Futile finish for Bucs in 38-10 loss to Carolina Panthers Roy Cummings, The Tampa Tribune, published 4 January, 2016 At one end of the Buccaneers locker room late Sunday, a group of defensive linemen joked and laughed out loud as they began the process of unwinding from another lost season. At the other, rookie quarterback Jameis Winston sat alone in front of his corner stall with his head in his hands, a steely look of determination on his face and a fire in his belly. If the Bucs are going to break their string of last-place division finishes, which now sits at an NFC-record five, and their eight-year playoff drought, something has to change. And Winston said he knows exactly what it is. “We have to fix the whys,’’ Winston said after the Bucs wrapped up an 0-4 finish to what was once a promising season with a 38-10 loss to the NFC South champion Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. Why are we playing football? We have too many different whys right now. When we all have that same why, the whys that we want to win together and we become that true family, we’re going to be hell, now.’’ There was nothing hellacious about the Bucs on Sunday. They hung with the Panthers for about a quarter, taking an early 3-0 lead when they turned the first of two Lavonte David fumble recoveries into a 39-yard Connor Barth field goal. It was all Carolina after that, though, the now three-time division champion Panthers scoring 24 points in an 18-play, 11-minute span during the second quarter to take control of a game that proved just how enigmatic the Bucs really were this season. Though this 40th edition of the team set a franchise record for yards gained with 6,014, it never developed the defensive panache to keep opponents from running up and down the field and scoring on them. “We didn’t play the kind of ball we eventually need to play,’’ said Bucs coach Lovie Smith, who is 8-24 in two seasons with Tampa Bay. “Too many big plays in the passing game. Our play back there, safe to say, has not been up to par and we need to do something about it.’’ It was their lack of an adequate pass rush, their inability to defend the pass and take the ball away that did them in time and again, including Sunday, when Panthers quarterback Cam Newton was allowed to complete 21 of 26 passes for 293 yards and two touchdowns. But Winston suggested there’s more to the Bucs’ woes than that. Part of the problem, he admitted, was his own lack of consistency, which showed up again Sunday. Winston completed 29 of 47 passes for 325 yards and became only the third NFL rookie and second Bucs quarterback to throw for more than 4,000 yards (4,042). But while throwing no touchdown passes and missing several open targets, he also threw two more interceptions — his 14th and 15th of the season against 22 touchdown passes. Both resulted in Panthers touchdowns. The bigger problem, he suggested, though, is attitude. The Bucs, he said, lack the ability to consistently fight off adversity and, as the quarterback of the team and its new unquestioned leader, he said it’s up to him to change that. “We’re going to create a winning mindset this offseason, I guarantee it,’’ Winston said. “We’re going to create a mindset that you will never give up, a relentless mindset of being able to persevere over adversity. We’re going to have that next year, because that’s me. I’m relentless. I want to win. And this is going to be a long process, but we are going to come back strong and we are going to get better.” Led by Winston, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft, the Bucs improved from 2-14 in 2014 to win six games. But Winston is concerned with more than the team’s record. “I’m worried about getting the mentality right, getting everybody on the same page,” Winston said. “Ending a season 0-4 like that? We’ve got to cut that out. I don’t ever remember losing three games in a row, so there’s no way losing four in a row is going to drive us. It’s got to be in here, in your heart. This game is about will, about taking things. At some point, you’ve got to take a win.’’ Winston even went so far as to address the future makeup of the Bucs’ coaching staff, which he said is part of the solution and not the problem. “If we didn’t have the good coaches, if they weren’t on us, I guarantee you we would not have won six games this year, because I guarantee you some of our coaches want it more than some of our players, and that’s the bad part,’’ Winston said. “Our coaches want it. They’re up there working for hours. They don’t get to see their families. I know our coaches want it. We need to get our guys to put in the work like our coaches put in. That’s when you become successful. But we’re going to get it. ... It’s just a little slight construction here and there. We’re going to get it. Everybody’s going to get on the right track.’’