Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Gerald McCoy Calls Out Teammates

Back in September it looked like everything was lining up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They were the sleeper pick to make the playoffs.

They had a young gun in Jameis Winston at quarterback, a new array of weapons around him and a defense seemingly flush with young talent. They even got an extra tick of motivation after their city was blasted by Hurricane Irma. They certainly played that way with their 29-7 thrashing of the Chicago Bears in their home opener. Since then though it’s been a long string of “meh” mixed with downright bad.

While the team has no trouble passing, they rank 29th in rushing on offense. This is a persistent problem that people were worried about at the start of the season. Except problems go beyond that. Defensively they’re not making the plays they did a year ago. They rank 17th against the run and 30th against the pass, allow 24 points per game.

People have been quick to blame head coach Dirk Koetter and his staff for the problems. However, team captain Gerald McCoy feels that isn’t the problem.

McCoy feels players haven’t held up their end

When asked about what ails his team with nine games left to play at 2-5, the Pro Bowler didn’t mince words. He directly challenged his teammates on the fact they haven’t played at the level needed to win games.

"“At some point, the players just got to make plays,” star defensive tackle Gerald McCoy told me this week. “You can’t put it on the scheme. You can’t blame it on this, blame it on that. Players just got to make plays. We have to fix it. Coaches can give us the game plan, but we’ve got to fix it.”"

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This shouldn’t be surprising. As team leader its McCoy’s job to take drastic measures like this when his team is in desperate need of a spark. Calling them out to the media has been a proven tactic in the past. Tamp Bay needs all the help they can get. With the Saints at 5-2 it’s going to take quite a second half run to pull off that elusive playoff berth. The good news is Tampa has five division games left on the schedule. If they can run the table their odds will skyrocket.