Hey, what’s the problem? Young running back Peyton Barber showed some good power with his 34 yards on 11 carries. Blocking tight end Luke Stocker scored his first touchdown in, like, forever.
You’ve got to emphasize the positive when the rest of your Bucs are playing some of the worst football in the NFL.
Bucs’ head coach Dirk Koetter said afterward he was “totally embarrassed by it, and I hope the players are.”
“We weren’t good enough,” he said at least four times.
Yea, we saw that.
The Bucs’ 30-10 butt-kicking at the hands of the red-hot New Orleans Saints, was one of the worst efforts in the history of a franchise that is infamous for its poor efforts. They did absolutely nothing, except start fights and get hurt.
“I hate losing,” said beleaguered and inaccurate QB Jameis Winston. And we hate watching the Bucs lose. What a waste of a beautiful Sunday afternoon, sitting in front of the tube for three hours of bad football.
Now, Winston looks like he needs some time off, after re-injuring his sprained right shoulder. He can’t throw, and he can’t hit open receivers. Donovan Smith looked like a revolving door at left tackle, and then he left the game with a knee injury. DE Will Gholston was carted off with a scary neck injury, but it was reported later that he was able to return to Tampa on the team charter after a trip to the hospital. And Mike Evans tried to protect his QB by taking a flying leap at Saints’ CB Marshon Lattimore, who shoved Winston on the sideline. Lattimore held the Bucs’ best receiver to one catch, so I guess that was Evans’ attempt to get open...blindside the guy who’s guarding him.
After a performance this pitiful, it often prompts a firing or a release. The Glazers have never fired a coach in mid-season, but they’ve fired every other head coach they’ve ever had. I don’t know if that’s the answer. I’m not sure if releasing players is the answer. Something has to be done, though, in response to this whuppin’ in Louisiana.
Or is the Ryan Fitzpatrick-Josh McCown matchup all we have to look forward to next Sunday?
And don’t tell me it can’t get much worse. It certainly can. After all, there are eight games left.
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