Tampa Bay loses 11th-straight home game to Panthers
TAMPA
So where do we go from here?
Kyle Brindza is so lost he can't find himself.
Lovie Smith is at a loss for what ails his Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Jameis Winston lost the ball four times on four interceptions.
Are you counting? The numbers are ugly.
Have patience?
Humbug!
The Bucs are 0-10 at home under Smith after getting embarrassed by the Panthers Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
Don't let the final score fool you -- it wasn't nearly that close.
The Bucs are 3-17 during Lovie's reign and just 1-3 this season.
The only one with worse numbers might be Brindza, who missed two field goals and an extra point Sunday after missing three field goals and an extra point last week.
He got booed before he attempted a PAT in the third quarter; A first for even Raymond James Stadium, where the bizarre is commonplace.
At least Smith didn't try to gloss things over like last week -- perhaps because we see Brindza just might be a bad kicker -- at least for the NFL where it's nearly all mental.
"The fans who keep coming to our games at home need to see a better product on the football field," Smith said. "All losses are disappointing, but we shouldn't be getting beat that way. We can't turn the ball over. They took the ball away (5 times)."
This is Lovie's world, and you have to question the logic.
He wanted Brindza, an untested rookie with no game experience. It was a risk that backfired.
He wanted quarterback Jameis Winston, whose inconsistency with his accuracy can't be attributed solely to him being a rookie. Until he proves differently, this is him.
"You can't win football games with five turnovers," echoed Winston, who was intercepted twice by Carolina's Josh Norman. "When you throw it straight to him, no matter how good they are, they're going to catch it. So it's not like I got baited or something. I just threw it straight to him. Bad decision."
There were three series that defined this game.
On their first two possessions, the Bucs fumbled in a downpour, which led to a field goal, before Winston threw a pick six that put them behind 10-0.
The Panthers fumbled on the first play of the second half, and the Bucs had a first down at the Panthers' 25. They got nothing when Brindza missed again.
So far Winston has shown that, at best, he might be a decent NFL quarterback -- but needs to work on his accuracy.
For the season, he has thrown five TD pases and seven interceptions. But he deserves some time. We will give you that.
"He is making some rookie mistakes. We would like him to be a vet, but we have seen signs that he can be a great player," Smith said. "But we are not there yet and there will be growing pains.
"For us, ball security (is important). We are not going to win a lot of games until we take care of that."
Even the fumbles seemed to avoid Tampa Bay. Carolina's Ed Dickson grabbed one that popped in the air by his teammate Jonathan Stewart and turned it into a 57-yard touchdown. Carolina turned another interception by Winston into a 33 yard-drive and 31-10 lead midway through the third quarter.
By then, it was already over.
"There is more than one guy on the field. We had other guys who had opportunities to make plays today and (they) didn't make them," Smith said. "Coaching staff and players, all of us share the blame for this bad loss. When you go through one-quarter of the season, everything is fixable. We have lot of football left and we will improve in all areas."
This story was originally published October 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Tampa Bay loses 11th-straight home game to Panthers ."