1) Winston is not the issue. You can't call Winston a bust or get really angry with him after 4 games. He's a rookie. While his play has been poor (and man has he thrown a lot of bad balls), it's 4 games. Rookies at the QB position can look great (RG3), mediocre (Luck), terrible (Aikman). While you want Winston to play well you can't say much about the future.2) As of 4 games, Mariota looks like the right pick. But it's an apples to oranges comparison. Week 1 showed Mariota was more NFL ready, but it also showed that the Titans were most ready to call a rookie QB friendly game. And it showed the Titans were clearly a better team no matter who was their QB. 3) Big issue: they lack leadership. That's not on Winston, he's a rookie. This team is soft and clearly knows it's a losing season. Lavonte's comment about the penalty in Week 1 throwing them off their game just sums that up. 4) SR: Penalties aren't the issue. The most penalized teams are frequently the best. Last year the two teams with most penalties and penalty yards were Seattle and New England. Look further back and you see Seattle, Denver, New England, etc. as heavily penalized teams every year. Least penalized team last year? Jacksonville.Focusing on penalties, which I have been guilty of as well, fits a nice narrative about poor coaching. And maybe you could do a study and show WHICH penalties matter. Maybe bad teams have illegal formation penalties while good teams get lots of false starts because they have the ball longer. But without that information, ignore penalties.5) Firing Lovie won't fix this. While he deserves to be fired, this issue goes so far beyond him. Sure, McCoy, Lavonte, Verner, etc. all have played worse under his defence. But the reality is that both coaches and players come here to die. The Bucs are just like the Browns. That's the type of organization they are. This team is not just terrible but it's boring to watch and has been that way for years. And unless Winston takes huge steps forward in the next couple years and carries this organization, there's nothing else that will bring positive change.
