Former Bucs coach Jon Gruden was calling the Monday Night Football game between his old team and the Panthers, and during the broadcast he offered an analysis of coach Dirk Koetter.

“I think coach Koetter lost confidence in [Jameis] Winston after he forced the ball into a double zone,” Gruden said.

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The ESPN announcer was criticizing the fact Tampa Bay had called a run on third down with nine yards to go, typically a passing play. When asked about Gruden's comments Tuesday, Koetter said that couldn't be further from the truth.

“That wasn’t a lack of confidence,” Koetter said. “Again, when analysts say stuff like that, that’s like — when Jon [Gruden] was coaching and someone said that about him, you know what he’d be standing up here saying? ‘That guy doesn’t know what I’m thinking or anything about my team.’ He gets paid to talk on T.V. I get paid to coach the Bucs.

“Those guys can say whatever they want. Yeah, we ran it on third-and-nine. You know what? We also ran it on third-and-three and third-and-five and we were two out of three running the ball on third down and we weren’t nearly that successful throwing the ball. It had no reflection at all on my confidence in Jameis Winston. There can be no person on this planet, other than his parents, that’s more confident in Jameis Winston than me.”

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The Bucs ended up winning that game, and Winston avoided turning the ball over for the first time all season. Whatever Koetter did, it seemed to have worked out.