A loss like this puzzling in many ways Joe Henderson, The Tampa Tribune, published 12 September 2011 The Buccaneers' effort to improve the "fan experience" at Raymond James Stadium worked smashingly well Sunday on the opening day of the National Football League season, right up until the moment the game actually started. You had to love the touching 9/11 tribute, complete with a rockin' flyover. There was the lump-in-throat acknowledgement of Lee Roy Selmon's greatness, along with proper homage to former Tampa Tribune sports editor Tom McEwen. But it kind of tumbled downhill from there. The Bucs played the first three quarters against Detroit like it was the fifth preseason game or something. What they lacked in offense, they made up for with an abject failure on defense — save, we should duly note, for Aqib Talib's 28-yard interception return for a touchdown. By the way, Talib was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct on that play; shocking, I know. He was also beaten twice for touchdowns by Calvin Johnson, who continues to treat the Bucs' secondary with utter disdain. That, citizens, is how the Bucs experienced a 27-20 loss on opening day. If only Donald Penn had broken one more tackle … We jest, of course. Penn wound up with the ball momentarily in the ol' Stanford Band play on the final play, but any resemblance between the final score and an actual competitive joust is coincidental. The Bucs made a madcap dash in the fourth quarter, but by then they had already been outscored by two touchdowns and trailed 414-128 in total yardage. Four of those yards for the Bucs came in the first quarter. FOUR! And Detroit had 324 yards at halftime, just one yard shy of a record against the Bucs. We've got your fan experience right here! The Bucs were supposed to be "youngry" headed into this season — Raheem Morris' description for young and hungry — but they looked more like a college kid who missed the alarm for his 8 a.m. class. Sleepry, I guess. Afterward, there was usual chatter about how this was just one game and they'd get busy today trying to correct the shortcomings. Ronde Barber told his teammates about the opening loss to New Orleans during the Super Bowl season. Fair point. It is true, though, that a lot of the problems Sunday cropped up in places that the front office spent much time addressing in the offseason, starting with the pass rush. Or, I guess, the no-rush. I don't want to say Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford had an easy afternoon, but the man threw for 305 yards and three touchdowns and if you dusted him you might not find Buc fingerprints, let alone grass stains. "We had opportunities, man, especially on defense," Barber said. "We were in some of the right calls but we didn't make plays on what we knew we had to make plays on. This is Week 1. If this carries over to Week 2, we'll start worrying about it." Every team has its share of stink bombs during a season. In places like Pittsburgh and Atlanta this morning, the wailing and gnashing of teeth is just as pronounced as here. This is where we are, though, and to lose like this is puzzling. This was supposed to be the new-look pass rush, but it looked a lot like the old. Was that Stylez G. White out there? No? Hard to tell. Then there are the limitations on offense, at least in the ground game. LeGarrette Blount isn't part of the hurry-up offense, and when offensive coordinator Greg Olson decided to use that in the second half it basically took Blount out of the game. That's interesting, since Morris has talked about Blount's improvement as a receiver and all that. Josh Freeman doesn't get a pass, either. He wound up passing for 257 yards, but 159 came in the fourth quarter when the Bucs were trying to catch up. A lot of people missed that, either because of the TV blackout or the fact the announced crowd of 51,274 had dwindled to maybe one-fourth of that by the end. You get the idea. Whether this turns out to be a momentary blip in a 16-week season or a harbinger of something more ominous, we won't know for a few weeks. If it's the latter, there could be a new word to describe the fan experience at Ray-Jay.