Bucs going down well-worn path, in danger of players 'checking out'
ESPN's Jenna Laine says the Bucs' locker room was filled with disappointment following their 30-10 loss to the Saints. (0:57)
9:41 AM PT
Jenna Laine
ESPN Staff Writer
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TAMPA, Fla. -- The warning signs are there. This thing -- the losing streak that's now up to five games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following a 30-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints -- has the potential to get ugly.
How ugly? There's "we're 6-10 but the coach still has the locker room" ugly. There's "toes on the line" ugly, where the team isn't terrible but hates coming to work every day. And then there's the Raheem Morris "losing 10 straight" kind of ugly. There's also "going 3-13 after firing the offensive coordinator 10 days before the season" ugly.
Remember all that? Offensive tackle Demar Dotson sure does. He's been part of that roller-coaster ride since 2009 as the longest-tenured player on the Bucs' roster.
"I've been on the side of the fence where you're 2-6 and guys start shutting down, and it goes from 2-6 to 3-13. We don't want that," Dotson said. "I don't get that sense. But at the end of the day, you never know because shutting down is an internal thing. It's not [something] that guys show."
After losing five straight, Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers are headed in the wrong direction. Wesley Hitt/Getty Images
First, there's losing. Then confidence starts to fade. Frustration starts to set in. Players are unhappy with their roles. They'll start to wonder if the coaching staff is really putting them in position to succeed. They voice those frustrations among each other in group texts and even to the media.
After the Bucs' loss to the Buffalo Bills, safety T.J. Ward said he was "at his wit's end" with the defense. He said he now regrets making his frustrations public, but that regret also stems from a team meeting held to discourage players from outside venting.
But can you blame him for being frustrated? He left one of the league's best defenses and most dominant secondaries -- the Denver Broncos -- and came to a team that surrendered 407 yards of total offense to the Saints on Sunday. Can you blame DeSean Jackson, still one of the league's most dominant receivers, if he wonders, "What did I get myself into?"
"I definitely didn't see this coming. ... I've never really been part of something like this. This is kind of rare," Jackson said, making no mention of the 2011 Philadelphia Eagles "Dream Team" that finished 8-8. He did, however, mention Andy Reid's last season in Philly, when the Eagles went 4-12. That shows you where things are on the grand scale of disappointment.
As the frustration and losses continue to mount, the team has lost its composure. You'll see sideline tantrums or outbursts like the one from Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans on Sunday. In a total bush-league move, he slammed into the back of Marshon Lattimore after the Saints corner pushed Jameis Winston. Saints head coach Sean Payton was so outraged, he called for Evans' ejection.
"I'm going to protect my quarterback no matter what," Evans said.
But he also admitted that some of that aggression stemmed from his frustrations with the offense. At that point in the game, the Bucs were down 30-3.
Evans was also ejected for being disrespectful to an official in Lovie Smith's final game in 2015. It was against the Carolina Panthers and Evans had reached a boiling point after going against cornerback Josh Norman all day.
At least Evans still showed some fire on Sunday. There can be worse things, as Dotson alluded to, like sheer apathy. When that happens, players go through the motions but their hearts aren't in it. That's usually what comes next.
"I've seen it. [But] usually when guys shut down, it's something internally," Dotson said. "They still come to play hard, but deep down, they shut down. I've seen that over the course of the years. Each individual guy has to look themselves in the mirror. A guy could be going through his normal day but internally, he could be cashed out."
Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy has those concerns, too, but vows to do everything in his power to prevent that from happening.
"You've been around me. You know I'm not gonna quit," McCoy said. "I'm gonna make sure my teammates don't quit. If any of my teammates do quit, they've gotta go somewhere else because we don't quit."
If you talk to enough players, it doesn't sound like it's gotten to that point. They're optimistic that they'll start winning some games but that's tempered by the realization that this team won't be reaching the playoffs this season. They still want to fight.
"We can sit up in a corner and ball up in a corner and cry about it or just keep fighting," said linebacker Kendell Beckwith.
"No one likes to ever lose," said safety Justin Evans. "Whenever you lose, you get that feeling in your gut, but on the outside, you've just gotta stand tall, be a man about it and own it."
Beckwith and Evans are rookies. If they endure more losing seasons and coaching changes, like Dotson and McCoy have, the frustration will grow on them, too.
"We're not shutting down. We've still got a whole half season to play," McCoy said, before pausing for several seconds and staring at the ground.
He said earlier this year that he wasn't getting any younger, which only makes the team's struggles sting worse. He's tired of reaching the Pro Bowl every year but never getting to experience the joy of a postseason berth.
"This is my eighth season. I've been dealing with this for a while," McCoy said.
So, too, have the Bucs. For a long while.
