Passion missing during dispirited effort
Donteea Dye’s critical drop on third-and-10 late in the game forced a punt. The Bucs never got the ball back.JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF JASON BEHNKEN/STAFF By Martin Fennelly | Tribune Staff Published: December 13, 2015TAMPA — So much for that playoff silliness.It was too much for them. The Bucs came to a real live opportunity with lots of fannies in the stands and with the 4-8 Saints in town. A big moment for Lovie Smith and his team.A time for the Bucs to be inspired.And they come out flat.They stepped out of contention Sunday, back into the shadows, with a 24-17 loss to the Saints. They didn’t come ready to play and they weren’t good enough even when they did play. I don’t know if that’s a mortal sin when you’re coming off a 2-14 season and you’ve already won six times, and next season is full of possibilities with Jameis Winston.But this season is out of them.It was in their hands. Now it’s out of their hands.Like young Donteea Dye on that crucial third-down drop, the Bucs couldn’t hold onto even their outside shot. I thought they’d at least make it to St. Louis on Thursday night.Now it’s about the future. And what these Bucs do with it.Sunday was lost from the start. And I’m talking about more than that Donovan Smith holding penalty on the first snap of the game, the penalty that wiped out a long pass form Winston to Vincent Jackson. Gerald McCoy felt something else early on, something inexcusable.“I asked that on the sideline: ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ ” McCoy said. “Across the board, the whole team, was just very flat today.”Very flat.That doesn’t say much about the coaching. Across his career, Lovie has gotten teams ready to play bigger games than this. Or maybe it was a young team’s nerves with this opportunity to cross into actual winning football, 7-6, with three games left. The Bucs hadn’t been there in forever. And it showed, again and again.All those mistakes: offense, defense, third down, special teams, play calling. Why did it take so long for these guys to wake up? Why did it take Dirk Koetter so long to go to Mike Evans? Why the lousy use of the clock before halftime? Why is Evans, Mr. Penalty, always mewling about bad calls? The stage was fairly big and the Bucs fairly dissolved on it.This was a highly winnable game. New Orleans had gone all-in last week against Carolina and come up short. I think the Saints would have packed it in if the Bucs had jumped on them early. I think they could have moved Drew Brees a few steps closer to the golf course and Saints coach Sean Payton a few steps closer to being the next Miami Dolphins coach.The next thing you knew, New Orleans was up 14-0. The Bucs’ opening lethargy let the Saints call the shots. The Bucs empowered a future Hall of Fame quarterback while stumbling, bumbling against a team with the worst defense in the NFL.But really this came down to the Bucs not being good enough. They might be one day. They might learn how to win this kind of game, to not mess around, to jump on a losing opponent. At least they kept fighting. They’ve learned that.How they move forward from here is what really matters. This is where eventual playoff teams learn their real lessons.Winston, who lost the QB battle to Brees, learned — or was reminded — that greatness means you keep going no matter what your record. That was Brees on Sunday, for 312 yards and two touchdowns.They made mistakes. There was that blown coverage (Jude Adjei-Barimah, Bradley McDougald) on third-and-21 to keep a Saints touchdown drive alive, or that costly penalty on Howard Jones that wiped out a third-down sack of Brees and eventually led to another touchdown. Dye couldn’t hold on to that football on what could have been a game-tying drive. But, hey, he’s Donteea Dye. Why pick on him?“We all left plays on the field,” Bucs center Joe Hawley said.Should this really be a surprise after 2-14?The Bucs have grown this season, but they’re not close to being grown up.“Obviously we have a long way to go,” McCoy said.They had it in their hands. Now it’s out of their hands. But they all dropped the ball Sunday. Now it’s a matter of learning from it as they play out the season. This morning, that’s all that’s left.
