Bucs squander another lead in 22-17 loss to Browns The first thing Gerald McCoy noticed when Lovie Smith walked into the locker room at FirstEnergy Stadium late Sunday afternoon was the frustration on his coach’s face. Then he heard the anger in his voice. Later, McCoy wondered out loud if anyone else heard it. Less than two weeks after calling out his teammates for playing too soft, McCoy questioned whether enough of his teammates care enough to keep the losses from piling up. “Everybody’s frustrated, but I don’t think anybody’s upset enough with losing,’’ McCoy said after the Bucs stumbled through a 22-17 setback to the Browns that reduced their record to 1-7. “It’s like ‘OK, we had a lot of good plays and they came back and won, now onto the next one.’ No, we’ve got to stop that. I’ve been dealing with this for five years now, and I’m tired of it.’’ So is Demar Dotson. The Bucs’ right tackle, who also backed McCoy’s claim that Tampa Bay played too soft, echoed his defensive captain’s comments regarding attitudes inside the locker room. “Coach came in here today and said guys got to get sick and tired of losing,’’ Dotson said. “I think that’s what Gerald was feeding off of. And Coach is right, and Gerald’s right. “You got to step over some pride, because right now we’re the laughing stock of the NFL. There has to come a point where you get tired of being the laughing stock of the league. There has to come a point where you have to take a little pride in what you’re doing. Someone has to make a play and help this team win. It’s been the same stuff every week.’’ That’s were Dotson is wrong. It hasn’t been the same stuff that keeps the Bucs from winning every week. It’s been something different every week. This time around, it was special teams, which gave up a blocked field goal and a deflected punt and committed a penalty that allowed the Browns to turn a field-goal try into a touchdown. The Bucs also squandered three points and created two situations that led to 11 Browns points. “Those were all blunders that really cost us in the end,’’ Smith said. The punt, ruled a deflection rather than a block because the ball traveled 1 yard to the Bucs 35-yard line, probably cost the Tampa Bay the most. Coming early in the fourth quarter, with the Bucs leading 17-16, it set the stage for Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer’s 34-yard winning touchdown pass to Taylor Gabriel. The Bucs, though, shad a chance to win at the end. As they have on so many occasions, though, they failed to make the necessary plays when opportunities presented themselves. That was certainly the case during their last drive, when the Bucs failed on three straight tries to gain the 1 yard needed to keep the chains moving in the final minute. That sequence began immediately after the two-minute warning, when wide receiver Vincent Jackson dropped a short Mike Glennon pass on second-and-1 from the Browns 37. One play later, rookie wideout Mike Evans negated his own first-down reception by being flagged for pass interference. Then Glennon overthrew tight end Austin Seferian Jenkins on fourth-and-11. “Second-and-1, third-and-1, we should be able to get that easy,’’ said Evans, who led the Bucs with seven receptions for 124 yards and two 24-yard touchdowns. “And then we do get it, but it’s negated by a penalty. I was confused. I don’t know how you can call that in the first five yards (from the line of scrimmage). I was told you can get away with a lot of stuff there.’’ Smith wasn’t about to blame the loss on the officiating. The Bucs simply have to learn to overcome penalties, which is easier to do, he said, when you’re not making mistakes. In particular, he said, the Bucs have to avoid the type of mistakes Glennon made in throwing two interceptions, especially the one in the red zone two plays after the Bucs intercepted Hoyer. “We got our turnover,’’ Smith said of the mid-second quarter sequence, “then we turned the ball right back over to them. Good football teams don’t do that. But, we’re not a good football team o08right now. That’s obvious. “There’s no doubt we’re headed in the right direction, but you say that about four games ago. We have to find a way to win a game is what we have to do. And that’s what we haven’t been able to figure out. And we’re running out of time. We’re at the halfway point in our season now. It’s about November football - playing your best ball right now, and we haven’t. But eventually we’ll get this figured out.’’