Buccaneers Are Finally Playoff Hopefuls Again by Doing Things 'The Right Way'

The 2016 NFL season was still young back on Oct. 3. It was the first Monday of October, and Week 4 was nearly complete. The time for blaring alarms and well-worn panic buttons hadn't arrived quite yet.

Or at least that's what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have been repeatedly telling themselves during quiet moments.

The Buccaneers did more than just sputter to a 1-3 start as the season reached its quarter pole. They did their stumbling while acting as the opponent's speed bag.

After winning their season opener over the Atlanta Falcons, the Bucs then lost three straight games by a combined score of 104-46. They scored only seven points in two of those losses and seemed outmatched against a higher caliber of competition in the defending champion Denver Broncos (a 27-7 loss in Week 4).

Nothing about the Buccaneers at that time hinted at a team capable of being in contention for a division title in mid-December and tied with the Falcons atop the NFC South. And nothing about them said they were a team that could do anything with consistency on either side of the ball. They would score 30 points one week and then get outscored by 20-plus points the next.

Most of all, nothing about the Buccaneers told us they were any more than a team with a rookie head coach, a quarterback barely above rookie status himself and other promising though inexperienced starters scattered everywhere.

It was difficult to believe in that version of the Buccaneers. It's tough to have faith in any team with only one win after four games. As ESPN.com's John Clayton noted, only 14 percent of teams that started 1-3 have made the playoffs since 1990 (26 out of 183).

How were the Buccaneers supposed to beat history when they couldn't even muster a win against the lowly Los Angeles Rams?

The answer: by having fun under new head coach Dirk Koetter but doing it the right way.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

"He's one of those guys who doesn't repeat himself," linebacker and defensive leader Lavonte David said. "He's straightforward, and guys respect him. He lets you have fun as long as you do it in the right way. As you can see, we're doing that."

Having a right and wrong way to go about enjoying football may seem like it goes against the very nature of fun. But the foundation of a Koetter team—and by extension, the root of Tampa's turnaround that's now included a five-game winning streak—is fun, but not wild undisciplined fun.

"Last year, we were one of the top penalized teams in the league, and now, we're much more disciplined," David added. "So guys are having fun but doing it the right way. That's all a credit to coach Koetter."

The Buccaneers were even more youthful in 2015 and became unhinged at times. They finished tied for the league lead with 143 penalties, and are now on pace to see 116 yellow hankies thrown in their direction. That's a more manageable and mid-pack total showing growth and maturity—two characteristics found in abundance on a roster colored green in many places.

David seems like a graying veteran at the age of only 26 compared to some of the core defenders around him. He plays alongside fellow linebacker Kwon Alexander, the 22-year-old who's just outside the top 10 in tackles with 104. Then along the boundary is 21-year-old rookie cornerback Vernon Hargreaves.

There's more youth in key places on the other side of the ball, most notably from second-year quarterback Jameis Winston and his 23-year-old primary receiver Mike Evans, who ranks fifth in the league with 1,100 receiving yards.

If feels like something has snapped into place on Tampa's young roster during its winning streak. But the pieces for success may have been there all along, and just a little patience was required.

"The organization has done a great job of putting those young guys together while also adding experienced veterans like Robert Ayers, Brent Grimes and Clinton McDonald," David said. "They've all been through this process before."

"And we also have the type of young guys who already have leadership capabilities too after coming out from college. That's true with guys like Alexander and Hargreaves, and then beside them is a guy like Daryl Smith who has played in the league for a very long time. He's helped the young guys to mature faster."

Beat writers who are around the team daily, like Greg Auman of the Tampa Bay Times, have noticed the impact of Smith's presence too. 

Smith is an example of how a playoff-contending Bucs roster was built with just the right amount of finely aged veterans sprinkled in to guide a maturing group. That's especially true for a suddenly surging defense, one Smith is familiar with after playing under defensive coordinator Mike Smith during his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"You want to give everything to these younger kids," the 34-year-old Smith said when asked about his role as a veteran leader. "You try to get them to understand some of what you've learned along the way. Some of them won't get it until they get older. The older guys used to tell me that when I was young. I didn't understand what they were saying then, but as time went on it started to hit me."

Smith is a rotational part-time player who has been on the field for just under half of Tampa's defensive snaps in 2016 (44.6 percent, according to Pro Football Focus). Meanwhile, defensive end Robert Ayers, another veteran at 31 years old, has been a major contributor during the Buccaneers' season resurrection powered by defense. He's recorded 4.5 sacks over the past five games.

"Defensively we've just started to make sure everyone was communicating," Smith said while pinpointing a reason for the improvement of his unit. "Communication was a big issue the first part of the year. In practice and in meetings we had to make sure everyone knew what they were doing and that we were all on the same page. To me that was the biggest thing because then we were in a better position to make plays."

The efforts of Ayers, Smith and David—who returned an interception for a critical second-half touchdown in Week 13 against the San Diego Chargers—have led to a simple but effective winning formula.

Don't let the other guys score points.

Week	Points Allowed
Week 10 (vs. CHI)	10
Week 11 (@KC)	17
Week 12 (vs. SEA)	5
Week 13 (@SD)	21
Week 14 (vs. NO)	11
Weekly Average	12.8

Even with that one hiccup in Week 13 factored in, the Bucs have still held opponents to a per-game point average of fewer than two touchdowns over their last five games. And the misstep against San Diego wasn't even much of a setback considering the points allowed that week still fell well below the Chargers' per-game scoring average of 26.9 points.

Of those games, two came against top-five scoring offenses fielded by the Chargers and New Orleans Saints. And two came on the road: one against the AFC West-leading Chiefs and one after a cross-country flight to play the Chargers. Oh, and one win also came against the NFC West-leading Seattle Seahawks.

The Bucs have delivered a loud message. They're rising fast and can compete against top-tier competition. They believe that, too, and have all season.

"There's a quiet confidence now," center Joe Hawley said. "We come in and know we can beat good teams in this league. We've proven it at this point. I don't think we go into games now with any doubt. We go into games with the belief we'll win if we do our job and execute."

"That's half the battle. You need to enter games with confidence, and we're getting that rolling now. Whereas before we'd go into big games thinking a win would obviously be great, but that doubt lingered."

Confidence is quite the weapon, and the Buccaneers will need plenty of it Sunday night when they face yet another potentially season-defining test on the road against the Dallas Cowboys.

The Cowboys may be coming off a deflating loss, but it was only the second game they've dropped all season. They still have the league's fifth-ranked offense and a running back in Ezekiel Elliott who's averaging 131.8 yards from scrimmage per game.

Dallas will present the toughest challenge yet for these young Bucs. But forgive them if they're still glowing a little after tasting late-season success.

Prior to 2016, the Bucs had a winning record entering December just three times since 2008. They strolled into the month of eggnog and elves on shelves one game above .500 after Week 12, and have since added two more wins.

We can point to a lot of reasons for why the Bucs are in division-title contention after their sluggish start. The rapidly developing quarterback who's thrown 14 touchdown passes and just four interceptions since a Week 6 bye has sure helped. As has the infusion of youth gaining confidence with each game, all while thriving in a light but disciplined team culture.

But all of it—the talent development and the fun done right—comes back to Koetter. He went from offensive coordinator to head coach on the Bucs sideline, offering precious continuity to a team that needed it most.

And now he's inching closer to ending a playoff drought that's run for eight seasons and through four head coaches.

"He likes to teach us to live in the moment, but don't let that moment get too big," Hawley said. "And don't put a Superman cape on while trying to make plays that either aren't there or aren't yours."

"He's just such a good teacher, and he's so positive."

Positivity, fun and steadiness. That just about sums up Koetter so far, and his 2016 Buccaneers.