“It Has To Be Ignored”
January 4th, 2011
In the eyes of national pundits, the Bucs went from pretenders losing to the Lions to the team everyone would have feared in the playoffs — the sexy up-and-comer ready to rattle the balance of power in the NFL in 2011.
At 10-6 and with young studs at skill positions, the Bucs will no doubt get more offseason love than Wilt Chamberlain used to.
Speaking during The Raheem Morris Show on WDAE-AM 620 on Monday, the head coach talked about how he’s already approached keeping his young team focused.
“You talk to those guys and you tell them how everybody’s going to love them. And everybody’s going to talk about them all offseason. And that’s great for our fans and our fan base and to get everbody back into the stadium, and to get everything going the way we want to have it around here. But for us, internally, it has to be ignored,” Morris said. “You know it has to be the same mentality we came into this season with. It has to be the mentality of going out there and trying to win every game and not feeling like we’re older and entitled to anything. We have to go out and play one game at a time every single time we go on the football field. It can’t never change. It’s how it has to be.”
At this point Joe has resorted to prayer hoping there is no disruption in the NFL offseason.
A lockout could come around in March when the current labor agreement expires, which would mean all those young Buccaneers would be on their own left to keep themselves in check and motivated and dialed in to the 2011 mission. Not an easy task for young guys. Although Joe imagines Raheem would be texting them all daily.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:28 am
I wonder if this means that the Bucs will be the featured team on “Hard Knocks” since they are now everyones favorite “up and comers”
January 4th, 2011 at 11:42 am
regression and belief in the press clippings is my biggest fear heading into next season. On paper, the schedule is tougher but remains to be seen. hopefully, they come in with the same hunger and desire to prove themselves as they did this season. leadership will be a key and from what I have seen this year, I wouldn’t want any other two people other than raheem and freeman to go forward to next season. Stay grounded buc’s it is working for you.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:43 am
Yea its safe to say, we will be the “sexy” pick like the browns were 2 years ago, like the Bengals were this year. Only problem with that is those teams sucked something fierce the next year. Lets hope we buck the trend. Id give my left nut to be featured on Hardknocks thats an amazing series HBO puts together.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:49 am
He talked a little about this yesterday in his press conference as well.
He said a lot of that is going to fall on Josh Freemans shoulders to make sure the guys are focused and working hard during any prolonged lockout.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:50 am
Like the ’97 team that was the up and comer under Tony Dungy, the ’98 team bought the hype and only ended up 8-8. Looks like Raheem is aware of the pitfalls of getting the love, so let’s hope these young bucs can ignore it and press forward. I like “hard knocks”, but I would rather stay under the radar as long as possible.
January 4th, 2011 at 11:59 am
Lets be realistic folks. In 2010 we learned that Josh Freeman is on the verge of being a star a he has two complimentary weapons to go with him (Will and Blount).
But we also learned that the defense stinks and needs virtually an overhaul except for Talib and possibly one or two others.
The stock is rising but what materially really occurred other than third in the division, missing the playoffs again and 1 questionable win against a team with a winning record. Yes, the Saints win was questionable because: they made three key offensive starters inactive, pulled Brees in the fourth with the game in the balance, fed Julius Jones the third string RB at the goal line to protect the back-up K.I., and most importantly when Brees was asked what he felt about the loss he said: “our first priority was not to get anyone hurt.” Then when it was obvious that the Falocons had won, the Saints began pulling starters and getting conservative.
Nonetheless, the Bucs played pretty well. This season indicates some offensive talent but not much defensively, that doesnt translate automatically to an 11 or 12 win season. Thay may very well finish in the 7-9 or 9-7 range which would indicate the false record this year.
Lets be honest, two weeks ago with the playoffs in the balance they just lost at home to the Lions.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
OH here we go… Thomas get a clue dude. You and all the other haters were wrong about how this season would turn out. So come on over to this side of the aisle this offseason. It’s OK to get excited about next season.
You are right the defense does need a lot of upgrades but with Talib, Grim, Price, Mccoy and others back the addition of one or two impact players at DE and LB this could be a salid defense to compliment an offense that I think is going to blow up big time in 2011.
And FYI dog the Lions all you want but the Lions finished the season with a 4 game win streak. They have a ton of talent and are going to be a team to take notice of in 2011. That loss isn’t as shocking as you and others make it out to be.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:23 pm
d-money: I agree that the Lions are on the rise and would not be surprised if they have a better record than the bucs next year.
I agree that Talib and Cody appear solid, the other two DT’s you referred to are HUGE question marks.
BTW – weren’t you one of the guys arguing wth me about Suh being dominant, an obvious pro bowler, having a huge year etc. Didn’t you call him overrated. Well his peers voted him a STARTER in the pro bowl as a rookie – so I will take credit for that one.
On the other hand, the bucs win-loss record was better than I predicted, I admit, I underestimated how good Free would be and overestimated the weak-ass schedule. BTW – did you guys realize that 6 of the 10 wins came against the NFC West and Carolina. Just an interesting note sheep.
January 4th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Thomas 2.1 inches,
You know the Lions had asses stomped by the SAINT LOUIS RAMS, right??
Funny how you think the 21st ranked Lions Defense is “on the rise”, yet the Bucs’ 17th ranked Defense is “stinks and needs an overhaul”…
Maybe you should find a hobby that you know something about…
January 4th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
First of all – why is your name Hire Greg Olson! Uh – in case you didnt know he has been hired as the team’s O coordinator. If you think that he should be in a better position – maybe your name should be Promote Greg Olson or something.
Now, as to your comparison of Bucs vs. Lions. When the Bucs played the Lion’s – whose defense gave up more points to the opposing offense? For extra credit, was that team playing with its third string QB? Was that team also on the road? Ding, Ding, Ding. You got it!! The Detroit Lions.
How many pro bowl votes did GMC get?
January 4th, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Ahha .. We are 10-6 and now that the season has ended .. “Next year we will see the truth” .. so flippin LAME
ALL YOU HATERS SUCK … SUUUUUUUCCCK
Bucs will be in the Superbowl in 2 years .. Quote ME B*tches
January 4th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Thomas needs his diaper changed again. The whole place stinks now.
January 4th, 2011 at 5:52 pm
@Thomas aka Pro scout & hip-observer,
Are you back from scouting players already? You better get back to work, there is so much hip observing left for you to do. I guess since you are so much more qualified than the rest of us, we should all cancel our tickets for next year.
If you didn’t know, they had those 3 players inactive because they were hurt. Kind of like half our team, so don’t even try to make that lame ass excuse. Ivory was out because he got hurt, as did Jenkins and Graham. Brees got pulled half way through the fourth, and we were in complete control of the game. Make whatever excuse you want, we beat them. Funny how you make an excuse for the other team when we win, but when we lose you don’t want to hear any excuses (pass interference on Winslow against Detroit comes to mind). You can’t have it both ways. Now go back to scouting players and worrying about how people wear their pants.
January 4th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
@Thomas the pro scout,
By the way, I’m going to be at the Pro Bowl and I have connections that can get me in the locker room. I can probably mail you Suh’s jock strap as a late Christmas present.
January 4th, 2011 at 8:11 pm
@Thomas aka Mr. Football,
Ivory was placed on the IR today. Guess he wasn’t being rested. How does it feel to be wrong so much?
January 4th, 2011 at 8:33 pm
When are Thomas and Buc You getting married? Are we all invited to the wedding?
January 4th, 2011 at 9:14 pm
Hawaiian Buc keep up the great work. Its great to see you pick up for the Captin. I hope he’s not lost at sea. Someone Fire up the lighthouse!
January 4th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
The Bucs were 17th in total defense and 9th in points allowed. So I would like to see Thomas defend his position that the defense needs a total overhaul in light of those realities. The run defense sucked at times but the pass defense was solid for the vast majority of the year and the run defense vastly improved in the second half of the year with the exception of the Detroit game. Clearly anyone not living in a mental ward like our esteemed friend Thomas would look and see a defense that needs to get healthy and plug a few holes and not an “overhaul”. Someone should go visit Thomas in the psych ward because maybe having a few friends that don’t sit in the corner listening to the CIA beam secret messages into their head all day long might make him come back to reality.
January 4th, 2011 at 10:58 pm
The Bucs lost player after player and the team kept getting better and better as they gained confidence and experience. The Saints should be embarrassed. They literally got beat up by a bunch of no name and rookie players, and of course the one… the only… the mack daddy… Ronde Barber.
January 5th, 2011 at 12:32 am
@New Era,
Thanks bro. I’m just doing my part to maintain order.