Alan Dell: Lovie bashing has become fashionable thing to do

TAMPA

Lovie bashing has become fashionable this week.

It's easy, doesn't take a lot of thought and won't generate much opposition.

It's like justifying those $250 basketball shoes you just bought despite the bare cupboard in your kitchen.

So, they've turned Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Lovie Smith into Dead Man Walking.

Give him credit for one thing. He took all the heat over the Bucs' loss to Washington on Sunday, though no one would've blamed him for exposing some of his players for stealing money every time they cash their paycheck.

This isn't to say Lovie hasn't caused a lot of his problems. His coaching hasn't been, shall we say, up to Belichick standards.

On Sunday, he created his own problems with the onside kick he lost, the failure to get into the end zone when he had a first-and-goal at the 5, and then giving up the game-winning touchdown.

But smashing Lovie into little pieces ignores some substantial facts.

Can we start with this one? The Bucs are a bad team and this is arguably the most poorly run franchise in the NFL.

Everyone is up in arms because the Bucs led by 24 points and 24-7 at halftime before losing 31-30 to Washington.

Be honest. If, before the game, someone told you one team would outscore the other 24-7 in one half and the other team would outscore that team 24-6 in the second half, you would've believed it.

The Bucs beat Jacksonville on a late fumble, defeated the Drew Brees Saints when he was playing with virtually one arm, and lost to Tennessee.

But the Lovie Smith era is not over until it's over and he still has time. The Glazer family that owns the team has never fired a coach midseason and having rookie quarterback Jameis Winston might buy Lovie another year.

The best way for Smith to spin this game is to talk about the first-half team, which he did,

"That football team that played in the first half, we're that team," Smith said. "I think we are more along the lines of what we saw in the first half."

So you think if you fire Lovie, all the lovebirds will return to their nest?

It's bash Lovie and bash the secondary, but the coach stood up for those guys in the back end of his defense, as difficult as that might have been.

"When things happen with coverage, I think you have to be careful to with just saying what happened in the secondary," Smith said. "For an offense to get passing yards in general, it does start up front first. We didn't get the type of pressure we needed to get."

Everyone seems to have given the offense a pass this week because it racked up 479 yards. But this is an offense that scored only two touchdowns and in the second half produced only two field goals.

The Bucs' Doug Martin is having a banner season and right now is one of the best running backs in the league and Tampa's best offensive player. But on a play that could've iced the game, Martin ran brilliantly for 49 yards and then got caught by Bashaud Breeland, who came out of nowhere and way across the field to bring him down.

Ask yourself, who on the Bucs could've made that play?

Chris Conte couldn't come down with a potential interception in the end zone late in the game and then Bradley McDougald allowed tight end Jordan Reed to beat him on a slant that won the game. Lavonte David was covering air, but Lovie won't tell us what happened.

The disturbing thing was penalties. The Bucs were penalized a franchise record 16 times for 142 yards. It was the fifth time they were whistled for double-digit penalties in six games.

"We'll keep working on that just like we'll keep working on everything else,' Smith said.

If Lovie is going to get through this season with a semblance of respect and return for another year, he has to put a positive spin on things and to some extent believe what he is saying, which he tried to do this week.

"OK, we lost 31-30," Smith said, "but there were a lot of good things that happened in that game and if we had made a couple of plays at the end it would be whole different scenario going on right now."

This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Alan Dell: Lovie bashing has become fashionable thing to do ."