Pin Bucs' loss on timid coaching Gary Shelton, The Tampa Bay Times, published 15 September 2014 This time, however, the real shortcoming for the Bucs could be measured in the guts of the play-calling down to stretch. The Bucs came up short. And don't the less aggressive teams usually do? The Bucs lost this game because they didn't trust their quarterback enough. They lost because they went for the lead and not for the win. They lost because they did not attack. At 0-2, that's a heck of a reality to live with. Go back to the end of the third quarter, when the Bucs were clinging to a 14-13 lead that no one thought was going to hold up. But that was okay. The Bucs had third and 7 at the Rams 9, after all. A few more points there, and the Bucs would be in fine shape headed into the final quarter. Just like that, the meek inherited the playbook. The Bucs played it safe. They ran Bobby Rainey off left guard, and he made only 3 yards — less than half the distance needed for a first down. Even worse, the Bucs' 24-yard field goal was blocked. Tampa Bay ended up with zilch for the drive. Why? Why run a surrender play there? Why turtle with the game there to be won? Why not go for the throat? Yes, Rainey had a wonderful game — 144 yards on 22 carries — but he isn't exactly the largest guy to be running in the red zone on third and 7. Think about it. Even if Rainey busts it for 6, you still have to kick the field goal. "That's what we called at the time," Bucs coach Lovie Smith said. "It didn't work, right? We'd like to have that play over. That's on us as coaches. We can call a better play in that situation right there. We're going to start to handle some situations better, and we'll start to win football games." Ah, but never fear. The Bucs would get another chance. In the fourth quarter they had second and 2 at the Rams 16. This time, the Bucs gave the ball to Mike James. Twice. For no gain and a loss of 2. "That play, we would run that over again," Smith said. "We put ourselves in position to put points on the board. In a game like that, we get those points, we win the football game." Okay, I'll grant Smith the second third-down run, but not the first. And you have to admit, running on third down on two straight series sure looks a lot like a team trying to avoid its quarterback in the clutch. Contrast that with the way the Rams played. On their last third and 1, they trusted third-team quarterback Austin Davis to throw for 9 yards. On third and 9, he threw for 27. In other words, the Rams went after the opposing defense with a lot more vigor than the Bucs did. It was as if Tampa Bay could not bring itself to believe it was losing to a team quarterbacked by Davis. Surely, the Rams would realize their situation and fold. Wouldn't they? No, they wouldn't. If nothing else, losing this way is going to send chills up the spines of Bucs fan, because former coach Greg Schiano used to lose like this a lot back in those days when he was terrified of his own quarterback, Josh Freeman. Invariably, he would run on third down, and he wouldn't make it, and he would trust his defense, and it wouldn't hold. Hey, it's a fact. Most of the time, unless it's short yardage, third down is a throwing down in the NFL. Oh, a draw play every now and then, just to mix it up, can work. But third down is the quarterback's down. It separates winners and losers. McCown was asked if he felt the offense was trying to play around him. "I hope not," he said. "I guess if we were, we would have run it every down." Instead, the Bucs ran it only on the most crucial downs. Yes, it was enough for them to get the lead. On the other hand, they couldn't hold it. They lost the game. Why? Because when it was there to be taken, they weren't daring enough to pull it off.