Three games into the season Broncos fans have every reason to keep on celebrating. Not only is the team off to a 3-0 start, they are showing no signs of a “Super Bowl hangover.” That, according to Nate Lundy and Shawn Drotar of Mile High Sports Radio, has everything to do with the culture of winning in Denver. Down in Tampa, where the Broncos will play next, things aren’t so positive.
Following a 37-32 loss to the Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Dirk Koetter cast some serious doubt about the current culture in his locker room.
“I’m talking about the culture of our football team,” Koetter said postgame. “I’m talking about the 53 players, the 10 practice squad guys and however many coaches we have. The guys that are coming up with the game plan, putting the game plan together and trying to execute the game plan…we’re just missing something…it’s my job to speak up. I feel like sometimes we find too many ways to lose a game instead of creating ways to win a game.”
That’s great news for a Denver Broncos team whose confidence is only growing after a breakout performance by first-year starter Trevor Siemian in Week 3. Denver currently sits as a three-point favorite heading their matchup with Tampa Bay.
Lundy and Drotar expect Denver to be far more dominant than the point spread would suggest. A team questioning its identity is one that’s ready to lose, especially when facing an opponent like this Denver Broncos team.
As Bucsnation.com observed, Koetter is the latest in a long line of Bucs coaches trying to change the culture in Tampa.
In 2009, Raheem Morris said, “We haven’t had the success you would like, but there is no passive, ‘it’s OK’ type of mentality. Those guys are hurting. They want to win those games.”
Just after his termination in 2013, Greg Schiano said, “I’m proud of the culture we created here. On the field I think we’re closer than people think.”
The following year, the Bucs would win just two games under Lovie Smith.
Just last year Smith stepped up the rhetoric, saying, “The first thing we talk about us playing hard … Our players are saying that’s the culture that we have around here, but you need to see it.”
Over the span of seven years and four different head coaches, the message is the same: The culture is changing. The results, however, have remained the same. Since 2009, Tampa Bay has just one winning season (2010), and has won six or fewer games five times. As Lundy, Drotar and Bucsnation.com all observe, the only thing that seems to change in Tampa Bay is the messenger.
The Bucs are once again a team facing a “culture” crisis. That times out very well for a Broncos team that is only improving with each passing week.
Hear more about the Bucs’ struggles, as well what makes the Broncos culture so successful, in the podcast below…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/9-28-16-changing-the-culture-in-tampa-with-dirk-koetter-lundy-drotar
Catch Nate Lundy and Shawn Drotar weekdays from 7a-9a on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.