FAB 5. SR’s BUC SHOTS
• The Bucs have won three games this year and only one of them represents a quality win. Tampa Bay’s opening season win against Atlanta, which is 6-3, was easily the best victory thus far. The other Bucs’ wins came against San Francisco, which has just one victory this year, and Carolina, which has an identical 3-5 record.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Getty Images

Tampa Bay suffered a bad 40-7 loss at Arizona, and that defeat looks even worse now that the Cardinals have a 3-4-1 record. The Bucs also lost at the hands of 3-5 Los Angeles, a team that doesn’t have a first-round pick in 2017 after trading the selection prior to the 2016 draft.

• Amid a sharp ratings decline in 2016 the NFL is now considering limiting the number of commercials and reducing the length of games. In an article in the New York Times, the league states that it’s games average three hours and eight minutes, which is up six minutes from the average in 2008. Six minutes is nothing folks.

That’s just two commercial breaks. I don’t think fans care that NFL games are six minutes longer at all – if the product is good. The problem is that the product is no longer good. Just six NFL teams right now have six or seven wins, while 10 have just three wins or less.

Only 12 teams out of 32 have a winning record at this juncture. Most of the primetime match-ups have been awful. Yet, shortening the games is the silver bullet?

A Yahoo Sports survey found that the number one reason why fans aren’t tuning into games this year is Colin Kaepernick’s protest. If some socially-activist media members and politically correct members of the NFL front office want to ignore that concrete data because it goes against their own ideological reasons they can, and they can join the rest of the mainstream media that simply refused to see a path for Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. Presidential race until the ballots were actually cast and he actually won. The games being six minutes too long isn’t the problem.

However, eliminating commercial breaks right after kickoffs is a great idea. No fan likes to see a touchdown, an extra point try, a commercial, a kickoff (likely for a touchback) and then another commercial. I’m in favor of that, but that’s not necessarily going to draw in more fans or keep the ones the NFL already has.

Eliminating the time wasted by watching an official jog across the field, get under a peep-show curtain and review an instant replay would also be another step. Take a page out of college football’s playbook and have an instant replay official in the booth that handles those decisions for efficiency’s sake.

Doing those two things would shorten the game, and that would help, but it wouldn’t necessarily improve the game. College football games are typically more exciting and those contests often last three and a half hours if not longer. I have often found the product to be superior in terms of enjoyment. There are some amazing upsets to behold and weekly clash of the titans in prime time to enjoy.

Roger Goodell has taken a lot of the fun out of the game and has over-legislating the NFL. That’s a bigger issue than six minutes. Poor officiating, player fines and suspensions and cracking down on player celebrations seem to rule the day. He’s a big part of the problem and NFL owners need to realize that and act accordingly.

• A couple of wide receivers that I’m enamored with had fantastic games last week, including Oklahoma State’s James Washington (6-1, 205), who had seven catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns against my alma mater, Kansas State. Washington had an 82-yard touchdown to help the Cowboys erase a nine-point deficit and get a road win in Manhattan. That was his second-longest TD catch of the year after ripping off a 91-yard score against Pittsburgh.

Oklahoma’s Dede Westbrook (6-0, 175) pushed his consecutive 100-yard game mark to six with a seven-catch, 131-yard day against Iowa State. Westrbook had a 65-yard touchdown that helped the Sooners escape Ames with a 34-24 victory. That was Westbrook’s fourth TD catch covering 60 yards or more this year.

West Virginia’s Shelton Gibson (6-0, 198) had four catches for 102 yard (25.5 avg.), two touchdowns and a 25-yard end around in a 48-21 win over Kansas on Saturday.

But my favorite receiver had the biggest day as Washington’s John Ross (5-11, 190) exploded for six catches for a career-high 208 yards (34.7 avg.) and scored three touchdowns, including two that were from beyond 60 yards. On his 67-yard TD, Ross eluded the California secondary the way Los Angeles receiver Tavon Austin dodged Bucs safety Keith Tandy earlier in the year for a long fourth quarter touchdown.

Any one of these receivers would bring a great deal of speed and playmaking ability to Tampa Bay and be a nice complement to Mike Evans.

• Speaking of wide receivers, practice squad receiver and kick return specialist Josh Huff has impressed in practice this week and could be active for Sunday’s game against Chicago. Huff brings swagger and speed to the receiver position and in time he should make more of an impact than Cecil Shorts has.

Don’t be surprised if Doug Martin doesn’t play against the Bears. Just because he returned to practice this week doesn’t mean he’s ready to play. Defensive tackle Clinton McDonald returned to practice three weeks ago from his hamstring injury, but hasn’t played since injuring it against Denver.

• I know I said I’m giving Dirk Koetter three more years as head coach to maintain continuity and turn the Bucs around, but he needs to get a win against a 2-6 Bears team this Sunday at Raymond James Stadium. This is a winnable game – and a winnable game at home to boot. Koetter needs to show some improvement as a rookie head coach, especially with his game management decisions, and find a way to win on Sunday.

There is a huge difference between being 3-6 and 4-5.

At 4-5 the Bucs are one game away from .500 again. At 3-6, Tampa Bay has to expend much more energy in winning three straight games just to get to .500. Tampa Bay hasn’t won three straight games in any season since the end of the 2013 campaign, so don’t count on such a streak.