Evidently Steve "The Big Dawg" Duemig is reporting that Coach Morris will be retained for at least another year. This of course has provoked mixed feelings. But for those Bucs fans who are disappointed and wanted the Bucs to fire Coach Morris, I ask only one thing of you. Please be consistent.
What I mean is that for most of the season when we were losing all I heard was how we didn't have any talent on the team, especially on defense. How the defensive line couldn't start for anybody else. How Barrett Ruud was terrible because he never made any plays in the backfield. And about how horrible Sabby Piscetelli is. (ok I admit I said that also)
On offense our line couldn't block anybody, none of our quarterbacks were worth a damn, Caddy had lost a step and Derrick Ward was overrated, and of course bashing Michael Clayton could never get old (again I confess, yes I was a party to that too).
Now after a little bit of success and the team at least getting a few wins and showing improvement all of a sudden the same folks who previously complained about our lack of talent, NOW complain about our record and because we lost to the Falcons.
So..........we suck as far as our talent level, but......we should be in the playoffs. Uhmm sorry, that doesn't compute.
Now if you think we have a dearth of talent that's fine, and at least in a few cases I will agree with you. But then you have to admit that with the talent we have it wasn't likely that we were going to win a bunch of games this year anyway.
However if you think all of the loses were all because of Coach Morris, then you would have to embrace the notion that we already have enough talent to get us in the playoffs. Now at certain positions I can agree with you, but at others I am going to ask for some of what you are smoking. Still, you are entitled to your own opinion, but what you can't turn around and say is that we need to spend more money on free agents and draft picks. I mean hell, according to you the Bucs are already stacked and just need a better leader.
Now I have made it known that I was hoping Coach Morris would come back and I have said exactly why he should, so more than likely I am not going to see eye to eye with the guys who didn't want him back anyway. But at the very least if you are consistent then we can have a rational discussion about it. If you try to say we don't have much talent and also say we should have won a lot more, I am going to basically have to just get up and walk away.
Well, that's my heads up to y'all out there. Now you can't say I didn't warn you.
What I mean is that for most of the season when we were losing all I heard was how we didn't have any talent on the team, especially on defense. How the defensive line couldn't start for anybody else. How Barrett Ruud was terrible because he never made any plays in the backfield. And about how horrible Sabby Piscetelli is. (ok I admit I said that also)
On offense our line couldn't block anybody, none of our quarterbacks were worth a damn, Caddy had lost a step and Derrick Ward was overrated, and of course bashing Michael Clayton could never get old (again I confess, yes I was a party to that too).
Now after a little bit of success and the team at least getting a few wins and showing improvement all of a sudden the same folks who previously complained about our lack of talent, NOW complain about our record and because we lost to the Falcons.
So..........we suck as far as our talent level, but......we should be in the playoffs. Uhmm sorry, that doesn't compute.
Now if you think we have a dearth of talent that's fine, and at least in a few cases I will agree with you. But then you have to admit that with the talent we have it wasn't likely that we were going to win a bunch of games this year anyway.
However if you think all of the loses were all because of Coach Morris, then you would have to embrace the notion that we already have enough talent to get us in the playoffs. Now at certain positions I can agree with you, but at others I am going to ask for some of what you are smoking. Still, you are entitled to your own opinion, but what you can't turn around and say is that we need to spend more money on free agents and draft picks. I mean hell, according to you the Bucs are already stacked and just need a better leader.
Now I have made it known that I was hoping Coach Morris would come back and I have said exactly why he should, so more than likely I am not going to see eye to eye with the guys who didn't want him back anyway. But at the very least if you are consistent then we can have a rational discussion about it. If you try to say we don't have much talent and also say we should have won a lot more, I am going to basically have to just get up and walk away.
Well, that's my heads up to y'all out there. Now you can't say I didn't warn you.
i completely agree with every word, and i became a morris supporter the day he admitted a mistake and put it on himself to fix the defense. i hope 2010 will be a better year
ReplyDeletetotally agree the man saved his job when he took over the D and it improved imediately. we don't have the personel to run anything but Tampa 2. so if we change now we are destined for more bad years until we get new players in.
ReplyDeletepersonally i like raheem let him restock the teams talent and he will do fine
ANT
I've always maintained the Bucs have had talent. Is there talent at every position, no, of course not. But there was enough talent to win more than 3 lousy games. I don't think the coaches properly utilized the talent they had. This whole season was pretty much a waste of time as Morris had to learn the hard way that the schemes his coaches were using didn't fit the personnel.
ReplyDeleteMy main beef is with the cheap ass Glazers. They are only spending the bare minimum. Every decision made in the last year was about saving money (the NFL minimium forced them to spend a little -- K2 & Clayton, for example). The Bucs lead the league in undrafted FA's -- that's cheap!
After a couple years of not spending, I think Allen and Gruden said fuck it, we're spending the cap money (Allen said as much a week before they were fired). As a result the Glazers fired them and replaced them with the cheapest thing they could find. The Glazer's plan is to ride these guys through the CBA and potential lockout to save money. Maybe after that, they'll start spending, but I'm not holding my breath. The way I see it, the Bucs probably won't be competitive until sometime after 2012.
Morris is just a pawn and will be let go if there is a lockout after next year. The Glazers won't spend any money so he has no chance to succeed. I felt if the Glazers hired a big name coach, that means the purse strings would be open and the new guy would be in position to be succeed.
So, in my mind next year will mirror this year - another losing season with a turnaround nowhere in sight.
@Lewis
ReplyDeleteBut you see therein lies the rub. Yes we had enough talent to probably win a few more games and yes for at least the first half of the season or longer we were using schemes that did not fit our talent. BUT and this is a big ass but, Coach Morris got it right for at least the final 6 games. He didn't just stand pat, instead opting to take over the defense and to direct his offense to become more run oriented which fit our strengths. Whether we sign more free agents this year or not our talent level should be raised because some of our young guys like Geno Hayes for instance will have another year under their belt and should show progress. We also have a lot of picks in the first 3 rounds of the draft relatively. And now we will have the ability to start the year with schemes that actually fit our talent. He who spends the most doesn't always win as any Redskins or Cowboys fan will tell you (myself included). Now I am as frustrated as anybody with our lack of spending this year, especially after losing the core of both our offense and defense in the off season so I am not excusing that. But what I am saying is that with a few good moves personnel wise we can at least start to see a major turnaround next year.
Understand that by no means am I saying Coach Morris is a great coach or that he will definitely lead us to the promised land. What I am saying is that he showed me over the course of this season that he has the potential to be that. For all I know he will flame out next year and get fired. But from what I have seen I don't expect that to happen.
One thing that I don't think has been talked about near enough is how many guys we lost this year to injury and still ended up finishing up the season relatively strongly. Remember that Sabby Piscetelli probably wouldn't have played more than the first 4 games had Jermaine Phillips stayed healthy and a lot of the tackles he missed I feel pretty sure Flip would have made. Then remember that most of the off season Flip was supposed to be our starting Will linebacker, that is until Tanard Jackson got suspended. So all of a sudden Geno is thrown into the starting line up even though he wasn't running with the ones most of the off season. Through the course of the year we lost several defensive backs to injury, our starting fullback to injury and although it probably was a net plus we also lost Clayton to injury for awhile. Yesterday we had only one back up tailback for Caddy, and that was a rookie recently called up from the practice squad. We went out competed against the Falcons without our starting fullback, without our starting tailback, and without our starting left defensive end all of whom we lost in the prior week. And it was still a game pretty much until the very end.
You put all that together and the potential for a much better season next year is tremendous. Its not guaranteed by a long shot, but I for one am optomistic with the direction we are going.
I for one think this is great news, Morris never had a chance this season, but he and Dominick did what had to be done, they jettisoned old dead weight that was bringing this team down. Look at the moves made prior to the season, releasing Brooks, Dunn, Galloway, Hilliard, Buchannon, Garcia, etc, how many were even looked at by other teams, Brooks had a tryout, a tryout with Chi, no contract was offered, Galloway signed with NE, but was cut for lack of production, then signed by Pittsburgh in Dec as an injury backup,Phillip Buchannon signed with the Lions, and Garcia couldn't even start in Oakland, the rest are out of the league, I would say that was some mighty good player evaluation, would any of them helped out this year, maybe, but the you still would not know what you had, and then you might as well have kept Gruden who like Parcells never met a veteran he wouldn't sign. The Bucs will be better next season just from the experience of this season, Morris will be one year more experienced, Freeman will have a full offseason as THE Bucs QB, and we have a huge amount of draft picks. Some changes do need to be made, a successful veteran OC needs to be brought in, Olsen needs to concentrate on just being the QB coach, nothing more, move Freeman into the house and teach him from morning to night, then send him to Phoenix in Feb so he can do the McNabb QB camp with the rest of the elite QBs and receivers, learning from your peers sometimes works better than learning from a coach who has never had a 360 DT coming full speed at him. Good luck Rah, I for one am rooting for you to succeed, because if you do succeed, the Bucs succeed.
ReplyDelete@thenewemployee
ReplyDeleteI have to correct you on a few things. First Brooks was offered contracts by at least 3 different teams. He turned them down however because the offers weren't big enough and he was making good money doing commentary. Without question he could have helped the Bucs this year as he would have been an upgrade over any linebacker we had playing and thats besides the leadership skills in the lockerroom that he possesses. Jeff Garcia SHOULD have been starting in Oakland but their crazy ass owner decreed that JaMarcus Russell had to start so instead of allowing some fat ass lazy bum start in front of him while he sat on the bench Garcia left instead. The Raiders coach damn near said as much and may well lose his job this week because he finally couldn't take it anymore and benched Russell in favor of one of our former players, Bruce Gradkowski. Never mind the fact that Gradkowski led the Raiders to wins and had the team playing on another level, nope Al Davis crazy ass still wanted Russell playing. I for one would have much rather had Phillip Buchannan playing here in nickle defense than Elbert Mack who was torched constantly. And moreover even if losing those guys was a good idea because they were as you put it "dead weight", how does it make sense not to replace them? Who would you have rather had tutoring Freeman this year, Leftwich or Garcia? Who would you have rather had tutoring Geno Hayes this year, Brooks or....well nobody? I could go on and on, but needless to say I totally disagree with you on this one. If dropping all the guys we dropped in the offseason was a great idea, somehow I don't think we would have ended up with a 3-13 record.
Steve,
ReplyDeleteJerry Jones said recently that when a Head Coach doubles as a Coordinator it brings that Coach closer to the players and builds a stronger bond with them. He went on to say that he felt there was no DC out there that was better than Wade Phillips and that is why he has no intentions of replacing Wade as HC of the Cowboys. a famous coach had preached that philosophy to Jerry, but I forgot who he said it was. The Cowboys may be one of the hottest teams in the NFC and could finally make a run.
The point is that Raheem has positioned himself in this same exact position as Wade, and I like it, a lot. I bashed Bates more than Raheem, but had to bash Rah early as well, because Bates worked for him. As you have pointed out, and pretty much a blind man could see, the Buc's defense did about 179. degree turnaround over night when Raheem took the ball. If anything saved his job, that one single move did. For an obvious decision, it had to be a very difficult one for Rah. It showed a great deal of courage and leadership. At the time, I doubted Raheem, but I was so happy he fired Bates that my own tide started to turn. That was the first real sign of a Good Head Coach in the making.
The Second thing that Raheem did to further his credibility (and I have no way of backing this up) is he got more involved with the offense. I believe in Seattle that the offense started to take on his personality as well. I felt Olson had a horrible year of play calling and he took a group of good players and turned them into underachievers. He ran when he should have passed and passed when he should have ran. But in Seattle, he suddenly got better, especially in the 2'nd half of the game. I believe it was Rah-vine intervention that happened. I think he pulled Olson's head out of his arse and said we are going to start running more and illiminate some of these stupid pass plays that net INT's and no positive yardage. As Rah said, take the load off Freeman. They won a game and they won it as a team, Raheem's team.
Then they beat the Saints, and as fate would have it, got a couple lucky breaks, but we all know that chance favors the prepared mind. Rah was prepared and pounded Cadi right down the Saints throats, and won again. Ronde said after the game the locker room was crazy as if they had won the Super Bowl. Another product of good coaching 53=1.
I tend to discount the ATL game a little, and am glad we ended up picking 3'rd in the draft, but I too believe the team fought hard. They missed Wilkersen and Graham terribly in this game IMO. I believe Graham is much of the driving force on the offense. ATL wanted that game very badly too, because of the back to back winning seasons. Mike Smith is also a good Coach and made good adjustments from the first meeting. He dialed up a good rushing attack, plus Matty Ice can get rid of the ball in the nick of time consistently. He is one helluva QB. Raheem also ran 2 QB sneaks, which I begged them to do in the Saints game. Another sign of him correcting mistakes.
Sure Raheem has made his share of mistakes, but I can't really find any mistakes he made(other than Michael Clayhands) that he didn't correct. It was surely a Trial by Fire learning experience all the way, but no one can legitimately say that Raheem didn't learn from it. I know he did, and in the end brought the team together in a way I couldn't have imagined around Week 3. So although I wanted him gone before, I want him to stay now. Cowher or Shanahan will never have the same enthusiasm or hunger (now) that Raheem has or will have. He wants to win and I think he will win, and I think he will even surprise the Glazers. I saw the schedule next year and I think Raheem's team can win the NFC South. I think they will be the mean physical smash mouth defense he wanted them to be this year. Freeman has to get rid of the rookie mistakes and I would look for a better Offensive Coordinator and let Olson coach Freeman.
Steve, at what point as a team do you say it is time to rebuild, before or after you are exposed? Last season the Bucs were exposed on D, now I don't know if it was the players feeling that Kiffen had mentally checked out of One Buc Place when he announced he was going to Tenn, or that the D stars of the last 10 years had just got old, but lets be honest, that picture of Brooks limping after a receiver pretty much summed up the Buc D for the month of December 2008. It does not make sense not to replace starters, but don't you first have to see what you have in house. Injuries, suspensions, and outright bad play hurt us as well, Crowell never played a snap this year, wasn't he supposed to replace the SLB? Phillips was going to move to WLB, but with TJack being gone for 4 games he had to go back to DB. E Mack outright played badly. On Garcia, you know, I would rather have had McCown tutoring Freeman, Garcia's first instinct is to run, that is not the type of QB Freeman is, he a big, strong armed, scrambler much like Big Ben, Garcia is a runner, who though tough as nails would not have made for a good mentor to Josh.
ReplyDeletei agree with you steve, some fans, no most fans here are all bandwagon fans. i know that most fans that want rah out are the same ones that wanted tony out and gruden.
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