McCown, Bucs offense still question marks Martin Fennelly, The Tampa Tribune, published 8 September 2014 For the longest time Sunday, in his Bucs debut, Josh McCown had us convinced why he watched a lot more than he played in 11 previous NFL seasons. He was McAwful. The boos at Raymond James Stadium rained on him and a pathetic Bucs offense. McCown, 35, made two bone-headed throws, rookie stuff, high-school stuff, rattled, cockamamie choices that led to a pair of Carolina Panthers interceptions that led to touchdowns as the Lovie Smith era began quite badly, a 20-14 loss. Then there were those last nine minutes or so, a McFlurry, when McCown looked like the guy who starred as a Bears substitute last season. He hit on eight passes and threw in a nifty 13-yard scramble as he led two late drives and threw two touchdowns. The Bucs, whether they deserved it or not (they deserved it not) suddenly had a chance to win this game from 17-0 down, and might have done it if Dashon Goldson had brought his hands to the ball yard or Bobby Rainey hadn’t fumbled. Back to the QB. Which one was the real Josh? Both of them. I think we decided that about the old Josh, too. Back to this Josh. “I’ll own this one,” McCown said. He talked about his teammates’ effort: “That’s why it hurts for me. Because I see the work that everybody does, and then you go out and you have a couple of mistakes like that. It eats at you, because you know the time that’s been put in.” McCown dissected his gaffes as if they were on an autopsy table. There was the ball he should have never thrown, in the first quarter, as he was being hauled to the ground. It ended up in the arms of Carolina’s Antoine Cason. “Just going down, trying to make a play. Ill-advised,” McCown said. Then there was the third-quarter comedy reel, worthy of Yucks folklore: a McCown fumble, bouncy ball, a McCown recovery, a throw as he gets hit, should have eaten it, ball slipping out of his hand, again, and a Roman Harper pick. Kids, don’t try this at home ... “Second one, I was trying to throw it quick,” McCown said. “Kind of checked to Mike (Evans) there, ball slipped, I picked it up, I knew the play was dead, I was just trying to throw the ball over Mike’s head and regroup, and then it slipped again. It was unfortunate. Those things can’t happen. They absolutely can’t happen. It’s a hundred percent on me and we’ve got to do better in that area, and we will do better in that area.” Never mind that the Bucs had no run game and the offensive line is horrible and won’t get better if Logan Mankins stays out with that knee injury. Veteran Josh McCown was brought here to not make the kind of mistakes he made Sunday. For most of this game, even factoring in that ferocious Panthers defense, McCown was seriously outplayed by fellow journeyman quarterback Derek Anderson, who hadn’t made a start since 2010, but was in for the injured Cam Newton. You can’t whiff when there’s a backup going. That’s what the Bucs and Lovie did. And McCown was in the middle of the hole they dug. “Sometimes, you’ve just got to take a negative play, not make a bad decision and give the ball up,” Smith said. “Those plays hurt us. ... We’re not going to analyze it too much. He made two bad decisions that he normally wouldn’t. And he won’t do that again. That’s how I’m going to look at it.” True, there were those two touchdown drives ... “He’s a big guy who moves well, and I think you were able to see that today,” Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly said after he sacked McCown once and in the final two minutes forced Rainey’s fumble. “He can get out of the pocket and make something out of nothing sometimes.” Sunday, there was just too much nothing from McCown and the Bucs offense, even with something at the end. “It’s going to get better,” McCown insisted. “It has to get better — period.” I’d use a question mark. A big one.