Coaching on this team is awful

Morris is not prepared to be a head coach. That much has been demonstrated through the first 11 games.

He didn't have a well developed network of coaching friends from which to draw to form his staff.
He didn't have a well developed belief system in place that he could implement and not waiver from.
He has never managed a game and his on the job training in that regard isn't going well.
His managed an entire organization and he has made numerous organizational mistakes throughout the process.
He didn't have any media relations experience and he has had numerous blunders in that arena as well.

He doesn't need any of that, he's got an army of apologists ready to excuse his every blunder. You can recognize them by the fact that Gruden is always the first red herring they toss out.

[BuccinTex]

they lost a shoot out and the defense played well.

Not only is that not true, it's pretty much impossible. "They lost a shoot out and the defense played well." What the hell is the matter with you?

Impossible unless one stupid penalty gives the other team 4 more shots at it.....or did you forget that?   They have a lot of receiving options and we stopped them 7 times down there by the goal line.....one got through.   I'd say that's pretty good compared to what this defense has done the rest of the season.


Oh and it's nice to see you back cef.    Not surprised you'd be here nut hugging your boy Olson and trying to make lame insults.    All one has to do is check your post history to make a joke of you.    It's been done to death.  

[Biggs3535]

And you all thought Gruden was bad at playcalling?

Be careful what you wish for.... Grass isnt always greener on the other side.

I agree, but these threads are so ironic considering Olson is basically using Gruden's playbook.

[JasonOfthetower]

I thought Raheem called a great defensive game today. I guess that means he's not quite as stupid as many of you have made him out to be.

I thought the Bucs played very well on both sides of the ball. Were there some questionable decisions down the stretch?

Absolutely. The faked punt. What was that? And then deciding to go for the 51 yard field goal instead of punting them deep.

If they work out, he's a genius. They didn't and he looks like a dolt.

Even when Ryan was in there, the Bucs defense looked the best it did all season. These are the same players that have been the worst in the league all season and they actually looked like an NFL defense today (well except for Sabby Piscitelli, who's still terrible).

They held the 11th best rushing attack in the league to 75 yards. They held the 8th best scoring offense in the league to 13 points for 58 minutes. They registered 6 sacks against a team that has surrendered just 14 all season.

Their rookie QB threw for 250 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers.

So yes, there's improvement. They still didn't win and that's not acceptable, but only a moron would sit there and say the team didn't look better today.

[Badabing]

Gruden's gone, and good riddance. �Thought the team looked improved today.

It looked like yet another loss to me.

Welcome to the RAW ERA where losing is acceptable by the homers!

you know whats funny about that....today when the Falcons got the go-ahead TD, I didn't really care---and my girlfriend said, "if this was last year, I'd have to leave the house"....

and she's right, I'd be pissed off with a heart breaking loss for probably at least an hour after the game.  But this year, I guess the losing has just taken the emotion out of me.  I'm sure I'll gain it back next year if we are contending, but yeah, I just don't ecpect us to win.

[ufojoe]

Its funny, everyone thought we would get blown out by the Falcons, but when we actually play a close game down to the wire, they get all pissed? If we had no chance of winning this game, then how could a good defensive close game be a step in the wrong direction? It would have been nice to win, but then all the haters would have said "We just got lucky". No matter what, things wont change on this board

Their starting QB, starting RB, starting T, were all out and their back-up RB was still not 100%.

That's a big reason that score was close.

LOL. You'd like to think that because otherwise, you'd have to admit that Morris knows what he's doing on D. And your little ego can't handle that now can it?

He still needs to improve on some play calling on D and situational coaching (FG and/or Punt) but the improvement on D was nice to see.

[Badabing]

Its funny, everyone thought we would get blown out by the Falcons, but when we actually play a close game down to the wire, they get all pissed? If we had no chance of winning this game, then how could a good defensive close game be a step in the wrong direction? It would have been nice to win, but then all the haters would have said "We just got lucky". No matter what, things wont change on this board

Their starting QB, starting RB, starting T, were all out and their back-up RB was still not 100%.

That's a big reason that score was close.

LOL. You'd like to think that because otherwise, you'd have to admit that Morris knows what he's doing on D. And your little ego can't handle that now can it?

He still needs to improve on some play calling on D and situational coaching (FG and/or Punt) but the improvement on D was nice to see.

Are you trying to say the score would have been the same with Matt Ryan and Michael Turner in the game?  Come on man.  We were facing Chris Redman.

I will give Raheem credit for the success we had on defense(with exception to our collaspe to let the Falcons win the game), but you better believe that Ryan/Turner would have given the D more fits then their back-ups...

[JasonOfthetower]

Gruden's gone, and good riddance. �Thought the team looked improved today.

It looked like yet another loss to me.

Welcome to the RAW ERA where losing is acceptable by the homers!

you know whats funny about that....today when the Falcons got the go-ahead TD, I didn't really care---and my girlfriend said, "if this was last year, I'd have to leave the house"....

and she's right, I'd be pissed off with a heart breaking loss for probably at least an hour after the game.  But this year, I guess the losing has just taken the emotion out of me.  I'm sure I'll gain it back next year if we are contending, but yeah, I just don't ecpect us to win.

bada, I was in the same boat. Last year the neighbors would have called the police for the expletives and screaming that would have come out of my mouth.

This season, I was just happy the Bucs were in the game and hell, the Falcons had eight opportunities to put it in. The Bucs fought hard to win that game. It was just a great play by good ball player in Roddy White.

I was pretty happy the Bucs were competitive and the defense played pretty darn well for the majority of the game. Freeman played well again. It was a loss, but for me it felt like a win.

I guess that's just where your mindset is when you're a losing team.

[JasonOfthetower]

Are you trying to say the score would have been the same with Matt Ryan and Michael Turner in the game? Come on man. We were facing Chris Redman.

I will give Raheem credit for the success we had on defense(with exception to our collaspe to let the Falcons win the game), but you better believe that Ryan/Turner would have given the D more fits then their back-ups...

Turner was in the game until he reinjured himself in the second half. Until that point he wasn't doing crap. Ryan was getting rush and beaten the same way Redman was. Could he have done better? Maybe, but frankly I don't think it would have been much difference.

It's the Tampa Two man. Everything is in front of you. Few big plays. The main question was whether or not the Bucs defensive line could get pressure and stop the run. They achieved on both counts.

I know Atlanta had some injuries on the o-line as well, but coming into the game, they had only surrendered 14 sacks all season.

I know it pains some of you to give Raheem any type of credit but today he did well (with the exception of those two weird decisions we've discussed ad nausem).

[benchwarmer69]

Gruden's gone, and good riddance. �Thought the team looked improved today.

It looked like yet another loss to me.

Welcome to the RAW ERA where losing is acceptable by the homers!

It happened with Herm Edwards.

[dalbuc]

In the end what cost us that game was Morris' gawd awful decision to try that FG. You give the Falcons a short field for no gain - they need a TD one way or another so you are giving them the option of 50 yards or 80 yards at worst. Terrible decision making.

[TheShadow]

I agree dalbuc. My problem is that Morris keeps making horrible choices. That FG try ensured that the Falcons got the ball at the 41 yard line rather than the 20 or even inside the 20. The fake punt was another bad choice given the field position. If you really want to fool another club's ST try that at your own 30. The part that fried me most was the ultra conservative playcalling during our 2nd to last posession. One first down and we win. But instead they call 3 running plays playing right into what the Falcons NEEDED us to do in order to get the ball back.

If we had let Freeman play and he'd blown the game I probably would have been ok with it. But what we did was try to run out the clock with 3+ minutes left and fail. If we are going to play defense I'm fine with that. Do it. Don't give up the ball near midfield. Punt and take our chances making Atlanta drive the length of the field with no timeouts. That's where the T2 is at its best.

These ar the kinds of coaching decisions 13 year olds make playing Madden.

[nubcake]

Barth hit 3 50 yard FGs against Miami, there's no reason to not go for the FG there. That's what you pay kickers to do.

Not to mention, punting isn't nearly as guaranteed as it normally would be. With Barth punting, the chances of disaster rise dramatically. He's normally not a punter, after all, so who's to say he doesn't fumble the snap, shank it, etc? Hindsight is 20/20, but with Bucs fans it seems to be 20/5.

[TheShadow]

According to my vision we're 1-10. What do you see? Making that FG only assures that we'll have a chance to get to OT. It doesn't win a damned thing. Nothing. The Falcons could have gone for 2 ala our 36-35 win over Washington a few years back. If you want to defend Morris be my guest. Just don't expect the rest of us to follow along blindly behind you.

I'm not beefing only about this game either. This crap has been going on since TC.

[dalbuc]

I agree dalbuc. My problem is that Morris keeps making horrible choices. That FG try ensured that the Falcons got the ball at the 41 yard line rather than the 20 or even inside the 20. The fake punt was another bad choice given the field position. If you really want to fool another club's ST try that at your own 30. The part that fried me most was the ultra conservative playcalling during our 2nd to last posession. One first down and we win. But instead they call 3 running plays playing right into what the Falcons NEEDED us to do in order to get the ball back.

I think if nothing else in a lost season you let the kid try and win it....hell did you think our running game had a better chance to get a first down or Freeman? It isn't even about not taking a shot with a rookie but doing what works best.

The fake punt was so bad I thought maybe Dirk called it himself.