For a good team, it doesn’t matter. Oh, good teams, as well as bad ones, want to win their opening game. But when you are standing at the end, who really cares how you start.
For a bad team, it doesn’t matter. If a team is going to be terrible, you are just fooling the masses for a week. It is false hope. It is counterfeit football.
But a team that is getting better, for a team that is transforming from nothing to something, the opening game is crucial. There is a message a coach wants validated in his locker room. There is a fanbase to convince that things will be different. There is nation deciding whether your team will be interesting or forgettable.
That’s what’s at stake for the Tampa Bay Bucs: credibility.
Remember this: The Bucs have never won a regular-season game at Raymond James Stadium with Lovie Smith as the coach. Never. The fans here have forgotten what the playoffs feel like. They barely remember what it is to matter.
Now comes a Tennessee Titans team that, by comparison, was also lousy last year. Both the Bucs and Titans were 2-14, and both are looking to second-year coaches and first-year quarterbacks to turn things around.
So, yeah, the first game matters. If Smith is going to convince Tampa Bay that there is something different, something fun, about this football team, well, this is the week to do it. The Saints follow, and then the Texans and then the Panthers. Slip up here, and winning might wait until October.
Think of the locker room. Defensive tackle Gerald McCoy swears this team is diffferent. But does he really believe it? Quarterback Jameis Winston does his sing-song about getting better every day. How would he handle a terrible start? Wouldn’t it be normal to say “here we go again”?
Think of the stands. The Bucs haven’t won a playoff game since the Super Bowl following the 2002 season. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2007. The empty seats have been obvious at the stadium for years, and why not? With the games on TV, why should a fan shell out big money to watch his team lose another one?
For the Bucs, this is a chance to make a proclamation that this is a team on the rise, a team that will eventually be a contender. That Winston is worth seeing. That McCoy is worth cheering for? That Mike Evans is worth the price of his jersey. That Lavonte David is worth his new contract.
Look, it didn’t matter so much in 2002. The Bucs lost their first game of the Jon Gruden era, if you remember, in overtime to the Saints in a 26-20 game. It didn’t really matter, though. And the Bucs won the first game of the Greg Schiano era, beating Carolina 16-10 for a thrill that didn’t last long.
That’s worth remembering. The first game doesn’t always promise success or foretell doom.
What it can do, though, is make a statement.
The Bucs lost their first-ever opener, 20-0 to Houston (the forefathers of the Tennessee Titans, by the way). That meant something, because 25 more losses in a row followed.
The opener mattered in 1979, because it was the first time the Bucs – who won seven games their first three seasons – ever won an opener. More than that, it led to a 5-0 start and the Bucs ended up in the NFC title game.
But winning the first ones\ means there will no long losing streak for the fans to endure with a new coach. John McKay lost his first 26. Leeman Bennett lost his first nine. Richard Williamson his first five (in the season he started), Tony Dungy his first five, Raheem Morris his first seven and Smith his first three. You can’t win a title in September, fans know, but you can pretty much lose one.
Ray Perkins won his first game. Sam Wyche his. Schiano his. The success didn’t last, however.
But openers can matter. Remember 1997, when the Bucs finally ended their streak of losing seasons? They made a statement with a 13-6 victory over a very good San Francisco team, a statement about toughness and defense and playmaking.
There was 2005, when the Bucs beat Minnesota and got off to a 4-0 start. The opener mattered then, a 24-13 game when Cadillac Williams kicked the doors into the NFL. That first month was as good as Williams ever was.
This one may seem silly to you, but it’s easy to wonder what would have happened if the Bucs didn’t lose 18-17 to the Jets in the 2013 opener when a late hit by David on Geno Smith set up the winning field goal. The Bucs lost by two points the next week to New Orleans, and the world caved in. Josh Freeman wore out his welcome, and the team collapsed to a 4-12 finish, and Schiano was fired. If the Bucs had won that one, might that season have gone differently?
Then there was last season. Carolina beat the Bucs with backup quarterback Derek Anderson, and it was obvious this wasn’t going to be a surprise team.
Now, the Bucs have another chance. With Winston, fans seem willing to give the team a clean slate. But can the defense hold up? The running game? The offensive line?
This time, it matters. Being 1-0 doesn’t guarantee anything, but it would hint that better days are ahead.
Aren’t they?
