O. J. Howard Jersey , no justifications. Absolutely, unequivocally pathetic. The NFL’s number one offense was completely shut down while the 31st ranked defense made Mitchell Trubisky have the best game of his career - past or future. No way Trubisky ever plays this well again. Ever.After starting 2-0 the Bucs have lost their last two by a combined score of 78-37. At the end of the day, it’s inexcusable. It’s indefensible. It’s sickening.Let’s pick six.Six Topics Suitable For Conversation1.) Mike Smith Has To Go - Some may view this as an overreaction, but look at the track record. One of the NFL’s worst defenses under Smith in 2017 and so far through 2018, there is no justification in keeping Smith around. Even if promoting Brentson Buckner in an interim role proves that he isn’t the guy, the defense can’t possibly get any worse under his leadership. This defense has far too much talent on it to play this poorly - and when you allow Trubisky to throw six touchdown passes in one game after he had nine in his career thus far, it’s time to go. Koetter has to know this, but may be protecting his bestie by deflecting blame away with his oh so clever postgame quote; “We should fire every person that was on that field today, starting with me. That was horrific.” I understand the Buccaneers are missing Vernon Hargreaves, Chris Conte, Jordan Whitehead, they lost Carlton Davis during the game. The secondary is young, yes. But that performance was bush league. The last time the Bucs fired a coordinator in season was 2009 when OC Jeff Jagodzinski was fired following the preseason leading to Greg Olson’s promotion and DC Jim Bates was fired in November, allowing then head coach Raheem Morris to take over play calling. Time for it to happen again. Absolutely indefensible.2.) Jason Pierre-Paul Is So Good - No one seemed to be talking about it, but for a brief moment JPP was tied with Khalil Mack for the NFL lead in sacks. He has been an absolute force on the defensive line and in the locker room. He said he took this loss personally and we saw him getting on the rest of the defense’s butts on the sidelines. Just have to hope he doesn’t lose that fire. The Bucs need it.3.) Encouraging Signs From Ronald Jones - RoJo got a lot of second half work and the signs are positive. It looked like there were some opportunities where he was just a fraction of a second away from breaking off a big play. He finished with ten carries for 29 yards, but only took one hit for a loss where Ali Marpet was beat badly off the snap. It had to be a confidence building afternoon for Jones and his future role with the team. Gotta work on that pass catching, though...4.) Winston Looked Rusty, But Solid - Some of the timing was off and he looked indecisive at times, but overall Jameis Winston looked pretty good given the circumstances. He did throw two interceptions, but on the first one his arm was hit by Mack, leaving the pass fluttering and easy pickings. On the second, he appeared to just leave it short on a poor pass. Winston had a lot more time in the pocket than Fitzpatrick did, but the Bears were dropping seven into coverage leaving little to no open passing windows. It was the right move to get Winston some live game reps as he will need that under his belt before taking the snaps in Atlanta following the bye.5.) Bye Week Comes At Perfect Time - A lot of people hate the early bye, but for the Bucs this is the perfect time. Start off on fire just to crumble the last two weeks, the Bucs need this week to regroup before taking on division rival Atlanta. Whatever that regrouping consists of - defensive changes/adjustments, practice for Winston to get that timing down again, whatever. This could spiral out of control as we’ve seen in years past if they don’t reevaluate and make the necessary changes.6.) Get Healthy - Missing Beau Allen and Jordan Whitehead hurt. Losing O.J. Howard and Carlton Davis in the game didn’t help. Bucs need to get healthy so they can get back to form. The defensive line and secondary injury bug is making things far more difficult for this team to compete. Can’t keep losing key pieces and expect to win games.Six Numbers To Consider19 - Number of times the Bucs have given up 400+ yards under Mike Smith; 4-15 in those games12 - Teams since the merger to give up 139+ points in the first four games. None of the other eleven made the postseason40 - Percentage of Mitchell Trubisky’s career touchdowns thrown on Sunday vs. Bucs69 - Years since a Bears’ QB had six touchdown passes in a game80 - Winston’s completion percentage3 - Weeks until the Bucs play at homeSix Ways To Get Through The Bye Week1.) Enjoy a family outing on Sunday without the stresses of watching Mike Smith’s defense2.) MLB PLAYOFFS!!3.) Enjoy the start of the NHL season4.) Read the thank you letter from your liver that you aren’t subjecting yourself to something that made you want/need to drink. Heavily.5.) Take a deep breath and realize that the first two weeks of the season is far more indicative of this team’s talent than the last two weeks. It’s gonna be okay.6.) Cheer like crazy for the Steelers, Redskins, and GiantsSix Song Monday PlaylistHere are the six songs to fully encapsulate the 48-10 loss1.) “Sunday Bloody Sunday” - U2 (Pretty self explanatory)2.) “Return Of The Mack” - Mark Morrison (Marking the return of Jameis Winston)3.) “Party Up” - DMX (Ya’ll gon’ make me lose my mind, up in here, up in here...)4.) “Numb” - Linkin Park (How most Bucs fans feel about Mike Smith’s defense...)5.) “Three Little Birds” - Bob Marley (‘Cuz every little things gonna be alright)6.) “Good Times, Bad Times” - Led Zepplin (No matter how I try I find my way to do the same old jam, Good times, bad times you know I had my share)Six Super Bowl Bets**Results from Sunday Night Football not complete at time of writing**1.) Los Angeles Rams - Going undefeated. Change my mind.2.) Kansas City Chiefs - Offense overcomes any and all defensive shortcomings3.) Jacksonville Jaguars - Dominant defenses win championships4.) New England Patriots - That lull wasn’t going to last forever. Sony Michel is the truth5.) New Orleans Saints - Week one loss, since then have found a way to get it done16.) Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Have to get the defensive side of the ball figured out. NOW.Six Final WordsLightning Hockey Starts In Five Days The New Orleans Saints are a long way from where they want to be.For now, though, repeating as NFC South champions for the first time in franchise history feels pretty good.“Goal No. 1 was to win the division again and we were able to do that,” Drew Brees said Sunday after throwing for one touchdown and running for another to help the Saints rally from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-14.“I like the way we won this game. We didn’t play well in the first half and (faced) a big deficit,” Brees added. “We were able to come together with all sides making plays in that second half. I think that was the epitome of a great team win.”Music blared in the winning locker room.There’s still a lot of work ahead for the Saints (10-2)
Justin Evans Jersey , however clinching any division title 鈥?much less with three weeks remaining in the regular season 鈥?is an accomplishment worth celebrating.“This is what guys look forward to. This is fun,” said Brees, who shrugged off a pair of turnovers to throw a 1-yard TD pass to Zach Line, then scored on a 1-yard sneak as the Saints avenged a season-opening loss to the Bucs (5-8) and also rebounded from a defeat the previous week at Dallas.“This is the stuff you remember, especially road games 鈥?you know, road locker rooms, bus rides, back on the plane. Those moments together,” Brees added. “It’s hard to win in this league, it’s hard to win on the road. We’re going to enjoy these moments and continue to build on ’em.”New Orleans’ defense did its part after allowing two first-half TDs, too, sacking Jameis Winston four times and limiting the NFL’s No. 1-ranked offense to 81 yards in the second half 鈥?most of that on the final drive of the game“We got dominated in the second half,” said Bucs coach Dirk Koetter, whose team won a high-scoring shootout 48-40 at New Orleans in Week 1. “We haven’t been shut down like that in a long time.”Brees completed 24 of 31 passes for 201 yards and one interception. Michael Thomas had 11 receptions for 98 yards.A week after being held to a season-low 176 yards total offense in a 13-10 loss to Dallas that ended a 10-game winning streak, the Saints started slowly again.Winston threw a pair of TD passes to Cameron Brate, the latter a 1-yarder set up by Adarius Taylor‘s interception to put the Bucs up 14-3 at halftime. The fourth-year pro also threw an 11-yarder to Brate on the opening drive of the game.The game turned in the third quarter when Brees weathered losing a fumble at his own 27 and later took advantage of the Saints blocking a punt to set up his TD pass to Line, along with Alvin Kamara‘s 2-point conversion that trimmed Tampa Bay’s lead to 14-11.In addition to missing a 40-yard field goal after Carl Nassib sacked Brees, forcing a fumble Jason Pierre-Paul recovered early in the third quarter, Cairo Santos also had a 46-yard attempt deflect off the right upright in the first half for Tampa Bay, which finished with 279 yards 鈥?more than 160 below its league-leading season average.“Going into the second half I thought that we had an opportunity to put a fork into them, but they got a boost of confidence from a missed field goal, a punt blocked,” Bucs tackle Demar Dotson said.“We couldn’t get anything going on offense,” coach Dirk Koetter added. “Fourteen points isn’t going to do it against the Saints.”Brees’ TD run put the Saints ahead early in the fourth quarter. Mark Ingram scored on a 17-yard run to make it 25-14. Will Lutz tacked on a 36-yard field goal in the closing minutes.Pressured relentlessly in the second while the Saints were taking control of the game, Winston finished 18 of 38 for 213 yards, two touchdowns and one interception 鈥?an end-zone throw picked off by Marshon Lattimore with 1 second remaining.The Bucs had 32 yards in the second half until Winston completed passes of 16, 12 and 21 to march into Saints territory on the final drive.And, penalties hurt Tampa Bay all day long, including an unnecessary roughness penalty on Bucs center Ryan Jensen late in the second quarter.At one point, a frustrated Winston was seen arguing on the sideline with Jensen.“Brothers have disagreements,” Winston said of the exchange. “It wasn’t that much.”PERSISTENCEThe Saints ran the ball nine times for just 3 yards in the first half. They stuck with the game plan, though, and finished with 100 on 30 attempts. Ingram had 52 yards on 13 carries, and Kamara rushed for 51 yards on 12 attempts.TAKEAWAYSSince failing to force a turnover on defense for seven consecutive games, the Bucs have 10 takeaways over the last three weeks. The Bucs have seven interceptions over that stretch after only having one in the first 10.INJURIESSaints: LT Terron Armstead was inactive, replaced by Jermon Bushrod.Buccaneers: With WR DeSean Jackson (thumb) inactive for the second straight week, Chris Godwin started. Andrew Adams started in place of S Justin Evans (toe) and CB Carlton Davis II (knee) was replaced by Ryan Smith. … LB Kevin Minter left in the second quarter with a calf injury and did not return.UP NEXTSaints: at Carolina next Monday, last of three consecutive road games.Buccaneers: at Baltimore next Sunday.