Blount Named Short-Yardage, Goal-Line RB
September 28th, 2010
You can hear it in Raheem Morris’ voice. He’s got a lot of love and excitement for undrafted rookie running back LeGarrette Blount.
Why the Bucs head coach is so fired up he said Blount has earned the role of short-yardage and goal-line back for the remainder of the season. Morris made the revelation on The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620 on Monday, archived on 620WDAE.com.
“For me it was a mentality with LeGarrette Blount,” Morris said. “You know, we got the ball down on the 1 yard line. And we’re in a 2-minute mode. And we stopped. And we’re in goal line offense. Our mentality was to run the ball in on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Because I know how much they pride themselves on stopping the run and not allowing people to go in there. So we knew it would be all out pressure up the middle … and we had two downs to get it.
“You know, it was no second guessing what play we were going to call. We wanted to run the ball in the end zone with LeGarrette Blount and make a statement for our young football team and for us that we’re going to get this yard no matter what. Safe to say, in a live situation, in live bullets, that LeGarrette Blount has earned the short yardage and goal line back role from now on.”
Joe is glad Raheem made the point of “making a statement” for his young team by grinding out a critical one-yard TD run on the ground against the Steelers’ defense.
This is exactly why Joe was upset at the play call against the Browns when the Bucs had the ball with 39 seconds left, a 4th-and-1 situation on the Browns 5 yard line leading 17-14. They rolled out Freeman and he threw the ball away. The play there, per Morris’ core beliefs, was to let his young team pound out that one yard to end the game.
Joe’s just glad Morris is back to his core beliefs and buiding confidence through violent play.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
Good move.
Blount is probably the Bucs most physical running back right now, and he proved himself on Sunday against the Steelers. He ran with power, scored the lone TD, and seemingly always fell forward when tackled.
But I think that they should use him more frequently than just using him for short yardage and goal line situations. IMO, it would be a nice change of pace if they use him on a couple of 1st & 2nd downs. Just a thought.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Joe, Maybe after the first two games Rah-Morris realized that the RB corps was not physical enough. Had Blount not thrown that one punch after the game vs Boise St. where would have been drafted?
If he starts next week it would fit with the rest of the principles set by the coaching staff, management and ownership. I have the utmost respect for The Caddy. His time although exciting when he wasn’t injured… Has passed him. E.G. Never got a chance to carry the ball in his prime.
So we have Huggins, Blount and Gregg.
This is the future. If going young is the plan. GO WITH IT>
September 28th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
First off I have to say as a newbie to the site Great Job Joe will always having new content and great reads.
Guys don’t you think it may not all be on Caddy. Don’t get me wrong he def doesn’t look like his rookie or 2nd year but he still runs hard. I am putting a lot on the o-line, after all he would probably have close to 100 yrds if it wasn’t for the penalties no?
September 28th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
*First off I have to say as a newbie to the site Great Job Joe,always having new content and great reads.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
The Cleveland call was a good call Joe. The play was there, Freeman blew that one. And frankly, Caddy might not have gotten it.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
@Mike Williams for MVP
you can’t blame the Offensive line until we get a real Fullback and real Tighends.
I just hope that Coach Rah also realizes that Blount has earned a couple of carries during the middle of the field as well. He could really be the change of pace back we need. You know we could give them the speed back, then the power back. Maybe Dominik will call coach Rah during the game to use Blount more.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
@The_Buc_Realist
But its not the tight ends and the fullback that are getting penalties negating runs of 5 + yards. I agree we need true fullback and a good blocking/receiving TE not just one of each. But IMO i think it still starts at opening whole on the inside with the o-line, and its not the TE’s and FB’s getting the penalties.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:15 pm
Good? No, great call. Joe do you have any stats for how many failed attempts we had last season in converting 3rd and 2 or less? I am sure Caddy, Ward and Graham got stuffed MANY times in those situations. The least I expect from Blount is a high success rate on short yardage situations.
What it could also mean is the impact of play action pass on 3rd and short. If Blount starts being very successful in converting many 3rd and 1s like Alstott used to, Olson could seldom have Freeman execute a PA pass and for a change it might work.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
TB(blowme)O is reporting that the NFL is going after Mr O’brien for his unauthorized event. It sounds like TB(blow me) actually blew the whistle on him. Rick Stroud blew the whistle on Aqib when he went to the game against Cleveland. Anyway, it sounds like “Obrien, to Ryan, to Goldberg” is about to get a little lighter in his pocket book.
Right or wrong, frivolous or with merit, anyone can sue anybody, for any reason, and you have to defend it. It will cost you money and you will lose, even if you win. When you ask yourself “Hmmm, do I need to call a lawyer?”, you’re already F@@ked. Obrien did get some decent publicity from it, so maybe he can just charge it to his advertising budget.
September 28th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Now if we can just get near the goal line.
September 28th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
Eric the bucs get near the goal line a LOT. Last week we got near the goal line several times – well the defense did…
September 28th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Blount runs with attitude, and Power. I think our offensive line is realizing that if they open any daylight for Blount, he is gonna hurt people. I was at the game, and through binoculars, I could SEE the Steelers faces when they had to tackle Blount. Their expressions were like “Where the hell did this beast come from” I could see our team taking on a whole new identity when Blount was on the field. Trueblood and Don Penn are mean individuals, and so is Blount. I could see they loved to block for Blount, as if to say to the Steelers “Now, meet OUR Power Back”. Plus they know Blount will cold cock THEM if they take the day off! WE want to be a power running team, and have a true Power Back in Blount, so WHY only in short yardage, when the box will be stacked to the max ?
September 28th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I heard Cinci called to cancel the game, once they found out Blount is playing AND receiving core values training.
September 28th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
I thought he (Blount) and Pressley did a lot of damage for their few appearances. Maybe we can be a power run team?
September 28th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
well something has to happen thats for sure. but lets not forget that it starts up front. we will need a good run game against the bengals if we expect to have any offensive success. they have good DB play to start the year
September 28th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Actually, I’m not impressed with Pressley. I have reviewed the game a couple times to watch specific things (like Donald Penn getting beat time and again), and one thing I saw was Pressley whiffing on blocks or leading into the “scrum” instead of to an opening.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:52 am
I am not a coach so this is probably just ignorant fan talk, but I have always felt that we lack creativity in our play calling, especially in the running game. What I mean by that is that it seems that 99% of our runs are right up the middle. We rarely run a run play to the outside and I can’t even remember seeing us pitch the ball (always a handoff). Every single game before our first play I say to myself “run up the middle”, and I swear it is always correct. I keep thinking one of these days we are going to run a flee flicker or something to throw off the defense (who has to be expecting run up the middle), but not yet. Obviously we are not the most talented offense in the league right now, so you would think we would try to counter that with a little more creative play calling, but we seem to be pretty vanilla.
September 30th, 2010 at 11:16 am
What is up with the “Goal Line Back” crap? Why would a coach limit his offense by even naming one? Why not just run what got you down there in the 1st place? You don’t need just a yard to score. Why not run a play to get 5 yards from the 2? It’s still a touchdown AND your team has run it before SO excution will be better. Why lump all your players up and run against a 5 man front with 4 backers behind them? Spread the defense THEN run the ball. Typical Bucs backwords thinking.