Loss to Panthers exposes Bucs' numerous problems Gary Shelton, The Tampa Bay Times, published 8 September 2014 The ending was great. The movie was lousy. So, would you like to see it again? That's where we are with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the nice, misleading way they concluded their defeat against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday. They almost won. Yippee. They came close to erasing their own ineptitude. Yay. They almost made you forget the way they sleepwalked for 3˝ quarters. Yahoo. There are finishes to games that seem to have nothing at all to do with the reality of the first 50 minutes of play. This game was like that. The Bucs finished in a flurry, and they gave fans a reason to hope, and somehow, if a safety had caught an interception, they still could have won. The networks would have shown the finish, and maybe a shot of Cam Newton on the sideline, and the rest of it would have been forgotten. But down deep, we would know. And, yes, we would fear what lies ahead. There are problems — huge, cavernous problems— that stand between the Bucs and the rest of their season. The offense is so bad that there are times you want to get out and push. The defense cannot get off the field, not even when the immortal Derek Anderson — who was cramping, for crying out loud — is keeping them out there. The quarterback, Josh McCown, is a career backup who is a couple of firsts downs short of elite. The offensive line is in flux, especially after losing Logan Mankins to an injury Sunday. The running backs cannot get air. And so on. So, yeah, you can talk about a nice finish that made a final score closer. Or you can fret about problems that look as if they will be here for awhile. That's the problem with a team coming back to life, you know. First, it has to be dead. For most of Sunday, the Bucs were. For 3˝ quarters, you could have argued that Tampa Bay might have had the worst 2014 season debut in the NFL, maybe even worse than St. Louis or Kansas City or Washington. After all, Tampa Bay was the franchise with the new coach, the new general manager, the new uniforms, the 10 new starters, the new energy. And, splat. Consider this: After three quarters, McCown had a rating of 29.2, which is low even in the category of Bucs quarterbacks named Josh. Poor McCown. He had one play when he fumbled the snap, picked it up, and threw an interception. It's not easy to fumble and throw a pick on the same play. It wasn't all McCown. The offensive line struggled mightily. The tailbacks combined for 11 runs for 13 yards. And the Bucs drives came down to third and 9, third and 6, third and 11, third and 9, third and 12 and third and 14. "We got ourselves into a hole in the first half," said coach Lovie Smith. "We didn't do many things right. I think it was just all errors, and we weren't able to get anything going. You know, you need to establish the run, and we were never able to do that." So here's the money question. How does it get better? And when? Around here, that's the eternal question, isn't it? We're always waiting for the offense to show up. We're always having some quarterback explain away two interceptions, or some offensive lineman talk about being pushed backward, or some running back talk about having nowhere to run. We're always listening to how it's going to be better the next week. "I'll own this one," said McCown. "I made a couple of bad decisions that hurt us, but it doesn't stop where we're going or our growth. That's why it hurts for me. When you go out and make mistakes, it eats at you." Oh, it will be a little easier next week. The Rams aren't quite the Panthers, and they have a backup quarterback, too. But the Bucs have to prove that their offensive line is going to get better, and that this running game will eventually get going, and McCown will at least be efficient. Hey, Smith isn't the first coach to lose his first game here. John McKay lost his first 26. Leeman Bennett lost his first nine. Tony Dungy lost eight of his first nine. Even Jon Gruden, in the year he won the Super Bowl, lost his first game. Still, some of the team's offseason momentum was lost Sunday, big finish or not. If the Bucs want it back, they cannot lie dormant for long.