TAMPA, Fla. -- Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith has acknowledged that rookie quarterback Jameis Winston will experience growing pains.

On Monday, Smith made clear that the team's offensive staff is doing everything possible to make Winston's transition to the NFL as simple as possible.

"We're not putting him in a position to face failure," Smith said. "We're calling plays that we think we can be successful with. ... Believe me, we're not trying to put our quarterback in a bad position."

Winston had a role in five turnovers that led to 27 points for the Carolina Panthers on Sunday as the Bucs dropped to 1-3 on the season. He completed 26 of 43 passes for 287 yards with two touchdowns, but he was intercepted a season-high four times.

The former Heisman Trophy winner has been inconsistent through four games. He has completed 73 of 133 passes for 965 yards with six touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 71.2 passer rating. He had just one pick combined in Weeks 2 and 3, but he threw six interceptions total in Weeks 1 and 4.

"Everything that we think you can do, you should do, we're doing," Smith said. "Each week, we learn something different. Again, we've gone through the first quarter of the season only. And so there are things that we're finding out we can and can't do. Then we'll adjust from there. We can't run the ball each snap, and we don't have to. I'm going to say [this] again -- this wasn't a good performance [Sunday]. We've had two performances that we could win with. We've had two that we haven't been able to win with."

Carolina's defense, led by cornerback Josh Norman's two interceptions, proved opportunistic when Winston made poor reads. The rookie should receive a more favorable matchup next Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are 26th in the NFL in pass defense by allowing 278.5 yards per game.

"Jameis had a tough day [Sunday], all right," Smith said. "When you have a quarterback who is going through a tough situation, you try to run the football and get your running game going, which we were able to do, maybe lean on it a little bit more. But when you get behind, you can't do that either. So Jameis will be fine. Tough day at the office [Sunday]. He'll bounce back this week."