FAB 3. KOETTER’S TUNNEL VISION HAS FUELED BUCS’ SUCCESS
Every Bucs head coach has had their particular oft-used phrases uttered during press conferences over and over again.

With Raheem Morris it was the term “youngry” and “be your best self.”

With Greg Schiano it was “toes on the line” and always ending press conferences with the phrase “Thanks, guys.”

With Lovie Smith it was simply “Simple as that.”

Tampa Bay’s current head coach, Dirk Koetter, has been famous for telling us “It’s a week-to-week league,” emphasizing the one-game-at-a-time-mentality.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Koetter has stated that dozens of times this year in press conferences and various interviews. He also said that when I asked him if the Bucs were back in the hunt after beating Chicago, 36-10, and improving their record to 4-5 after Week 10.

“I don’t think we should even be thinking about that,” Koetter said. “I just don’t think that’s what we should be doing. We can’t get ahead of ourselves. I don’t think that helps us. I know that’s cliché, but I think we’ve just got to one week at a time.”

After the Bucs got a little too drunk on the team’s 31-24 win at Atlanta in Week 1 and got thumped at Arizona 40-7, Koetter’s tunnel vision on focusing on the current week’s opponent allowed Tampa Bay to recover from a 1-3 start and a 3-5 start this year to wind up 6-5 after a three-game winning streak thanks to a 14-5 victory over Seattle on Sunday.

“Dirk’s our leader,” said Bucs receiver and special teams captain Russell Shepard. “Your head coach is your leader and your team us going to gravitate towards your coach and reflect his personality. Dirk is a pretty smart guy. He takes things one day at a time. 

“I’m very impressed with him and his staff. I’ve known for years that we have the talent to be the type of team we’ve wanted to be. It’s a beautiful thing to see it all come together with the fans on game day like Sunday. I’ve never felt that here. I felt like I was back in college at LSU.”

When I entered the Bucs locker room for interviews on Wednesday it was hard to find many players that wanted to talk about the big win against Seattle. Here was my question to Bucs defensive tackle Clinton McDonald about the team’s physicality against the Seahawks.

“We had to match Seattle’s physicality, but now it’s on to the next week,” McDonald said. “It’s on to San Diego. Victories are short-lived, now we’re on to San Diego.”

And don’t dare mention the word “playoffs” to any Buccaneer. Koetter has practically forbid anyone from using the “p” word.

Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“Absolutely not, and that’s a testament to him,” Spence said. “Dirk does a good job of making sure we aren’t looking too far ahead. It’s a week-to-week league. He gives us a great presentation each Wednesday on the team we’re facing and the guys we have to shut down and how we have to go out and win that week. It’s one week at a time.

“In the beginning of the season we were winning on the road, but not winning at home. People were saying we had a problem with that. He kept saying to take it one week at a time and one game at a time, and eventually everything will stack up. We did that and now we’re getting the results we want. That win [over Seattle] was short-lived and we have to do the same thing to San Diego. They have a huge offensive line and a veteran quarterback in Philip Rivers. We have to hit him just like we hit Russell Wilson.”

Bucs safety Bradley McDougald said that Koetter won’t allow the team to think more than one game ahead and that attention to detail has keyed the team’s turnaround this season.

“It’s huge,” McDougald said. “Guys say the word (playoffs) but let it go in one ear and out the other. If you want to be successful you have to take it one week at a time. There’s going to be a new challenge each week. What we did last week is going to have no bearing on what we’re going to do this week. It was good, and we got a nice pat on the back, but it’s time to move forward. The Chargers don’t care one bit about the Buccaneers vs. Seattle game.”

Koetter isn’t getting enough credit for the job he’s doing in Tampa Bay. With one more win the Bucs show progress from last year’s 6-10 record. With two more wins, the team will be assured of not finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2010. With three more wins, the 9-7 Bucs will have a winning record for the first time in six years and possibly be in contention for a playoff spot.

So naturally Koetter would receive some national acclaim for the Bucs’ 14-5 win over the Seahawks, right? Wrong.

Peter King of MMQB.com decided to give his Coach of the Week Award to Tennessee’s Mike Mularkey. Here’s what he wrote:

 Mike Mularkey, head coach, Tennessee. So Mularkey was roundly second-guessed (that’s putting it nicely) for his 1993 approach to offensive football before the season—namely, for deciding the Titans would be a running team more than a passing team. He built up the offensive line and drafted a running back high, planning to plow the ball and keep it out of the hands of the opposing offense. Hey, whatever works. The Titans struggled to a 1-3 start, but the Titans have won five of eight to move to a half-game out of first in the weak AFC South. It helps that Mularkey has a precocious quarterback who doesn’t make many mistakes. But it also helps, as in games such as Tennessee’s 27-21 win at Chicago on Sunday, that he sticks to the plan he made for this team when the Titans gave him the full-time gig.

So beating the lowly Bears – with a backup QB in place of an injured Jay Cutler – by six points is worthy of acclaim? Does King realize that Koetter and the Bucs destroyed the Bears – with Cutler – 36-10 three weeks ago, and that the Bucs have won three straight games?

Bucs WR Adam Humphries – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Isn’t Tampa Bay’s upset over Seattle – on the heels of an upset on the road at Kansas City – more impressive?

The Titans lost two weeks ago, and are 3-2 over the last five games, an identical record to the Bucs. Yet Tampa Bay has a winning record at 6-5, while Tennessee is at .500 with a 6-6 mark.

At this point in the season Koetter couldn’t care less what King or anyone has to say about him and his Buccaneers. It’s on San Diego.

And it’s that type of mentality that has Tampa Bay in position to make a postseason run that seemed improbable when the Bucs were 3-5 just one month ago.

“I love the way we’ve gone down the stretch and I love what we’ve had up to this point to be above .500,” legendary Bucs defensive tackle Warren Sapp said. “Now we’ve just got to go down this stretch because November and December are what they remember. If you get on a roll then you put yourself in a real nice situation for the playoffs. We’ll see what happens.”