Season-opening disgrace bad sign for Lovie, Bucs
One game into the season and already the decision-making of Bucs head coach Lovie Smith is being questioned. JASON BEHNKEN / STAFF By Martin Fennelly | Tribune Staff Published: September 15, 2015 TAMPA — You can’t have this.You can’t begin by not belonging on the same field — your field — as the other team that went 2-14 last season.It was a disgrace. It was an embarrassment.Jameis Winston gets a pass. It was his first NFL game.Lovie Smith doesn’t. Wasn’t Lovie’s first NFL game.Before the season, I thought it would take an awful lot for Lovie to lose his job in just his second season. Ownership is tired of coaching searches. And its own bad decisions.But Lovie just took a major step in the wrong direction with that 42-14 abomination against Tennessee.Even by recent Bucs standards, it was startling.They were dominated — dominated.If you set out to build an airtight case for this-ain’t-working, Sunday was it.You can’t have this.What you had was a head coach who couldn’t get his players ready.It won’t take many more of these amateur shows to send Lovie out the door. There had already been two debacles like this under him, last season, when the Bucs trailed ever so slightly (56-0) at Atlanta and fell behind 38-0 to Baltimore nine minutes before halftime.The Bucs never contemplated showing up. At the time, after both of those games, I remember thinking those are the kind of performances that would get a coach fired if it wasn’t his first season.It’s the second season.Sunday was worse than Atlanta and Baltimore combined, because of the timing.You can’t have this.You don’t see NFL home teams fall behind 21-0 in the first quarter. It doesn’t happen. We might go the rest of this season without it happening more than once or twice.And the Bucs just did it in their opener, at home.They had four months. They had four months to prepare. There weren’t any major disruptions in the preseason. They had the ability to prepare — and they weren’t prepared.With Lovie calling the plays, the defense was awful, carved by rookie QB Marcus Mariota, Titans receivers running wide open, virtually no Bucs resistance.Bucs defensive tackle Gerald McCoy said, “They got the ball out so fast.” Yes, Mariota did get the ball out fast, and the Titans did scheme it that way — one-receiver reads, short drops.This, children, is called a game plan.You had to expect that. Right?I mean, the Bucs had studied Mariota’s strengths and weaknesses heading in to the draft as much as any team, including Tennessee. Correct?But the Bucs defense — Lovie’s defense! — acted surprised.But they kept right on being surprised.Where were the adjustments?Throw in the sad sight of veteran safety Chris Conte trying to chase that Tennessee guy on that deep slant for the first touchdown. No chance. Another Lovie talent assessment already nearing the drain.I believe Bucs offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter will eventually put Jameis in the best position to make plays, get receivers downfield and clear the deck for his big arm. Only Jameis can’t do that right now because of this offensive line.But Lovie and the Bucs went into this season with this line. Now they’re scrambling — Monday, they picked up former Atlanta center Joe Hawley. The line is already haunting them.Still, we wouldn’t be having this kind of conversation if the Bucs had at least showed up Sunday.Hey, it’s schemes (Lovie) or personnel decisions (GM Jason Licht) or ownership. One game in and we’re already wondering about the franchise’s decision-making — again.You don’t get many more duds like that if you’re Lovie.White Hot Panic, anyone?
