TAMPA, Fla. -- The quiet rumblings from Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans calling for coach Dirk Koetter's job turned to listless groans after the Bucs lost to the Carolina Panthers 22-19 on Sunday. It was their fifth straight loss and fourth in a row by three points or in overtime, and the seventh time they lost having scored 20 points or fewer.
On one hand, quarterback Jameis Winston's play over the past two weeks has brought some optimism. On Monday night against Atlanta, he produced the second-highest passer rating of his career with a 130.5. Against the Panthers on Sunday, he beat that and nearly beat his personal best with a 131.1.
On the other hand, the Bucs went 1-for-6 in the red zone (16.7 percent), where they've sputtered not just this year but in the two years that Koetter has been coach and the three that he's been calling plays, despite outfitting the offense with increased talent each year.
Koetter even admitted it, saying, "I should have given better calls in the red zone. I stunk in the red zone, but we just didn’t get it done."
In 2017, the Bucs have 48 percent red zone efficiency, which is 25th in the league. They're also tied for second in the league in red zone turnovers. They attempted 35 passes from within the red zone into the end zone, more than any other team in the league, but managed to complete only 13 of them (37.1 percent, 18th in the league). With one game left, the Bucs' 49.3 completion percentage in the red zone is 22nd in the league. Inside the 10-yard line, they are 21st in the league in scoring.
In the past two years, with Koetter as coach, the Bucs are tied for 25th in the league in red zone efficiency (50 percent), which is actually almost three percentage points worse than in 2014 when the Bucs didn't even have an offensive coordinator because Jeff Tedford took a leave of absence. Marcus Arroyo had never even called plays in the NFL before. Let that sink in for a moment.
Do you know why the Bucs were so good at tackling in their heyday? Because then-defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin had them do tackling drills ad nauseam. His former players still talk about it. Granted, the rules regarding padded practices have since changed, but the Bucs should have been devoting that type of effort to red zone work in training camp. There were some days they didn't do any red zone work at all.
The staff has preached patience, but it's difficult when the rest of the league seems to be operating on a different timetable and the Bucs have been left in the dust.
Sean McVay, who wasn't even born yet when Koetter took his first college coaching job, took the Los Angeles Rams from being dead last in the league in scoring under Jeff Fisher (14 points a game) to third in 2017 (27.93), just behind the Eagles and Patriots. They had a 47.1 percent red zone efficiency rating in 2016 (25th in the league) and have jumped to 56.1 percent, 12th in the league.
Doug Pederson has taken the Eagles from averaging 20 points per game in 2015 and in 2016, his first year, to averaging 28.71 points per game, the most in the league. They went from 52.5 percent in the red zone, 23rd in the league in Chip Kelly's final year in 2015, to a league-leading 67.3 percent.
The Jaguars went from averaging 18.93 points per game in 2016, 24th in the league, to 23.87, seventh in the league, with Doug Marrone taking over.
What's even more impressive is that the Rams and Eagles have done it with second-year quarterbacks, while Marrone has made it work with Blake Bortles, a quarterback whom the majority of the league had given up on.
Heck, Jimmy Garoppolo led San Francisco to 38 points Sunday under first-year coach Kyle Shanahan. In Garoppolo's past three starts, the Niners have averaged just less than 30 points a game, despite his having the playbook for just more than one month.
Koetter has had Winston, Mike Evans, Adam Humphries, Cameron Brate, Doug Martin, Charles Sims, Ali Marpet, Donovan Smith and Demar Dotson in the same system for three years, but they're averaging 18.87 points per game, which is actually slightly worse than the 19.87 they averaged in 2015 before Koetter took over.
The rest of the NFC South -- the Panthers, Saints and Falcons -- all have averaged better than 24 points a game going back to 2015, making it tough for the Bucs to win many games. It also does nothing to quiet the fans who are calling for the return of former coach Jon Gruden, whom they believe can give their offense a much-needed spark.