Open Letter to Mark Dominik re: Greg Olson

[rocko23]

Just sent an email to MD saying Olson must go if things dont change by game 4.

[Boid Fink]

OK, quick question, lets say the Dom does as you request and lets Olson go, who then takes over OC and play calling duties? Yarber? P. Morris? Van Pelt? Roberts? Stukes? It's not like there is a great name sitting out there ready to take over.

That is why Olson will not get the axe this year.  That and the fact that Rah loves him as a friend, which is bad business IMO.

Olson suuuuuucks as an OC, but he is a decent QB coach.  The BUcs should go look next year for a capable OC who will want to work with the young talent the Bucs have...and they can give Olsen some other job to keep him on payroll (Offensive Quality Control....yuck) in an effort to alleviate him from ruining the BUcs offense.

[smove28]

Olson callled a better game on offense than Raheem did on defense.

For once I agree, a little, w/JavaRay.

Detroit ran a hurry up quick throwing offense that Raheem did not adjust the secondary to cut off the quick throw options.  I am never critical of Morris but this is his fault. Morris does not have the personnel on offense to run the type of game plan that he wants and refuses to adjust his offense. Our offense is especially our OLine is more equipped to run a spread offense right now than try to line up and power run. So, right now Olsen is playcalling to fit what his head coach wants his team to do, and as we saw Sunday, it gets ugly.

That is what makes Belicheck in New England a genius. Remember his pedigree. He coached under Mr. Conservative himself Bill Parcells and was a defensive coach also. But even being a defensive coach, he is smart enough to see what his team IS, not what he wants it to be.

I do not believe that I am saying this, but if Raheem Morris looked at how the Bucs played in the first half trying to do what he wants his team to do, and the second half playing offense the way that they are built to do right now and does not make  the adjustment, than maybe we need to find another head coach smart enough to do so.
.

[rpc1978]

wow........... For guys that are supposed to be hard core fans.........this is embarassing. We are 0-1 not 0-10 and this thread is already advocating firing the OC?  This is after a 10-6 season, a season in which our QB made a huge leap forward in his development.  We had rookies playing across the board at the skill positions and o-line and playing well.    Did Olsen have nothing to do with that?  Its threads like these that make players and coaches roll their eyes when people mention chat rooms or call in shows.   Who the hell are we going to hire now at this point that can make a difference this year?  Are you seriously willing to bring in a new OC with a new system now and hurt Freeman's development?  Its exactly this sort of instant gratification/impulsive decision making that leads bad teams to fire head coaches and coordinators every other year.  Want to know why so many 1st rd QBs bust?  No stability.  They are drafted by bad teams and by their end of their rookie contracts many have already had 2 HCs and 3 OCs. 

Jeeeeez.  I'm more pessimistic than many here but even I think its ridiculous that so many fans are already pushing the panic button. 

[docbravo]

Is it really too much to ask for some PATIENCE around here? I'm as frustrated as most of you are with the production (or lack there of) of the offense in the 1st quarter, but you said it yourself. "ITS NOT A NEW TREND." It's been going on for YEARS!  Hell, I remember the days where a mere incompletion of a pass thrown over 40 yards down field recieved a STANDING OVATION!

I vote we play this season out, and let the chips fall where they may at that time. Pulling the ejection lever on the Offensive Coordinator = 2 years of learning and regression IMO. There is more to the TEAM starting slow than the performance of it's Offensive Coordinator. It is, afterall, a TEAM.

[Condor Bastadon]

I don't think Olson is the biggest problem. The entire coaching staff failed at preparing the team for regular season football. That is the big problem.

It's funny to me that people are content to just bash on Olson when a lot of the things we ended up doing on offense were Raheem's call. The issue in game 1 to me ion offense was that we simply gave up on the base offense and moved to "Hey Freeman win the game for us!" mode for the entire 2nd half. That was Rah's call, and he said so himself.

I'm not totally happy with Olson's playcalling, because it obviously isn't working early in games. That isn't all his fault either, but it has to be partially. There are the obvious boneheaded play calls like the draw from the shotgun on 4th and 1....and the only thing I can figure is that he's trying to be unpredictable and cute at the wrong times, while running very vanilla stuff at other times. If it worked then people would be calling him a genius, but we either don't have the guys to pull that stuff off or it's just a bad call in the first place.

Either way I seriously doubt Olson goes anywhere unless the offense continues to look really bad for another 5 weeks or so. I can't imagine that they won't get some of this stuff worked out by then

[buddah]

This board is unbelieveable. One bad game that counts and you want to throw Olson under the bus.  That's the stupidest thing I've heard yet on this board.  The Bucs were number 8 in offense during the last 10 weeks of the season last year and tops in the league in 4th quarter offense, where most games are decided.  Olson was Drew Brees' quarterback coach at Purdue and around the league he is viewed as a top coach of young offensive talent especially quarterbacks.  And to say that Freeman is unmotivated--where does someione come up with that.  Freeman is not a rah, rah quarterback.  Neither is Manning or Brady.  He is cool and collected.  Young players are typically nervous at the start of games.  That's just a fact.  As time goes on and they get more experience, we'll see more productivity in the first quarter.  I suppose the Steelers should fire their offensive coordinator, as should the Chiefs.  And what about Detroit, they had only 17 yards of offense in the fourth quarter.  And what about the Vikings--only 28 yards passing.  This is the NFL, every team plays to win and every team has bad days.  This offense will be fine.  Maybe not this week, but within a few weeks, you''ll see a dramatic improvement.  Bet on it.

[ingey1968]

in 5 games  or so  we have lost twice  to a "mediocre" team. At home no less.  maybe, Just maybe we arent as good as you and the homers think.

I think a lot of fans are not giving Detroit enough credit for making our offense look bad. That is one of, if not the best defensive lines in the league, and they could well be a top 5 run defense. I'm not going to say that I'm real happy with the play calling, but I do think the offense can still come around enough for us to have a good season. If that doesn't happen, then the writing is on the wall for Olson and even if it does maybe it still should be because I don't know if we can win an a championship without more consistent play calling.

While I won't deny that Detroit has obviously made strides to improve their team, including the FA acquisitions they've added, they're by no means considered to be a top-tier team.

I am NEVER going to be "content" when our team fails to at least compete with teams that are considered mediocre.

[Boid Fink]

Olson suuuuuucks.  This is not anything new to you guys preaching patience.

Do you know what insanity is?

It is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results. 

[Uncle Stan]

How do we know whether on not is was Olson's play calling or Freeman's audibleing sp?)?
We saw it, supposedly, on the goal line with Graham. 

How many more were there?

I also don't believe its all the play calling as much as lack "fire in the belly attitude" when the game starts. That's on Freeman, he's the leader of the offense. He is just not playing like he did last year.

[MUSCLE_HAMSTER]

Olson called a better game on offense than Raheem did on defense.

Respectfully disagree

[docbravo]

Olson suuuuuucks.  This is not anything new to you guys preaching patience.

Do you know what insanity is?

It is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results.

Yet you continue to bash those preaching patients.... Is it safe to call you "insane" by your own definition? HAHA!

Seriously though, I'm not sure I'd say Olson "suuuuuuucks." We have had some Off. Coordinators that "suuuuuuuuuucked!" Clide Christianson, Mike Shula, Hell even J.Gruden called bad games. It happens. I just think people tend to forget everything good he may have done, because of the last they saw was bad.

Does he need to improve, yes. But I don't believe the team won 10 games INSPITE of their Offensive Coordinator last year.

[BucBalla85]

He wont be fired in the middle of the season. Thats a pipedream BFTW.

[NotDeadYet]

    I just hope Rah doesn't fall into the same pattern as Tony Dungy by putting the outcome of games on the D and ST, while being satisfied with a mediocre offense. Our O'line at no time has shown the capacity to dominate the LOS against any team. Yes, they pass-block well at most times, even against Detroit, but their effectiveness in the run game is minimal. And to boot, we have no RB's with speed enough to go out and do it on their own, a la Steven Jackson, Adraian Peterson... I doubt we fire Olsen now; he does need to be seriously evaluated come the off season, though...

[BucsFTW]

Please forgive me, but I wan t to reply to a few poster's comments, and will so so now - 1 at a time...

I dunno, BFTW...Josh was brought up with him. You want him to struggle learning a new offense DURING the season? I'd wait til the off-season, myself.

You thought our offense stuck last week? Wait until we put in a new offense and the WR and young TE REALLY have no idea what they are doing and Freeman is throwing to ghost receivers.

As my "open letter" states, I understand there may be a temporary decline in offensive production, but...

We're only ONE game into the season, right....

Are some fan's memories so short (or they're simply not longtime Bucs fans) to remember that we FIRED our last Offensive Coordinator just ONE day before our final preseason game just two seasons ago?

It's far from "standard protocol", but THIS TEAM has done so as recently as TWO years ago, simply because Jags couldn't "communicate plays in a timely manner".  Just because Olson can "communicate plays in a timely manner", doesn't mean they're GOOD PLAYS.

My, how quickly we forget.