Monday, 4 a.m.
Maybe you will remember this for the cave-in that happened on fourth-and-one when the Bucs sill has a chance to win.
Maybe you will remember it for the snap that bounced of Jameis' Winston's facemark.
Maybe you'll remember it for the red-zone ineptitude that happened when the Bucs had a man-in-motion crash into their own ballcarrier.
Maybe you'll remember it for Winston's first interception...or his second .. of the third one that the Titans dropped. Maybe you'll remember for another three sacks. Maybe you'll remember it for the two fumbles Winston lost, or the third that the Bucs recovered.
Maybe you'll remember that the Bucs' Mike Evans -- phenomenal for three periods -- was ignored in the final period. Maybe you'll remember it for the fact the Bucs managed to lose to a journeyman like Ryan Tannehill. Maybe you'll remember it for the missed call that negated a late go-ahead touchdown.
Or maybe you'll be fortunate enough to forget all of it.
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Once again, the Tampa Bay Bucx were just bad enough to lose to Tennessee, 27-23. The Bucs' turnovers- -- where have you heard that before -- dug them a 14-0 hole, The Bucs are now 2-5 and travel to Seattle next week.
Most of the conversation, of course, will surround Winston, who now has 10 turnovers in two games. He's taken 13 sacks in his last three. It's hard to blame him for the snap off his face mask, but on his second fumble, a pass-rusher merely swatted the ball out of his hand.
So what do you do? Bench him for Ryan Griffin? Probably not. Griffin's never taken a snap in the regular season. And for all his misplays, Winston did throw for 301 yards (and 700 in the last two weeks).
Such is the state of the Bucs. Winston is awful, but he's the best player the Bucs have. Isn't that a shame?
"Everyone’s going to want to say ‘okay, Jameis threw interceptions,'" Bucs' coach Bruce Arians said. "James didn't throw one damn interception that was his faulit. His receivers let him down. Today. guys stopped on routes that were supposed to be going dwon the middle. The last play was going down the middle -- it should have been a big play.
"He played his tail off. You can write what you want. Not one of those interceptions was his fault. It’s a damn shame. we wasted some opportunities."
Arians was bothered by a late call when the Bucs stopped Tennessee on a fake field goal. The ball appeared to be coming out as holder Bruce Kern was tackled, and defensive back Anthony Adams scooped it up and ran into the end zone. However, officials blew the play dead.
“Obviously a very disappointing loss, the way we lost the game," Arias said. "To have a fumble, pick it up and run for a touchdown and have an inadvertent whistle. It’s always tough. Like I said, the inadvertent whistle was a huge, huge play. We pick up a fumble and run it for a touchdown to win the game and it’s called, it’s not good.
“We snap a ball that hits him in the chest, that’s not his fault. Again, Chris (Godwin) hooks up on a play where he’s supposed to take the middle, you throw it right off the linebacker’s ear and he’s expecting him like he always does and he hooked on that one. It’s inexplicable.”
Repeatedly, Arians blamed Winston's receivers for his tough. One question, though: Don't the Bucs' have receiver coaches?
The Bucs still had a chance to win in the fourth period, but they were stuffed on a fourth-and-one play at the Tennessee 32 with two minutes to play.
“We weren’t on the goal line, they were in a totally different defense," Arians said. "We had a pass called and they were playing man-to-man and we didn’t block the backside. It was a run-pass play, both of them were called. If one thing showed we throw the ball, if one thing showed we pass the ball.”
.Evans had a huge day for the Bucs, catching 11 passes for 198 yards threw three quarters. But Evans didn't even have a target in the final period. Sure, Tennessee was paying extra attention to him, but didn't teams pay extra attention to Jerry Rice and Randy Moss? Don't great players make plays? Goodness knows, the Bucs have failed to cover receivers with double coverage.
“It was pretty much all rotation to him after that," Arians said. "It’s a shame too because he had another big one, we completed a first down pass to Chris [Godwin] but Mike was wide open again.”
Tennessee was better in the red zone than Tampa Bay. Ryan Tannehill threw three touchdown passes, two of them because the Bucs were playing "the wrong technique."
Said Arians: "Our young secondary has to get their heads out of the their a-----."
For those of you who are already looking forward to next year, Arians has a warning.
"I don't play for next year," Arians said. "Are you guaranteed next year? I'm not. I want to win every damn game . I don’t care about trades. I want to beat Seattle.
At one point in the game, Carlton Davis III had an interception negated by a pass interference call. On the next play, Davis intercepted again...and again was called for ass interference.
“It’s unfortunate because I thought the first interception was clean and they called pass interference on him," Arians said. "The second one I challenged because the guy flopped and I guess New York still thought it was a push.”
The Bucs have won two games out of seven. On their remaining schedule, only the Atlanta Falcons have won fewer.
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