When Lovie Smith was hired, everyone rejoiced and sung his praises. The local media, the national media, and the casual fans all lauded Lovie Smith as a recognizable name, a former NFL HC, and of course a Tony Dungy disciple. Lovie was the messiah coming to rescue our Bucs. Everyone gushed over the hiring and immediately drew parallels to Andy Reid and the Chiefs. Reid took a woeful Chiefs team and instantly turned them into winners. Reid brought in veteran QB Alex Smith and the offense clicked. Lovie brought in Josh McCown, a veteran QB. Reid inherited a talented RB in Jamal Charles, Lovie inherited a similarly skilled back in Doug Martin. Reid inherited a defense stocked with talented players, as did Lovie. But here's where the parallels stop. The NFL is becoming an offense-minded game. The recent rule changes reflect that. The NFL wants lots of points because points bring excitement. Andy Reid is an offensive minded HC. Alex Smith is a talented STARTING QB in the NFL. Lovie is a dinosaur running an obsolete defense that's already been deciphered - exploit the middle of the field with the TE, and let the WRs settle into the soft spots in the zone between the LBs and the CBs. Lovie brought in a 12-year BACKUP QB that has only found success in a 6-game streak last season. Reid brought an offense to KC. Defensive schemes are like RBs in today's NFL - they're a dime a dozen. You can find a running back late in the draft, and you can find always find a defensive coordinator. Look at Philly with Chip Kelly. Innovative offensive-minded HC. In his first NFL game, he dominated Washington. It didn't take his team "learning to crawl before the walk" as Lovie puts it. The concern about Chip Kelly was whether he would find a defensive coordinator. Guess what? He did. Look at the Titans who hired the guy I wanted the Bucs to hire - Ken Wisenhunt. Wiz took Jake Locker and Shonn Green and went into KC and dominated. Lovie got to face a crippled Panthers team with a QB who hadn't thrown a pass in the NFL in 4 years, with a completely new set of WRs, and a patchwork OL, and we laid an egg. Our team wasn't ready to play. Perhaps if we had actually practiced this top secret offense during the preseason against real NFL teams, we might have been able to work out some of the kinks prior to Sunday.
