Raheem Morris, Jeff Faine Defend Offensive Line
August 21st, 2011
There were so many things that turned Joe’s stomach over Thursday’s beat down the Patriots laid on the Bucs Joe lost count while pounding beers, trying to erase the debacle from his memory banks.
But one of the things Joe can’t just wash away with adult beverages was the jailbreak than ensued with Patriots defensive linemen running wild in the Bucs backfield, jostling and hounding Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman.
So Sunday it was damage control at One Buc Palace. While listening to Raheem Morris and Bucs center Jeff Faine, NFL.com blogger Jenna Laine Twittered their defense of the Bucs offensive line Thursday.
@JennaLaineBucs: “We had one or two breakdowns in protections but I don’t know about ‘gaping holes.’ Kind of an exaggeration” – Bucs’ Morris on O-line … Bucs center Jeff Faine: “We didn’t see anything out there that was unblockable. We didn’t see an exotic scheme. We just didn’t get it done”
Joe is well aware that this was a preseason game and that in a preseason game, much like a spring training game in baseball, players might very well be working on specific moves or techniques and the results be damned because, in the end, preseason games don’t matter, just ask the 2008 winless Lions who won every preseason game that year.
Thursday’s game, however, looked eerily similar to the Bucs seal-clubbing at the hands of the Steelers and Saints last year at home. Joe isn’t sure if the Bucs were that overmatched or that they were overconfident is pounding the Chiefs or still giddy from training camp breaking on Tuesday.
Hopefully, this was all a wake up call.
August 21st, 2011 at 4:02 pm
“seal-clubbing”
Great imagery..
August 21st, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I am in agreement with Joe. I think the loss will end up doing more good for the team than a win would have.
Truth be told, I kind of smiled at the Bucs getting man-handled on defense (not on offense, they should have done much better). It was sort of a welcome to the NFL moment for the rookies.
And going against such a potent team showed the young guys how much they have to step it up to be able to compete and win a superbowl…because there is every chance in the world that when they do make it to the big game, the Pats may be the team they end up playing.
August 21st, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Faine was lying through his teeth or is living in a fantasy world though. It’s their job to protect Freeman and they were doing a horrible job at that…and all of them are veterans.
Morris should make them run laps…those guys will be gasping for oxygen.
August 21st, 2011 at 4:27 pm
So, Jeff Faine says “We didn’t see anything out there that was unblockable.”…….
Maybe not unblockable for some, but certainly unblockable for you and your mates.
August 21st, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Why do you accuse faine of lying but not rah when they say basically the same thing?
Bc rah is someone you need to prop up irrespective of the truth.
August 21st, 2011 at 4:58 pm
this o-line just never seems to be on the same page. penn is over doing his own thing on the left, faine is pretending he’s worth all that money he’s getting paid, and the “bush whackers” over there on the right side are just flopping around aimlessly.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I think the bucs might have to use a first round pick on a center next year.. Especially if Faine gets another injury..
August 21st, 2011 at 5:06 pm
I’m not overly concerned. Now if they look that way against the Lions I’ll rethink my position. My money, though, is on this being a preseason hiccup and that we’ll see very good line play this year. The only position group I feel unsure about right now are the linebackers.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:12 pm
why aren’t my comments posting??????????
No profanity. I s it against the rules to say that Jeff Faine Sucks??????
Well, he does.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:12 pm
why aren’t my comments posting??????????
No profanity.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:13 pm
This spam filter is garbage and sucks
August 21st, 2011 at 5:13 pm
Is it against the rule to say Faine sux?
August 21st, 2011 at 5:16 pm
What happened to protecting number 5 was the top priority. The starting o line is not starting caliber and needs to be changed. Zuttah didn’t miss a block all night. Why are they holding him back? It makes no sense.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Any updates on Ahmad Black??
August 21st, 2011 at 5:26 pm
All of these coaching issues like not starting Zuttah and failing to develop o line cohesiveness – you refuse to hold the voach accountable for ghe things that you b-tch about. It is unreal the pass you give this failure. If Gruden or Dungy was doing exactly the same things (which of course they would never do bc they have a clue) you would be crucifying them. Disgusting double standard.
And all of the journalist (radio and newspaper like Shelton) who keep misstating this fact: unlike josh mcdaniels or sean payton, rah rah was never an NFL coordinator before becoming head coach.
He had 1 forgettable year as a defensive coordinator in the Big 12 and then quit. He was sued by the way for quitting.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Yes, ahmad black sucks. Move on.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:37 pm
Thomas, you are wrong son. I loved Coach Gruden and my number one complaint with him was he would bail on the run too soon, and start a horrible passing attack. Raheem has a history of fixing problems. You are right about the problem and we’ll see what happens this week with Miami, but if Freeman takes a beating again, I’d look for major changes up front. One of Jon’s major weaknesses was his unwillingness to make changes when things weren’t working. Raheem ahs done a better job in this department. I’m sure there is a lot of pressure coming from above Raheem to play Faine and Joseph based on what they are getting paid. Davin is hit and miss, but Faine has been miss and miss, and miss again since he came to Tampa. He is the one man gaping hole.
August 21st, 2011 at 5:43 pm
He said there were 2 or 3 break downs and they lost some 1on1 battles. Free “BALLIN” HAS to throw the ball when it’s cover zero THAT should BE a HELLOOOOO their blitzing. U can’t blame the O-line for every sack. What makes Tom Brady so good is he’s prepared to throw the ball. Free “BALLIN” has to let it fly. Some of the bad plays were his fault. He was pretty late on 3-4 throws in the 1st Preseason game too. I LOVE Free “BALLIN” but u can’t just say the O-line is bad when the QB should be prepared. MIKE “FREAKING” Williams 1on1 Coverage against a little DB throw him the ball…DUH!!!!! I referred to the 1st game….well on the EASY OVER THROW to some RB/TE on the goaline early in the 1st qtr. Mike “Freaking” Williams was wide open over the middle past the 1st down marker, coverage was off him by 4 yards early in the play. Mike “Freakin” Williams was jumpin’ up and down like a child he was so upset when he went the other way. Free “BALLIN” looks slow so far luckily its preseason and it doesn’t count on the record. With Young “D” we “WILL NEED FREE BALLIN’“ early in the season if we want to make the playoffs…. Come on Free “BALLIN” get it together we need u to think quicker, make a decision quicker and complete accurate passes quicker. Joe Please tell him we need him to play better when the season starts.
Late,
Sambizle
August 21st, 2011 at 6:06 pm
Sambizzle sounds/reads eerily similar to a rah rah morris press conference. Do we have a mole? Sambizzle are you in fact Rah Rah Morris?
August 21st, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Can’t blame all the pressure on Freeman on the o-line. The backs sucked in protection and multiple times Earnest Graham let freerunning blitzers nail Freeman while he moved to double team a d-lineman. Of course the lack of proper scheming for the game had an effect too. But when you put those excuses for the o-line aside there were still some pretty ugly moments for the o-line that tell you this group just doesn’t have the studs to help Freeman take it to the next level. I mean watching Jeff Faine play matador to Pats DT’s was just embarassing. We don’t even need to get into Donald Penn’s infamous butt block(reality check for anyone who thought this guy actually deserved a pro-bowl alternate nod last year. Dude has been trading on the reputation he gained during his stellar 2008 breakout season for a couple years now despite not coming close to that level of play again). Its really too bad Dominik didn’t manage to land the one high-level(non-punter) free agent he went after. Doug Free would have instantly been the best lineman on this team and would have been an upgrade to either tackle spot (including Penn at LT). Im still on board with the developing defensive draft picks but maybe if the o-line struggles again next year it will be time to correct some of the mistakes there through free agency.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:22 pm
The game I’m concerned with is on 9/11. The game the buccaneers are concerned with is on 9/11. The game fools are concerned with was a practice game after tree weeks of work, the only three weeks of work since the end of last season.
Thankfully most fans are intelligent to realize the obvious and not to cave to panic and the flat out hateful rambling of those who enjoy being jackwagons.
Let’s see how the next few weeks go before those boating under the Skyway have to look up as to avoid disaster.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:42 pm
We sucked against pats, hope that’s rock bottom and only up from here.
@ Thomas: what is bugs record gonna be this year?
August 21st, 2011 at 6:45 pm
So what is the story on all those giant holes Blount had to run through? I watched Faine let defenders run right past him with a slight push knowing his QB was going to get plastered. Again, my major concern is Faine won’t block and he has never been good. I don’t know what they see in him. Trueblood has always been bad in pass protection and that hasn’t changed. I thought at the end of last year they were on the right track with a young strong O lline and now we are back to the SOS, with worn out backups being over paid. This has an easy fix, just fix it. Freeman rarely had more than 2 seconds on any play and if that is great blocking, we’re in trouble.
August 21st, 2011 at 6:55 pm
Thomas
I respond to ur question if u promise to stop puttin “irr” in front of a real word. Deal?
August 21st, 2011 at 6:56 pm
Bigmac- Agree that Faine is the biggest problem. Gameplan or no gameplan you don’t get ole’d by defensive tackles .00001 seconds flat the way Faine did against the Pats. FORTUNATELY THERE IS A VERY EASY FIX FOR THE FAINE PROBLEM. Its called wait till he gets hurt again!!! Shouldn’t take long! I think that next time frail Faine gets hurt and Zuttah becomes the starter he will be keeping the job.
August 21st, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I agree Becks, I just hate the thought of anyone getting hurt and I think Faine is plagued with the “Ruud avoid contact syndrome” so he won’t get hurt. I would rather see Rah make the switch to Zuttah now nad keep Faine as a backup or cut him loose altogether. The question remains, why did the Saints let him go in the first place? The guy looks tough and imposing but the truth is that he is too slow to react and becomes a revolving door.
August 21st, 2011 at 7:32 pm
Bucs center Jeff Faine: “We didn’t see anything out there…”
August 21st, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Bigmac- I always hear talk from game analysts about how “smart” of a center Faine is.Your right. I was just thinking the same thing. Apparently Faine is the Ruud of the offense. Plenty of brains and no balls.
August 21st, 2011 at 8:03 pm
Really the reason I am worried is that the Bucs should have been able to somewhat handle the Patriots rush even without extensive gameplanning. The Pats offense obviously doesn’t get stopped by anyone except for like top 3 defenses but their defense wasn’t all that better than the Bucs at pressuring the QB last year and I know they added Andre Carter and Fat Albert but Fat Albert didn’t even play. Its worrisome but I won’t say the sky is falling. The worst of the Patriots pressure came on blitzes and I think the blitz pickup will be alot better in the regular season when we are scheming to prevent specific teams blitz packages and have settled on a third down back. Still Faine needs man up big time or go and Dom needs to prove he knew he had something in his hand to play as a 3rd down back when he let Caddy walk.
August 21st, 2011 at 8:13 pm
I dont think faine is not that good and zuttah is more more bang for the buck.. i would have rather cut faine started zuttah and brouhgt in namdi in the free agency!
August 21st, 2011 at 8:22 pm
No reason to cut Faine Nate. He would be just fine as the backup. Thats where his ability level is at at this point. What I would really like to see is the Bucs go out and either sign an elite guard in free agency or draft a guard in the first 2 rounds of the draft. Then they could let Ted Larsen settle in at his natural center position. He has done well enough as a guard that I think he could be an even better center. He lacks the bulk we really need at guard to be the power-man rushing team we apparently want to be but by all accounts is a cerebral player that could be an even better guard than center since he has the size for that position.
August 21st, 2011 at 8:37 pm
One thing is for sure in my mind. Offensive line is the weakest unit on this team. They might pull it together enough to make a playoff run this year but they won’t be winning a Super Bowl. With this young but talented defense, an offensive line with some real studs instead of serviceable but overrated guys like Joseph, Faine, Penn etc. could be just enough to give this team a legit chance to make a real Super Bowl run.
FOR THE RECORD- I don’t think that means that the Dominik failed this offseason by not signing a bunch of free agent o-lineman. He went after the guy he really wanted in Doug Free. Free was one of the best tackles in football last year and could have upgraded the Bucs at either tackle spot and its a shame he chose to stay with Dallas but its understandable when a free agent chooses to remain with “America’s team” over Tampa. Im not sad that he didn’t go after guys like Atlanta’s Blalock or Clabo who were more a product of the sum of the parts of Atlanta’s decent across the board o-line rather than elite players in their own right. And I’m certainly not sorry that he didn’t go after other guys like injured Jared Gaither or inconsistend and overrated Robert Gallery. He did better to resign the Bucs own inconsistent and overrated guy in Davin Joseph if only for continuity’s sake.
With the defense stocked with high draft picks this year will be the year to evaluate and focus on addressing and improving the o-line in the coming offseason. Still I have high hopes that Free and Blount’s ability to perform despite sub-par blocking will pave the way to a playoff berth at the very least.
August 21st, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Hey, Ben Roethlisberger made it to the Super Bowl with a crap as hell o-line last year. A hard to bring down franchise QB can mask a lot of deficienses on the o-line. So can a 250 lb. tailback who breaks 50 tackles in a season. GO BUCS!!! GO CRAPPY O-LINE!!!!!
August 21st, 2011 at 8:50 pm
The left side of the O-line is cool but the right side is grossly overpaid and under productive. Faine is a very smart and soft Center, always has been ask New Orleans. If this line doesn’t not become consistent, we will struggle or even regress. I don’t trust them, never have. They are still connected to Gruden.
August 21st, 2011 at 9:55 pm
Yeah, we definitely missed Cadi the other night. Letting him leave was the one thing that really scared me. It wasn’t that I was all enamored with Cadi, but he was Freeman’s primary protector and that was Gold. I like Graham and think he plays well, but Lumpkin over Cadi, I’m just not sure about yet, and Cadi blocks better than all of them, or at least he did last season.
I personally dislike the excuses from Faine, and Raheem isn’t an excuse guy either. he really should dispel them. As you said “Man Up, we got our A$$es handed to us and it will not happen again”. I would rather see a hold on every play than a hit on Freeman. Those idiots, their number one job is to protect Freeman and they totally sucked at it, at least the “Starters” did. Raheem needs to fix this before he starts losing games because of their weak sorry butts.
August 21st, 2011 at 10:52 pm
Faine and Larsen were horrible… and what sickens me is that the 2nd team OLine came out and blocked the 1st team Pats defense way better than the 1’s did. Faine and Larsen positions should be opened up for competition because Zuttah and Carter clearly outplayed them. Larsen looked absolutely ridiculous against Gerard Warren while Brandon Carter blocked him every time (he did have one small penetration on 2nd effort after Carter already staved off his initial rush).
Carter and Zuttah should be the starters.
August 21st, 2011 at 10:54 pm
BigMacAttack,
Caddy definitely did not block better than Graham, he didn’t catch passes or run better either… and a 6th Olineman in the backfield couldn’t have done much or anything against all the free rushers the Pats were getting in courtesy of Larsen, Faine, Penn, and Joseph.
August 21st, 2011 at 10:54 pm
The o-line should be totally open to competition. None of these guys are elite players that warrant untouchable starter status.
August 21st, 2011 at 10:58 pm
Brandon- when the defense sends more guys than the o-line can block the lineman cant magically be in two places at once. I counted two separate times where the lineman all blocked their guys and Earnest GRaham had a chance to block a free running blitzer but instead chose to to double up on a defensive lineman. The crap protection from Graham hurt Freeman just as much as the lineman did. Cadillac Williams routinely blocked the right guys in those situations last year.
August 21st, 2011 at 11:15 pm
Im not saying Graham can;’t get the job done. It was preseason. Even if Raheem WANTED to gameplan for the Pats defense he COULD NOT! There is no tape on the Pats defense to gameplan around. They have made the switch from a 3-4 to a 4-3 defense this offseason and as such their game tape from last season is essentially useless. Graham is a tough, hard nosed guy and can certainly block to some degree at the point of attack as a fullback so I think that given a full week of installing a gameplan to protect against specific defenses bliltz packages during the regular season, he will do an adequate job of picking up blitzes. But he definitely didn’t recognizes and pick up blitzes on his own in the Bucs vanilla preseason offense against the Patriots.
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:49 am
i wonder how much thomas pays in membership to the KKK, dude you are a small man with a small mind! id give anything to see you in person somewhere!!
August 22nd, 2011 at 4:12 am
So, you guys are saying that our O- line is a bunch Of underachievers, who haven’t lived up to their draft status.
And that our second string looked better than our starters?
Seems like I’ve heard that before!
Penn is the only exception. Larsen is playing out of position, but usually plays well also. the rest of the line has never- EVER- played well. Individually or as a unit. Faine years ago. But not in years here. Joseph and Trueblood- never!!
Hopefully we make changes. But after giving them both big contracts- I doubt it. Our line has been a problem for years. It’s been mentioned by every reputable preseason analyst I’ve seen.
We’ll see what happens. This unit absolutely could not open holes for the run, nor pass block for the first half of the year. And we rewarded their poor performance with big contracts.
Looks like they are back, still can’t block. Shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.
August 22nd, 2011 at 8:09 am
I clearly remember Joseph and Trueblood paving the way for Earnest Grahams 10td season. Toss-sweep-right for 10 yds was a staple that year.
Other then that year yeah they’ve been pretty mediocre. Faine is decent at times but never dominant.
But didnt the Bucs change the O-line coach this year? Maybe he can make something out of this bunch. It just might take a little longer then 2 pre-season games.
I think most fans right after the draft allready identified the Oline as the position to target for next year.
August 22nd, 2011 at 9:08 am
DaMayan- I’m with ya. I hope new coach Pat Morris can bring new life to the line. I frequently gave stated that Joseph and TrueBlood have underachiever. It’s true. But I like both of those guys. You can tell they are hard workers and team players. If they can improve their play, I’ll be one happy Buc fan. Trueblood played great against the pats. Stayed really low, and was manhandling his guy.leverage and penalties always his problem.
Joseph gets lost when the D-Line traps or stunts. Looks like he has slow feet, and ends up with “whiff” blocks to often on pass coverage. Faine just seems indecisive. Like he can’t decide who to block, til they are both past him. Think Meybe he’s getting worn down.
I’ve voiced concerns all spring and summer about 3 areas 1) the O-line . 2) our outside LBers- who have done nothing this summer to show they’ve decided to play yet. They both seemed to hide on Running plays last year. Still looking for them so far this preseason. 3) depth at CB. If you take either Barber or Talib( who we can’t count on). We don’t have enough proven CB to control Atlanta or New Orleans in their 3 WR sets. And if we can’t beat them- what’s the point?
I think we drafted for the needs that had to be addressed. But these ares are already showing signs of being a problem AGAIN this year. I hope not. But those areas weren’t improved, and they ere a problem last year.
Time will tell
August 22nd, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Can someone, anyone, point out the defense that Faine is alleged to have offered per the headline of this blog. Didn’t he say that the Pats did nothing fancy and the Bucs OL didn’t pick it up? Aren’t his exact words, QFT in this very blog, “We just didn’t get it done””. Please, someone (and by someone I especially mean the author of this blog), tell me where Faine tried to defend that debacle.
August 22nd, 2011 at 10:41 pm
……… and we also heard that Jim Bates was the greatest thing since sliced bread, until we saw the team play.