Bull Rush: Details, Details, Details
January 4th, 2010
Former Bucs DE Steve White
By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to now have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defense. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan.
I am not sure if Coach Morris will be back. Personally, I hope he will be. But if he does return, the one thing this defense needs to improve on most is details.
Once we add a few new guys on defense and everyone begins to realize how important it is to do their job individually, I can see major improvements on the way next year. And if we can put a full year together of good defensive football, the wins will invariably come. But that is going to have to be a focus in the offseason. It’s all in the details.
Yesterday’s loss was a big dissappointment but not because of effort, because there was plenty of that. Although some people will try tell you differently.
And it wasn’t necessarily because of the yards we gave up on the ground, although that didn’t particularly make me happy either. What was dissappointing was that we played well enough to win defensively most of the day but at other key times our defense just wasn’t on the details. And it’s just being off a little that is the difference many times between a win and a loss.
Before I go any further, I feel the need to address what may be floating out there after the game. No, our guys didn’t lay down or give up. We didn’t play well, and that’s a fact. But you can’t watch our guys bow up with the game already pretty much decided and refuse to give up another touchdown, forcing the Falcons to kick a short field goal instead, and convince me that they gave up.
Hell, Corey Lynch just about blocked that second field goal, too, and every single guy on that field was trying to get their hand on it.
So I don’t want to hear any bullshit about our defense laying down. They didn’t. And those who say they did must have been watching a different game than the one I saw.
Too many out of position
But where the Bucs defense was lacking at times was in guys being where they were supposed to be and trusting their teammates to be where they were supposed to be.
The Falcons ran a bunch of counters and kickout blocks with their fullback. With a big back like Snelling, what you want to do is spill those blocks so that he has to go laterally instead of downhill. Unfortunately, too many times we had guys not spilling that play and instead playing outside of the blocks which gave Snelling a lane to come downhill.
It obviously didn’t help that our tackling was pretty bad in the second half, but we could have helped ourselves had we made Snelling make another cut instead of getting up a full head of steam going through the hole.
There were also instances where we were out of position on blitzes:
Sometimes it was a guy not slanting all the way inside to his assigned gap and the Falcons running through that gap.
Other times it was a guy not getting upfield and staying outside to open up a lane inside for a blitzer, intead coming inside and cutting off the rush lane through which the blitzer would have had a free shot on the quarterback.
Still other times an inside guy who had contain but didn’t get upfield quick enough to contain the quarterback, who had just enough time to roll away from pressure and get the ball off before he got sacked.
And still other times it was a guy not dropping to the flat fast enough in a zone blitz and allowing the quarterback to get the ball off quickly to a back who got outside of us and earned a first down to continue the drive.
It was those kinds of instances against the Falcons that eventually ended up killing us. Instead of getting off the field or stopping the play for a minimal gain, we ended up either giving up a first down or a big play downfield, all because we weren’t on the details.
Poor tackling, bad penalites, and bright spots.
Now that wasn’t the only problem, of course.
Once again we had problems with our defensive tackles coming off a double team and making a play coming through their gap. We also, as a defense, had one of our worst days tackling since Coach Morris took over as defensive coordinator.
Don’t forget the penalties. I know some of the calls were bogus, and I also know that the officials could have called holding on the Falcons’ left tackle at least five times on passing plays. But the pass interference in the endzone by Sabby Piscitelli and the personal foul on Aqib Talib had an effect on the outcome of the game. If we want to win as a defense, we are going to have to stop with all the penalties.
Of course, there were some bright spots Sunday. Greg (Stylez) White was dominant pass rushing from right end although he didn’t come home with a sack. Our defense created two turnovers and blocked a field goal try. For as many yards as the Falcons racked up on the day, they still only managed 20 points on the board. And we got good pressure on Matt Ryan for most of the day.
Unfortunately, it all went for naught.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Steve, these sound like mistakes that the team would be making in Week 2 or 3, not Week 17. I could be very wrong, but Morris doesn’t strike me as a detail-oriented guy. He answers in very general terms virtually every question asked of him, which leads me to conclude that that’s how he coaches as well. Again, could be off-base here, but attention to detail doesn’t seem to be Morris’ strong suit.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Steve,
Great analysis as always. When the Bucs go into a short yardage defense and place Sabby on the line of scrimmage, I believe over the TE, it just seems he gets pushed into the middle of the line and the other team runs off tackle on that side. I’m pretty sure the Jones TD run in the Jets game, and it happened again yesterday. Wouldn’t the SS better off being a couple of yards off the line of scrimmage so he doesn’t get manhandled by bigger players? In your opinion is this even an effective defense for short yardage, or are other guys just missing assignments? Like you, I’m not a Sabby fan, I’m just not so sure placing him right on the line of scrimmage is helping either.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Very confused… why Steve would want Raheem to come back, and then go in to detail about how poorly coached the team was…
January 4th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Steve, one of my concerns is Barrett Ruud. It just seems that too many times this year, an Offensive Lineman is getting a few yards downfield and blowing Ruud out of the play. It appears to be happening time and again. Is it a D lien issue or is Ruud being caught out of place? They said today, Ruud had 205 tackles on the season, but it seems many were several yards down field and he missed a bunch too. He looks small compared to other MLB’s as far as stature. Is this(MLB) a position the Bucs should upgrade, like Safety?
Brandon Spikes is big guy and has to be as fast as Ruud and much stronger.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:46 pm
@FLBoy This defense we have been running the last 6 weeks was not the same defense we ran the first 10, so yeah in a lot of respects some guys are still learning what the new defense calls for. And I would also imagine that at times guys might get confused with what we are doing now versus what we did before. Remember, not all of the guys playing yesterday were here last year so all they knew was Bates’ scheme.
As for how Raheem speaks being equivalent to how he coaches, I have to say that’s not the best statement you have ever made. I don’t think I have ever heard Bill Belicheck speak in specifics, and that’s when he speaks at all. I would agree with you that Coach Morris probably won’t be winning any oratory awards any time soon but I fail to see how that translates into his coaching ability. The fact remains that when he decided to take over the defense just about every talking head said it wouldn’t make a difference. But guess what, it did. Yeah we still need better players in some positions, most notably strong safety, but whether you think Raheem is the best option to lead the team or not, you have to admit that when he took over, the defense got better. And that would speak to him being a pretty decent coach, no?
January 4th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
@Trox Yesterday they had Sabby up some over the tight end in somewhat of a 4-6 zone defense. Now its not the best place to put him if you know that a run is coming. It is a great place to put him however if you think its a pass and you want to get physical with the tight end. Still while you wouldn’t expect him to dominate there against the run, I would have thought he would have played the blocks a lot better.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
@thedeej3000
Believe it or not, sometimes you have to find fault with the players. Especially when you see some guys doing it right while the same handful keep doing it wrong. Players get paid to execute on the field, when they don’t its certainly not always the coaches fault. You might want to also look back up at my response to FlBoy to get more of the reasoning behind why I think Coach Morris should come back.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
@BigMacAttack
I would say Ruud wasn’t playing well under Bates but his game stepped up quite a bit when Coach Morris took over. The thing he does as well as any other middle linebacker in or division is cover the deep middle in cover 2 which is of primary importance if you are running a Tampa 2 scheme. He is also pretty good in coverage on tight ends. Now I don’t think Ruud will ever be confused for Ray Lewis when it comes to going down hill and shooting his gap but I think he is a quality starter for us. I actually don’t think Spikes will be a middle linebacker in the NFL anyway, but a weak side linebacker. If you watched the Alabama game you will notice that while Spikes is a really good blitzer, really athletic and is an explosive tackler, he isn’t the greatest guy in the world getting off offensive line blocks either.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
“I have to say that’s not the best statement you have ever made.” Thanks for being kind man. LOL Hard to phrase what I was trying to say. Irregardless, I’m obviously not a huge Rah fan and think we’re in for a very rough 2010 as well, according to reports. Either way, I’ll support the team, just not the coach.
As far as the defensive improvement goes, I think if Barry would have taken over the defense, we would have had similar results, as it was more of going back to a familiar scheme that fit the players as opposed to phenomenal coaching, IMO.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
@FlBoy84
Really? So it was all about a familiar scheme? Well what about guys like Roy Miller and Tim Crowder who had never even played in that scheme but have been key contributors? What about the tweaks Coach Morris has made to the scheme itself including the blitzes, most of which we hadn’t run before this year? And finally after the way Coach Barry’s defenses performed in Detroit, are you really trying to say we would have had the same results if he were calling the defense with a straight face?
Seriously?
I mean gee whiz, if it was that easy then I am sure you were one of the few predicting that we were going to improve quite a bit when Coach Morris took over………right?
January 4th, 2010 at 10:30 pm
Steve,
Roy Miller (who said so himself) played in a very similar attacking scheme in college, so yes, there was some familiarity there. Crowder may have as well, but I can’t say that for certain. Not saying I KNOW Barry would have had similar success, I said I think he would have. Just as you have no way of knowing otherwise either. Either way, it’s obvious we have very different ideas of Rah’s coaching ability, but once the 2010 season is complete one of us will be proven correct. If it’s you, I will humbly acknowledge your forsight. 😉 For the franchises sake, I hope Morris proves me wrong.
BTW, we were actually able to drop 2 spots to 32 overall against the rush once Rah took over the defense. I believe we were 30 under Bates, so not everything was as rosy as you may want to paint it. 😉 In all seriousness though, I may not like Morris as a HC, but I am a fan of the team and sincerely hope that the right moves are made to turn things around. It’s much more fun and exciting for all fans when the team is doing well.
January 4th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
BTW Steve, are you going to continue your weekly posts or take a break during the off-season?
January 4th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
Yeah, Miller said he was excited when the scheme was changed because that’s very similar to what he played in college. Or so he said…
http://bucsscene.blogs.theledger.com/10658/tampa-bay-buccaneers-remove-defensive-coordinator-jim-bates/
One player excited about the possibility of running the Tampa-2 is rookie defensive tackle Roy Miller because he played a similar system at Texas.
“That’s all I did in college was get up field and make plays,” Miller said. “It also helps us get up the field on the pass rush. I’m just excited. That’s why I dreamed of coming here. Warren Sapp and all those guys played in this defense. I’m excited to be a part of that.”
January 4th, 2010 at 10:56 pm
Just watched a clip of an Alstott run. Man do I wish he was still playin’.
January 4th, 2010 at 11:30 pm
@FlBoy84
Roy Miller didn’t have a damn clue what kind of scheme we ran here or whether it was similar to what he did in college. Having watched him in college I can tell you that yeah they played some one gap but the schemes were not similar much at all. As for dropping 2 spots on run defense, I couldn’t care less about that to be honest with you. The one stat that overrides everything to me is how many points we give up. I believe the most we gave up was 26. We gave up 20 then 16 then 26 then 7 then 17 then 20. Winning defensive football is giving up 17 points or less. Winning offensive football is scoring 21 points or more. We basically played winning football in all but one game since he took over and lets be real here, that 26 against the Jets was at least partly attributable to the 5 ints Freeman threw. If we keep teams to between 17-20 pts next year we end up with a winning season, its really as simple as that.
But here is the major thing, I can quantify what I like about Coach Morris as well as what I dislike and I can give you several reasons why I think he is a good enough coach and did enough this year to warrant at least another year. But most of the people who don’t like him as a Coach can’t really quantify why. They will say he talks too fast or he talks too much or he fired his coordinators or we lost 13 games or that he gives chest bumps. But those aren’t really arguments about his coaching. What coaching moves did he make that you didn’t like? Who should have been starting that wasn’t? Who should have been benched that wasn’t? How many bad calls did he have as a defensive coordintor these last 6 games? How many bad coaching decisions period did he make for the year? And last, but not least, what would you have done or had someone do differently?
If you can’t really answer those questions, or not in a way that makes Coach Morris look bad then you have to ask yourself, what is the reason you don’t like him as a coach. Only you can answer that and I don’t need to know the answer. But I am saying that for people who say he isn’t a good coach, please at least come with a good argument against him. Otherwise it just seems petty, to me at least.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:04 am
“If we keep teams to between 17-20 pts next year we end up with a winning season, its really as simple as that”. Really? That simple eh?
Dude, your trying to preach making a good argument, yet you say holding teams to 17-20 points a game is winning football, when we averaged just over 15 a game ourselves this year. I don’t see where that’s winning football. Feel free to think I’m being petty, but if you’re gonna try and call me out, let’s be fair at least. There’s no basis behind YOUR statement other than your OPINION is that we’ll score more than 17-20 points a game next year. No factual evidence to suggest that, it’s just want you THINK.
I think:
1) Losing 13 games IS an argument against Morris’ coaching ability. You’re saying he had nothing to do with that record? He was just window dressing on the sideline?
2) I think the QB competition was a waste of time, when some of those reps could/should have gone to Freeman.
3) I’m not at practice so I can’t make an informed decision on who should/shouldn’t have been starting. But given our record, I would have liked to see Lynch get a few more reps to see what kind of impact he would’ve had with extended playing time. Obviously, the coaches didn’t think he was ready for that.
4) A more focused rushing attack with more time given to Caddy and Graham (as opposed to trying to establish a back by committee approach) may have resulted in a few more wins. I think Caddy’s performance over the last few games proved he was more effective when given consistent touches. I do understand there was probably pressure from the FO to get Ward involved due to his signing.
5) You obviously have more insight than I as far as gap/zone responsibilities; do you think it’s all strictly on the players for being out of position in the plays you listed in the blog above, as an example? Coaching played NO part in any of that?
6) I’m on record as saying I’m not a fan of Rah’s oratory skills. I’m not asking you to agree, but it’s an important issue to ME. Being that he is the main representative of our communities franchise, I think it’s a valid point that I have a problem with how that represents our city. As far as Belichick goes, I couldn’t care less about him. He doesn’t coach the team I’m a fan of, in the community I live in. Rah does.
I could go on, but really Steve, we’re all entitled to our own opinion. Just because we have differing opinions of the man doesn’t make either one of us right or wrong. Like I said earlier, I hope Rah and Dominik make some great choices in the next few months when it comes to adding staff, FA’s, and the draft, and the team improves. (And just to be clear, I think Dominik had as big, if not bigger, hand in the disaster that was this season). Neither you nor I have ANY input into the decisions that will be made. Let’s just hope they prove fruitful. As stated earlier, winning football’s much more fun for fans and teams alike.
I do enjoy your blog and think you have some very good knowledge and valuable insight. Doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything you have to say though. That’s part of what makes blogs so interesting, IMO. BTW, do you do this column and your blog off-season?
January 5th, 2010 at 1:25 am
Very well put Steve. I wish that last post could be copy and pasted onto every message board regarding the Bucs and Coach Morris.
Why don’t Bucs fans take a long hard look at the joke that Al Davis and Dan Snyder are creating with their teams. Championship teams aren’t built by hiring and firing coaches on a yearly basis.
My opinion is that White, Crowder, Moore, and Miller are the only guys safe on our D-Line this offseason. Wilkerson probably should be but this injury will probably have him on PUP or IR next year.
If it were me running the show I would probably use that 2nd rounder we got for Adams and turn around and use that to trade up for Suh. I’m not sure if he’s the best suited to be an undertackle in a Tampa 2 but there’s no doubt that offenses would have to game plan around him.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Steve White needs a TV show: “Don’t Be A Dumbass Fan” …Seriously, great stuff White. Just curious, why’d you get out of the NFL after being with the Jets?
January 5th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Hey Steve, just wanted to say thanks for the great input throughout the season. Even though the Bucs play sucked for the most part, at least we got great insight on their sucky play from you. Any chance you will be analyzing and breaking down Suh, McCoy, and other D-Linemen before the draft?
January 5th, 2010 at 9:50 am
@FlBoy84
I never said you had to agree with everything I say. Hell sometimes I don’t agree with everything I say after thinking it over. What I said was that most of the people who say Coach Morris is a bad coach can’t really quantify it, whereas I can quantify both the things I don’t like and the things I do like and why I think he deserves another year at least. Thing of it is, if you actually read my blog and my posts here you would realize that I disagreed with some of Coach Morris’ coaching moves throughout the year and even some of the things he said. Sometimes in very strong terms. But at the same time I also allow for the things he has done right, some of them not exactly easy things to do. If you think changing a scheme past the midway point of the year in a week and having it work out is an easy thing to do you are fooling yourself. If you think having an offensive coordinator take over right before the season starts and having to evolve the offense to fit our personnel as well as using someone else’s playbook as well as grooming a rookie quarterback and seeing an improvement when our team didn’t have a whole lot to play for after 7 losses to begin the year, again I think you are not being realistic. This season didn’t go the way I wanted to either and I would wager that you and most other Bucs fans weren’t any more pissed off after games than I was, but that doesn’t mean I can dismiss the fact that we ended the year progressing upward. And because I did see that progress I do believe Coach Morris has the potential to lead the team where we all want it to go. Does that mean he will win a Superbowl or even get us into the playoffs next year? Hell no, and if you notice I never overplayed or over sold him as a coach. But it does mean the potential is there and it warrants another offseason to give him a shot in my opinion. I never said people could disagree, what I said was if you are going to disagree please have a credible argument. Now to address your points.
1. Losing 13 games is an argument as to Coach Morris’ ability as long as you contrast it with the talent on the team. Are we a 3-13 team talent wise? Probably not. But we weren’t a winning team meaning any more than 8-8 talent wise either, especially considering the suspensions and injuries we sustained over the year. Remember that not only did we lose Jermaine Phillips who had been a pretty good safety here over the years when healthy and who would have been in instead of Sabby, but we also lost Will Allen who perhaps the Bucs could have turned to when it was clear Sabby was struggling. Combine that with an offense and defensive scheme that didn’t fit the talent and you end up with the record we had. But Coach Morris didn’t stand pat and let the team keep going down. He made a decision that most people thought would either blow up in his face or have little to no effect when he took over the defense and changed the scheme. He ended up getting our team back to a winning formula at least and it translated into 2 wins out of the last 3 games. And I should also point out at this point something that nobody has seemed to. We played Sunday with no experienced backup tailback or fullback. With Derrick Ward and Earnest Graham out, we really had nobody to turn to behind Caddy besides rookie Kareem Hudgins who was recently signed off the practice squad. And our new starting fullback was signed off the Bengals practice squad in the middle of the year. That our offense at least still played well enough to keep us in the game until the fourth quarter was really damn near a miracle. It is what it is.
2. The QB competition was smart in my opinion, keeping Leftwich and trading McCown to me was the problem. We were going to struggle either way to begin the year, especially when our starting center went down and we had to resign a guy to start who played like a breathing turnstile. So we needed a guy in there who was going to be mobile enough to avoid the rush and make plays with his feet as well as his arm. But if you think having Freeman play earlier was a good idea then I don’t think you really remember the defenses we played to begin the year. It was somewhat of a murderers row. Dallas, Philly, Washington, New England? Those teams would have eaten him alive and potential snuffed out any confidence he had. Especially with the protection problems with Faine out. Honestly I would have much rather Freeman sat the whole year if we could have gotten away with it because rookie quarterbacks, especially those who didn’t stay for their senior year, play notoriously bad when thrown in the fire their first year. Hell look at the Jets where they have basically turned Sanchez into just a guy who hands off for fear he will throw the game away if given the chance. So again I disagree with you on that.
3. Your gut feeling about Corey Lynch is undercut by the fact that he was given opportunities to play a few times in games and it was apparent that he wasn’t ready. Hell I didn’t like Sabby being out there all year any more than you did, but the fact that we didn’t have quality backups behind him was a product of injury and not signing any more talented safeties in the off season. That doesn’t fall on Coach Morris in my book, that falls on the GM. Curiously much of the problems with the Bucs fall on our talent or lack their off, but you don’t hear people throwing around the invective at Mark Dominik who is also in his first year ever as a GM and learning on the job so to speak, that you hear slung at Coach Morris. Just an observation.
4. Maybe Caddy getting more carries gets us a few more wins, maybe it gets him hurt. Who knows. I will agree with you that we should have leaned on our running game more but then again we have tight ends that couldn’t block anybody most of the year. And as for D Ward’s playing time do you think that was a product of solely Coach Morris’ coaching or also pressure from his GM to validate the signing? Again if there is blame there, in my opinion it should be shared.
5. As I said in an previous answer, coaching always plays a part but when you see some guys doing it right and a handful of guys doing it wrong. And usually its the same handful of guys, then at some point you also have to blame the players. But the problem is as far as the guys making the same mistakes, who were we going to turn to if we sat them? Geno Hayes is a helluva talent but the guy probably made as many mental errors as anybody on the team. And when Matt McCoy is in there you don’t see those same mental mistakes. But can Matt McCoy make the same splash plays that Geno made this year? I would say not. And who knows, maybe some position coaches will get fired as well, but Coach Morris doesn’t coach every position. He shouldn’t any more get ALL the credit for the defense when its doing well than he should get ALL the credit for the defense when its not.
6. For the record I agreed with you that Coach Morris doesn’t have great oratory skills, at least not in interviews. What i said was however, that whether he comes off great in interviews or not that has no bearing on his skills as a coach. It may have a bearing on whether you like him personally and that is definitely your right to feel however you want to presonally. Im just saying we won’t win more games just because he gets media training in the offseason. It is what it is.
You say I called you out, but if you look at my response to you the only way you should feel called out is if you fall into the category of the people who I said don’t have a credible argument against Coach Morris. That’s on you, not me. I made a point about the difference between having a credible argument or not and i stand by it. You are going to feel however you are going to feel about Coach Morris and we will have a long time between now and the next time he is able to change either of our minds. But I hope at least I gave you some things to consider on the other side of the coin.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:54 am
@Cody I don’t think we need to give up a 2nd rounder to move up two spots just to get Suh. For one thing if we want to draft a defensive tackle Gerald McCoy from Oklahoma is pretty damned good too. For two rookie defensive tackles rarely make an impact no matter how good they are for their first couple of years. Remember that Sapp only had 1 sack his rookie year and wasn’t even a full time starter. I think Suh should be a very good NFL player but I don’t think he is the once in a lifetime guy that some folks have sold him as. Besides that we have so many holes at other positions that we actually need all of our draft picks this year, especially if we aren’t going to spend a lot on free agency. Hell if it were me I might do the opposite and trade down a few spots just to pick up antoher first rounder or second rounder. But hey, that’s just my opinion.
January 5th, 2010 at 9:55 am
Joe here,
LightningBuc and others, Steve White is a free agent and Joe is negotiating with him to continue doing great stuff for JoeBucsFan.com. He may even get the franchise tag. Joe expects a deal to be struck and Steve to not miss a beat entertaining and informing fans here. …
January 5th, 2010 at 9:55 am
@Skye
Thanks, I think lol. As for my career after the Jets, unfortunately i wasn’t able to find a team to pick me up after that so I just moved on. Definitely wasn’t by choice though
January 5th, 2010 at 9:57 am
@lightningbuc and @admin
I will be around here in the offseason in some way shape or fashion. You can pretty much count on that. Hell I am already going through football withdrawal and the season isn’t quite over yet. This is kinda theraputic for me, being able to talk football on a regular basis. Besides there is going to be a lot to do this offseason to get the Bucs back on track so I imagine there will also be a lot for all of us to comment on and I am always good for that.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Morning Steve,
Thanks for the retort. We actually agree on more things than it may seem. I agree (and stated it above) that Dominik played a major role in this season being what it was as well.
1. I agree, injuries definitely played a part, and without those, we may have seen a better performance in both the secondary and backfield (had Askew not gone down as well).
2. I agree that McCown would have been the better option to keep. In no way was I in favor of Freeman starting. I was hoping that Freeman would have been able to sit the entire year as well. I understand the history of young QB’s being thrown into the fire. What I was alluding to is that I didn’t agree with bringing Leftwich in to compete with McCown in the first place. Those wasted reps should have gone to Johnson and Freeman, which would’ve aided there development much sooner. There was plenty of tape on Leftwich out there to show the team what they were getting.
3. I agree with you on the lack of talent, which Dominik is responsible for providing to Rah. I think one reason most fans fail to call out Dominik is the fact that he’s invisible and rarely heard from, whereas Morris is front and center as the face of the franchise. As well as the fact that most of us are not in the know enough to discern who is responsible for each decision that was made. We can speculate, but we aren’t in the meetings. It’s easy for people to lay it all on Raheem, though most with any kind of intellect at all understand there were many hands in most of the decisions made.
4. I agree that pressure was probably applied from above in regards to getting Ward playing time, as I stated previously. I personally think Caddy’s knees are sounder than before he got injured. Now, having said that, it was only the patellar tendon he had repaired in each knee. Let’s hope the ACL & MCL, among others, is stronger than his patellars turned out to be.
5. I agree that errors made on the field are usually a combination of player mistakes and of coaching. As you pointed out in a previous blog on Bates, where one DL alignment left the C gap I believe wide open with no one assigned to cover it. And then on the next play. Geno blows an assignment that results in a big gain. I’m not laying it all on Morris. On a side note, I actually think Geno can be a real player. Once he gets a little less free-wheeling, he could really be a force. I would like to see us add a bit more beef to the MLB position though, and swing Rudd outside. Just my opinion.
6. It was MY lack of oratory skills when I compared Rah’s generalization of things to his coaching ability. Being that he doesn’t answer questions clearly. if at all most of the time, gives me pause to wonder if he truly has the answer. That’s what I was trying to express earlier. Only time will tell on that one. And no, getting media training in the off-season is not going to help the won/loss record. Thanks for throwing that in there. 😉
I personally don’t feel I fall into the category of people that blast Morris simply to blast him with no credible thought behind my comments (though there are many out there on numerous boards that really make me cringe). You’re free to feel otherwise, I won’t lose any sleep over it. But you have to agree the same can be said for some of his backers as well though. They simply like the guy, but would probably have trouble making an argument why? Which is fine, the don’t need to explain it. It’s simply part of the human condition. I don’t like tomatoes, though I’d have a hard time giving a concrete argument why. I just don’t like them. Fortunately, I’m less set in my complaints against Morris.
When Rah was announced as the DC to replace Kiffin, I thought that it was a good move. I liked the energy I thought he would bring and agreed that a hybrid of the T2 would be a fresh approach. I wasn’t as excited when weeks later he was moved up to HC and Dominik was tabbed to replace Allen. While I did feel a change was needed at HC, as it seemed the players were starting to tune Gruden out and there seemed to be a bit of a divide, I would have preferred to see Rah stay at DC for the next few years and a coach with some HC experience brought in lead things. (without doing some research, I can’t give you names of who was available at the time). I think Rah could have definitely used a bit more seasoning before advancing up the coaching ladder. I would also have preferred a consultant of some sort (Ron Wolf, Floyd Reese, etc.) be brought in to aid Dominik as well. Having said all that, the situation is what is. Again, I’m hoping the mistakes that were made both in the FO and coaching ranks are learned from and not repeated. I’m excited to see what the off-season holds, and hope for the best results possible.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:34 am
As far as the draft goes, while I wouldn’t be in favor of losing a draft pick to move up to get Suh, I’d love it if the Rams were willing to take our number one and Clayton. Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening. Being that we have multiple spots to fill, any dealing we can do to add more impact picks, I’m all for it. I’m constantly amazed and disappointed in how good the Patriots typically are able to work the draft. Not that they make the best player decisions all the time, but they are very good at maneuvering in the draft to get picks. They have a R1 and THREE R2’s this year, and two R1’s in 2011.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
steve i hope rah reads your blog you would be great on the d coaching
January 5th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
@FlBoy84 Go read my response again about the people who just don’t like Coach Morris with our credible reasoning behind it. I never said YOU were one of those people. I said the people who don’t like him should ask themselves why. And i pointed out a lot of the silly criticisms I hear about them and the only thing out of that group that you said was that he is not great when speaking to the media. Again, I can’t judge for each person if the reason they don’t like Coach Morris is credible or not, nor should I. Its up to them to do some soul searching and come up with that. If you feel like you have credible feelings not to like him as a coach then more power to you. Like I said, there were quite a few things I didn’t agree with that he did too. All I ask is for you or anybody else who says they don’t like him as a coach, to quantify it. You have a right to feel he isn’t a good coach like i have a right to feel like he is at least on the right path. So again, I wasn’t necessarily calling you out. I was calling out the people who don’t like him for reasons other than how he has performed as a coach.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:41 pm
We’re all having withdrawals already and that is common Ground. I think Dominick will have a good draft this year. i don’t think he’ll trade up for Suh, and I think he’ll pick Cody or Berry and possibly trade down 1 or 2 spots, but not too far to miss the player Raheem and He covets. If he can pull off a trade down and get another day one pick, it would be a home run like the Gaines trade. We’ll just see what we’ll see here soon enough, or maybe not soon enough, like right now.
January 6th, 2010 at 12:21 am
I would gladly take McCoy if Suh isn’t available. I’m just so ready for this team to address the 3-technique problem that has been hampering this defense since Sapp left that I would do almost anything to fix it once and for all.