Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebackers coach Mark Duffner will become defensive coordinator after Mike Smith was let go following the team's embarrassing 29-34 loss against the Atlanta Falcons.
Smith served in that role since 2016, but had watched his defense earn itself rankings of 31st in yards allowed and 32nd in points allowed as the Bucs got off to a 2-3 start in a 2018 campaign which has seen the Bucs look like garbage in spite of the fact that the team knocked off the defending Super Bowl champ Philadelphia Eagles in week two.
"As I have said in the past, the issues we have had as a team are never one person’s fault. During good times, as well as the bad, it is a collective effort between the coaches and the players," head coach Dirk Koetter said. "We all understand that this is a result-based profession and our results to this point have not met our standards."
The statement from Koetter, ironically, sounds a bit to a similar something the head coach said after week three's loss to the Chicago Bears.
“We were horrific in all aspects of football today, all aspects,” Koetter said after the 10-48 loss. “Based on that game today, we couldn’t make enough changes. We should fire every person that was on that field today, starting with me. That was horrific.”
That statement may ring prophetic if the Bucs lose to the Cleveland Browns in front of the home crowd at Raymond James Stadium on October 21.
Despite the bad news, the 2-3 Buccaneers are just two games behind New Orleans in the NFC South race, and the team's offense ranks second in the league in yards per game, first in passing yards per game and seventh in points per game.
This article appears in Oct 11-18, 2018.