Pewter Report president Hugh MacArthur, a life-long Bucs follower and NFL fan, offers up his weekly thoughts on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the rest of the league each Tuesday on PewterReport.com in The Dirty Dozen column.

Tough Thursday Night Test For The Bucs

Here is baker’s dozen thoughts that crossed my desk this week…

1. Hope is not a method. I am an optimist. Really. But four beatable opponents, three home games and four losses have drained a fair amount of it out of me. The Bucs are 0-4 for the first time since 2013 and have lost 11 of their last 13. Tristan Wirfs said no superhero is coming to save them. Good. Stop hoping. Start fixing.

2. Mount Everest was already high enough. Winning with an undrafted rookie making his first NFL start is a high mountain to climb. You don’t have to turn it into Mount Everest yourself. Short yardage too often landed on Jalon Daniels. Bucky Irving got zero targets. No easy explosives. Protection collapsed when it mattered most. And yet the kid hung in there, ran for 55 yards and had the ball in Green Bay territory with a chance to tie or win. Rookie mistakes were inevitable. The coaches didn’t need to contribute so many.

3. Run good. Pass bad. The Bucs are averaging 4.4 yards a carry. They ran for 141 yards on Sunday. They’re 25th in passing and 28th in total offense. And don’t blame the rookie. Before Jalon Daniels started a game, Tampa Bay was averaging only 185 passing yards. A perfectly functional running game has become something productive to do between incompletions.

Bucs QB Jalon Daniels and RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

4. Twenty. Nineteen. Sixteen. Fourteen. That’s how many points the Bucs offense has scored each week. See a trend? Fourteen points at home doesn’t win in Pee Wee football. Forget the NFL. Green Bay turned Tampa Bay’s two interceptions into 10 points. Tampa Bay turned two fourth-quarter takeaways into zero. We can grade Jalon Daniels on a rookie curve. Zac Robinson doesn’t get one.

5. Scoring gets you benched. Sean Tucker played three snaps. Three carries, including a tackle-busting 8-yard run on fourth-and-1. One touchdown. Then he never saw the field again. Kenny Gainwell scored too and finished with five touches. Todd Bowles said Monday that “a hot hand should be able to ride a little bit longer.” Hard to ride it from the sideline.

6. The cure for the Packers’ pass protection? Tampa Bay. Jordan Love entered Sunday being pressured on 42% of his dropbacks. Green Bay arrived with a makeshift offensive line. The Bucs have spent draft picks and money trying to fix this pass rush. At home, against that line: two quarterback hits. Zero sacks. Evidently Green Bay’s protection problem just needed some Florida sunshine.

Bucs QB Jalon Daniels – Photo by: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

7. So THAT’S when we use a timeout. The Bucs almost carried all three timeouts to halftime. Then Green Bay lined up for a 58-yard field goal with two seconds left and Todd Bowles finally called one. Trey Smack kicked after the whistle and missed. Excellent. Except it didn’t count. Tampa Bay had given him a practice swing. Naturally, he made the next one.

8. We found Chris Godwin Jr. Six catches! Thirty-one yards. Last week Godwin was in the FBI’s witness protection program. This week we found him, but with an ankle monitor keeping him near the line of scrimmage. One of the best players on this roster still feels more like an outlet than a weapon.

9. Three of the last four. That’s how many snaps brought nearly instant pressure after Tampa reached Green Bay territory on its final drive. Jalon Daniels owned the fourth-down protection mistake afterward. Good for him. He’s also an undrafted rookie making his first start. If the kid has to diagnose and fix everything with the game on the line, what exactly are all those coaches wearing headsets for?

10. Anyone have Jake Ferguson in fantasy? Green Bay tight ends caught nine balls for 90 yards and a touchdown Sunday. Tucker Kraft led the way with six catches and the score. Another week, another tight end problem. Next up: Dallas and Jake Ferguson. Start him in your fantasy league or your prop bets. You’re welcome.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

11. Remember when the Bucs were one game out of first place – even at 0-3? That was fun. Carolina is now 2-2. Atlanta is now 2-2 after hanging 45 points on New Orleans Monday night. The Falcons have scored 80 points in their last two games. Tampa has scored 76 all season. The Bucs are alone at 0-4. Somebody might want to hide Todd’s calculator.

12. Time to start the Christmas list. At 0-4, playoff math can wait. I’m shopping early. Edge rusher. Speed receiver that can stretch the field. Better protection. Maybe a new coaching staff. The next 13 games can tell us whether Jalon Daniels and some of these young players belong in the package going forward. The good news about being 0-4? Plenty of time to make a list.

13. Thursday? Already? Jalon Daniels gets NFL start number two on three days’ rest. A short week. On the road. In Dallas. Why ease the kid into this?