TAMPA, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Buccaneers return to practice Monday following a four-day break during their bye week.

They’re 1-5 and coming off a humiliating 48-17 loss to Baltimore. But coach Lovie Smith repeatedly has been preaching patience.

“The only message I can give is that it’s seven and a half minutes left to go in the second quarter and we’re behind," Smith said. “We understand that, but the games don’t decide the winner then, you have to play it out and that’s what we’re going to do. What we need to do these next two games -- starting with this next game -- is for us to just get better while we have time this week, which we’re doing. I would tell the fans that we are getting better and look at the overall picture of where we are. We’ve been very disappointed in our play two weeks (against Baltimore and Atlanta), there’s no way to sugarcoat that. The other four games, that was a decent football team that hasn’t figured out how to win consistently yet, but I would say I understand, we’re disappointed right now, but things will change.”

Smith’s optimism is nice. However, fans are getting a little tired of hearing how the Bucs are improving but continue losing. Some things have to change.

Smith has made it clear he’s not going to shake up his coaching staff or switch schemes. That’s good because you can’t make changes like that in the middle of the season.

But I think we’ll see some changes coming out of the bye. The one thing the Bucs can change is personnel. Smith is not going to put a whole new team on the field, but I expect there to be some changes in the starting lineup. There are numerous players who aren’t getting the job done right now. I’m expecting Smith to look at some alternatives.