FAB 4. BUCS MUCH MORE DISCIPLINED UNDER KOETTER
An outrageous amount of penalties was one of the many factors in the decision to fire former Tampa Bay head coach Lovie Smith at the end of the 2015 season. The team set a franchise record with 143 penalties for 1,195 yards in Smith’s second – and final – year leading the Buccaneers. That was up from the 118 penalties for 1,136 yards the team amassed in 2014, which was the year Smith was hired.

Ex-Bucs head coach Lovie Smith – Photo by: Getty Images

The Bucs started off the 2015 season with double-digit penalties in five of their first six games, including 12 in the season-opening 42-14 loss to Tennessee and a season-high 16 penalties in a 31-30 loss at Washington in which Tampa Bay blew a 24-point lead. The Bucs earned a reputation of being one of the most undisciplined teams in the league under Smith, and the final two penalties of the season came with 2:01 left as star wide receiver Mike Evans drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for shoving Panthers cornerback Josh Norman and then another 15-yard penalty for jawing with an official that resulted in Evans’ ejection.

When the team replaced Smith and promoted offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter to the role of head coach, Koetter knew that the Bucs had to stop beating themselves with self-inflicted wounds.

“We’re working on the penalties,” Koetter said during training camp. “I’ve got to do a great job on that. I’ve got to keep pushing the envelope. I know our coaches are doing it.”

Koetter brought in refs to work during Tampa Bay’s training camp. That’s something Jon Gruden had done during his days as a Buccaneers head coach in an effort to curb the amount of penalties the team was drawing.

Late in the 2015 season I had asked Smith if he had considering bringing in refs to officiate practice during a press conference and he literally scoffed at the idea.

“No, I don’t think that helps an awful lot,” Smith said during his November 9, 2015 press conference. “When a guy makes a mistake you call him to the table on it. Whether a high school official coming in here and saying that, it’s not going to help us an awful lot on that. Do we need to take care of it? Yes and we’ll keep working on ways to take care of that. It’s not like we haven’t addressed that. Sometimes, just like some other things, we haven’t gotten the message across yet. We’ll keep working to try to find ways to do that.”

Smith never got that message across to his players, and the fact that he didn’t even consider bringing in officials to work practices means he didn’t try hard enough. Thankfully for the Bucs, Koetter did and it paid off.

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

“Unfortunately we were last in the league in penalties last year, so we’ve had a lot of educational sessions about penalties and how they hurt us this year,” Koetter said during the 2016 training camp. “I do feel like having officials on the field helps reinforce the fact that there is a consequence for some things we do. We’ve asked these officials, these men and women, to throw a flag just like you would in the game and we’ll discuss it later. We’re going to have several opportunities to work with officials in training camp similar to this and when we work against both Jacksonville and Cleveland. I think our guys are responding to it.”

The Buccaneer did respond and Koetter kept drilling the message to reduce the amount of penalties all season long.

“When I say we’re working on it, those guys are hearing about it,” Koetter said. “I show them the penalties every day in the afternoon meeting. The players are talking about it, that’s a good thing. They know we can’t win playing like that. At the same time, we’re also telling them to compete so we’re going to have some.”

In Koetter’s first season as Tampa Bay’s head coach the amount of penalties dropped from 143 in 2015 to 109 in 2016, which was 34 fewer infractions. The amount of penalty yardage also declined from 1,195 yards in 2015 to just 926 yards, which was a reduction of 269 yards.

“Overall as a team, we came a long way as far as penalties,” Koetter said at his season-ending press conference in January. “We went from last in the league to 18th in the league.”

The Bucs were tied for 18th in the NFL in fewest penalties in 2016 and ranked 19th in penalty yards with just 926 yards. In 2015, Tampa Bay’s 143 penalties were tied with Buffalo for the most in the league, while the Bucs ranked third-to-last in penalty yardage.

Evans had a career-high 10 penalties in 2015, including five offensive pass interference calls, and three personal fouls, that contributed to Tampa Bay’s bloated penalty situation. Koetter and new wide receivers coach Todd Monken drove the point home to Evans about being more calm and under control with his emotions during games.

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

“Yeah, last year I had a lot of personal foul penalties and offensive pass interference and things like that,” Evans said prior to the season. “This year I think it’ll be much different. I’m going to calm it down and just play my game and not worry about what those guys are doing.”

Mission accomplished. Evans had just three penalties last year and no personal fouls, which was a remarkable improvement that helped the team.

The Bucs were actually even more disciplined than that, as the team only had nine declined penalties, which was the second-lowest mark in the NFL, and only one offsetting foul. That means Tampa Bay was only flagged a total of 119 times, which ranked tied for sixth in the NFL, with 109 accepted penalties. Only Cincinnati (104 penalties, 88 accepted), the New York Giants (108 penalties, 91 accepted), the New York Jets (111 penalties, 93 accepted), Cleveland (114 penalties, 95 accepted) and Indianapolis (114 penalties, 103 accepted) had fewer last year.

Tampa Bay didn’t receive much home-cooking, either. The Bucs were penalized 63 times at Raymond James Stadium, which was tied for the fifth-most in the league. However, Tampa Bay showed tremendous discipline on the road with only 46 penalties, which was tied for third best in the NFL.

The Bucs were 8-5 in games in which they had seven penalties or fewer, and 1-2 in games in which Tampa Bay had eight penalties or more. Koetter was right that a higher number of penalties translated to losing. The Bucs reduced the amount of penalties to just 6.8 per game last year, and had the lowest number of penalties and fewest penalty yards since Tampa Bay was flagged 101 times for 819 yards in 2012 during Greg Schiano’s first season as head coach.

That’s one heck of a job by Koetter and his staff to drive the penalty point home. And it’s a great job by the players to buy in, be accountable and reduce the number of flags thrown their way in 2016.