Lovie Smith has to fear for his job after second blowout loss

Lovie Smith could be looking for a new job next offseason. Four games into the season, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers look like a complete disaster for the fourth time in five years, and getting blown out 37-23 by the Carolina Panthers in your own stadium does not help.

There are no excuses for Lovie Smith at this point. He's had two years to put together his roster, and there are only a few players left on the team that he didn't sign, draft, or re-sign. His defense is in the second year of this system and after looking solid at the end of last year, they've now collapsed once again. The Bucs have had chances to be competitive and even win the past two games, but they've consistently thrown it away with inexplicable, terrible plays. If that doesn't get corrected, Lovie Smith will be out of a job at the end of the season.

One major factor hurting Lovie Smith with Bucs fans right now is that he has yet to win a game at home. The fans keep coming to the stadium, somehow, yet they've seen his teams get blown out five times in ten games. That's absurd and unacceptable.

That said, Smith won't get fired during the season. The Bucs didn't do that when Raheem Morris' Bucs lost ten games in a row. They didn't do it when Greg Schiano turned the team into the laughing stock of the league. They're not about to start doing it with a veteran head coach. And rightly so: it's not like firing coaches midseason ever helps anyone -- the only thing it accomplishes is appease a disgruntled fanbase with a cosmetic but ultimately meaningless move.

That also means Lovie Smith will likely have the rest of the season to turn it around. If Jameis Winston looks better the rest of the way and the team manages to win enough games down the stretch to give the Glazers and the fans some hope, Lovie Smith will likely keep his job. That's a very big if, though.