After going back and reviewing the film from all 16 games last season (Yes I am bored and need football back badly) one thing I discovered was this team was closer to being 11-5 but instead dropped to 5-11. Yes I know I will most likely take heat for this post however, this team had six close games that they could have won but just didn't get the job done. Dirk Koetter pointed out in his end of season presser that this team was 3-7 in games that were decided by 7 points or less. One of those games was against the cardinals and yes it would have been amazing if this team could have back from large deficit but I do not calculate this games into the 6 that the team should have won. Those six games are the Patrioits, Bills, Packers, Lions, Falcons (2nd Game) and Panthers (2nd game). In all of these games the Bucs had every chance to win those games. Lets review what went wrong.
Patriots- Missed FGs early in the game led to needing to try to score a TD in the last seconds. In fact they almost did get that TD. Winston moved the ball down the field, a better route/read from Howard this game would have been won. Missed FGs and redzone opportunities cost the Bucs this game.
Bills- Adam Humphries late game fumble led to fans thinking what could have been. The Bucs win this game the bills go 8-8 and don't even make the playoffs. One thing you will notice is each game was missed opportunities in the red zone. The Bucs got there a lot Just couldn't punch it in. This was OJ Howards breakout game. The Bucs even with a Winston Bum Shoulder should have won this game. The defense could not stop Taylor or McCoy in the first half started too in the second and the faded away at the end.
Packers- This was the Bucs first overtime game this season and only allowed GB QB to throw for 85 yards the entire game and somehow they still managed to lose at the end. This game really had me enraged watching it for the second time, so I will not be going deep into this evaluation. I will leave it at this, this was definitely a game Bucs should have won.
Lions- Matthew Stafford did not throw the ball well in this game yet they still won the game. Bucs had early mistakes but really recovered in the second half defensively forcing Matthew Stafford to throw INTs. Bucs had every chance to win this game and yet they found every and new ways to lose.
Falcons (2nd Game)- Everyone expected this game to be a blow out and yet the Bucs surprised us this team with all the mistakes they made in this game still had a chance to send this game into overtime and who knows what would have happened, they never got the chance because of a missed FG with four seconds remaining in regulation.
Carolina (2nd Game)- I mean Carolina did everything to give this game away, Bucs did not reciprocate that into a win, instead they end up losing that game by 3 points. Quite frankly that game was so boring I fell asleep in the 1st QTR and woke up late in the 4th QTR. The next day I had to go back and re-watch that game from the beginning which was brutal, I got through it and here I am. My intellectual analysis is that Bucs found every way possible to lose that game. This was another case of "the Bucs should have won that game".
So there you have it six games had the Bucs won they would have been 11-5 not 5-11. The question to you is this team closer than we think or they are they much farther away? This team had the leagues worst defense, had a subpar run game, dead last in sacks, had a bad FG Kicker the first 4 games of the season, yet had the opportunities to still come away with 11 wins. Though that didn't happen they were still mighty close. This team didn't pack their bags and start planning summer vacations like the teams in years past had. If this team was to fix the run game and pass rush how far could they go in the 2018 season?
