Raheem Breaks Down Onside Kick Decision
November 9th, 2010
One reason Raheem Morris says locals “gotta have a buzz” about Bucs football is because of the exciting action the Bucs are delivering on the field.
Exhibit B on the list of excitement out of the Atlanta loss, per the head coach, was the onside kick the Bucs attempted trailing 27-21 near the end of the third quarter. Raheem detailed the play during The Raheem Morris Show last night on WDAE-AM 620.
“I went to [Rich Bisaccia] before we ran back the [Spurlock] kickoff [for a touchdown] and I told him, I said ‘hey, if we score here, an offensive touchdown I want to kick an onside kick.’ I said, ‘Get away from me because I don’t want to be caught talking to you when it’s that time and I’m not telling anybody else on the football team.’ He was about it. He’s an aggressive coach. He’s an aggressive player. He’s an aggressive guy. We both are,” Morris said.
“And that’s how we want to play around here. We want to play to win. We were on the road in a hostile environment, and we’re going to take something from them. And that was our mentality.”
Raheem went on to say it was Bisaccia and Raheem’s predetermined call that the onsides kick would be the “middle dribble” with Connor Barth squibbing it straight ahead.
Raheem praised the execution, even though the ball hit Barth in the ass a few inches before the 10-yard mark and the Bucs were penalized and turned the ball over to the Falcons. Heyward gave huge props to Adam Heyward for violently sacrificing his body to clear the area for Barth’s recovery.
Joe was all in favor of the call, even though it was a very risky move. The timing felt right.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:08 am
At that point of the game the Falcons were having 90+yard drive after 90+yard drive. We couldn’t stop them wether they were on thier own one or our 40, so it was definetly a good risk to take.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:10 am
I’ve watched that tape many times. I still don’t see it touching Barth. He is absolutely aware of where the ball has to get to. The ball went under Jim for a second, but Barth wasn’t on the ground. Not did the ball react as if it had hit something. One of several “homecooking” calls we got hit with Sunday.
November 9th, 2010 at 9:24 am
That was a great post with some good insight into Rah. I loved the call, it took some balls. I really dont understand why the haters continue to hate on Rah, he is the man!
November 9th, 2010 at 9:39 am
I agree that it was absolutely a gutsy call and it is a shame that it did not go our way…I saw it differently than the zebras. As far as all of the degenerates hating on Rah, I can only conclude that he gets hate in spite of his winning record and very welcome aggresive coaching style by three types of people and that is: those who know nothing about football, those who are not really Bucs fans and or people who sadly still think white coaches are the only qualified coaches. I put that last type as kindly as possible because I really really hate racists.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am
It was a FANTASTIC call, missed by inches. I love the aggressive mentality. NO GUTS NO GLORY.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:11 am
I loved it and thought the call was amazing. I did take off my pewter glasses though, and saw that the ball did touch the kicker. My ten year old swore it didn’t touch him and then went to try to kick in his closet door. He’s going to grow up in the tradition of ‘Big Nasty.’
You said it perfectly BucFanJeff: No Guts, no Glory.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:21 am
Great call at the right time. From my perspective the ball did hit the kicker before it went 10 yards but I questioned other ball placements during the game. The Bucs are headed in the right direction and we fans have alot of fun football to watch.
November 9th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Great call, just bad luck on the touch.
Jaytek, I respectfully disagree with you. I don’t think it has anything to do with race, just that some people prefer a more serious coach and the rah-rah stuff to them doesn’t seem right. A lot of people around here still remember Don Shula and prefer that style. I prefer it a little myself, but mostly want our coach to be himself, whatever that style is, and I’m enjoying this season very much.
November 9th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Earl,
I agree with your point on Raheem and coaching styles. I’m more “old school” myself when it comes to that and my preference, but Raheem does seem to have these guys behind him .
November 9th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I was expecting that onsides-kick, the minute Spur crossed the endzone line on that return!
BTW hats off to Spur! Without that return, we probably would not have been in it at the end! Spur has really turned into a nice WR for us, too!
November 9th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
I thought it was a great call by Rah as well. Barth only missed it by a couple of inches, or about what Blount needed for a first down later in the game. A game of inches would be a complete understatement on Sunday.