After a day where Mike Smith had to face the music regarding the defense, it was offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s turn to address the state of his offense on Thursday. Though they have had a successful go of it, they are now entering the second quarter of the season with Jameis Winston getting his first start of the year for the Bucs.
Fortunately for Monken, he mentioned that there’s not much he has to change in regards to his play calls going from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Jameis Winston. He alluded to the hard work Winston put in both training camp and preseason, and how it is helping him this week.
OC Todd Monken says there’s not many differences in play calling he has to make now that they’re going from Ryan Fitzpatrick to Jameis Winston at QB #Bucs pic.twitter.com/J7byt5ZlrS
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
OC Todd Monken on how Jameis Winston has done #Bucs pic.twitter.com/vXWs45MUtH
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
Monken then gave an honest and fair assessment of his offense through four games. The team’s biggest problem, to no surprise of anyone, is the lack of a running game. Second on the list was executing in the red zone.
The Bucs have a league worst 278 yards rushing and equally league worst 3.1 yards per attempt. But some of that has to do with their explosive passing attack.
OC Todd Monken speaks on the adjustments that the offense needs to make after four games #Bucs pic.twitter.com/BzGSM9wbPr
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
Jameis Winston was up next at the podium to talk about his return to being the starter. He disclosed that he remained in Tampa during the bye week to continue working on his game. When asked if there is any pressure about continuing the offensive success that they’ve had, Winston said no, claiming he feels that in general and always wants the team to be great.
Winston has had a favorable time playing in Atlanta during his career. He is undefeated on the road against the Falcons, throwing five touchdowns in just two games. Winston thinks his success in Atlanta is because it’s almost like a home game for him, with his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama not being that far away.
#Bucs QB Jameis Winston on why he thinks he’s had so much success in Atlanta pic.twitter.com/C5964ZTUs2
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
Another interesting anecdote that was found out was that Winston played the role of his own personal general manager during his suspension. While he practiced during the three game absence, he recruited specific receivers that had similar attributes to the likes of Mike Evans, DeSean Jackson, and others.
Jameis Winston played the role of GM and got players to practice with during his suspension that assimilated #Bucs receivers pic.twitter.com/i1ejXaCZcI
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
Last up was head coach Dirk Koetter, who revealed that the Bucs will finally be voting for team captains in the near future. Part of the reason why is because there is a league deadline for jerseys to have the “C” logo stitched onto it.
Koetter also expressed that he wanted to take this long before voting so it wouldn’t be just a popularity contest. He wanted to see the team play through some adversity together to find out who the real leaders are, and not just have perceived leaders.
#Bucs HC Dirk Koetter had a VERY interesting answer when asked about team captains … pic.twitter.com/HL8KnYxSR1
— PewterReport (@PewterReport) October 11, 2018
Coach indicated that the selections would not be made by the end of this week. Kotter then confirmed that he has not had a team vote for captains after a season has already started at anytime in his coaching career.
So…..the game plan is to rush 4 and play soft coverage on defense again this weekend?…can’t wait…I’m sure it will work this time. Let’s hope Winston is ready to put up 40+.
We should all assume they are going to make some changes based on Mike Smith’s comments. He said they are going to “put some salve on it”. If they come out using the same old salve, then the infection is going to get worse until the end of the season when the infected area gets cut out.
Game 5, must win! Go Bucs!
Game 5. Go Bucs! Get this win!
Good metaphor, Flash.
We all know why Koetter waited so long to vote for team captains.
To his credit, he wanted Winston to be available for the vote.
Of course some media types, Tom Jones being one I believe, tried to make a big deal out of it, but it sure wasn’t man bites dog sort of story.
This last week I heard J.P. Peterson working out on Koetter because he had the gall to take Sunday off and not watch NFL games on TV all day.
Good god man. Cut the guys some slack Everyone deserves a day off so they dont get burnt out.
Fortunately, I don’t hear Peterson on the radio 7 days aweek and I don’t think he has voolunteered to work every day either.
There isn’t one thing Koetter isn’t going to see on Sunday that he won’t be able to see better on the All 22 coaches tape on Monday.
What a jerk.
Funny how people so often expect more from others than they are willing to do. We do a lot of school projects and folks often want the workers to get it done over the winter break (Christmas) holiday, while they’re with their families.
This game will be the most important of Jamie’s career to date. If he comes out & looks sharp, moves the ball, and leads the offense to enough points to win a shootout against Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, etc, etc; then the glowing media hype will be bigger than it was for Fitzmagic and he’ll have great momentum moving forward. If he’s off target, can’t move the chains, & is careless w/ the ball for 2 or more turnovers; we’ll get blown out and the heat on his back will rightly be intense. I’m not 100% on it, but I think he gets it done and looks as good or better than he ever has. Will be fun to watch & see, that’s for sure.