A lot of people were high on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers heading into the 2014 season. They made a seemingly great coaching hire in Lovie Smith and acquired a veteran quarterback who was coming off a great year with the Chicago Bears in Josh McCown. No one had more faith in Tampa Bay than Herm Edwards.
Back in May, Edwards predicted that the Bucs and Pittsburgh Steelers would square off in Super Bowl 48. The ESPN analyst, who worked as an assistant with the Bucs from 1996-2000, felt that the Bucs would have an improved roster, better coaching and strong defense. Did anyone watch Thursday Night Football?
While it should be noted that the Bucs were without defensive leader Gerald McCoy, they were absolutely destroyed by the Atlanta Falcons. Tampa Bay’s 56-14 loss could go down as the worst for any NFL team this season. The Bucs were down 56-0 heading into the fourth quarter before Atlanta took its foot off the gas.
Analysts swing and miss all the time, and we usually let them slide. Predicting outcomes in football is arguably more difficult than any of the other four major sports, as teams go from first to last and last to first each season. Having said that, I wonder how Herm is feeling about his NFC champ these days. I bet he’d like a mulligan.
