“Growing Pains”
November 17th, 2011
"Hey Coach, remember me?"
The Bucs are the youngest team in the NFL. Rarely do teams with a roster full of young talent do much unless they have a quarterback that is the new standard of excellence, such as an Aaron Rodgers.
So it stands to reason the young Bucs are still learning the ropes. That’s what Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik suggested yesterday while chatting with Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune.
“We are going through some growing pains, obviously, with this football team right now,” Dominik said while watching a workout at One Buc Place. “But in terms of being panicked or desperate or worried, I’m not at that point.”
Tampa Bay is coming off a 37-9 loss to the Houston Texans in which players’ effort was called into question by head coach Raheem Morris.
“We have a high standard around here in terms of what a loaf is in terms of Buccaneers history,” Dominik said. “So, when an effort is questioned, it is because we hold guys to a very high standard.”
Why are the Bucs struggling this year? Well, Dominik is on to something, of course. But there are other factors as well; it’s not just one element fans can point a finger at.
There is a much tougher schedule, certainly, and injuries have played a smaller role. When your stud running back has a hurt knee and your franchise quarterback has a bum thumb, it sort of limits your options.
No offseason for the Bucs to gel also likely hurt the team worse than anyone cares to admit.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Get off of the excuses. It is a purely speculative and convenient excuse for horrible football to attribute more of an adverse lockout effect on the Bucs than other teams.
The 49ers had virtually no time with their new coach and 2 new systems – they are 8-1 and embarrassed our Bucs.
The Texans had the 32nd ranked defense last year, brought in a new defensive coordinator with completely new system, drafted 2 rookie starters (watt and reed), brought in a key free agent Joseph, and lost their best defensive player (Williams) for the year early – and now they are the #1 ranked defense – all with Wade Phillips having the limited time to install his defense and coach the new players – well solid coaching prevailed.
Our coaching stinks and the players exhibit it week in and week out.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:28 am
It doesn’t matter if Blount has a bum knee or not. Olsen isn’t going to run him whether or not he’s healthy.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:35 am
Really??? What does this sound like? “excuses” maybe if two NFL opponents wouldn’t go public and say the Bucs are quitting or we wouldn’t have seen this slop since game one of preseason then yeah. But good luck with that…
I say this and I will remain with my stance is while I love the Bucs they remain a lower tiered NFL franchise and team not because of market and demographics alone but the organization and owners are not upper echelon. I love Mike Tomlin approach he doesn’t make excuses and I have never heard anyone accuse them of quitting. That’s a disgrace to the players of the past and the fans. Also Dominik how many other teams have injuries? It’s not like the injured players were all that productive.
He’s right no need to panick because it is what it is and this organization will continue to be regarded by some fans and on a national scale as being subpar because of this culture of excuses, no true leaders, and poorly ran organization/front office. Stats may maybe for losers but multiple blow outs, record setting defense for the wrong reasons, and excuses nonstop equal this.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:39 am
Great post Thomas, hit the nail on the head.
31 other teams also had a lockout, and while the Bucs are one of the youngest teams, we were no worse off than any of the other young teams, or any of them teamns who made significant changes in either coaching or personnel.
I like Raheem as a guy, but i think he is a bit outmatched as an NFL HC. Hugging and high-fiving these guys has not been conducive to stopping the stupid penalties and the slow starts…while i dont advocate a drill-sergeant approach, these guys do need to have the mistakes drilled out of them.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:48 am
Thomas, your intelligence is shining is through, which I have never for one minute doubted. You make excellent points about the Texans and the changes they made to turn around a 6-10 season, which the Bucs are likely to have. You’re right the Texans did it without firing an unpopular coach and made a good decision by hiring a senior DC.
November 17th, 2011 at 9:52 am
anyone listen to 1010 am last night they said the bucs have always had a plan it was to build thru the draft for 3 years and then after year 3 will we be big spenders in free agency they pretty much guranteed the bucs will spend huge money this offseason on big name free agents
November 17th, 2011 at 10:15 am
excuses are for losers
November 17th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Great Post Thomas 2.2 !
One big difference from last year is we have new O and D Line coaches.
They do not seem to be getting the job done.
November 17th, 2011 at 10:24 am
justin, if that was the plan it was a stupid one. Last year was the biggest, most talented crop of free agents probably in the history of the nfl. We signed a punter.
November 17th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Thanks Macabee:
You refuse to see the forest. The head coach of Houston is in charge of the offense – which has been good for a while – it would make no sense to get rid of him and his highly productive offense.
Our head coach is in charge of the defense – which so far may end up being the worst in history! It makes all of the sense in the world to get rid of him. If you just bring in a coordinator you will still have rah rah’s undisciplined and disorganized habits controlling the team. It would make much more sense to me to bring in a defensive minded head coach, like Cowher or Fisher who can manage rah ran – allow him to implement their plans – and he can still mumble all of the cliches he wants to the defense.
We need a coach with experience to implement practice habits, pace, effort and seriousness – in addition to the overall team philosophy and plan which needs to embrace your strengths and weaknesses.
Running around yelling cliches like Youngry and violent sounds cute but is meaningless.
Imagine a 16 year old very nice well-meaning kid with no management experience taking over your company or business – that is what has happened here. The Glazers wanted a cheap replacement until Gruden was off the books, they hoped he showed promise – they were wrong.
Unfortunately, they killed fan interest and our community buzz about this team by putting an amateur in charge of these professionals and billion dollar business.
November 17th, 2011 at 10:35 am
And the wagons get circled.
What a shocker.
Wonder how Smith took over a 1-15 team in Atlanta and have been in the playoffs every year since? Guess they decided to forego the five year rebuilding plan. And someone failed to notify Harbaugh in San Fran.
Keep this attitude up and USF will start outdrawing them.
Put losers in charge – you get losing. Pretty simple.
Our GM ISNT WORRIED – ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 17th, 2011 at 10:38 am
I agree Apple. They fire anyone who speaks out against rah’s ridiculous practices and senseless plans.
Biasaccia’s tactful slap in rah’s face upon exit says I all. One day jags, bates and Biasaccia will speak about the comedy that is rah rah as head coach.
November 17th, 2011 at 11:00 am
If these guys are being held to “a very high standard” by rah and dom, then that bar is set to damn low!
November 17th, 2011 at 11:17 am
Lack of OTA’s is the most hilarious excuse. Remember when Freeman was holding those player practices how the sheep were swooning? Then Faine made some sort of remark about how they weren’t really practices and he was lambasted on here for days on end. He was a traitor.
Now, I guess they weren’t really practices and no real OTA’s have caused Rah’s defensive genius to result in yet another bottom of the league effort and messed up Freeman.
Too funny.
November 17th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
zzzzzzzzz……you should be worried…YOU’re the reason why there are no fans in that stadium…you’re clueless and you have NO FEEL for talent…just sayin
November 17th, 2011 at 12:33 pm
Thomas, I know forest, I know trees, I know spit and I know shinola, I know pi$$ and I know rain, what I don’t know is surrender. These problems can be fixed with some needed changes without turning the organization on it’s head and starting over. And believe me if you change coaches at this venture, with this young team, you are essentially starting over. This is no team like the one Gruden inherited that just needs to be pushed over the top. I don’t disagree with your analysis, except that you believe that if we simply fire Rah Rah – problem solved. For fear that I will accused of stalking you (lol), this is my final post in response to your positions on this issue. In the end, whatever changes are made, I hope it benefits the Bucs and although we would obviously go at this differently, I have no reason to believe that you would not wish the same!
November 17th, 2011 at 12:59 pm
The single Biggest problem that I see in the offense is the receivers not
being able to create any space from defenders all season long & the Bucs
refusing to use Benn as a threat. Other teams know that the Bucs aren’t
going to throw deep so it makes them that much easier to defend!