.”

This is true. Jameis fumbled to start the preseason in Philly but otherwise was sharp. Saturday in Jacksonville, Jameis started out McCown-like 0-for-6, including missing a wide open Vincent Jackson along the right sideline on his first throw.

So far these slow starts are a nasty trademark of a Koetter offense in Tampa Bay.

39 Responses to “Slow Starts On Jameis”

  1. Pickgrin Says:

    Jameis showed 26 out of 27 times in College that a strong finish is much more important than a “slow start”.

  2. Phil Says:

    Jameis usually started slow when he was at FSU as well. Hopefully they can figure out how to get things rolling a little quicker.

  3. Wombat Says:

    I have heard people say that Koetter needs to give him easy throws to start the game, but I am not buying that. The throw to Vjax was pretty easy, it was away from coverage, not looking over the top of linemen and Vjax is a pretty big target! He still lacks maturity and is forcing the throws early. He needs to not throw so tight. In baseball you get 4 tries before its a walk, in football you need to get the ball over the plate every play. I think he can fix it.

  4. SB with Jameis Says:

    “So far these slow starts are a nasty trademark of a Koetter offense in Tampa Bay.”
    ……………………………………..
    Sorry Joe but slow starts are a nasty trademark of Jameis’ offense dating back to FSU

  5. The Buc Realist Says:

    The worst part is that in both games, the offense had to switch to the hurry up offense to sustain a drive!!!!!

  6. JonBuc Says:

    I’m glad the Bucs drafted Winston…he’s been a lot of fun to watch. The slow starts going back to FSU days/daze are undeniable, however. There simply isn’t the margin for error in the NFL vs college, unfortunately. Hopefully a steady dose of Martin early on can help get things started in ’16.

  7. Dooshlarue Says:

    I’d like to see him start the game like he did against the Redskins last year.
    That was awesome!
    The loss however still sickens me.

  8. Tampabaybucfan Says:

    Jameis will fix this like everything else……

    I think we need a heavy dose of dink & dunk and screens early-on…..I like the no huddle right of the get….

  9. DPewter Says:

    Maybe let ASJ run with the first team. Don’t know why Joe hates ASJ so much, probably because of his twitter rant. Its pretty obvious to see, ASJ is our most talented TE just that is just starting the get his mind right.

  10. Dreambig Says:

    This is a problem that has plagued Jameis for a long time now. As HawaiianBuc said yesterday, maybe Jameis is getting himself too hyped up before the game. Instead of leading the pregame speaches and getting everyone all excited, maybe Jameis should be quietly focusing on getting himself mentally ready to play. To be great, this is a problem that Jameis is going to have to solve.

  11. Joe Says:

    Jameis usually started slow when he was at FSU as well.

    Not his freshman year, although he did start slow against Auburn.

    Trick is, he’s no longer in college.

  12. Joe Says:

    Don’t know why Joe hates ASJ so much

    Don’t know why people think Joe hates ASJ.

    But, yeah, a guy who is known for being a knucklhead more than anything he has done on the field, a guy who has underwhelmed now entering his third NFL season and who has yet to catch a touchdown pass in a win generally is not regarded as one of Joe’s favorite players.

    ASJ has the power to change all of that. Hope he does.

  13. buc15 Says:

    RELAX Joe…..R E L A X

  14. Geno714 Says:

    Maybe they should start out in the hurry up. I’ve seen teams do that before.

  15. Bucnjim Says:

    A decade of no offense! I think that I am OK with Jameis starting slow and finishing strong.

  16. Bucsfanman Says:

    Winston’s got work to do. You don’t become a great player overnight. He’s a 2nd year player, let’s not kid ourselves, there’s work to be done.

  17. RachelWatson'sthong Says:

    Hard to believe Jameis was a pitcher. I remember thinking that Dilfer would one day become accurate too. I caught the Titans game on replay. Damn that Marriota has pin point accuracy. I don’t follow college ball so I didn’t know either before the draft. Just saying.

  18. BucFan20 Says:

    That is a great idea in college. But Jameis is not playing his friends from Walmart and Burger King. If they start fast and finish strong it’s over.

  19. iamkingsu Says:

    Changing his throwing motion took away some of his accuracy and velocity.

  20. Waterboy Says:

    I finally watched the game yesterday on the nfl network after hearing about the 0-6 stats from Satutday night and the issue that I noticed was Jameis needs to learn how to check it down some times. I like his aggressive approach with trying to throw it down the field but in the earlier part of the game just take the easy throws that they’re giving you and get into a rhythm and then start getting more aggressive as the game goes on.

    His first throw to VJax should’ve been 1 that a pro QB could complete but a 15 yd out to the sideline isn’t an easy throw to start the game. He also had another one to Brate during that 0-6 start that looked like a well placed ball based on where the defender was but Brate drew an interference and that also counted as an incompletion. Brate also had a catchable ball bounce out of his and lead to an INT early in the game. Another incompletion was a fly route down the sideline to Evans, he put the ball over the defenders head and up where Evans could make a play on it but it was pretty well covered and probably one that been checked down. The other opportunity for a completion during that early stretch was on 3rd and 2 while on the goal line during the first or second drive of the game, he got quick pressure from the left and immediately rolled right to avoid pressure but had Humphries open early running a shallow out route to the left. All and all the stats weren’t that good but it wasn’t as bad as I thought after watching the game.

  21. Joe Says:

    Changing his throwing motion took away some of his accuracy and velocity.

    You may be onto something there.

  22. Waterboy Says:

    @RachelWatson
    I saw Mariota play also and I agree he had a good week but I also watched him play last week against San Diego which wasn’t so good.

  23. LargoBuc Says:

    I look at Winston’s last three years. Two in college, one in the NFL. In two of those three years, Winston’s game was synonymous with starting slow. And those two years happen to be his two most recent. Therefore, it seems safe to say that Jameis just starts games out slow. That’s not a knock on him at all, just something that Koetter/Monken need to be wary of when they gameplan.

  24. Kobe Faker Says:

    Relax boys

    Only 6 attempts because Koetter was evaluating the running backs and the O Line

    tough to move the chains running 1st and 2nd down and trying to convert 3rd downs by passing in the NFL

    You guys think recievers have a part in QB accuracy and completions? I ve seen Will Farrel Bortles throw 3 passess not even close to Robinson or hurds…and they still caught it…catch radius is SICK

    ***We have great running back depth and talent. Put sims 90% in the slot and play him full time. I think Barber, James and Storm is better at 3rd and short than Martin and sims anyway

  25. Stpetebucsfan Says:

    So here we go…on our first possession against Atlanta we go to our hurry up offense. Let’s get #3’s head into it from the get go. Perhaps we catch the Falcons off guard. For some reason we seem to move the ball better in the hurry up.

  26. 813bucboi Says:

    fsu is not nfl….don’t care if he started slow in college….it doesn’t matter, he’s in the pro’s now….dirk is suppose to be an offensive guru….he should know what is going on and how to fix it….people saying his slow starts don’t bother them because that’s what he did in college…BS….im concerned…the slow sloppy starts are becoming a habit….the kicker was perfect on extra points and field goals inside the 45 yards and he has 3 misses in 2 games…I guess yall not worried about him either since he was so great in college….im not sure what the deal is with the kicker but good coaches should be able to identify and fix a problem that’s hampering the face of the franchise…..the sloppy starts seem very familiar to last year….is dirk competent enough to fix this problem?…we’ll find out soon enough….GO BUCS!!!!

  27. DavidBigBucsFan99 Says:

    Actually Joe this has been a nasty trademark of Buc offenses since I can remember from the Dungy years

  28. crazy Says:

    It’s hard to start fast when you self-identify as a come-from-behind winner, especially when you’re the leader. Fast starts come from a team-wide attention to detail that this group has yet to develop.

  29. Wombat Says:

    Last year ASJ had 21 catches, 18 of them were for 1st downs – the highest 1st down % in the league. If you want a fast start, it makes sense to have the league leader in 1st down % on the field. Stop the hate, spread the love for ASJ……

  30. Fsuking Says:

    People with bad anxiety shouldn’t watch preseason football. It’s practice, yet if you ask most people, Jameis looks awful, cut Roberto, GMC is out again, Brate can’t handle the pressure, ahhhhhh. Just take a xanax and turn off your TV until sept 11

  31. BucFan20 Says:

    But then again. This team has a habit of looking bad in preseason. And looking like crap in the regular season. Take off the blinders.

  32. Bob in Valrico Says:

    I am with Hawaian there may be too much adrenaline in his veins after
    leading the pre-game huddle.

  33. salish_seamonster Says:

    This is on Jameis, not Koetter. He needs to fix it. I believe he’s got good coaches, but he’s not quite right early in games. It’s a mental thing for Jameis, and while you can get away with it in college, it can be a big problem in the NFL. You just can’t count on the strong finishes to make up for a first half going 7-18 for 53 yards (made up numbers). You can’t win consistently that way.

  34. Brent bull/buc Says:

    Choreograph and practice first 20 plays and include running and short passing. Finally have a sports psychologist draw up some pre game relaxation techniques for jameis. He’s to geeked up.

  35. Mr Lucky Says:

    Seems to me that a slow start is synomous with Tampa Bay ever since Gruden was cut loose….sigh

  36. Bob in valrico Says:

    Maybe shorten the routes to 10 yards or less to start and Evans,Vjax,and
    ASJ should be targets to get jameis in rhythm.

  37. Bob in Valrico Says:

    incorporate some Oklahoma style plays:
    wide receiver screens
    checkdowns to Martin
    put the big three in ,Evans,VJAX, ASJ to widen target zone and get a passing streak going.

  38. Bob in Valrico Says:

    Also if you get to second and short.throw deep,you open up the defense,work
    on the chemistry of Winston and his receivers.It’s also a way to build his confidence if he starts hitting these passes with consistency.

  39. Bob in Valrico Says:

    the more I think of throw deep idea,the more like it.If an out pattern is jumped
    in your own end its probably gonna be a pick six.
    I remember a patriot,colt game I watched.Peyton threw deep early and often.
    Funny thing was he didn’t complete a lot,but he had the patriot defense so gassed it opened up everything else.