Jameis Winston's turnovers troubling for Tampa Bay Buccaneers

TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston is killing the Buccaneers with turnovers.

"At that position, taking care of the football is the No. 1 priority, and like I said, I thought we were past this," Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter said Monday. "I was confident we were past it, but we're struggling with it right now and we got to fix it."

Winston is second in the NFL with eight interceptions this season and has lost two fumbles. In Sunday's 27-7 loss to the Denver Broncos, he had a hand in all three first-half turnovers that essentially allowed the Super Bowl champions to build a 17-7 lead.

Winston was intercepted twice by Pro Bowl cornerback Aqib Talib, enabling the Broncos to only go 11 and 27 yards for their first two touchdowns.

Then facing third-and-1 at the Denver 26-yard line, Tampa Bay running back Charles Sims was stopped for no gain and Winston called for him to lateral the ball, resulting in a fumble recovered by Denver.

"Like I said (Sunday) night, it's something we don't need to do," Koetter said.

So how does Koetter "fix it." What specifically can he do to put Winston in better positions to protect the football?

The options are surprisingly limited.

First of all, it depends on what kind of defense the Buccaneers are facing. Not only are the Broncos considered the best defense in the NFL, they combine a fierce pass rush with lock-down cornerbacks across the board, even when you go to three and four receivers.

The plan Sunday was to run the football and Denver had been vulnerable against the run this season. Koetter called 20 run plays in the first half, but they netted only 54 yards.

"Some of that depends on who your next opponent is and what kind of defense they play," Koetter said. "Whether we need to commit more guys to protection so he has a cleaner pocket, and at times yesterday, we did have a clean pocket. Do we need to get more guys out on the route so he does have check-downs available? And at times, that is there."

Against the Falcons, which is primarily a zone coverage team, Winston was able to check the ball down to receivers in soft spots of the defense.

On Sunday, with tighter windows, he tried to force a pass to receiver Adam Humphries, who was well covered on the first series of the game. Talib intercepted an errant throw.

"Quarterbacks always, and Jameis included, they can't force the football," Koetter said. "That first interception, we didn't win with the route. Whether that was a bad play design by me, we didn't execute the play very good. Jameis didn't have a good option. He's got to be able to find another option and there's nothing wrong with punting in a 0-0 game."