Cover 3 is a weekly feature column written by PewterReport.com’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat writer Trevor Sikkema published every Tuesday. The column, as its name suggests, comes in three phases: a statistical observation, an in-depth film breakdown, and a “this or that” segment where the writer asks the reader to chose between two options.

Sikkema’s Stat of the Week

“I really don’t see the line on this game getting high enough for me to pick the Buccaneers.”
– Setting The Edge Podcast

“As for the Buccaneers, they’re clearly the bottom team in this division.”
– Colin Cowherd

“They’re not beating New Orleans. They just have to hope they can beat Philly, get out of Winston’s suspension with at least one win.”
– Trevor Sikkema

Good stuff, Trev. Really nailed that one, huh, bud?

My, oh, my, what a weekend that was. I’ll be brutally honest with how wrong I was. I don’t care. I never saw the Buccaneers’ 48-40 win over the New Orleans Saints coming, and honestly, you shouldn’t have either – but that doesn’t make what happened any less of a much more pleasant reality.

Bucs WR DeSean Jackson – Photo by: Mary Holt/PR

Let’s look at it factually. The same coaching staff, down their franchise quarterback, with injuries throughout training camp that were set to affect chemistry, with the team down its top cornerback in Brent Grimes going against a future Hall of Fame quarterback in Drew Brees on the road in a division rival, and we were expected to see this team tie the franchise record for points?

If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t have bet on it – but thank goodness I didn’t bet this time around.

We’ll get to offensive coordinator Todd Monken in a minute, but let me start with head coach Dirk Koetter.

Anyone who’s read my column over the last year knows that I’ve been critical of Koetter, but it’s never been anything beyond his shortcomings as the team’s head coach, as it pertains to the results and how they were obtained. Heck, I hope that he has even been critical of himself coming off a 5-11 season.

I don’t have anything out against the guy. In fact, him saying the phrase “I want to be known as a badass football team,” and the whole “speak softly” speech are some of my favorite moments outside of Jon Gruden that I’ve seen from a head coach in Tampa Bay. But he hasn’t gotten it done, to this point, and that’s what I’ve tried to portray when I’ve written about his role with the team.

With all that said, he deserves all the credit in the world for what he’s currently doing, and that is: Whatever is best for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Dirk Kotter’s entire 11-year NFL career has been based on him creating and calling offensive plays. That’s how he got the job in Jacksonville, that’s how he got the job in Atlanta, that’s how he got the job in Tampa Bay, and that was ultimately why he was promoted to be the team’s head coach. Calling plays is what he does. It’s his identity in this league, and over the last two seasons, it hasn’t been good enough, so much so that this year he did something drastic, something few offensive head coaches ever do – and when they do it’s something they often go back on quickly.

Koetter gave up play calling.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Getty Images

The moment Rick Stroud reported that Todd Monken would be calling plays for the first time before the team’s first preseason game, I immediately had opinions on it. This decision, by Koetter himself, put the head coach on thin ice. The reason is because if you’re an offensive head coach and you’re not even the best play caller on the team, unless you’re a Top 5 head coach at elevating your players on offense and defense in-game, how useful are you? What is your value?

I said when the news came out that this was an incredibly risky move by Koetter, but I forgot to mention how selfless it was. In a hot seat year, Koetter made himself vulnerable in a way that he was going to go down with the ship. By making Monken the play caller into the regular season, unless Monken were to totally fail and Koetter was to re-take play calling and look like a genius, Koetter was saying that: so the team goes, he goes. He has nothing to fall back on. He has no “Yeah, but I…” if the record of this year doesn’t go in ownership’s favor.

And even outside of the results, I imagine this was hard for Koetter because of how fun it likely is for him. People don’t do this job unless they enjoy it. Koetter enjoys play calling. He put aside something he truly enjoys and stepped down because someone might be better at it than him. On a personal level, that was probably a bummer for him, but it also took a lot of humility to step down like that.

It’s just one game. Who knows how the rest of the season is going to play out. But Koetter’s decision to give Monken the play calling reins was a selfless, team-first, risky act that Koetter deserves credit for – and so far he’s 1-0 because of it.

Bucs OC Todd Monken – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

As for Monken, well, Donovan Smith’s reaction to seeing him after the game where he nearly shook Monken into a concussion out of happiness told that entire story. Putting up 48 points on the road against a division opponent in your first game as a play-caller with a 35-year old quarterback in Ryan Fitzpatrick, who the Bucs had to talk out of retirement.

Incredible.

You know when I knew Monken was calling plays? I didn’t get to hear it be announced on TV like many of you did because I was at the game in New Orleans. We don’t get TV volume in the press box. But I still knew before everyone else.

First possession. Third-and-1. On the Bucs 41-yard line.

QB sneak. First down.

I knew it was Monken calling the play right then and there. You know why? Because it was gutsy. Koetter doesn’t like quarterback sneaks and rarely calls them for fear of fumbles or injury to the QB.

Whether it was dialing up 25-yard fade passes on third downs or running an RPO with Fitzpatrick, Monken had the guts to call whatever play the Bucs needed to win that game. He didn’t just put his foot on the gas, he put a brick on top of his foot after that, knowing the enemy head coach and quarterback that were on the other sideline, he was trying to race to the finish line. Now I’m not saying Koetter has never called a gutsy game plan before, he certainly has. But I’ve also seen Koetter get predictable, at times, and let his foot off the gas a little when he shouldn’t. That never happened with Monken on Sunday. Not even for a moment.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Getty Images

Even with the lead, Monken passed the ball on first down more than I’ve seen the Buccaneers do over the last two years. I watched him (the collective game plan, really) put each offensive weapon in its best place to succeed, and then trusting them to make the play over and over again.

They did.

I never thought Koetter would give up play calling. I never thought Fitzpatrick still had that kind of game in him. And I sure as hell never thought the Buccaneers were going to out-score Brees and the Saints on a day where they put up 40 points at home.

But what the hell do I know, right?

Onto Week 2.