Nothing left for Bucs to say, so shut up and play
Lovie Smith says the Bucs can look to last season’s victory in Pittsburgh as they head to New Orleans: “History does teach you an awful lot and we do have a history with (bouncing back from a big loss).” By Martin Fennelly | Tribune Staff Published: September 19, 2015 The season is a week old and already there’s nothing else to say.The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are down to pride.No more talk. No more explanations.Maybe pride says they’ll show up in New Orleans today in the Superdome against the Saints.“There’s no doubt that the pride factor fits in when you get beat like that,” Lovie Smith said. “And not after the game — before the game ended.”Smith said he saw some fight in his team.Enough of that. No more talk. He knows that, too.Just play.Against Tennessee, the questions we had about this team reared up in all their toxic glory. Marcus Mariota threw his way to AFC Offensive Player of the Week. Jameis Winston watched film until 2 in the morning after the game. Alarm bells are sounding for Lovie and the lads. They were that bad.“You can’t keep harping on that, though, you have to eventually move on,” Smith said. “… We understand that question is going to be there until we play another game, but we have to move past that.”No more harping. Everybody got that?“The team everybody saw on Sunday is not who we are,” Bucs center Evan Smith said.Prove it.There’s nothing left to say.There’s only everything to do.“I don’t want to sit here and make it that dramatic as far as the pride thing goes,” Bucs receiver Vincent Jackson said. “I think it’s just about doing our job.”Just last year, after being atomized 56-14 by the Falcons in Atlanta to fall to 0-3, the Bucs went to Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers for their first win of the season.“History does teach you an awful lot and we do have a history with (bouncing back from a big loss),” Lovie said. “Hopefully we can have the same type of effort after a loss like that.”Good efforts after horrible losses.That’s where we’re at — again.Maybe Lovie should move past that selective sense of history.Just go back to last season. After Pittsburgh, the Bucs traveled to 1-3 New Orleans, racked up 15 penalties, some of them killers, and lost in overtime to the Saints, despite intercepting Drew Brees three times, despite having a late lead. Despite, despite, despite. The next thing you knew, the Bucs were 1-8, then 2-14.Maybe there’s a win out there today. The Saints seem to be looking at a down year. Brees is missing Jimmy Graham, gone to Seattle. The New Orleans’ secondary has been hit by injuries.And don’t forget that New Orleans is home to some unexpected Bucs wins — like 1977, the first win after 26 losses to start franchise history, or 2009, Raheem Morris’ first season, when the 2-12 Bucs stunned a 13-1 Saints team that eventually won the Super Bowl.But it’s hard to forget Greg Schiano’s two disasters in New Orleans, bloodlettings on a major scale — 41-0, then 42-17 in his final game as Bucs coach. Brees threw for 688 yards and eight touchdowns across those two games.You never know what you’ll get from the Bucs in New Orleans.There’s already nothing left to say.Lovie has yet to win a game in the NFC South.New Orleans today, at Houston next week.“Obviously, we have two on the road and we have to show teams that we can be a tough road team as well as a tough home team,” Evan Smith said.As well as a tough home team?The Bucs are 0-9 at home under Lovie.There’s nothing left to say.There’s only everything to do.
