The misery of the 2018 Buccaneer season is almost over. It can’t come soon enough for most Bucs fans, although come April most of us would be happy to be watching even a bad Buccaneers team play — football withdrawals are real.

The Bucs lost another game in which they had a number of chances to win, and that has been the theme all year long. Below is our list of the most disappointing Bucs on Sunday from the 27-20 loss to the Cowboys.

T Donovan Smith
Donovan Smith might be the luckiest player in the NFL. Lucky he plays a position that is coveted that he will get paid big time this offseason. It just shouldn’t be in Tampa Bay.

Smith was a turnstile at times on Sunday, and the one play that is a summary of his 2018 season occurred in the first half when after Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory jumped offsides, Smith was more concerned with letting the official know about the infraction than to block the defender. It was a live play, no whistle, yet Smith inexplicably just stopped blocking and Gregory creamed Winston from the blindside. Fortunately for Smith Winston was able to get up, but it was the type of sack that puts quarterbacks on the injured reserve list with bad shoulders or broken collarbones. Smith gave up multiple pressure on the afternoon as Winston was under duress for much of the game.

CB Brent Grimes
As noted on the PewterReport.com Twitter account during the game on Sunday, Grimes has already retired, he just hasn’t notified the team. And who can argue that point after watching the game against Dallas? Grimes was beaten on the Cowboys’ first drive –albeit on Dak Prescott’s best throw all day – but was also beaten in the second half for a touchdown, even causing TV commentator Troy Aikman to wonder what Grimes was looking at.

Offensive Line
It wasn’t just Smith on the offensive line who played poorly on Sunday. Both Demar Dotson and Ryan Jensen had holding calls, and Caleb Benenoch teamed with Dotson to allow a sack on a double team block — a double team and yet they still gave up a sack.

Besides the pressures and three sacks given up the offensive line was unable to get anything going in the run game. The Bucs ran for just 63 yards on 24 carries (2.6 avg.)

QB Jameis Winston
While the overall numbers look good (34-of-48, 336 yards, one TD) Jameis Winston still needed to be sharper in order for the Bucs to win on Sunday, and while his overall decision making was pretty good, he did have a fumble when hit from behind that turned into a scoop and score for the Cowboys. These are the types of errors that continue to haunt Winston and this Bucs team, especially this year. Winston and wide receiver Bobo Wilson also had a fumbled exchange on a handoff deep in their own territory that led to another seven points for Dallas. Those two turnovers led to 14 points and the Bucs lost by seven. You do the math and you can see how this game could have been different. Really a number of games this season.

Lastly, having two (should have been three) delay of game penalties is inexcusable. The NFL has made it extremely easy for quarterbacks – and coaches – to see the play clock. How that happens to a quarterback in his fourth season is mind boggling. And how a coach allows it happen is even more perplexing.

You could probably even make an argument that Winston should be on the Most Impressive list with his numbers today, but his mistakes helped prevent the Bucs from winning on Sunday. Franchise quarterback needs to take over a game and put a team on their back at times, on the road in particular. Winston just hasn’t been able to do it this year. We can point to a number of reasons why and I am far from ready give up on him, but as he said during his press conference after the game, his mistakes just can’t happen if this team is going to win.

HC Dirk Koetter
Koetter’s team continued it’s losing mentality on Sunday repeating the same mistakes over and over. Nine penalties is nine too many, but this team finds a way week in and week out to execute these penalties at the worst possible time, and it’s beyond frustrating. Tight end Antony Auclair’s holding penalty in the second half that negated Peyton Barber’s best run of the day (33 yards) was a perfect example, and Winston’s delay of game penalty in the fourth quarter on fourth-and-1 with 7:57 left in the game was another.

Yes, Koetter didn’t commit a hold, block in the back or jump offsides all day. However, as the captain of the ship, the players who continue to make mistakes are under his command. And the biggest indictment of Koetter’s failures came during his post game press conference when he said he saw the play clock running down in the fourth quarter but allowed it to happen hoping the Bucs would get the play off in time and that they were going to pass it anyways, so getting backed up five yards wasn’t that bad. You needed one yard. One. For someone who is usually a “by the book” coach, the odds of converting fourth-and-1 opposed to fourth-and-six are vastly different.